Provide leadership and guidance on strategic company projects from both a business and a technical architecture perspective. Duties include governance, policy creation, business and technical architecture, strategic direction, and executive leadership communication on key projects.Major Initiatives:Containerization: Promoted the business case for bringing container capabilities to Horace Mann to provide a more flexible and cost-efficient application platform using Docker, Kubernetes and Azure’s AKS. I designed the architecture in tandem with our Infrastructure architect and participated as one of the primary implementers using our Content Management Platform, Sitecore, as the initial proof-of-concept. Azure DevOps was used to automate the build and deployment pipelines for the environment and the application container deployments.Campaign Management: Utilizing SaaS vendors and internal integrations, led effort to build a robust corporate email campaign system utilizing Salesforce / Marketing Cloud. The system encompassed data integrations with several sources with 5M+ existing and prospective customers while maintaining compliance with CAN-SPAM and FINRA. Included: Marketing automations, DRIP campaigns, corporate and agent driven campaigns and marketing material store.Contact Center Transformation: Lead architect for core infrastructure and services replacement for our contact center from PBX Cisco based solution to a SIP SaaS solution with IVR/email/chat and line of business application integrations (quality management, workforce optimization).Windows 7 Migration – Lead architect for migration of 1500+ distributed field agent machines from Windows XP to Windows 7. The effort involved key infrastructure and development practice changes to the organization including data backup solution, always-on VPN solution, automated builds via Team Foundation Services and automated InstallShield deployments with SCCM.

Expanding my architecture role to include leadership of 3 teams of developers, support and project leaders. I collaborate with our business divisions to align and realize our strategies; driving results, innovation and efficiency for our customer and agent facing applications. Through a combination of training, mentoring, goal setting and work assignments, I strive to develop team members to enhance and expand their skill sets and leadership abilities.Major initiatives:Development Practices Leader – As the leader of our development practices organization, I established our company’s formal Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). This role includes governance over software tools and libraries, as well as, secure coding standards based on OWASP. Portal Framework – Designed and participated in development of micro-frontend application architecture with ASP.NET Core as its base to provide a common architecture for applications that support our customers, agents, support reps and back-office staff. Through loosely coupled micro-frontends that are dynamically loaded, we realized reduced complexity, consistency and reuse.Mobile Application Re-design – Led the effort to replace our platform specific mobile applications into a refreshed customer experience on cross-platform technology (Xamarin). We gained functionality, customer experience and operational efficiencies. I led design and analysis, with team completing implementation.Online Quoting Portal – Established company’s first online quoting platform to provide customers with immediate, personalized product information. The project was phased using rapid prototyping and agile methodologies to come to market quickly with a high quality. I led the architecture design, execution and participated as a developer.On-shore/Off-shore Software Support Model – Partnered with vendors to establish a cost-controlled, software support model that enabled our internal developers to focus on growth-oriented projects.

As a Software Architect with Capitol Strategies, I provide clients with technical direction and business expertise based upon my years of experience, as well as, my continued personal studies. Projects *Illinois State Retirement Systems: Re-engineering and modernization of software systems and business processes agency wide while mentoring existing staff. Migration from mainframe to web/distributed systems. (C#, WPF, WCF, SQL Server, Agile, SCRUM, Project Management, DDD)*Illinois Department of Transportation: Developing new software systems for the Traffic Safety division. (ASP.NET MVC 4, VB.NET, SQL Server, DDD)*Illinois Environmental Protection Agency: Guiding a Water Operator Certification system that was previously written and shelved to production. (ASP.NET, C#, VB.NET, SQL Server, SCRUM, Project Management)

As a senior developer and solution architect for the pension software division of LRS, I contributed at many different levels of the organization including: development, implementation, support, project management, mentoring, system architecture and consulting. I was a key contributor to the architecture and development of a new Service Oriented Architecture framework that included a metadata driven approach to allow for an agile software product that was quickly customizable by non-technical personnel. This framework served as the foundation for all of the division’s software implementations. (C#, ASP.NET, SQL Server, SOA, MTA, Design Patterns, Program Management, Delphi, Oracle, DB2)

As lead programmer for the implementation of pharmacy database modules for the electronic medical record and the billing system, I worked closely with content providers to create specifications for content editors and end-user products, as well as to program the final products. As the role of Database Architect/Administrator, I designed, implemented, and maintained the medical, billing and scheduling content and end-user database on Interbase / MS SQL. The database architecture for e-MDs was honored with the highest marks in the Microsoft/AAFP Practice Management Survey in 2002.As a senior Delphi programmer on the team, I aided peer developers on an as needed basis, and also mentored new developers based on my skills in Delphi and SQL. Additionaly, I was highly involved in the overall project analysis aiding the product manager in decision-making processes.(Delphi, SQL Server, XML, Interbase, Palm)

Developed client / server business applications using Delphi in a Windows 95 / NT multi-tier environment. (e.g., I developed a suite of tools for use over the corporate intranet utilizing OLE and ActiveX that handled various everyday tasks for employees, such as, scheduling meeting rooms, filling out daily time sheets, scheduling vacation, etc.)Converted MS DOS based FORTRAN and Pascal engineering programs to Windows programs using Delphi, Interbase, Oracle, and Paradox.Setup and administered an Interbase server for use with the client / server applications I developed.Provided individual instruction to personnel for computer use and application training.(Delphi, SQL Server, Interbase, FORTRAN, COM)

Maintained and created code in PL/I and COBOL on an IBM mainframe both individually and as a team for the Auto Insurance Division.(PL/1, COBOL)