diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index a7c155f6e..fb266862d 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@
         <gson.version>2.9.0</gson.version>
         <test.containers.version>1.16.3</test.containers.version>
         <kafka.connect.maven.plugin.version>0.11.1</kafka.connect.maven.plugin.version>
-        <maven.release.plugin.version>2.5.3</maven.release.plugin.version>
+        <maven.release.plugin.version>3.1.1</maven.release.plugin.version>
         <hadoop.version>3.3.1</hadoop.version>
         <apacheds-jdbm1.version>2.0.0-M2</apacheds-jdbm1.version>
         <!-- TODO: Remove the version pin after releasing https://github.com/confluentinc/common/pull/494 -->