Resume

LEADERSHIP ROLES (2012-2023)

CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER

October 2022 – February 2023

  • Led software development, devops, IT and cybersecurity.
  • Brought in a key partner to push the MogoTrade mobile application project the last mile to launch and resolve blocking issues including iOS crashes and Android ANRs in 4 months after over two years of development prior to my tenure.
  • Identified and assessed candidate vendors before selecting Atimi based on strong engagement and pedigree.
  • Built an effective recruiting pipeline using local agencies I’ve partnered with over the past decade, and in the first couple of months made a critical hire of a mobile development director.
  • Formulated a plan to unify three separate mobile applications and technical stacks into a single offering and to reduce operational overhead by over 60%.
  • Reduced engineering payroll 50% from CA$8MM/a to 4MM reducing headcount from 60 to 30.
  • Restructured the engineering organization into one squad aligned on revenue and another on growth.
  • Advised on a US$2.1MM re-platforming to Oracle Cloud for Mogo’s payment processor subsidiary in Morocco.

CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER

August 2019 – June 2022

  • Started as CTO for Clearly, an Essilor-Luxottica e-commerce company selling prescription glasses, contact lenses and sunglasses in Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand.
  • Promoted in October 2020 to CTO for Essilor’s entire Online Division, with several business units in Canada, UK, Germany, Sweden, China and Brazil operating in multiple countries and continents globally.
  • Managed a US$40MM annual budget on annual revenues of $680MM.
  • Led a diverse engineering organization of 200+ FTE and 80+ contractors globally including software architects and engineers, QA, QA automation, product and project managers, data engineers and analysts, machine learning engineers, UI/UX designers, devops and system reliability engineers, technical support, helpdesk staff.
  • Managed up to business unit level CTO, recruited up to VP level.
  • Assumed control of a US$39MM multi-year divisional re-platforming project based on Salesforce Commerce, Marketing and Service Cloud. Launched the first site in February 2021.
  • Coordinated with Luxottica on re-platforming of the backend and supply chain to SAP across all business units the Online Division.
  • Introduced strong project governance and instituted the Project Management Office. Recruited a director for the PMO.
  • Introduced strong data governance. Hired a director for business intelligence and data infrastructure, AI and machine learning.
  • Initiated the first machine learning practise in Essilor.
  • Managed vendors and contracts including recruiting agencies, software and cloud services. Evaluated and selected vendors.
  • Oversaw cloud migration from Rackspace to Amazon Web Services on a US$55K monthly infrastructure spend.
  • Reorganized into a matrix organization with Agile squads constructed around a quarterly statement of work.
  • Developed leveling guidelines for all roles, re-leveled every individual in the engineering organization and normalized job titles.

ENGINEERING DIRECTOR & SITE LEAD

October 2015 – July 2019

  • Engineering site director for Vancouver, Tokyo, acting for Hyderabad and supported Singapore expansion.
  • Oversaw growth from 71 to 400+ staff and 1 to 4 tech offices in Tokyo and 35 to 118 in Hyderabad, including site consolidation in Tamachi and a US$800K office renovation in Hyderabad.
  • Built partnerships with recruiting, HR, legal, office management, employee experience, finance, real estate, global mobility, internal mobility and with the parent company, Recruit.
  • Managed a diverse product portfolio (Recommendations, Indeed Apply, Company Reviews, Salary Extraction and Estimation, International, Search Engine Marketing and Internal HR Tools) of up to 70 engineers in 8 teams, 6 directs including 2 junior and 3 senior managers. Pioneered and managed the Engineering Center of Excellence in Tokyo.
  • Planned headcount and recruiting targets supporting double digit YoY growth. Allocated new hires and transfers to teams.
  • Coordinated new hires and transfers globally including work authorizations, Directed annual college draft.
  • Responsible for college and industry recruiting to senior director level. Conducted interviews for engineering leaders, software engineers, product managers, recruiters, quality assurance, IT staff and human resources roles including business
  • partners. Conducted 40+ management interviews quarterly and trained other interviewers. Managed interviewer capacity and streamlined the recruiting pipeline.
  • Managed relationships with 6 recruiting agencies, and other recruiting channels such as StackOverflow.
  • Drove strategic retention initiatives in Japan, improving benefits and relocation packages, and addressed individual retention issues.
  • Determined compensation and coached new hires to director level. Career and performance management to senior manager
  • level including promotions, annual compensation adjustment and quarterly bonus. Handled performance issues and disciplinary action up to termination.

ENGINEERING MANAGER

January 2013 – September 2015

  • Hand-picked by the CEO of the company to deliver inspirational leadership to a cross-functional team of professionals in the effective management of all engineering activities for Indochino
  • Instrumental in leading the development and implementation of strategic and tactical operational plans for the department to ensure alignment with overall strategic vision of the company.
  • Acted as the catalyst for the restructure of the engineering organization to align with corporate goals and strategy, and built
  • business intelligence and operational teams from the ground-up.
  • Instituted numerous process improvements which increased revenues, improved margins, reduced costs, and enhanced productivity. Delivered significant projected labour savings by identifying an opportunity to replace internally developed software stack with commercial software.
  • Increased online sales conversions by 3x by streamlining the purchase pipeline and moving measurements and customizations post checkout. Identified and eliminated unplanned work from Sprints that consumed up to 42% of resources and undermined schedules.
  • Facilitated the recognition of a $600k correction in revenue reporting by migrating production database from NoSQL to SQL, and remastering reporting source data.
  • Saved thousands of labour hours and dramatically improved operational efficiencies by implementing a CMS for merchandising, promotions, homepage, banners and retail showrooms streamlining content launches.

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

January 2012 – October 2013

  • Recruited as the senior leader in the Vancouver development center for Customer Experience organization with a remit to grow engineering teams from the ground-up.
  • Sourced, managed, and delivered strong leadership to a team of six software development engineers and one business intelligence analyst.
  • Skillfully managed multiple concurrent projects that increased the volume of customer reviews 3x year-over-year, from a monthly maximum of 1M to 5M new reviews.
  • Launched service in India, Italy, Spain, Brazil & Russia. Improved business intelligence and analytics to fully instrument progress on business goals & operational health.

TECHNICAL ROLES (1995-2011)

PRINCIPAL ENGINEER / ARCHITECT

November 2009 – December 2011

  • Technical lead and product architect on a US$5M cross-organizational product development initiative with teams in Canada, US, & UK. Prototyped new product architectures in C++ and JavaScript.► Acted as technical lead and product architect on a US$5M cross-organizational product development initiative with teams in Canada, US, & UK. Prototyped new product architectures in C++ a
  • Technical architect for replacement of the core URL classifier used in Web filtering. Created architectural specification including analyzing the effect of the classifier replacement on customer experience.

SENIOR INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR

January 1996 – August 2009

  • Led engineering teams of up to 12 software engineers through full software development cycle.
  • Performed estimating and task breakdown, scheduling, assignment and supervision of work, and managed projects using Agile and SCRUM/XP.
  • Negotiated service contracts, issued and responded to RFPs and RFQs, and prepared statements of work and detailed specifications, including with outsource and/or offshore engineering teams.
  • Selected Duties & Responsibilities;
  • Consistently delivered on budget and schedule.
  • Directed engineering teams of 6 – 12 software engineers through full SDLC.
  • Performed estimating and task breakdown, scheduling, assignment and supervision of work.
  • Managed projects using Agile and SCRUM/XP.
  • Presented to senior management and executives and large engineering audiences.
  • Produced detailed software specifications and architectural work products, applying UML and design patterns, and participated in setting corporate technology and architectural standards.
  • Interviewed and hired engineering staff, mentored junior staff, conducted performance evaluations, and prepared promotion packets.
PROJECTS
  • Web Applications
  • Enterprise Application Integration (ERP, PDM, CRM, HR, manufacturing applications).
  • Network Management Software, SNMPv2, MIB.
  • 3D editors.
  • Frame Relay, Asynchronous Transfer Mode, Signaling System 7.
  • Engineering tools, CORBA and XML based code generators, HTML parsers.
TECHNOLOGIES
  • Full Web technology stack.
  • Dojo, JavaScript, AJAX, C and C++, Java, SQL, Oracle, MySQL.
  • XML, XSLT, SAX, DOM, Xerces, Xalan
  • AJAX, Apache, Apache mods, SOAP, WS, lex, yacc, Servlets, J2EE, JDBC, CORBA, IDL, JavaCC, lex, yacc, ClearCase, AccuRev, AlienBrain, CVS, SVN
  • Linux, Windows, HPUX, Solaris, MacOS.

SENIOR ARCHITECT

January 2007 – January 2008

  • Developed architectural and technical specifications using narratives and UML. Major features included digital signing on the Web using PKI and aggressive server-side performance improvements.
  • Collaborated with global teams across IBM to establish the best technical direction for the Lotus Forms product, and established a long term road map for the server architecture consistent with IBM strategy and technology.
  • Developed XForms web software using JavaScript, Dojo, AJAX, Java and XML.
  • Defined product strategy and release content in conjunction with other product architects, senior management and project managers. Provided schedule estimates and work task breakdowns, and ensured execution to plan during the development cycle.
  • Led the initiative to implement Agile and Scrum methodology to the lab. Provided hands-on direction during initial phases of adoption, and continued to act as consultant and subject matter expert to Agile teams in the lab. Worked to procure expert advice and guidance from IBM resources outside the lab.
  • Authored a High Performance Reference Architecture for Lotus Forms on the Web, providing detailed guidance on maximizing throughput and communicating best practices to technical sales and customers.
  • Led the strategic initiative to implement Lotus Form’s Web-based product on Lotus Expeditor to provide a combined cross-platform desktop and network application offering using a single architecture.
  • Provided guidance to development staff, including design reviews and mentoring.

SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER

January 2005 – May 2006

  • Partnered with customers, program office, and business, legal, engineering and quality assurance teams across organization delivering major projects including launching The Bombay Company and Marks and Spencer on the Amazon web site.
  • Worked on initial version of Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) and third party merchants including NBA, bebe, etc.
  • Directed work of engineers, reviewed design and code, performed formal performance reviews, and interviewed engineering and management candidates.
  • Scoped and scheduled development work using Microsoft Project and tracked execution to plan, using both Agile and traditional methodology.
  • Consistently delivered projects significantly ahead of schedule while meeting service level agreements and quality targets.
  • Introduced improved software development process and methodology and version control practices, and improved and automated software build and test.
  • Modeled architecture in UML, and refactored existing code base to significantly improve extensibility and maintainability.
  • Developed high performance Web Services for e-commerce using C++, Java, Oracle 10g, JDBC, SOAP, XML, XSLT, Eclipse, Perforce and Linux, and Web portals using Apache, Perl and Mason.
  • Developed a framework and comprehensive suite for performance and stress testing and metrics collection to establish engineering guidelines for latency, throughput and capacity.

MEMBER OF SCIENTIFIC STAFF

January 1995 – December 1995

  • Worked on Advanced Intelligent networks, a standard based on Signalling System #7, to implement advanced telephony features off-switch.

INTERNSHIP (1990-1994)

MEMBER OF SCIENTIFIC STAFF

January 1995 – December 1995

  • Total of 2 years and 4 months over the period 1990 – 1993.
  • Worked on Advanced Intelligent Network developing speifications and reference implementations of Service Control Points and Service Creation Envorinments in C/C++ and CORBA for use in public telephony networks.
  • Worked on Data Packet Network and Magellan switches to develop and test software implementing Frame Relay and Asynchronous Transfer Mode. Constructed test networks in captive offices.

EDUCATION

UNIVERISTY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Ocotber 2023 – April 2024

  • Certificate in Key Capabilities in Data Science (completing April 2024)
  • Certificate in Artificial Intelligence Cloud Solutions Strategy (completing April 2024)

UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO

September 1989 – December 1994

  • Bachelors of Mathematics, Honours Computer Science