Sarah Scott

Experience

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  Banque AIG

  Mar 2007 - May 2009

  Administrative Assistant

  The role of Administrative Assistant was to work with 15 executive directors including the Managing Director to produce economic documentation.

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  Giraffe Early Learning Centre

  Nov 2010 - Jun 2011

  Office Manager

  The role of Officer Manager was to oversee the day to day running of the administration of the centre.

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  TransGrid

  Aug 2011 - Aug 2014

  Project Services Officer

  • Saved the company $10,000 by taking the initiative to build an automated budgeting and forecasting Excel spreadsheet with VBA. A data dump was parsed into summaries and graphs which were used by 30+ project managers to report to the Board on ongoing infrastructure projects.• Managed the creation and roll out, from concept to go live, of various custom reporting tools that added project management functionality to TransGrid’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.• Successfully developed and ran corporate training programs for various aspects of the ERP system. Show less

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  Freelance / Studying

  Oct 2014 - Sept 2017

  Developer

  • Designed, built and deployed Tripommendation to the AppStore. This is an iOS HTML5/JS application using the Ionic framework and the Google Maps API. Users can add personal notes to places, and organize their holiday recommendations into categories.• Built an open source React Native application for Apteligent to showcase their API. The App made heavy use of a hand rolled SVG library to render graphs and metrics. The App was successfully demonstrated to a group of product owners, executives and 20 engineers. Sarah received commendation for delivering a complete product in 6 weeks, which included learning React and React Native.• Built an art cataloging web application as part of the Udacity nanodegree, using Python for the backend, PostgreSQL for data storage and the Bootstrap framework for the front end. This application was deployed to a virtual Ubuntu Linux server running on Amazon Lightsail and was secured using SSH and RSA keys.• Built a responsive portfolio site using React, including a responsive image carousel from scratch. Portfolio content is rendered from a JSON data file.• Completed various online courses, including two Udacity nanodegrees, Coursera Data Structures, Machine Learning programs and Code School classes.• Participated in a technical book club, studying Computation and Algorithms. Sarah received recognition for her ability to thoroughly understand the problems and to be able to explain at the whiteboard to her peers.• Wrote up algorithm examples in Java with a UI to execute the algorithms. Show less

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  Catalyst IT Limited

  Sept 2017 - Aug 2022

  * I created and ran a business unit specialising in bespoke software projects that, within a year, went from a revenue of $150K to a projected revenue of over $2m for 2022/2023. I achieved this by: * Changing the team's strategy from “just developers for outsourcing” to focusing on bringing projects into the team. * Identifying existing projects being run inefficiently and turning them around through financial data analysis, implementing new project processes and having difficult conversations.* I oversaw multiple software projects, from inception to completion, and built relationships across the company to ensure successful outcomes for each.* I managed 11 software developers, ranging in experience from entry-level to solution architect. I also grew the team from 5 through external hiring and internal transfers.* I was one of 6 members of the Wellington Leadership team working on ways to improve the company.*In addition to my managerial duties:* I technically designed and implemented the rebuilt Catalyst website: a Python Wagtail CMS utilising a headless API and a Next.js front-end.* I stepped in as the Lead developer when Catalyst took on the development of an existing Wagtail website for a new client until extra resources could be freed up. Show less

  • Software Development Manager

    Apr 2021 - Aug 2022

  • Technical Lead

    Mar 2019 - Mar 2021

  • Software Developer

    Sept 2017 - Mar 2019
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  Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand

  Aug 2022 - Mar 2024

  I led seven software delivery and enablement squads working in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), ensuring that they are delivering to their commitments while still building high-quality software.* Coaching all members of the train in agile practices and methodologies.* Planning and facilitating program increment ceremonies, including PI (big room) planning.* Mentoring the newly established technical lead roles in both engineering practices and ways of working.* Building solid teams through hiring, training, team building exercises and performance management.* Introducing metrics, such as DORA, to measure and optimise the flow of value to our customers. Show less I advised program leadership on engineering practices that improve the longevity and supportability of software services for an extensive program of work made up of approximately 80 developers/14 squads; my contributions included:* Assessed squad culture and identified opportunities for improvement, presented recommendations to leadership, and successfully introduced technical lead roles to all 14 squads.* Running workshops for squads highlighting ways to improve development practices.* Identifying areas for improvement and collaborating on technical standards to produce high-quality code.* Collaborating with subject matter experts (SMEs) across the program to promote adopting best practices at all levels. Show less

  • Principal Solution Delivery Specialist - Programme Practice

    Feb 2023 - Mar 2024

  • Principal Digital Specialist – Development

    Aug 2022 - Feb 2023
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  NZ Police

  Feb 2024 - now

  Practice Manager ICT Development

  I lead the development Centre of Expertise at NZ Police, which consists of around 44 developers, plus 2 Practice Leads. I am responsible for ensuring the product teams have the development resources they need to deliver. I am also responsible for the development ways of working and culture. Some of my achievements to date are:* Successful performance management of staff, turning performance around so that they are now valued members of the team.* Creating and hiring a new ‘low code developer’ role within the team.* Successfully advocating for and getting agreement from our CIO to improve NZ Police’s DevOps capability.* Creation of development ‘guiding principles’ to kick start a focus on quality development across ICT.* Developing a long term plan to move NZ Police away from a contractor reliant development workforce for better long term sustainability.* Working closely with the transition team to better embed the new Product operating model.* Building relationships with Product leadership to better align delivery with the development practice. Show less