Todd Drake

Todd Drake Email and Phone Number

Technical Innovation, Leadership, and Solutions Architecture @ Thoughtworks
chicago, illinois, united states
Todd Drake's Location
Boulder, Colorado, United States, United States
Todd Drake's Contact Details
About Todd Drake

I have a passion for building digital user experiences, services, products, and storytelling; leading clients in reframing and reimagining tough user experience and technology strategy problems; and working collaboratively to build new models for action. I blend a design-led sensibility and toolkit with deep technical architecture skills to help business create more human-scale connection to their users and employees. I'm an effective bridge between the IT worlds and the creative, empathic world of human-centered design.I’ve used this in my 20+ year career as a technology executive by helping clients achieve business impact:* Making sense of data, trends, new technologies and the business opportunities and challenges they present* Using those insights to define and drive new products, capabilities and market-facing strategies based on marrying user empathy and technology strategy* Driving the delivery of those products and services, from conception to operations, that change the way companies organize, how people interact with brands, and share experiences.* Built, organized, grown and managed high performance, onshore/offshore teams to make it happen * Bringing simplicity to complexity by bridging the technology knowledge gap between creatives and marketers, and marketing to technologists...Or something of that nature. Specialties: Client technology leadership, technical strategy, building ISV alliances, technical team building and mentoring, software development management, product development, user experience engineering, software architectures. Focus on innovation management, creative problem solving and facilitation techniques, cross-discipline processes, and emerging technology applications.

Todd Drake's Current Company Details
Thoughtworks

Thoughtworks

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Technical Innovation, Leadership, and Solutions Architecture
chicago, illinois, united states
Website:
thoughtworks.com
Employees:
7338
Todd Drake Work Experience Details
  • Thoughtworks
    Principal Consultant
    Thoughtworks Aug 2018 - Present
    Denver, Colorado
    Providing technical leadership and delivery of strategy, architecture, system design, and implementation for NA clients. Currently focused on Azure cloud engineering as part of the Enterprise Modernization service line.- Platform and digital culture change strategy for a major midwestern industrial supply company- Strategy, architecture, pipelines, and build for enhancements for a global retail fuel/energy's mobile loyalty product, as well as advisory for architecture for global infrastructure reuse.- Technical Product Management, architecture, and team lead for an Azure API set based on DDD bounded contexts for a equipment manufacturer- Planning, analysis, architecture, implementation lead for a HBase/Hadoop-to-Cloud migration project.- Azure Platform Engineering product owner/engineering lead (Terraform/Bicep/ARM, Observability, Networking, Kubernetes, Mongo, Kafka, CI/CD pipelines in ADO/GHA, DR/resiliency, governance and change management, financial optimization) for an energy provider
  • Ibm
    Watson Solutions Business Architect
    Ibm Feb 2015 - Jul 2018
    Greater New York City Area
    IBM's Watson is a combination of cutting edge NLP, question answering systems, knowledge representation, analytics and image/voice recognition technologies that are offered as solutions, platforms, and cloud-based APIs. It's complex and evolving rapidly as we learn how businesses view and use Cognitive ComputingI work with a small team to help clients understand the opportunity and impact of Watson on their business, their people, processes and platforms. We then define a technology roadmap, systems architecture and plan to implement their first steps on their journey. I’ve created successful and innovative architectures blending cognitive and cloud-native components. Recently, I've worked with clients in the Automotive, Heavy Equipment, Financial and Energy industries. So far, it's been a mix of relationship building, sense-making, running design and innovation workshops, defining solution architectures, engagement management and planning, and SOW structuring and pricing - as well as a whole lot of keeping up with the technology across the entire portfolio. The role keeps changing as the needs and solution approach change on each project, and it's been interesting to see all sides of a rapidly changing business. In my first year, was recognized as the technical lead of the "Account Team of the Year" by the sales organization.In the best cases, I get to spend a ton of the time on a whiteboard drawing diagrams, visualizing ideas, and helping to solve problems, which suits me well ;)
  • Readycollective
    Partner
    Readycollective Jan 2012 - Jan 2015
    Greater New York City Area
    Because the ways in which humans relate to everything—past and future—is changing, ReadyCollective helps teams reimagine and choose how they relate to the world through the systems and services they design.The reimagining process is driven by structured thinking activities that create alignment, build shared understanding and improve the way individuals, groups and networks approach problems. Teams practice change together in order to learn resilience.ReadyCollective's organized problem-solving methods flow from the future-finding practices of strategic design, research, visualization, sensemaking and facilitation.
  • Organic
    Cto
    Organic Oct 2010 - Dec 2014
    Greater New York City Area
    Overall responsibility for positioning and marketing, capability and business development, and delivery quality for the technology and QA practices at Organic. Practice is focused on Advanced Experience Delivery, and Intelligent Marketing Architectures across platforms, devices and user contexts. Part of the executive leadership team setting direction for a rebuild/rebrand and push for this Omnicom agency. Speaker at conferences such as NYC Talks and TechWeek NYC, write POVs and a quarterly trends report for clients, and provide quotes and articles to various industry publications.Co-leadership of the now-defunct Product Development Team. The PDT went beyond typical agency Labs to be responsible for turning emerging technologies into meaningful opportunities for our clients, and building best practices and delivery capabilities for Organic. The PDT also built new platforms and standalone Organic-branded apps, such as Broadfeed.Defined, identified partners, and built Organic Produce, a blended on/rural/off-shore digital production and development capability. Produce leverages purchased capacity from partners in Bulgaria, Brazil, London and India, as well as a unique rural-sourcing partnership with a developer bootcamp organization in South Carolina to have access to new, fresh talent in brand-knowledgeable and lower-cost locations in the US. Helped define Organic's LIVE process, blending principles from LeanUX, Service Design and iterative development with the vagaries of advertising client expectations and procurement (ie: "where's the wireframes?")Clients include CPG, Financial, Automotive, Pharma, and others. Member of the larger BBDO/Proximity Technology Leadership Council.Generally, have fun, help build an amazing team and body of work that has business impact for our clients, work on innovation, and talk to everyone about it
  • Sapientnitro
    Director Technology
    Sapientnitro Jan 2010 - Sep 2010
    Greater New York City Area
    Technology Director providing technical and client leadership to a small portfolio of clients [Global CPG, Non-profit, Financial]. Worked with clients on long- and short-term technical strategy, package selection and vendor management; negotiated vendor contracts; defined and led teams for design/build activities; mentored and managed end-of-deliver activities such as load testing and quality control. Involved with several pitches, including a global cloud hosting RFP, and internal organizational development activities. Led organization, design and initial delivery of a common marketing platform, intended to handle all brands in all markets for a global CPG company.
  • Wireless Generation
    Engagement Manager (Contract)
    Wireless Generation May 2009 - Dec 2009
    Engagement management for the NYC DOE, primarily around the ARIS program.
  • Schematic
    Technology Evangelist
    Schematic Jun 2008 - Apr 2009
    Worked on successful pitches and delivery for banking and technology firms using new RFP materials. Developed and successfully pitched a new Technology Strategy offering to a high tech client. Developed and communicated internal technology vision, and a resulting new solution-focused offering and organizational change plan. Restarted Schematic Labs, and successfully focused initial efforts on key areas for business development.
  • Grow Network/Mcgraw-Hill
    Director Of Engineering
    Grow Network/Mcgraw-Hill Oct 2004 - May 2008
    Grow provides a variety of content-rich reporting of educational assessment results for educational leadership, teachers, parents and students via either/both web and print. Grow is part of the McGraw-Hill Assessment and Reporting division in the Education segment.Head of technical strategy, implementation and operations group. Grew the team from 6 to a high of 28 onshore resources with multiple managers, then gradually began offshoring commodity work. Led development of processes, people and toolsets used by project teams, defined and defended funding models, architectures in front of various levels of corporate governance boards. Explored (and in some places, staffed for) emerging technologies. Charter member of MHE Architecture Board. Defined, sold and led definition of a cross-MHAR SOA architecture and governance model.
  • Avenue A/Razorfish
    Sr. Technology Director
    Avenue A/Razorfish Feb 1997 - Oct 2004
    Provided technology strategy, solution architecture, consulting and shared relationship and delivery management duties for clients in the pharmaceutical, life science, automotive, and telecommunications space. Technical and business development lead for partnerships.Earlier, played leading role in defining, developing and rolling out a reorganized operational structure. As part of 3-person Global Technology Office, led development of technology practice worldwide. Mentored major engagements and teams. Led JAD sessions integrating multiple clients and practices into a single product. Stuff like that - whiteboards, challenging problems, flexible architectures, large teams, different organizations to be aligned, etc.

Todd Drake Skills

Software Development User Experience Strategy Product Development Start Ups It Strategy Emerging Technologies Architecture Leadership Management Databases Cloud Computing Technological Innovation Vendor Management Mobile Devices Agile Methodologies Cross Functional Team Leadership Architectures Information Architecture Team Leadership Executive Team Xml Agile Project Management Quality Assurance Product Management

Todd Drake Education Details

  • Mit
    Mit Sloan School Executive Programs
  • Ibm Watson Academy
    Ibm Watson Academy
  • Coursera
    Coursera
    Specialization In Deep Learning
  • Cognitive Edge
    Cognitive Edge
  • Humantific Nextd Design Leadership Institute
    Humantific Nextd Design Leadership Institute
  • Mcgraw-Hill Leadership Horizons [Harvard Negotiation Project]
    Mcgraw-Hill Leadership Horizons [Harvard Negotiation Project]

Frequently Asked Questions about Todd Drake

What company does Todd Drake work for?

Todd Drake works for Thoughtworks

What is Todd Drake's role at the current company?

Todd Drake's current role is Technical Innovation, Leadership, and Solutions Architecture.

What is Todd Drake's email address?

Todd Drake's email address is td****@****ail.com

What is Todd Drake's direct phone number?

Todd Drake's direct phone number is +1 415-581*****

What schools did Todd Drake attend?

Todd Drake attended Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Mit, Ibm Watson Academy, Coursera, Cognitive Edge, Humantific Nextd Design Leadership Institute, Mcgraw-Hill Leadership Horizons [Harvard Negotiation Project].

What skills is Todd Drake known for?

Todd Drake has skills like Software Development, User Experience, Strategy, Product Development, Start Ups, It Strategy, Emerging Technologies, Architecture, Leadership, Management, Databases, Cloud Computing.

Who are Todd Drake's colleagues?

Todd Drake's colleagues are Yanqi Liu, 易颂超, Rian Bicalho, Dan Park, Geethanjali U S, Jiankang Sun, Shweta Dongare.

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