James Poole Email and Phone Number

Responsible for the overall global engineering efforts of Blackbaud’s web based SAAS financial capabilities including the development and modernization of The Financial Edge NXT. Lead a team of 80+ software engineers in development, test engineering, and task execution using Agile software development best practices for Blackbaud’s web-based financial capabilities, built using micro-service architecture, Angular, C#, Cosmos DB, and Microsoft SQLServer. Manage 7 teams of offshore software engineers working collaboratively with U.S. based teams on the development and maintenance of solutions. Work extensively with service provider leadership to ensure offshore engineers are well trained, engaged, and quality focused. Strategize with executive leadership on staffing, funding, and prioritization of initiatives. Collaborate with DevOps leadership to monitor and refactor Microsoft Azure hosting environments to improve scalability, reliability, and profitability of hosted services. Lead team of application architects on solving technical challenges and establishing technical guidelines used by engineering teams on the execution of their development tasks. Mentor Software Engineering Managers on promoting career development and installing team goals as well as best practices to increase productivity, quality of code, and alignment with corporate goals. Work closely with Product Management on the prioritization, definition, and refinement of scope for projects managed in Microsoft Azure DevOps. Focus on strategic initiatives aimed at improving employee retention and engagement while driving a positive developer centric culture. Partner with leaders in Blackbaud’s program management organization to pilot Blackbaud’s adoption of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe 5.1). Actively participate in recruitment of interns and full-time positions while promoting Blackbaud’s branding on college campuses. Manage and forecast operational budgets.

Managed high performing software engineering teams that develops and maintains a variety of software products and services used by Blackbaud’s mass market customer base. Managed, recruited, developed, and retained teams of up to 18 Software Engineers on the implementation of software projects and enhancements for Blackbaud’s mass market solutions including The Raiser’s Edge, The Financial Edge, The Financial Edge Nxt, The Education Edge, Altru, Research Point, OnlineExpress, Blackbaud Net Community, and Fundware. Managed teams of up to 9 offshore software engineers working collaboratively with U.S. based teams on the development and maintenance of mass market solutions. Developed and installed team and individuals' goals as well as best practices to increase productivity and quality of code produced. Mentored software engineers through career development feedback to promote their continued growth towards achieving career goals. Established software engineering roles and responsibilities to be used during performance management and recruiting. Worked closely with program management and quality assurance teams to deliver high quality projects on time and on budget following Agile software development methodologies. Worked with Product Management on the definition and refinement of scope for software development projects. Collaborated with other Managers of Software Development to refine and improve best practices. Evaluated potential technical business partners and cultivated and managed relationships with existing parties. Drove and organized college recruiting efforts across engineering. Managed and forecast operational budgets.

Managed two high performing software development teams; a product design team that analyzed, designed, and validated versions of Blackbaud’s The Financial Edge and The Education Edge products and a software engineering team that created and maintained versions of The Financial Edge. Managed, recruited, developed, and retained a team of 8 Interaction Designers and 1 Graphic Artist on the analysis, design, and validation of software projects and enhancements for Blackbaud’s The Financial Edge and The Education Edge products. Managed, recruited, developed, and retained a team of 16 Software Engineers on the implementation of software projects and enhancements of Blackbaud’s The Financial Edge. Managed, developed, and retained a remote team of 2 Software Engineers located in Denver, Colorado, on the maintenance and targeted development of Blackbaud’s Fundware product. Developed and installed team and individuals goals as well as best practices to increase productivity and quality of design deliverables and code produced. Established design and software engineering roles and responsibilities to be used during performance management and recruiting. Worked closely with program management and quality assurance teams to deliver high quality projects on time and on budget. Worked with Product Management on the definition and refinement of scope for software development projects. Worked across groups and teams ensure shared functionality integrates seamlessly within Blackbaud’s suite of products. Collaborated with other Software Design Managers and Software Engineering Managers to refine and improve best practices.

Managed, recruited, developed, and retained a team of 8 Business System Analysts and 1 Graphic Artist on the analysis, design, and validation of software projects and enhancements for Blackbaud’s core products (The Raiser’s Edge, The Financial Edge, and The Education Edge). Developed and instituted team and individuals goals as well as best practices to increase productivity and quality of design deliverables. Established design roles and responsibilities to be used during performance management and recruiting. Worked closely with program management, software engineering teams, and quality assurance teams to deliver high quality projects on time and on budget. Resolved escalated client issues and attended Blackbaud Education Edge user groups in major U.S. cities to collect feedback on how Blackbaud’s core products can be improved. Worked with Product Management on the definition and refinement of scope for software development projects.

Led medium to large teams of software engineers through development projects ensuring quality and schedule objectives are met. Tools used include Visual Basic, SQL Server 2000, Crystal Reports, Microsoft Project, and Visio. Led a team of 15 engineers (11 onsite, 4 offshore) on the Student Billing 7.5 project. Responsibilities included heavy participation in the design process, managing allocation of engineer resources, overseeing and reporting on development progress, mentoring and reviewing code of project team members, creating and maintaining a project schedule using Microsoft Project, and collaboration with out functional team leads. Developed the addressee/salutation, relationship, query and search screen, and reporting functionality for the Education Edge 7.3 projects using Visual Basic 6.0 with a SQL Server 2000 backend. Other responsibilities include mentoring and reviewing code of project team members along with reviewing product design. Led a team of 13 engineers on the Account Receivable 7.2 project. Responsibilities included extensive upfront design, overseeing and reporting on development progress, performing code reviews and mentoring of project team members, creating and maintaining a project schedule using Microsoft Project, active participation on the core team, and development of the deposit and payment functionality. Participated in the initial setup, design, and knowledge transfer of information with Blackbaud’s Offshore Development Center. This included two trips to India to train and consult offshore developers on Blackbaud’s development processes and practices. • Heavily participated in the interview process of potential new engineers.

Lead development of Blackbaud's object-oriented three-tiered Financial Edge product line using Visual Basic, SQL Server, Sybase SQL Anywhere, Sybase Adaptive Server, Crystal Reports, and Microsoft Project. As a member of a team of 3 engineers developed the initial Executive Information System functionality (Dashboards) for the Financial Edge product line using Visual Basic 6.0, XML, HTML, and SQL Server 2000. Developed and lead a team of 3 engineers on the QuickSell Commerce integration project which included extensive participation and review of product design, overseeing and reporting on development progress, mentoring and reviewing code of project team members, creating and maintaining a project schedule using Microsoft Project, and development of core functionality and the database access layer in Visual Basic 6.0 with a SQL Server 2000 backend. Led a team of 19 engineers on the Accounts Payable 7.0 project which included overseeing and reporting on development process, mentoring and reviewing code of project team members, creating and maintaining a project schedule using Microsoft Project, reviewing product design for development feasibility, and development of the address and check processing functionality using Visual Basic 6.0 with a Sybase Adaptive Server backend. Developed the fiscal year and account\project activity functionality for the General Ledger 7.0 project using Visual Basic 6.0 with a Sybase Adaptive Server backend. Led a team of 5 engineers on the Accounts Receivable 6.3 project. Researched several third-party Point-of-Sale packages for integration with Blackbaud products. Participated in the interview process of potential new developers.

Developed functionality for Blackbaud's object-oriented three-tiered Accounting for Non-Profits product line using Visual Basic, Crystal Reports, Sybase SQL Anywhere, Oracle, Access, and InstallShield. Developed and lead a team of 3 engineers on the Bank Reconciliation 6.2 project. Reviewed product design, oversaw and reported on development progress, and developed functionality in Visual Basic 5.0 with a Sybase SQL Anywhere backend. Was the sole developer on the Point-of-Sale 6.0 and School Store Manager 6.0 projects which included development in Visual Basic 3.0 with Sybase SQL Anywhere, Oracle, and Access backends. Developed the conversion functionality for the Student Billing 6.0 and Cash Receipts 6.0 projects using Visual Basic 5.0 and Sybase SQL Anywhere. Performed primary support and development for the Account for Non-Profits product line’s deployment system, written in InstallShield 3.0. Performed primary support duties for the Accounts Payable 6.2, Accounts Receivable 6.2, and School Store Manager 6.0 products.

Designed and developed tuition management service functionality for Blackbaud’s Student Billing package allowing clients to interface with several tuition management services for automation of deposits and payments, written in BASIC. Worked closely with several services to ensure seamless integration. Developed reports for the General Ledger 6.0 project using Crystal Reports 4.5. Performed primary support duties for the Student Billing 5.3 and Cash Receipts 5.3 packages.