A broad and varied role encompassing all aspects of student data. • Responsible for the management of student records, timetable, academic promotion, assessment data and reports within the school’s Management Information System (SIMS/Go4Schools, then Arbor).• Processing of in year and Year 7 admissions, leavers and free school meal applications.• Provision of ad-hoc data analysis and reports for middle and senior leaders.• Completion of school census three times a year.• Successful completion of ESFA audit.• Led successful migration from SIMS to Arbor.• Resolve staff questions and problems with MIS• Supported the implementation of and subsequently provide ongoing maintenance and support for new systems which interface with SIMS, including Go4Schools and Admissions +

Accredited coach at Practitioner level with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). • Coach individuals on a variety of topics, including career development, dealing with change and uncertainty, improving relationships and developing strategies for dealing with behaviour. • Raise awareness and generate responsibility in the individual, enabling goals to be achieved and performance to be raised, benefitting both the individual and the organisation.

End to end test management of releases, leading teams undertaking all required testing activities and co-ordinating to a successful conclusion. Line management responsibility for permanent and contract staff, helping individuals grow and take on new positions through a combination of mentoring and coaching.• Accountable for the end-to-end test management of Visa Europe’s card authorisation service, which maintained it’s 99.999% availability throughout.• Took over the test management of the business intelligence service, initiating a programme of improvements which led to higher quality deliverables and satisfied stakeholders.• Led teams delivering the system testing, systems integration testing and business acceptance testing for parallel, complex releases and standalone projects in often challenging circumstances, using skills developed as part of the ISEB certification courses. Deliveries completed to target dates and required quality.• Built cohesive and successful teams including a mix of permanent and contract resource - both independent contractors and those provided by strategic suppliers, onshore and offshore. Good communication and working as one single team towards shared goals was essential to the success and a mindset of continuous improvement further developed the efficiency and effectiveness of the team.• Delivery of departmental strategic initiatives, including Risk Based Testing and a more consistent approach to line management• Commitment to direct reports through line management and ongoing development resulting in high levels of satisfaction reported by team and consistently positive feedback from line manager about the impact of line management approach. Invited to take part in first apprenticeship recruitment event and supported apprentices within the team.

Link between business and IT, enabling key business objectives to be achieved through defining the technical requirements to meet the business need and testing them once delivered.• Responsible for the User Acceptance Testing of new releases of the billing system and its integration with other IT systems. • Acted as a link between the business and system suppliers, translating business requirements into system requirements.• Effective communication was essential; being able to explain business requirements to technical staff and technical changes to business colleagues.

Led a team testing an Anti-Money Laundering system, including management of offshore resources

Led a team undertaking the functional testing of a roaming billing system for the new Mobile market• Successfully developed and delivered a test strategy using the GSM TAP3 standard and then transitioned testing to an offshore team, maintaining quality• In addition to test management, also undertook hands on functional & regression testing (Unix scripts / C platform, Rational ClearDDTS defect tracking), building test environments (Rational Clearcase configuration control) and mentoring of team members.• Influenced developers to improve the quality and quantity of unit testing

Worked as an Analyst/Programmer for 4 years including running the customer help desk, before heading up the test team. • Undertook a range of programming tasks including developing new functionality and fixing bugs logged via in-house defect tracking system (Progress 4GL)• Worked directly with customers through site visits and co-ordination of support desk, developing excellent communication and customer service skills to understand customer issues and find a resolution.• Preparation of release documentation.• Responsible for testing all functional changes, plus regression testing, including Y2K testing. • Built an effective test team by training and mentoring new starters who had business but no prior testing experience (Unix / NT, Oracle & Progress).