Experience

• 

  Berlitz corporation

  Oct 1995 - Aug 1999

  Worked as a Project/Program manager on a number of projects, that required special attention to ensure completed successfully, on budget and to the highest quality. My role included the investigation and debugging of issues that were reported in the various and multiple projects I worked on and resolving those. I continued to use my testing skills to discover non reported issues to ensure enhanced quality. Worked as a software tester on multiple projects. Developed a keen eye for spotting issues.

  • Project/Program Manager

    Aug 1998 - Aug 1999

  • Software Engineer

    Apr 1996 - Aug 1998

  • Software Tester

    Oct 1995 - Apr 1996
• 

  Access games systems

  Oct 1999 - Jun 2000

  Software test engineer/software installation

  My initial responsibilities were:Test and reporting of bugs.Test plan/script creation from function spec. and interaction with Development team.Y2K test plan strategy creation.Training of new staff on processes and applications.I then moved to assist with installation of the gaming systems on our customers networks, which involved going onsite to install/setup and train them on our system.

• 

  Commonwealth bank of australia

  Sept 2000 - Nov 2000

  Product test manager

  Worked with Development team to create Test plan/Test Schedule/Budgeting costs for internal project. Delivered the complete test strategy for this project.

• 

  Microsoft

  Feb 2001 - Nov 2023

  I was an integral part of a small team of technical support professionals, who ensured the reliability of the cloud-based Localisation build services that was used across multiple divisions in Microsoft including Microsoft Office, Windows, Xbox, Skype etc. Investigated, Troubleshooted and resolved system issues, all on a timely sla to customer satisfaction.Continuously monitored our processes/performances to enhance overall experience and collaborated across multiple teams and functions to improve this whenever possible.Maintained systems to ensure consistent reliability of service.Constantly onboarding new teams/projects to the system and supporting their needs. My reviews of these new projects often resulted in reduction of localisation costs, either through colloboration with the developers or applying some localisation rules.In addition was also the support contact for vendor teams responsible for the quality of our localised products. In this role, I was able to reduce localisation costs constantly by identifying areas of improvement and implementing many new processes to achieve this result. Show less • One of the main drivers of our perpetual releases (Office 2021), Office Compatibility with Windows Projects, and other smaller projects. • Drove all end-to-end activity for Office installation projects.Led process improvements and championed best practices from ideation to deployment. • Office Sustaining – Redesigned the complete process to remove much of the manual effort required to keep previous localised versions of Office updated with fixes, leveraging our new loc model and tool improvements to completely simplify this process and greatly reducing costs and time to market responses. Expanded to Windows and other projects due to success.• Binary process – This is a very complex/difficult area in Office & Windows and I drove the latest changes to this process, introducing a consistent approach across multiple and varied projects within these products, standardising bug investigation & bug fixing techniques, how to handle new resources etc. Show less With merging of roles in Microsoft, I continued to deliver on the areas previously mentioned under Intl Project engineering role, but now there was a much more defined focus on the Program Management discipline.Lead and managed projects\teams across product life cycles, developing overall project plan, schedules, coordinating with cross-functional teams, working with vendors, investigating\fixing issues, identifying customer\market needs, writing test plans\cases, & driving end to end localisation strategies all ensuring on time\to budget\quality releases of Office.Experience in developing and managing work items in the Scrum\Agile environment, as well as utilising Waterfall approach for certain projects.• Owned and ran Office sustaining project - managed all updates to previous releases of Office.• I was part of the team who moved Office to new loc model (Free-flow), to using a more agile program management approach with a continuous release model. We moved from a 3\4 year release cycle to a service with weekly and monthly releases.• One of the main drivers of our perpetual releases (Office 2019), Office Compatibility with Windows Projects etc. • Drove the Intl focus on change from msi to c2r installation technologies.• Monitored customer feedbackLed process improvements and championed best practices from ideation to deployment.• Branding process – created process for Office projects on how best to identify branding terms and ensure correctly\consistently localised. Created a system of checks to identify issues etc.• Locver process – Updated the process on how our vendors deal with issues, escalations, documented list of rules types, guidelines for adding rules, instructions for PM’s, and also provide a basic rules files that can be applied to all loc projects initially etc.• Hotkey process – updated this process to include Office Web apps, recommendations on fixing issues etc.• Helped drive the end-to-end localization strategy for Microsoft Office. Show less I had a lead role in delivering high quality localised products across multiple platforms, with an emphasis on meeting deadlines, within budget, using a mixture of Program Management, Localisation Engineering & Test skills.Over the years, I was responsible for the investigation and debugging of localisation and Globalisation issues, coordinated various projects and initiatives, drove multiple processes, that all combined to release Office applications into 100+ languages. I worked primarily on Word, InfoPath, OneNote, Shared features, and Office installation.I managed the daily file management requirements like preparing files for translations, writing handoff instructions, tools required, post processing the files, running checks on translations/file formatting, rebuilding localised software, testing, monitoring progress, reporting etc. to maintain quality standards.I monitored our Localization Processes and constantly looked to improve, update, adapt or automate specific aspects of the existing process or develop new ones. I created versions of our Font, Hotkey, Locver processes for example. Worked on one of our first “cloud based” projects Research & Reference - tested, fixed issues, build & compiled the files and pushed those to the host servers. I helped manage our external localisation engineering vendors in Europe, India, & China through the years, providing training, support, monitoring etc. I helped produce the bug training kits when the new engineering vendors were engaged and was sent to provide hands on training in India and China.I was responsible for the sustaining of previous versions of Office. I created the process required initially. Engaged with multiple teams to ensure smooth product launch and release cycle delivered on schedule. Responsible for bug fixing. Accessed suitability of new features/products for international markets, analysed the source code for international issues, thus reducing longer term costs. Show less

  • SNR Site Reliability Engineer

    Jun 2021 - Nov 2023

  • Senior Program Manager

    Apr 2020 - Jun 2021

  • Program Manager

    Jul 2014 - Apr 2020

  • Intl Project Engineer

    Feb 2001 - Jul 2014
• 

  Aer lingus

  Aug 2024 - now

  Service delivery manager