Experience

Certn

• Canada
• Software Development
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Chief Technology Officer

  • Jul 2021 - May 2022

  Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Led and grew an Engineering, Product, and Quality organization of 70 engineers, product owners, quality personnel, and managers. Set technical standards, improved organizational (Agile) maturity, developed technical personnel and leaders, drove technical and business strategy, and managed vendors and recruiting. ● Absorbed technical teams and stacks from acquisitions in the UK and Australia. ● Replatformed Certn's core technology platform to reduce non-productive repetitive tasks… Show more Led and grew an Engineering, Product, and Quality organization of 70 engineers, product owners, quality personnel, and managers. Set technical standards, improved organizational (Agile) maturity, developed technical personnel and leaders, drove technical and business strategy, and managed vendors and recruiting. ● Absorbed technical teams and stacks from acquisitions in the UK and Australia. ● Replatformed Certn's core technology platform to reduce non-productive repetitive tasks performed by engineers by 70%. Show less



Xtiva Financial Systems

• United States
• IT Services and IT Consulting
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Vice President Of Engineering

  • Jun 2020 - Jun 2021

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada Trusted advisor (as an outside contractor) for engineering culture, deliverables, and outcomes for Xtiva's engineering organization. Set technical standards, developed technical personnel and leaders, drove technical and business strategy, managed onshore and offshore development teams. Key technologies: Scala, Java, Python, AWS, Cassandra, Elasticsearch, Postgres, Redshift, React.js, Lean/Agile. ● Reduced release cycle time by 66% and time spent fixing production incidents by… Show more Trusted advisor (as an outside contractor) for engineering culture, deliverables, and outcomes for Xtiva's engineering organization. Set technical standards, developed technical personnel and leaders, drove technical and business strategy, managed onshore and offshore development teams. Key technologies: Scala, Java, Python, AWS, Cassandra, Elasticsearch, Postgres, Redshift, React.js, Lean/Agile. ● Reduced release cycle time by 66% and time spent fixing production incidents by 60%. ● Brought the core IP for the company's main product back in house from offshore. Show less



Dessa

• Canada
• Software Development
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Vice President Of Engineering

  • Feb 2019 - Feb 2020

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada Broadly responsible for engineering culture, deliverables, and outcomes for Dessa's product engineering organization. Set technical standards, developed technical personnel and leaders, drove technical and business strategy, and managed vendors and recruiting. Key technologies: Python, React.js, Tensorflow, Tensorboard, PyTorch, Keras, Redis, GCP, AWS, Jenkins, Agile/XP. ● Achieved a successful exit for the company founders by creating an engineering organization that could… Show more Broadly responsible for engineering culture, deliverables, and outcomes for Dessa's product engineering organization. Set technical standards, developed technical personnel and leaders, drove technical and business strategy, and managed vendors and recruiting. Key technologies: Python, React.js, Tensorflow, Tensorboard, PyTorch, Keras, Redis, GCP, AWS, Jenkins, Agile/XP. ● Achieved a successful exit for the company founders by creating an engineering organization that could iterate rapidly to achieve product-market fit, shipping two major products and achieving business development goals. Show less



FreshBooks

• Canada
• Software Development
• 500 - 600 Employee

• Director Of Engineering

  • Sep 2017 - Feb 2019

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada Recruited and managed a cross-functional department of 25 developers, DevOps specialists, system administrators, security engineers, Agile coaches, and managers, plus a data team of five data engineers and a technical product manager, and a $6,000,000 annual budget. Broadly responsible for the company’s architecture, technical infrastructure, big data and database infrastructure, production operations, security, compliance, and engineering culture. Set technical standards, developed technical… Show more Recruited and managed a cross-functional department of 25 developers, DevOps specialists, system administrators, security engineers, Agile coaches, and managers, plus a data team of five data engineers and a technical product manager, and a $6,000,000 annual budget. Broadly responsible for the company’s architecture, technical infrastructure, big data and database infrastructure, production operations, security, compliance, and engineering culture. Set technical standards, developed technical leaders, drove technical strategy, made build-versus-buy decisions, and managed vendors. Key technologies: Python, Ruby, RabbitMQ, MySQL, JavaScript, Ember.js, ElasticSearch, Redis, Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, Google Cloud Platform, Airflow, Kinesis, Redshift, BigQuery, Capybara, Jenkins, Lean/Agile. ● Reduced the company’s server budget by 60%, and enabled scaling for hypergrowth, by moving the company’s entire infrastructure from physical servers in data centres to Google Cloud Platform, and saved an additional $330,000/year by outsourcing PCI/DSS compliance efforts. ● Cut production incidents by 50% YoY by improving oncall procedures and encouraging service ownership. Show less



Lightbend, Inc.

• United States
• Software Development
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Senior Engagement Manager

  • Feb 2016 - May 2017

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada Broadly responsible for the success of the company's professional services engagements. Enabled client teams to succeed with reactive microservices, DevOps, big data, fast data, streaming, and Lean/Agile methods. Coached and mentored client leaders in organizational change management and Lean/Agile. Led teams of Lightbend developers in accomplishing this. Key technologies: Scala, Akka, Play, Spark, Cassandra, Kafka, Lightbend Production Suite, Agile (Scrum, XP), Lean/Kanban. ●… Show more Broadly responsible for the success of the company's professional services engagements. Enabled client teams to succeed with reactive microservices, DevOps, big data, fast data, streaming, and Lean/Agile methods. Coached and mentored client leaders in organizational change management and Lean/Agile. Led teams of Lightbend developers in accomplishing this. Key technologies: Scala, Akka, Play, Spark, Cassandra, Kafka, Lightbend Production Suite, Agile (Scrum, XP), Lean/Kanban. ● Created the company's flagship services offering, developed and improved and optimized it over multiple engagements. ● Rescued an endangered engagement at a Fortune 500 client and brought success to the client's team. Show less



Scrum Team Info

• Founder and CTO

  • Jun 2014 - Feb 2016

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada Ran a stealth-mode startup company to produce an Agile project tool that works by processing digital photos of Scrum or Kanban boards, without developers having to update status in the tool.



Amazon

• United States
• Software Development
• 700 & Above Employee

• Software Development Manager

  • May 2012 - Jun 2014

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada Managed two Agile development (and DevOps) teams to manage the catalog system used in Amazon's global network of Fulfillment Centres. Ran successful project to change the underlying data architecture from Oracle replication to a highly scalable NoSQL solution built on Amazon-proprietary web services, without disrupting ongoing operations. Added major new features, such as network-wide unique tracking of individual items, during architecture change. Met an under-50 ms SLA for service worldwide… Show more Managed two Agile development (and DevOps) teams to manage the catalog system used in Amazon's global network of Fulfillment Centres. Ran successful project to change the underlying data architecture from Oracle replication to a highly scalable NoSQL solution built on Amazon-proprietary web services, without disrupting ongoing operations. Added major new features, such as network-wide unique tracking of individual items, during architecture change. Met an under-50 ms SLA for service worldwide, with 100% service uptime. Coached own and other teams in Agile development methods. Key technologies: Java, JavaScript, Ruby, Amazon Web Services, Angular.js, Rails, Agile (Scrum, XP). ● Decreased operational issues by 35% year over year, including zero severity-1 issues (outages) during the holiday Peak. ● Increased team productivity by 2x, tripled automated test coverage, and fully automated deployment and testing to the entire fleet. ● Reduced support engineer costs by 50% globally by introducing a self-service data quality repair tool. ● Started a company-wide Agile coaching initiative, and coached other teams across multiple internal organizations. Show less



Susan Davis Consulting

• Agile Coach

  • Jun 2009 - May 2012

  Toronto, Canada Area Taught organizations how to succeed with Agile development methods. Services included teaching essential skills (software craftsmanship, ATDD, product and story analysis and estimating, Agile process, and management practices), coaching and mentoring key roles (Scrum Masters, Product Owners, team members, management), providing guidance about hiring, organization, and technical direction, and meeting / conference facilitation. ● Brought a large telecommunications company's most… Show more Taught organizations how to succeed with Agile development methods. Services included teaching essential skills (software craftsmanship, ATDD, product and story analysis and estimating, Agile process, and management practices), coaching and mentoring key roles (Scrum Masters, Product Owners, team members, management), providing guidance about hiring, organization, and technical direction, and meeting / conference facilitation. ● Brought a large telecommunications company's most critical project back on track and got it delivering on a regular schedule. ● Built seven Agile teams and got them up the learning curve to effective performance. ● Helped one team improve its performance by 30% in six weeks, and two others double their performance in a quarter. Show less



Call Genie

• IT Services and IT Consulting
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Software Development Manager

  • Dec 2007 - Jun 2009

  Toronto, Canada Area Managed a department of twelve developers, testers, and team leads, producing voice-activated mobile local search software. Recruited, hired, and developed team members. Defined and standardized software development process, and served as agile practice coach. Defined system requirements, acceptance tests for system features, and certified acceptance of finished product from team. ● Delivered software to implement a $4M disconnected number intercept product a month ahead of… Show more Managed a department of twelve developers, testers, and team leads, producing voice-activated mobile local search software. Recruited, hired, and developed team members. Defined and standardized software development process, and served as agile practice coach. Defined system requirements, acceptance tests for system features, and certified acceptance of finished product from team. ● Delivered software to implement a $4M disconnected number intercept product a month ahead of schedule. ● Increased productivity in the Toronto office by a factor of 2.5x, and continued to sustain that increased velocity. ● Drove a skunkworks project to develop an effective and efficient framework for testing voice applications. Show less



The FeedRoom

• United States
• Online Media
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Software Development Manager

  • May 2007 - Dec 2007

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada Recruited, hired, and managed a team of seven high-performing software professionals. Architected the company's next-generation online video software as a service platform, including digital asset management and browser video players, and wrote code alongside the team. Defined and standardized the company's software development process. Planned software development activities, and served as the team's Scrum Master and project manager. Evaluated and chose technologies based on measurement… Show more Recruited, hired, and managed a team of seven high-performing software professionals. Architected the company's next-generation online video software as a service platform, including digital asset management and browser video players, and wrote code alongside the team. Defined and standardized the company's software development process. Planned software development activities, and served as the team's Scrum Master and project manager. Evaluated and chose technologies based on measurement from realistic scenarios. ● Built an entire development organization of high performers from scratch, whose core values were adopted by the entire company. ● Saved the company $800,000/year in ongoing costs, plus $125,000 in one-time charges, by eliminating the need for six developers and an additional product manager through careful architectural choices backed up by hard data from a prototype. ● Delivered high quality software (95%+ test coverage; stop-the-line policy about defects) on a regular two week schedule, and drove down development costs by eliminating rework and technical debt. First team in company history to provide regular delivery. Show less



Intelliware

• Canada
• Business Consulting and Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Senior Software Developer

  • Apr 2004 - May 2007

  Toronto, Ontario, Canada Designed, implemented, tested, and refactored several enterprise software projects: the pharmacy management and third-party billing system for Canada's largest pharmacy chain, a securities custody and currency trading system, a company portal and content management system, and a shrink-wrapped enterprise wiki system. Worked directly with customers every day to define requirements and prioritize the team's work based on customer business needs. Led a small team, and was a key senior resource… Show more Designed, implemented, tested, and refactored several enterprise software projects: the pharmacy management and third-party billing system for Canada's largest pharmacy chain, a securities custody and currency trading system, a company portal and content management system, and a shrink-wrapped enterprise wiki system. Worked directly with customers every day to define requirements and prioritize the team's work based on customer business needs. Led a small team, and was a key senior resource on larger ones. Mentored junior and intermediate developers. ● Delivered a full quality solution for a short, focused project in the time and budget for just a proof-of-concept prototype. ● Improved team code quality and customer engagement by instituting a project-wide Domain-Driven Design study group. ● Doubled the productivity of a 14-developer project in two months by reestablishing the velocity tracker role and driving process improvements. ● Brought the largest single SWT project other than Eclipse (5,500 classes; 450,000 ESLOC) back on schedule. Show less



Multiple Companies

• IT Services and IT Consulting
• 700 & Above Employee

• Senior Software Engineer

  • May 1992 - Apr 2004

  United States ● Led a team to implement a medical image processing "spreadsheet" for MRI and CT data. ● Developed finite element analysis software for electromagnetic field simulation, useful in electronics design automation and antenna design. ● Delivered the first commercial EJB 1.0 implementation available on the market. ● Singlehandedly developed an award-winning round-trip engineering tool for UML to EJB. ● Stood up the email and metadirectory systems for a Fortune 500… Show more ● Led a team to implement a medical image processing "spreadsheet" for MRI and CT data. ● Developed finite element analysis software for electromagnetic field simulation, useful in electronics design automation and antenna design. ● Delivered the first commercial EJB 1.0 implementation available on the market. ● Singlehandedly developed an award-winning round-trip engineering tool for UML to EJB. ● Stood up the email and metadirectory systems for a Fortune 500 company. ● Led a team to handle all the scanner integration for an award-winning one hour photo minilab system. Show less