Efthymios Kokkalis

Experience

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  GARDE Promotions

  May 2003 - Oct 2006

  Summer Job/ Merchandiser

  During this summer job ,which lasted for four consecutive years, I learned how important is to communicate with customers in a face to face situation, be honest and humble while listening about their daily challenges. I have also developed the skill of giving proper reports and feedback.

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  International Hellenic University

  Mar 2007 - Sept 2007

  Student Internship

  I did my internship at the Network Operations Center of the International Hellenic University. My duties included:• Full technical support to the users of the International Hellenic University network• Software installation and support• Computer repair and maintenance• Local area network installation and maintenance• Wireless network installation and maintenance• Writing users guide for Outlook Express and Mozilla Thunderbird• Website creation for the Network operation center. Show less

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  Hellenic Army Academy

  Nov 2007 - Apr 2009

  Reserve Lieutenant

  Served in the Greek Army and graduated as a Reserve Lieutenant. While leading a squadron I was also a technical consultant (software/hardware) for the Brigade. At the end of my army duties I was promoted to second lieutenant.

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  32nd Marines Brigade (Greece)

  Nov 2007 - Jan 2008

  Marines Private

  Compulsory military service at the 32nd Marines brigade.

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  International Hellenic University

  Sept 2009 - Sept 2010

  Network and System Administrator

  As Network and System Administrator of the N.O.C. (Network Operations Center), I was providing:• Full technical support to the users of the International Hellenic University network.• Software installation and support• Computer repair and maintenance• Local area network installation and maintenance• Wireless network installation and maintenance• Website creation for the N.O.C.• VOIP telephony installation and assistance• Creation and maintenance of personal electronic mailboxes for all members of academic teaching staff, administrative staff and students. Also support management for these personal emails through protocols POP3S, IMAPS and webmail. Show less

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  SunGard Financial Systems

  Feb 2011 - Sept 2013

  Technical Services Specialist

  My main responsibility was to supply customers with expert advice and analysis of problems related to the use of Front Arena financial software.I was also working close to the second line developers and the development teams, reporting bugs and calling for hotfixes when needed.I had the opportunity to work in various successful customer projects and develop a strong understanding in financial software systems and the underlying business in Financial Markets.Got also introduced to Agile and took internal Scrum and Kanban courses. Show less

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  FIS

  Sept 2013 - Jul 2018

  Was leading a backend integration team as a Scrum master while supporting as a Senior Agile QA engineer for QA related tasks and approving product releases. The team was responsible for the integrations to a number of different exchanges worldwide. Some of my daily tasks were:• removing impediments• motivating and coaching the team• continuously improving the way we worked and the processes• facilitating and organizing all the scrum ceremonies such as daily stand-ups, planning meetings, demos and retrospectives. Show less Had been testing the server-side components within the context of an agile workflow, testing and approving new product releases, while working in Scrum sprints within an integration development team.Other responsibilities:• Perform frequent manual testing of the products.• Carry out tests for bug fixes and new functionality for FRONT ARENA software within the context of an agile workflow.• Identify bugs and create detailed and well written reports.• Contribute to test process improvements on various levels, such as automation.• Certify new functionalities and perform conformance testing towards the exchanges.• Maintain the Windows related test environment including VMWare ESX environment (with relevant virtual machines).• Contribute to development of the test environment infrastructure.• Participate in various customer projects.• Work in collaboration with developers as well as other QA members on QA related matters.• Assure tasks are complete and report results.• Support first line and customers for technical questions and troubleshooting.• Share testing experience and knowledge with other team members to improve testing efficiency. Show less

  • Scrum Master & Senior Agile QA engineer

    Aug 2016 - Jul 2018

  • Agile Quality Assurance Engineer

    Sept 2013 - Aug 2016
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  Tele2

  Jul 2018 - Jun 2020

  Scrum Master / Team Coach

  Had been leading, coaching and motivating three agile development teams:• Authorization and Identity, a backend team which implemented and deployed a new identity and access management solution, by replacing PingFederate with Curity. This project affected both Tele2 and Comviq organizations, customers and employees, while it involved 15 teams and over 50 products/services. I was driving the project while visualizing & maintaining it, planning and facilitating meetings, handling communication between all 15 teams and stakeholders, identifying/tracking and removing impediments, escalating issues to higher management, analyzing risks and coordinating the releases.• Tele2 Common Capabilities, a backend team owning products/services and APIs that were used by every other team in the Digital Channels department.• Comviq Join, a frontend distributed team, responsible for Comviq's web shop, purchases of products/services, store maintenance in Magento with hardware, offering subscriptions and running campaigns.Other initiatives:• Had a leading role during Big Room Plannings and Tele2 hack days.• Run workshops, shared knowledge within my agile peers and coached teams and individuals.• Helped other agile coaches to build new teams and improved their workflow and performance. Show less

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  Sovos

  Jun 2020 - Feb 2023

  Agile Leader

  During my assignment at Sovos I have been:• Leading, coaching, supporting and motivating four agile development teams, back-end and UI, spread over seven countries and different time zones.• Facilitating collaboration between teams for Business to Government tax information and reporting products including Fiscal VAT Reporting solutions and E-invoicing solutions across Asia, Latin America and Europe.• Assisting to a 3 year investment project for building a modern, scalable, eInvoicing platform that is allowing Sovos to consolidate a complex collection of legacy applications. Through the project we launched a single global API endpoint to simplify customer integrations, created a scalable platform flexible enough to accommodate the requirements of many different tax authorities for eInvoicing compliance, and delivered ten countries on the platform with more planned.• Helping to define and improve processes to deliver high quality, cloud hosted, SaS applications to Sovos reputable tech leading customers.• Working closely with product and software development management, software architects and CloudOps while participating in design and strategic planning sessions.• Taking initiatives, being proactive, including planning-organising-facilitating of UAT and production deployments. Handling communication and sharing information with stakeholders.• Leading the Scrum of Scrums for the Delta project department (8 teams).• Focusing on progress, having impediment backlogs visible to other teams, remove impediments and continuously improving the effectiveness of the Scrum of Scrums. Show less

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  Comstream

  Jun 2020 - Feb 2023

  Agile Leader
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  Swedbank

  Mar 2023 - Oct 2023

  Team Manager - REA Calculation Team - Credit Risk Calculation and Reporting VS

  In my current role at Swedbank, I am leading an agile distributed team of Data Warehouse and SAS engineers as well as business analysts. The team ensures compliance by delivering sustainable and efficient calculation, analytics and reporting capabilities within the Capital Adequacy area.My responsibilities include:• Supporting, coaching and motivating the team, the product owner and the scrum master, for their growth and wellbeing at work.• Driving the team towards achieving their goals and deliveries while identifying risks and removing blockers.• Working close to the lead architects, for analysing and identifying current and future team needs according to the team's objectives and the strategic direction.• Being an active member of the CAD ART throughout the SAFe transformation journey and leading my team during PI plannings.• Working with my team members to assess and improve their performance. Ensuring continuous development with PD plans, setting goals and following up with quarterly check-ins.• Holding regular 1-1s and arranging team building events.• Hiring the needed talent, promoting a diverse inclusive culture and creating a healthy work environment. Show less

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  Nordea

  Jan 2024 - now

  Senior Project Leader

  Part of a team of professional and experienced Project Leaders, working in assignments across Personal Banking and Asset & Wealth Management. The majority of deliveries are organized according to SAFe and agile methodology.