Ash Hicks Email & Phone Number

Belmont, Ma, Us

Arlington, Va, Us

Burlington, Ma, Us

Led mixed test team of product specialists and QA engineers in verification of air traffic control simulation and voice-recognition products. Led daily test scrum. Planned and executed testing for releases including factory and on-site acceptance testing. Developed and updated user documentation.* Process Improvement: Developed standardized test procedures with automatic validation of requirements and results reporting.* Hands-on: Developed tool for regression testing of simulation engine behavior between baseline and delta releases.* Automation: Developed automated reporting for SW and QA metrics, reducing manual effort from a day per report to a couple minutes.

North Reading, Ma, Us

Led organization of 45 engineers across 5 sites (Boston, Los Angeles, Costa Rica, India, and Singapore) with a functional budget of $3.5M. Responsible for software quality on all Teradyne IGXL platforms. * Large Scope: On new platform with 850,000 lines of code & 7250 requirements, 4000+ defects submitted by QA over 3 years while driving QA:SW ratio down from 33% to 20%.* Accountable: Created feedback process to drive root-cause-analysis of defect escapes discovered by internal and external customers. Revamped QA process to force plan and test reviews with key system engineers and customer-proxies.* Work Force Shaping – Planned US downsizing over multiple years to avoid RIF, meet all project commitments, and maintain neutral budget while ramping up new team in Singapore.* Performance Culture – Created standardized functional, project, and individual performance metrics. Leveraged QA tests to free up development resources from integration tests.* Technology roadmap – Migrated from scripting-based automation to CodedUI. Retrained organization from VB-based user-level test to C#. * Mentor – Track record of developing subordinates with 1 promoted to second-level manager, 2 promoted to first-level manager and 10 engineering promotions from junior to senior roles.* Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing – Organizational participation in STAR conferences, Teradyne user, and Teradyne engineering conferences.

North Reading, Ma, Us

Planned and executed all QA activities for software releases on three hardware platforms. Accountable to VP of Engineering and Directors of SW and QA for release quality. Managed System Test team.* Release Quality: Led cross-functional team in planning and execution of SW release activities including integration of development streams, defect triage, Alpha test, Beta test, and Release Quality Dashboard daily maintenance. Converted a patch to full release in less than 4 months and successfully deployed at 3 largest customers. Managed release roadmap by coordinating marketing, SW development, and QA department.* System Test: Led team of senior QA and Factory Applications engineers to conduct system test, continuous improvement of QA regression tests, and critical incident management in QA. Staffed and managed multiple simultaneous Beta sites.* Gets Results: Delivered major release with 30K+ LOC on schedule with best software quality ever with fewest customer-discovered Beta and post-release defects.

North Reading, Ma, Us

Provided leadership for and managed activity of fifteen software verification engineers. Allocated staff, planned and executed projects, and reported results for executive review.* Manager: Fifteen direct reports. 11 full-time and 4 contract engineers. Included remote staff in Agoura Hills, CA. Maintained positive relationship with employees during multiple reductions-in-force, enabling later recruitment for contract and FT work.* Team Player: Member of cross-functional project core teams on multiple simultaneous software projects, coordinating QA activities with software development and program management to ensure quality while meeting project schedule, budget, and scope goals. * Global: Led projects utilizing and developed processes for out-sourced QA during growth of and subsequent closure of low-cost operations in India. Contributed to creation of new group in Costa Rica during interviewing and hiring decisions, training, and operations startup.* Self-evaluation and personal interaction soft-skills training including Meyers-Briggs Temperament Indicator, EQi assessment, Motivations & Influence workshops, Public Speaking & Presentation workshop. * Advisor: Coached steering committee of engineers on logistic and content planning for three day technical conference for software QA organization.

North Reading, Ma, Us

Led technical work of multiple engineers, both domestic and overseas.

North Reading, Ma, Us

Developed, debugged, and executed software verification tests for new features. Automated new tests and maintained existing regression tests.

North Reading, Ma, Us

Technical product expert responsible for pre- and post-sale support. Primary factory contact for field support teams. Product demo preparation and delivery for customers via direct visit or trade-shows.

Master Of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Concentration In Leadership And Organizational Transformation

Bachelor Of Science, Computer Engineering