Accountable for technology delivery for our customer Session (https://www.sessionstudio.com/)

Delivering a customer's multi-million pound programme as part of our objective to support creators in the music industry by revolutionising music payment pipelines thru cloud native solutions.Own the customer relationship and working day-to-day with their business and technical teams utilising AWS technologies including, but not limited to, DynamoDB, ElasticSearch, EMR, Athena, S3, Lambda, API gateway, step functions, Cloudwatch, and Kinesis.Full stack technology role chameleon, shifting from Programme Owner/Account Manager, thru Delivery manager to analysis and design as the day requires.

Operating as IT Partner to Operations and Hubs, helping shape and scope business initiatives and strategy. Acting as a single point of contact and effective interface in the IT function for all issues relating to the delivery of change and operational IT services. Ensuring effective delivery from both IT internal teams and Vendors, owns and drives activities and ensures effective communication with key stakeholders. Responsibilities• IT Partner for the Operations and Hubs functions• Attend business forums to represent the IT function • Understand of business objectives and challenges, identify opportunities for IT innovation to add value and support achievement of goals • Act as an advocate for business units in the IT function, communicating needs to the wider IT community • Works closely with business and PMO to formulate IT budgets and delivery plans • Acts as a contact and escalation point for all IT initiatives; both change and operational • Liaising with key stakeholders to effectively communicate progress on all key IT activities • Represent IT functions for requirements input, approvals and estimates for new demand

Prior to the sale of EMI, as part of Global Technology reporting to the EVP Transformation, built on experience as Head of Royalties IT. Accountable for the global Royalties and Copyright roadmap and all projects, processes and systems supporting it. Operating as an interface between senior stakeholders and technology to define and promote the vision and supporting technologies.Key aspects of role:• Owned portfolio of concurrent projects with budgets ranging from £20k through to £1.6m across a mix of models from internally resourced to fully outsourced, utilising Agile and waterfall delivery methodologies• Chaired committees with global stakeholders to review the roadmap and communicate progress at portfolio and major project level• Responsible for budgeting for delivery of all milestones targeted for the financial year• Using negotiation and influencing skills helped formulate and promote the roadmap for the Artist Royalty systemsKey Achievements:• Obtained funding and delivered the first major step in the roadmap, part of a £1.6m project across Finance (SAP) and Royalties, resulting in improved data quality, performance, functionality and user experience

Responsible for the application portfolio and roadmap, focussed on working with senior stakeholders to align the roadmap with the company direction and strategy. Defined the projects making up the milestones, secured funding and on-boarded project teams. Continued responsibility for operations managed service. Key aspects of role:• Subject matter expert (SME) for Royalties• Line management of 5 in-house project managers (UK and US based) and the managed service for operations• Worked with business stakeholders to define the roadmap in line with the overall vision for the company• Communicate and obtain buy-in for an application roadmap with the territories globally• Hosted steering committees to report portfolio progress, risks and issues to senior stakeholders• Agree statements of work with technology partners for Project deliveryKey Achievements:• Secured buy-in and funding for and subsequently drove the delivery of several milestones in the road map including• Creation of an Artist Portal allowing secure electronic delivery of Artist statements, eliminating paper based reporting in UK, US and Canada• Facilitating reporting of distribution deals and merchandising via modification of existing systems maintaining the size of the application portfolio rather than buying in a new application• Creation of an integrated Artist Ledger subsequently rolled out across Europe facilitating decommissioning of multiple local applications and subsequent cost savings

Moved away from day to day management of operations but retained accountability. Drove delivery of agreed roadmap. Rolled out the application standards across the globe and continually enhancing the application suite. Drove process efficiencies through integration with other global applications. Continued to manage off-shore support and development teamKey aspects of role:• Subject matter expert (SME) for Royalties• Responsible for relationship with managed service providing operations and maintenance across the application portfolio• Worked with business stakeholders to define and prioritise projects and change requests• Establish and obtain buy-in within the territories for the roadmap across the application portfolio• Project Manager for flagship projects within roadmapKey Achievements:• Drove standardization of systems across the globe, including projects to migrate multiple territories to a common artist royalties solution• Drove process improvements in line with the roadmap to generate cost savings and efficiency through deliverables e.g. promoted and delivered consolidated statement layout pulling information from multiple source systems into single report. This facilitated a move towards electronic statementing (PDF)• Trained and mentored developers and support analysts for technology outsource partner

Responsible for all development and operations across Royalties and back office systems. Line manager for combined in-house and out-sourced support and maintenance teamsKey aspects of role:• Subject matter expert (SME) for Royalties• Line management of outsourced technology team (10 resources)• Hosted committees with business stakeholders to define and prioritise change requests• Responsible for planning and delivering projects in support of the roadmap across the application portfolio• Managing delivery of quarterly maintenance releases (15-20 change requests per release)• Project manager for flagship projects within roadmapKey Achievements:• Established governance and tracking of distributed team work load providing an accurate dashboard of team activities across maintenance and project work used in committee meetings• Created and chaired stakeholder forum for proposing amendments to the roadmap and to communicate progress• Trained and mentored developers and support analysts for technology outsource partner

Team and Technical lead on projects and change requests within the Royalties application suite, alongside operational responsibilitiesKey aspects of role:• Line manager to 4 in house developers and a business analyst• Technical lead across numerous projects• Face to face and remote user training including preparation of training materials• On-call for operational support 24/7Key Achievements:• Designed, developed and deployed physical and digital Copyright solution, eventually rolled out to 15 territories• Proposed and integrated Royalty Systems into other global applications to improve data quality, reduce re-keying, and increase efficiency• Designed and developed retentions and withholding tax modules and associated reporting for artist accounting to support cash conservation strategy

Analyst Programmer working as part of a team executing Royalties related projects and maintenance work globally on iSeries platform.Key Achievements:• Redesigned user interfaces to facilitate easier search and display of data and improving data entry• Worked on integration to SAP including automated month end processing of accruals, cost and advance interfaces and associated reporting

Various technology roles working for a small consultancy with Blue Chip and major clients such as Capita Group, KPMG, National Audit Office, International Maritime Organisation, KLM, RTé and several councils and health authorities.Designing, developing and implementing solutions across a myriad of platforms and technologies including Unix, iSeries, mainframe and NT. Regularly challenged to pick up a new technology or platform and deliver to very short timescales.On site and remote training of customers including preparation of all materials.Key Achievements:• Stock inventory system with fuzzy search capability and automated stock issue note• Recovered GL journals for major client several months after another supplier had corrupted a database during an upgrade• Developed commitment accounting module to reflect the various commitment stages of a Purchase Order from soft commitment at requisition stage to accrual at goods receipt stage