IT architect responsible for providing architectural oversight, support and guidance to product teams, projects and business as usual. The role is primarily as the architecture authority for designing solutions for new initiatives, reviewing existing systems and practices to ensure they are efficient and reliable, following architecture principles and providing input and options into strategic planning.Responsibilities/Achievements :• IT Architect working in product team for Electric Vehicles, Mobility and Aftersales• Be the solutions architect for a strategic move by VWFS to realise a new Retail Savings Bank within the UK. - Transform business requirements into high level designs.- Provide feasibility cases for key decision points within the designs.- Work with IT colleagues to transform high level designs into technical specifications.- Work with business colleagues to ensure designs stay in line with requirements.- Ensure all work is done in accordance with architecture principles.- Be involved throughout all project activities as the architecture authority and where required provide technical guidance.- Participate in the procurement of 3rd part COTS solutions as part of the project design.- Present all options, feasibility cases and designs to the Architecture Governing Board for oversight and approval.• Manage and maintain the architecture repository.- Keeping architecture artefacts up to date and ensuring new artefacts are captured accordingly.

As a self-employed IT consultant working with a client in the renewable energy sector, the role required a Solution Architect to provide crucial IT guidance and resource within the company; managing all IT requirements, working closely with and managing 3rd party suppliers and providing a clear roadmap for all information technology during this exciting growth period.Responsibilities/Achievements :• Build and implement roadmap for Company infrastructure. - Document existing infrastructure, physical and logical. - Provide solution for site-wide resilient WiFi Coverage. Implement the solution. - Provide solution for increased office space, ensure infrastructure can provision for the additional staff, their demands and requirements. - Review suitability of existing infrastructure, including cost, and provide options to improve upon the current model. - Explore the options and feasibility of moving part/all infrastructure into a cloud architecture.• Provide solutions for day-to-day IT support for all Company staff: - Work with staff to understand their software/hardware requirements. - Provide assistance to resolve staff IT issues. - Manage 3rd party support partners. - Manage the IT inventory. - Implement and manage IT policies to ensure the safeguarding of Company resources.• Implement and manage the IT component of the business continuity plan. - Design and implement a backup and recovery process into Amazon Web Services. - Manage security policies and procedures. - Review the architecture for a cloud-based disaster recovery site and propose solution.

The senior IT staff member and lead Enterprise/Solution Architect in a SME. Responsible for implementing and managing a resilient and scalable IT landscape to meet the demands of an exponentially growing business with a rapidly increasing customer base for both business-customer and business-business, across the UK, USA, Canada and Europe. Taking ownership of an IT landscape that has grown organically as requirements arose the role is responsible for leveraging leading edge digital technologies and external partners to create a strategic vision for IT that will enable the company to achieve its objectives. Responsibilities/Achievements :• Implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning system, SAP Business One, into Amazon Web Services to automate and integrate manufacturing, distribution, sales and finance functions.• Redesign the ecommerce platform to leverage Amazon Web Services.• Managing the IT setup of new offices.• Creating a service delivery function to manage incidents and requests.• Introducing IT policies and governance to safe guard Company staff, customers and partners. • Reviewing contracts for existing and new external suppliers and partners to ensure the company is receiving the best service.

Responsible for embedding a Greenfield team of business analysts, project coordinators and business support staff across multiple units with the mission to deliver continual improvement through the management of a portfolio of small projects purposefully identified as having a short time-scale development lifecycle.Through analysis of technology, processes, capabilities and building strong relationships with staff across all units, opportunities for improvement were identified; driving efficiency and value that ultimately benefit customers.Responsibilities/Achievements :• Build and manage a team of Business Analysts, Project Managers and Business Support staff. Including managing appraisals and personal development.• Full lifecycle management of a portfolio of continual improvement activities, from requirements gathering to solution development, testing and implementation.• Relationship management between Information Technology and University Units.• Business Continuity Planning.• Infrastructure Management of Technology, Processes and Capability across Departments.• Be part of Department Senior Management board reporting to the Director of Operations to ensure alignment with change across departments.• Contribute to Unit Strategy Planning.

A senior leadership position with a two-year commitment to implement and manage change across the IT Development function. In the wake of changes to University funding and new challenges from globally available free initiatives such as EdX it became essential that efficiencies and improvements be introduced to drive delivery of value to students and business partners. Responsibilities/Achievements :• Manage a large portfolio of projects across a range of business functions including Business Intelligence, Customer Relationship Management, HR, Finance, Academic Faculties, Marketing and Student Support Services.• Be responsible for the entire application lifecycle, from requirements gathering through to delivery and warranty.• Implement and champion an agile development approach in a well-established waterfall environment and manage the challenges that come with that culture shift.• Deliver IT solutions as either bespoke in-house developments or purchased 3rd party systems.• Supplier management for over 19 purchased and fully implemented systems.• Deliver projects as part of a strategic programme of change across the whole of the IT Department that includes the replacement of core legacy systems and new service focused solutions.• Be involved with, and be a key signatory, of the pre-qualification questionnaire and invitation to tender for the sourcing of a new University wide HR system.• Contribute to the strategic priorities of my stakeholders across the University and manage those stakeholder relationships.• Communicate effectively across all levels; from Directors to Pro-Vice Chancellors to individual application users.• Manage resource in my own team and negotiating resources across other teams.• Lead a team of 25 Business Analysts, Software Developers and First Line Managers.• Set objectives and drive performance improvements within my team through training, coaching/mentoring and setting and monitoring objectives.

Managing a team of on-shore and off-shore business analysts and software developers in the provision of 2nd line support across supply chain and order taking channels, including website, stores and call centre. The position required stakeholder management, requirements gathering, testing, resolution of defects and implementing change across the IT landscape.Responsibilities/Achievements :• Leading a team of UK based and India based Analysts and Software Developers.• Managing the workflow of the off-shore team and measuring their performance.• Putting in place a team structure to allow for 24-hours support using both on-shore and off-shore resource.• Providing support for an ecommerce programme of work; including defect management, testing and release management.• Supplier management across numerous systems.• Ensuring Service Level Agreements were in place and adhered to.• The build and maintenance of environments for testing and training.• Working to ITIL v3 standards.

A leadership position in a strategic programme of work, implementing a new supply chain and order taking system.Responsibilities/Achievements :• Stakeholder Management• Code review and quality checking.• Testing software.• Implementing an Agile development environment.• Project management.• Leading a team of contractors in the delivery of those projects.• Providing systems analysis and architectural reviews across the programme.• Working with the business gathering requirements and turning those requirements into technical specifications.• Implementing continual improvements and delivering value to the programme.

A split role that required working as both part of project team to deliver a portfolio of projects and providing support to the live systems used throughout the Organisation.

A consultant with a nationwide client base this was a varied role that required working across numerous sites within the UK delivering technology solutions to fulfill client requirements.