As IT Director, I propel advancements in IT Quality Assurance/Engineering (QA/QE), IT Infrastructure, IT Security, Software Engineering, DevOps/Agile transformationKey Achievements:- Transformed and led the IT Quality Assurance organization into a high-performing global practice, leveraging advanced tools and top-tier skills. This initiative resulted in a 40% reduction in QA timelines, a 35% annual cost savings, and a 50% improvement in overall quality, significantly enhancing operational efficiency and delivering measurable business value.- Orchestrated a strategic transition of 60% of support tools to cloud platforms, AWS & Azure, enhancing availability and reducing expenses. This initiative included vital tools like Apica, BurpSuite, ServiceNow, JIRA, and Tosca. My concerted efforts led to a 30% reduction in tool count, translating to annual savings exceeding $200K, achieved by negotiating integrated vendor solutions at competitive rates and spearheading tool consolidation amongst peers and stakeholders.- Co-led a pivotal transformation at MetLife, shifting to a DevOps Agile Software Delivery Model. This involved creating new IT roles to enable smooth DevOps integration and working alongside the VP, IT leaders, and vendor partners to draft and enact a strategic overhaul of IT operations, thereby facilitating the adoption of Agile Release Trains alongside traditional development practices.- Established MetLife’s Application Security Assurance division, dramatically diminishing the IT Security Defect Backlog from over 10,000 to under 30 within two years. This landmark achievement won acclaim from the CISO and led to a substantial role within the IT Security division.- Initiated the Infrastructure Testing organization, cutting project deployment back-outs and weekend incidents by 75% when updating security appliances, infrastructure, or middleware components, leading to its mandatory adoption for all relevant projects by the CIO.

I successfully spearheaded the establishment of a comprehensive IT organization at Wipro in support of our new Kohl's Department Stores account. This encompassed the deployment of more than 250 highly skilled analysts across all business verticals, thereby ensuring end-to-end coverage for all key processes and deliverables.- This opportunity allowed me to understand and appreciate the challenges faced by our vendor partners and highlighted the importance of implementing appropriate checks and balances, as well as ensuring accountability and oversight. Through this experience, I developed a deeper understanding of the importance of treating our vendor partners as trusted allies, rather than merely "hired hands." The knowledge and insights gained from this experience have proven to be extremely beneficial in my subsequent role at MetLife, where I returned to the customer side as an IT Director. - I established and nurtured strong partnerships with critical Kohl's executives, as well as program-level leaders from other companies whose contributions were integral to Kohl's success. These key partners included Accenture, Tibco, and Cognizant. Through effective communication and collaboration, we were able to achieve shared goals and deliver optimal outcomes for Kohl's.

I had the privilege of gaining extensive exposure to diverse roles and technologies, ranging from development and quality engineering to strategic planning across a wide spectrum of platforms, including mainframe, server, network, and insurance lines of business. As an accomplished manager, I served as a trusted advisor for building and leading new teams while successfully delivering on complex strategic initiatives. My proactive approach towards identifying new opportunities and seeding innovative ideas was highly valued by executive leadership. Consequently, they often entrusted me with challenging projects and organizational restructuring efforts that required exceptional skills and execution to achieve successful outcomes.- Led a comprehensive restructuring effort of the Data and Information System QA organization with the goal of enhancing outcomes and fulfilling operational objectives. This encompassed a complete overhaul of my team, including individual assessments of all QA Managers and Test Analysts, and subsequent adjustments. I also reassessed our recruitment and hiring practices, revamped our interview process, and established a training program. Furthermore, I modified our compensation system to more closely align with that of developers and produced clear expectations documents for our vendor partners. As a result, we succeeded in creating a lean and agile QA organization of "Special Forces" that relied on superior tactics and advanced tools, rather than the outdated "Million-Man Army" approach previously in place- Saved an estimated $580K annually by consolidating 9 test labs into the State Farm Test Center, which had been recently created to improve test system availability. Additional results included a reduction in redundancies of equipment, staffing adjustments, the return of 2000 sq ft of prime office space, and professionally supported test systems with guaranteed levels of servic--