Stuart Brown

Experience

• 

  Pearson

  Sept 2000 - Jul 2002

  Market Manager

  After involvement in the Pearson Graduate Trainee Scheme I became representative for Dorling Kindersley markets in Portugal, France, Germany and Canada.This involved overseeing stock levels, print runs, shipping, translation and finance of these markets.

• 

  The Open University

  Sept 2003 - Oct 2014

  Working in online communications, Linked Data, investigating and using social networking, social recommendation and `people like me' marketing. Wide experience in the web2 sphere and worked to create OU Facebook applications, Netvibes Universe and YouTube channel (and much more!).Core team member for Collaborative Learning using Social Tools for Enquiry Reflection and Sharing project which provided OU staff with hands on experience / understanding of web2 tools and technologies. Part of the JISC-funded LUCERO team that delivered data.open.ac.uk making the OU the first university in the world to publish university-wide data in a Linked Data format. Previously organised the Vice-Chancellor's Strategic and Open Forums, administered/authored material for staff communication via print, online, email and was closely involved in staff communication and engagement during our rebranding process. Advised major projects on internal communications strategy including the e-communications strategy and the Learning Experience Advancement Programme. Show less

  • eBusiness Manager: Communities and Web Development

    Jul 2005 - Oct 2014

  • Speech Writer

    Sept 2003 - Jul 2005
• 

  3

  Nov 2014 - Jun 2017

  Digital Development Manager

  Working in a variety of agile methodologies to deliver digital solutions in answer a wide range of business needs. Expertise in:• Business buy-in and demonstrating ROI – working across departments to demonstrate the business value and deliver the solution design of projects.• Cloud migration – using Microsoft Azure PaaS, IaaS, Chatbot and Cognitive Services offerings to deliver innovative and cost effective digital products.• Pattern Library – developing a new front end look and feel and user experience for *.three.co.uk.• Channel Optimisation – taking a view across *.three.co.uk to troubleshoot and resolve global site issues in order to improve customer experience and Online conversion.Demonstrable experience of:• Multichannel journeys and routing customer journeys towards more efficient online experiences.• Working with third-party suppliers both on day-to-day delivery and on implementing third party tools such as Decibel Session replay, ForeSee customer insight, Akamai for DDOS protection.• API design and delivery.• Continuous Integration methodologies including Version Control, Behaviour Driven Development (Cucumber), Jenkins, Docker and Microsoft Azure.• Native application development for iOS and Android. Show less

• 

  Oxford University Press

  Jul 2017 - now

  My responsibilities include:- The management of a team of Application Architects, Delivery Team Leads and between five and ten development teams (depending on project portfolio), both near shore and offshore.- Management of a multi-million pound budget.- Oversight of the Value Stream quarterly planning process. Engaging with business stakeholders to agree the Engineering teams’ commitments based on business priorities. - Leading planning and estimation workshops to understand new project requirements in order to build teams to deliver according to project requirements. Guide business stakeholders regarding the complexity and cost of specific features and technical approaches.- Working closely with Enterprise Architecture to understand the architectural roadmap and ensure that Engineering deliveries are faithful to it.- Working in a range of agile methodologies and evangelising best practice within the organisation. - Encouraging and championing software delivery best practice (infrastructure as code, robust testing, CI/CD, performance testing, version control, Jira best practice) and enabling teams to keep investigating and learning through regular hack days.- Defining and tracking team, project and individual KPIs and report on these quarterly to CTO Show less My responsibilities include:Management of delivery and support teams (in house and agency) in a multinational context with multi-million pound budgets to ensure that projects in a global portfolio are delivered according to requirements and budget.Working at a senior level to improve software delivery through agile (Scrum, Kanban etc) and scaled agile (SAFe) processes and influencing wider business understanding of these practices.Delivering projects using some of the most modern technologies (JavaScript ES6, React, Redux, NodeJS, AWS Lambda, non-relational databases, Docker etc) and development methodologies (Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment, DevOps, Service Oriented Architecture, Behaviour Driven Development - BDD etc).Helping to define global IT strategy and ensure that technology projects on a global scale are delivered to this with awareness of local budgets.Contract negotiation and management with external vendors. Monitoring, analysing and reviewing vendor performance against contract & agreed SLAs. Developing, implementing and maintaining a culture and framework for innovation and continuous improvement in order to improve capabilities to meet changing global business requirements. Show less

  • Head of English Language Teaching Product Technology Services

    Oct 2024 - now

  • Delivery Team Manager

    Jan 2020 - Nov 2024

  • Service & Development Centre Manager – Educational Platforms

    Jul 2017 - Dec 2019