Jason Cox Email and Phone Number

Lead Software Development, Quality Assurance, and Release Management teams.Teams are a mix of software developers, configuration specialists, functional testers, data analysts, and business analysts.Responsible for promoting or hiring managers and training them for new teams built in my organization.Used prior experience building AI and ML applications to help evaluate, test, and consult on a customer facing support application that users call-in or use an embedded chat on our site.Helped launch Concentra’s first product management groupActive member of Agile Governance Team that oversees our Agile transformation.Built the initial test automation team, release management practice, and level 3 support.Reduced support issues on our Integrations platform from 100 incidents a month to 5 incidents every 6 months. Improved Middleware Team performance from closing 50 tasks monthly to 130 tasks monthly without increasing staff or cost.Worked with infrastructure teams to resolve stability issues that resulted in more resilient systems and reduced major incidents from teams I inherited down from once a month to once a year. Designed plan to move off of TIBCO platform into a mix of AWS services and REST API’s.Highest retention rate at my peer level for technology.

Leader for Full-Stack, Front-End, Mobile, and Machine Learning Development, Functional Testing, Test Automation, and DevOps.Reporting structure of 7 Managers and 8 teams reporting to me.Budget responsibility of $25 million.Led Java, Front-End (React.js and Angular), Mobile (Android and iOS), and Machine Learning Developers. Projects using Scrum, Lean Agile, SAFe, or Kanban.For QA teams were a mix of functional, webservice, ETL, and automation testing using Selenium, UFT/QTP, Tosca, and Parasoft SOATest.Led teams that support the Erica Machine Learning, Mobile Application, Authorization Hub, and online Sales and Service platforms.Moved teams to use OpenShift (Kubernetes) and into cloud services with Azure or Oracle Cloud.Established new Application Testing group and initially trained new managers on toolsTransition Lead for buildout of 2 sites in Atlanta of 100 new associates.Launched program to upskill 60 global associates into Test Automation using a combination of Java, Selenium, and Cucumber (BDD)Set-up 5 test automation teams in the US and India dedicated to converting manual test cases into automated testsCreated program to move operations associates into quality assurance rolesDeveloped the strategy for hiring, certifications, and training new entry level developers. Created a technical mentorship program for junior developers.Created an efficient hiring strategy that reduced sourcing time by nearly 50%Worked as a Feature Lead since 2018 to help design the competency and training framework for the launch of the Shared Technology organization in Q3 2019.Partnered with peers across Shared Technology to leverage our associates technology skills and upskill them to Hadoop, Pega, and Test Automation (Selenium).Highest retention rate for the Shared Technology Services Division.

Led Product Development, Professional Services Engineering, and Level 3 Product Support Teams of 120 developers located in Texas, California, Costa Rica, India, Belarus, and Vietnam.Applications were written in Java and PHP utilizing JavaScript, Node.js, Hibernate, Spring, REST, SOAP, Micro Services (Spring Boot) and hosted on AWS (Amazon Web Services).Ran the software development boot camps for recent college graduates. Participated and contributed to the transformation of our project methodology into a pure Agile (Scrum) methodology for our Order Management development team.Managed the transition of our Order Management application from the California office to our corporate HQ in Dallas, TX and an offshore development team. Onboarded over 20 new developers simultaneously into the application.Improved our level 3 support process with a 500% increase in Dallas productivity which led to further cost cutting by reducing our reliance and number of contract resources.

Led support and upgrades of all go-forward financial applications.Led five teams located in Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, and IndiaTook over management of our ERP support and immediately reduced over 500 hours of support effort by moving them into the corporate standard ITSM.Identified opportunities to remove over 2500 hours of work and over $500,000 in cost through a combination of better licensing, reducing support through automation, and decommissioning outdated hardware and applications. Around $300,000 of the costs savings were year-over-year.Reduced over $250,000 in year-over-year personnel costs by replacing contractors with long-term offshore support specialists and maintaining an excellent SLA response time.Worked with product directors, finance executives, and development teams to develop strategic plans for new systems, upgrades, and project support needs.Researched, designed, and coded early implementations for migrating point-to-point integrations to our Enterprise Service Bus platform using Mulesoft Anypoint Studio.

Manage projects and programs for the Professional Services group which implements on-line banking, on-line bill pay, mobile banking, and remote deposit capture products.Coordinate a team of developers, DBA's, testers, installers, and other project managers to implement a variety of banking software packages.Led an early implementation of a new mobile banking platform with a current customer. Managed this as sub-project on our current implementation.Maintained the master program schedule that included the main project as well as three sub-projects on a single implementation.Keep in regular contact with the customer to maintain a good relationship and communicate status for both their team and ours.Manage a team of around a dozen individuals that are located across the United States, New Zealand, and Costa Rica.Projects were done either as Scrum or Waterfall depending on the implementation and customer.Created an on boarding program for incoming project managers and mentored new hires.Active in early DevOps efforts in our implementation teams. Involved QA throughout the process while System Engineers worked closely on their tasks alongside Software Engineers.Applications were written in C#, ASP.NET, with SQL Server as the back-end.

Development Manager for the Commercial Services Group offering customizable ERP solutions.Use a modified version of Rational Unified Process (RUP) to plan and implement projects.Coordinate the activities of developers, testers, support staff and customer personnel in both implementing software and providing ongoing support.Developed performance plans and held reviews for direct reports.Regularly participate in interviewing and hiring recommendations of developers, QA analysts, and project managers.As the first point of contact with customers, seek out regular feedback to help identify issues and find potential revenue opportunities.Managed four concurrent projects while maintaining a dozen ongoing customer accounts.

Managed development for the Sales & Service line of business products.Introduced and enforced formal SDLC practices to the product development group.Supervised the activities of a six person development team dedicated to Sales & Service projects.Developed performance plans and held reviews for direct reports.Identified staff members for promotions and provided career guidance to encourage growth into future leaders or senior technical staff.Responsible for conducting interviews of potential developer candidates Met and coordinated with business owners to set project schedules, identify quality improvements, and prioritize new enhancements.Collaborated with architectural and engineering teams to identify performance and maintainability improvements.In addition to my development manager duties, served as a project manager for a customer implementation that included two business analysts, ten developers, and two testers.Volunteered to be the project manager and Java consultant for an internal R&D project.

Responsible for two software development teams and the customer support teamGreatly improved software development and support procedures to break the team out of “fire drill” mode and begin to proactively address issues with our applicationsDeveloped performance plans and held reviews for direct reportsHad hiring decision authority, ability to requisition new staff depending on customer contracts and workloads, and ability to release staff if necessaryWorked closely with customers and internal business teams to plan product releases, new features, and quality improvementsAssigned multiple products that focused largely on Day 2 banking applications covering returns, exceptions, adjustments, and long-term storage solutionsTrained team leads on new project management processes that were adopted in 2008Mentored developers on best practices and software designManaged large complex projects from project initiation to project completion phasesWorked directly with Bank of America and Fifth Third Bank to deliver major system upgrades

Responsible for the design, upgrade, and ongoing support of our check processing system. Identified a major performance enhancement that netted an increase of 5 times the speed when I started.

Led development teams at customer sites and acted as the technical lead for offshore teamsDesigned and led projects for both new development and enhancing existing applicationsWorked with application architects to design software solutions for clientsRoutinely met with client staff to develop requirements and ensure we were met expectationsTraveled to Hyderabad, India to train the software development team that reported to meRoutinely identified potential performance improvements in development processes and worked to implement solutions that fit within each client’s unique cultureRecognized by our customers for my dedication to their projects and my ability to find solutions to complex problems

Designed, developed, and maintained user tools and web interfaces for the Enterprise Information Management Web PortalCreated a web-based project management tool to coordinate efforts of team members spread across different geographic areasPerformed code reviews for the off-shore team to verify the quality of their workUsed Rational Rose to document application design in UML

Built, modified, and maintained the Michaels.com eCommerce site.

Provided custom applications to our clients. Also worked as a virus control administrator and system administrator.

Central Booking Facility. Responsible for site security, information desk, warrant checks, booking arrests. Trained other security coordinators, became a technical trainer for our new booking software. Attended and passed the Texas Certified Jailer test.

Non-civil service security patrol of downtown Austin on foot and bicycle. Coordinated efforts with Downtown Austin Alliance. Helped citizens who were locked out of vehicles or having automobile trouble. Enforced vagrancy laws. Made regular contacts with local businesses to see if there were any problems or issues in their neighborhoods. Worked closely with Austin Police Walking Beat and their dispatcher. While on injury duty, worked with Austin SWAT by organizing and prioritizing warrants for their Fugitive Retrieval squad.

Participated in daily organization and dispatch of accident reports before assignment to an investigator. Acted as an additional office administrator while at headquarters. In the field observed police procedure and investigative techniques for gathering and recording evidence. Performed additional tasks as needed to assist investigators or the senior administrator.