Things Ian Says

CV / Resume

I am an experienced Technology Architect and Delivery Lead. My typical role involves responsibility for either leading delivery or defining Architecture (or both), at an enterprise scale, usually with a transformational focus. This would commonly be aligned with a modernisation or decoupling strategy. For such activities I am typically reporting to C-suite stakeholders, also providing advice and guidance where appropriate.

I work primarily in bespoke, New IT projects, including API-first (RESTful) delivery, Event-Driven Architectures, microservices, serverless, DevOps, modern frontend frameworks, and NoSQL databases, generally underpinned by a cloud native Architecture.

I have experience of managing offshore teams (India, Mexico and Latvia), managing sub-contracting organisations and working in partnerships with other organisations. I also have previous experience in areas including Infrastructure delivery, Operations Architecture and Performance Testing, for similar clients.

Technical Areas: Cloud Native Architecture, Microservices, API Management, DevOps, Docker, Kubernetes, Frontend Frameworks

Certifications: Accenture Master Technology Architect (internal certification, approx 150 people within Accenture), Red Hat Certified Specialist in Containerized Application Development, ITILv3

Professional Experience

Accenture April 2011 – present

Architecture Lead, UK Public Sector May 2020 – present

I am defining the Architecture for a new customer-facing application, and agent support tool, to support customers in their interactions with this Government department.

Architecture Lead, UK Financial Organisation February 2020 – April 2020

I defined a low code approach to deliver a replatforming project within a compressed timeline. This included creating a low code framework, defining patterns for the implementation, and providing knowledge transfer to the delivery team.

Technologies: Angular, Javascript, web assembly (via Golang)

Architecture Lead, UK Public Sector January 2020 – February 2020

I led a small Architecture team, proposing an Architecture for a cloud-based call centre, using Amazon Connect as the underlying technology and leveraging supporting products such as Lex, Polly, Lambda and DynamoDB.

Technologies: AWS Connect, Lex, Polly, Transcribe, Comprehend, Lambda, DynamoDB, S3, API Gateway, CloudFront, CloudWatch, React

Senior Architect, UK Financial Organisation August 2019 – December 2019

I delivered three separate pieces of work during this period. The first was an Architectural Quality Review, delivering a report for the Board. The second was to define a “journey to cloud” Architecture, for the organisation’s integration stack. The third was the definition of a frontend delivery based on a “low code” approach.

Technologies: .Net, Angular, TIBCO Business Works, TIBCO Mashery

Architecture Lead, UK Utilities Company May 2019 – August 2019

I was responsible for a small Architecture team, working with the Architecture team at a UK Energy Provider. We developed a transition plan and roadmap, to move from an older Architecture, based around a single monolithic application, to a decoupled, cloud-based Architecture enabling more flexibility and agility around Development.

Technologies: Oracle Integration Cloud, Pega SaaS, Oracle SQL, .Net, plus legacy technologies.

Delivery Lead (Build), UK Financial Organisation February 2018 – May 2019

I led a Build Team of around 80 people, across three areas — bespoke code development (using Angular and .Net), RESTful APIs and Integration (using TIBCO Business Works and Mashery), and CRM (using MS Dynamics). This is forming the basis of a new platform for this organisation, initially in one area of its business, but with client’s ambition to roll it out group wide.

This role involved daily interaction with senior client stakeholders, such as CTO, Change Director, and Programme Director.

In addition to my delivery activities, I am involved in commercial activities around new business, both up-selling and cross-selling within my current account, and supporting pre-sales activities for new opportunities.

Technologies: .Net, Angular, TIBCO Business Works, TIBCO Mashery, TIBCO FTP, TIBCO ActiveSpaces, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, TFS, Protractor, Selenium

Microservices Architect, European Retailer September 2017 – January 2018

I provided Architectural oversight at a major European retailer, acting as the Microservices Architecture Subject Matter Expert, for a project to migrate their backend e-commerce systems from Websphere and DB2, to a microservices-based Architecture.

My responsibilities were a combination of Quality Assurance (reviewing and correcting development practices, DevOps, performance), client presentations (presenting key Architectural proposals to the client Architecture teams), and design (attending internal Architecture meetings and providing guidance based on prior experience).

Technologies: Java + Spring, NodeJS, Couchbase, ActiveMQ, OpenShift, REST, gRPC, DevOps tooling (Git, Bamboo, Docker, Selenium)

Technology Architecture Lead, US Telecommunications Provider July 2016 – August 2017

I provided Architectural oversight for an instore solution for a US Telecommunications Provider, developing a sales-focused tablet application for instore staff.

My responsibilities were QA for all Architectural documents, review of estimates, review of build deliverables, and point of escalation for any Architecture or Build issues. I was also the Architectural representative in discussions with the client VPs, CTO and COO, and the point of escalation for any discussions with the main vendor’s CTO and CEO.

Technologies: AngularJS, Java + Spring, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, Mulesoft, CA APM, REST / HATEAOS / HAL, DevOps tooling (Git, Jenkins, Chef, Selenium, Docker)

Technology Architect, Multiple UK Financial Services Clients January 2016 – July 2016

I worked across multiple UK Financial Services Clients, focussing on PSD2 and enabling technologies (mainly around Legacy Mainframe integration).

My responsibilities were to develop accelerator assets, identify and share best practice, develop internal training materials to upskill staff, and identify a staffing strategy across multiple clients.

During this time, I engaged with four different UK Retail Banks at the CTO level.

Technologies: AngularJS, ReactJS, VueJS, Java + Spring, Clojure, MongoDB, Mulesoft, DevOps tools (git, Jenkins, Chef, Selenium, Docker)

Delivery Lead and Architect, Middle East Government October 2015 – December 2015

I led a small team of 12 developers prototyping a new Architecture for an existing citizen portal for a Middle East Government, to support assessment and allocation of unemployment benefits, and to support job search.

In parallel, I led a team of 6 Architects documenting the new Architecture and defining the migration strategy from the existing Architecture to the new.

This work was successfully completed and the resulting artefacts and documentation were delivered back into the main project delivery team.

Technologies: AngularJS, Java + Spring, Mulesoft, Liferay, PhoneGap

Delivery Lead and Senior Technology Architect, UK (FTSE 100) Retailer June 2014 – October 2015

I led the delivery of an instore, sales application for both Germany and Canada. This was the “next generation” platform for the retailer, developing a single page app, with loose coupling between layers, underpinned by an Agile + DevOps delivery approach.

My responsibility was for the overall Architecture across all layers (from UI down to Infrastructure) and management of two delivery teams (one for each geography) based in the UK and India.

Additionally, I participated in New Business development; developing and delivering demonstrations of the new architectural platform to C-suite stakeholders. With one presentation leading to a project with a US-based telecommunications company.

Technologies: AngularJS, Java + Spring, MongoDB, MQ, Mulesoft, TIBCO, REST / HATEOAS / HAL, AppDynamics, DevOps tools (git, Jenkins, Chef, Selenium)

Technical Infrastructure Lead, UK (FTSE 100) Retailer May 2013 – June 2014

I led the Technical Infrastructure team for delivery at a large, UK (FTSE 100) retailer, spanning the areas of Infrastructure Delivery, Operations Architecture, Performance Test, Operational Acceptance Test and Environment Management.

My responsibility was to ensure that the project being delivered was fit for purpose from a delivery and operational perspective. This included design of the Operations Architecture, management of the Performance Test team (in UK and India), management of the Operational Acceptance Testing, ensuring Application and Infrastructure passed Security testing, ensuring that the development environments were available (including code repositories, build pipelines and monitoring), and managing delivery of the Production Infrastructure for the project from the client’s incumbent supplier.

Technologies: AngularJS, Java + Spring, MongoDB, MQ, Mulesoft, TIBCO, Solr, AppDynamics, DevOps tools (git, Jenkins, Chef, Selenium)

Infrastructure and Operations Architect, UK Government Project May 2012 – April 2013

For a large scale government project in a multi-vendor environment, I led the Infrastructure and Operations Architecture element for Accenture, sitting on the cross-vendor Infrastructure Board for the project, architecting both Infrastructure and Operations for the Accenture components, and ensuring they were fit for purpose for third party delivery and operation within the overall system.

My responsibilities were to ensure that the correct Infrastructure was provisioned by the hosting vendor, to ensure that the integration points with application vendors were defined and implemented, to ensure that any software delivered complied with hosting vendor standards, and to ensure the software delivered was operable by the hosting vendor. Additionally, I had sign-off responsibility on documents taken to the cross-vendor Infrastructure Board.

Technologies: Java, Oracle, Red Hat, Websphere, MQ, Informatica, Siebel, DevOps tools (Puppet, Jenkins)

Environments Manager, UK Government Project April 2011 – May 2012

For a large scale UK government project, I was responsible for all Accenture’s dev and test environments (over 100) across a wide range of software, OS’s and platforms. This included integration with other vendors' test environments. During this period, we moved from manual environment build to automated (DevOps-style) environment build.

Technologies: Java, Oracle, Red Hat, Websphere, MQ, Informatica, Siebel

Technical Director, Connect Internet Solutions August 2002 – March 2011

I was technical director at Connect Internet Solutions, a boutique web design agency, focusing primarily on web projects for the public sector. These included the OneScotland Gazetteer (a set of geographic web services for the Scottish Government), the Scottish Assessors Portal (aggregating all Council Tax and Rateable Value information throughout Scotland), and a project to develop and install web-based kiosks for the Tyne and Wear Partnership (comprising five Councils in the North East of England).

I had overall responsibility for all technical aspects of Connect Internet Solutions, including Infrastructure Provisioning, Application Development, Hosting Services and Ongoing Support. As a Director of the company, I also had shared responsibility for business strategy, finance and tenders for new work.

Project Manager, University of Liverpool July 1999 – July 2002

I was the Project Manager for the Titans project at the University of Liverpool. This was for a 15 person team developing toolkits for content-managed websites, e-commerce, and interactive forums. These were for both browser-based and Digital TV (set-top box) users. The project was managed using Prince 2 and was in partnership with a UK Metropolitan Borough Council; and a cable Phone, Internet and TV provider.

Education

Ph.D. Artificial Intelligence from University of Liverpool, with Shell UK

B.Sc. Mathematics (hons) from University of Liverpool