Andrew Ion Email & Phone Number

Oakville, On, Ca

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Greater Toronto Area, Canada

Reporting to VPs and SVPs, I managed a portfolio of about 32 applications across a diverse set of business lines. Overall teams size was typically 50-80 people, with 3-4 senior managers and other senior roles such as Senior Solutions Architects as direct reports. Accountabilities included Solution Architecture, Development, Product Roadmaps, Requirements (BA/BSA), QA Testing, Performance Testing, Platform/Application Currency, Day to Day Operations and Incident Management.• Rescued and delivered Scene+ loyalty system migration project, preventing loss of future partnerships. Received a Top Talent award and built a new team to continue Scene+ product expansion. Scene utilizes Cloud, containers, and Kafka event streaming to provide APIs that evaluate customer transactions in real-time to award points or dollars.• Designed and delivered the C.MEE (Customer Marketing and Engagement Engine) application and supporting Azure infrastructure. C.MEE leverages Big Data, Machine Learning and a sophisticated AI that analyzes customer activity to understand customer needs, allowing the Bank to provide tailored financial advice and relevant offers.• Designed and delivered multichannel Protection Navigator application, ensuring regulatory compliance on sales of Insurance products across all bank channels.• Provided consistent leadership as Canadian Banking was combined with Scotia Digital, helping team navigate significant cultural and structural changes while keeping essential projects and systems operational.• Architected solution to modernize the Cheque Exception Processing by transitioning from on-prem batch to microservice. Realized cost savings of approx. $500k/yr.• Realized significant savings (approx. $200k/yr) by re-architecting API call patterns for Scene and Customer Preferences APIs.• Hired Software Developer in Test roles, began modernization of QA practices from offshore based manual testing to repeatable component based testing.

Toronto, Canada Area

Reporting to VPs and SVPs and working closely with multiple business and technology teams, I led the development and delivery of cloud-based Pega CRM platforms and infrastructure for Canadian branches and international customer contact centers. • Responsible for the development and delivery of several cloud based Pega CRM platforms for use in Canadian bank branches and customer contact centres internationally.• Part of Enterprise Pega Platform Governance, worked to define and test cloud infrastructure and deployment patterns, as well as application architecture patterns.• Key accomplishments include delivering the bank’s first Azure based Pega ecosystem in production, and numerous API modernization initiatives that reduced overall technical debt and operational costs.

Toronto, Canada Area

Reporting to VPs and SVPs, I led the development and delivery of an international Pega application for use in multiple Latin American countries. Notably, I initiated offshore development in an organization with no prior offshore vendor or Pega experience. Key achievements include building a high-performance delivery team, creating infrastructure, fostering vendor and business relationships, and offering guidance to other Pega initiatives across Scotiabank.• Built several international full-stack teams (Developers, BAs, SAs, and Infrastructure Engineers), delivered international Pega applications and infrastructure used by branches in multiple countries.• Developed strategies for Architectural Governance, Intake and Estimation, Application Roadmaps, Platform Currency, Infrastructure Utilization, CI/CD, Automated Testing, Vendor Management, Talent Development, and International Application Governance.• Worked closely with stakeholders in Chile and Mexico to build and deploy modernization releases across network of approximately 700 branches with over 30,000 users, supporting about 20,000 customer interactions per day. Reduced Retail customer onboarding time from 120 minutes to 20 minutes in Mexico, and mortgage adjudication time in Chile from 30 days to 3 days.• Refreshed delivery culture, started use of Agile methods, CI/CD practices, and automating deployment processes to boost delivery speed and reduce errors.• Transitioned from physical infrastructure to public and private cloud-based solutions supported by automated delivery pipelines, frequently presenting accomplishments to CTO of Scotiabank.• Diversified vendors to reduce risk, initiated and orchestrated transition between major IT providers. Developed an internal pipeline of talent to transition from vendor dependency to internal self-reliance; established International Pega Training program for developers in Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia and Peru.

Toronto, Canada Area

Delivery Director in the Cards Pega and Client Account Management Technology group, oversaw 180 team members across 3 teams. Having proven my ability to drive change, I was brought in to turn around one of CIBC's largest transformational projects. My responsibilities included project initiation and execution, application delivery, maintenance, compliance, and incident management. The portfolio was comprised of multiple Pega PRPC applications and had a budget exceeding $40 million to create a platform used to drive sales and service in branches and online.• Delivered one of the largest Pega PRPC initiatives in Canada with a technology spend exceeding $40 million out of a total program budget of $150 million.• Successfully recovered the troubled project by applying result-focused methods and optimizing team accountabilities. Created effective teams by adjusting management and vendor structure, and established foundational processes for managing application code, builds, platforms, defects, and incidents. Greatly improved productivity by procuring improved equipment for development team.• Established a staffing model to build internal CIBC Pega competence and lessen dependency on outsourced workforce, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual contract expense.• Enhanced efficiency by establishing a 24/7 application support team in India, improving throughput for testing and development. Introduced shift-based development support and operations teams to provide continuous support for all CIBC's Pega environments, applications, and users.• Realigned vendor accountabilities to find synergies. Restructured vendor engagements to prevent conflicts and roadblocks. Greatly improved productivity and output quality by procuring improved equipment for development team.

Toronto, Canada Area

Delivery Director in the Mortgages Lending Insurance and Deposit Products Technology (MLIDT) group, oversaw Cobol Mainframe, Java, and C++ development teams with a total of about 30 team members. My role included strategic project initiation and execution, application delivery, maintenance, regulatory compliance, and production incident management. • Technologically diverse portfolio included approximately 25 enterprise critical applications utilized in bank branches and by retail and corporate business banking clients over the internet. Changed management team structure to refresh team culture and improve performance. Formalized management roles to provide context and clarity to organization.• Saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual operating costs and reduced risk by eliminating reliance on independent contractors, delivering hardware virtualization projects, and decommissioning legacy mainframe applications.• Managed multiple on-shore and off-shore vendors under ASP and staff augmentation models. Held vendors accountable for shortfalls and implemented procedural changes to improve quality of vendor deliverables. Participated in contract negotiations and negotiated cost savings directly with vendor executives.• Delivered business-critical initiatives, including Market Linked GIC, increasing CIBC's deposit holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars. Managed key relationships to address post-implementation issues.• Initiated a multi-year strategic project to migrate legacy mainframe GIC sales and service to a modern platform. Project spend is estimated to be tens of millions of dollars, requiring alignment between approximately 35 other technology departments, 5 lines of business, and multiple vendors. Prepared and presented roadmap strategy to business and technology executives, ensured stakeholder alignment.

• Led the Intake and Portfolio Planning department, responsible for estimating and scheduling all MLIDT (Mortgages, Lending, Insurance and Deposit Products Technology) work requests and leading the annual fiscal planning process with senior business stakeholders. Organization was the largest in retail and business banking technology by volume, processing over $637 million worth of work estimates across 1,200 separate requests.• Re-engineered the MLIDT intake process. Improved estimate response times from 1-2 months to 2-3 weeks, greatly enhancing business planning and delivery efficiency.• Restructured team to improve quality and speed of service, built team and individual capabilities by providing development opportunities and mentoring.• Managed multiple challenging business and technology Senior Director and VP relationships in order to ensure a smooth transition to the re-engineered process.• Created a foundation for continuous improvement by establishing metrics and key performance indicator measurements to improve tracking. This allowed for fact-based analysis of intake performance as opposed to anecdotal analysis.• Created monthly strategy forum to review strategic initiatives within MLIDT at a Senior Director and VP level.

• Created and managed a multi-disciplinary team of 15 direct reports and 16 indirect reports that specialized in issue management and resolution, application delivery, and maintenance releases. • Technology portfolio included multiple enterprise critical applications used in bank branches and over the internet by all CIBC customers.• Allocated resources to initiatives, set performance expectations and context, provided focus and demonstrated CIBC values. • Worked with team members to develop their strengths and find gaps in their training and development. Provided coaching so that employees could reach their full potential. • Optimized departmental approach to application delivery. Changed release cycle from from large semi-yearly releases to smaller regularly scheduled quarterly releases. Resulted in improved business partner satisfaction and improved client experience.• Managed vendor relationships and enforced vendor accountabilities - successfully managed projects that involved multiple vendors with conflicting objectives.• Worked closely with Senior Directors and VPs in both technology and business on project and department strategy. Provided analysis and presented tactical and strategic solutions to challenges facing the department. • Worked closely with Senior Directors and vendors to study feasibility of outsourcing development efforts. • Recognized by CIBC Executive Vice-President for exceptional performance.

• Created a culture of support within the department - established a process to manage production incidents, the communication around them, and a framework for timely resolution.• Introduced Technical Writer role. Hired a Technical Writer to create high quality technical reference documentation to enable production support culture. • Streamlined software development and deployment process for CIBC’s Commercial Business Banking application resulting in significantly increased deployment success rate and decreased vendor error rate. • Established a Steering Committee with CIBC and a vendor to track and address issues at senior management level. Result was a stronger client-vendor partnership that significantly reduced ongoing project issues and project costs.

• Work package lead for several high-profile migration and regulatory projects.• Received letter of recognition from CIBC Senior Executive Vice-President for exceptional performance.

Hired initially as a developer, promoted to manage the Connectivity Applications Development Team. Responsible for ensuring successful completion of concurrent systems integration and legacy platform maintenance initiatives, as well as managing daily operations.

Worked for various departments within DND (Human Resources, Learning and Career Centre, Central Medical Equipment Depot, Base Comptroller), progressing from entry level IT to management. Designed and developed financial information systems and inventory applications, working closely with technical and non-technical users to understand their needs. Roles included:• IT Manager / Technical Liaison• Project Manager / Software Developer• Technologist

Bsch, Computing And Information Science

Advanced Undergraduate thesis on Human-Computer Interaction at the Queen’s Human Media Lab.

Executive Strategy Program, Queen’S School Of Business

Executive education course on strategic planning and leading deep organizational change.