Paul Thwaite

Experience

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  IBM Hursley Laboratories

  Jan 1997 - Jan 2018

  People manager of cross-functional teams including DevOps, information development, software development and service. Adopted agile practices including Kanban, stand-ups, backlog prioritisation and retrospectives. Delivered projects in a fast-paced, cross-functional and distributed team environment (India, USA, Canada, UK). Experience in stakeholder management. • Managed 22 software engineers across four agile squads• Applied agile practices and adapted quickly to changing business priorities• Owned software test plan and led development team to meet key objectives for major project• Managed project risks, issues, resources, schedules, priorities and team skills • Communicated across all levels including technical, business and executive• Awarded “best manager” (out of 300 managers) by employees at IBM UK's largest site • Coached employees to grow skills and meet challenging business and personal goals• Scored over 85% on an employee survey for feedback, recognition and career development• Performance managed employees, identified clear goals and tracked progress through feedback• Integrated 9 people by coaching employees through through the Kubler-Ross change curve• Managed employee performance with experience in workforce reduction and recruitment Show less • Led a team of 20 engineers and coordinated their work globally across 3 time zones• Delivered quality assurance for 10+ software releases with all quality objectives met• Focus on user requirements, use cases, user stories and creating positive user experiences (UX)• Implemented business improvements using KPIs and reduced project costs by 20%• Led an event in London to educate and promote better testing in the Java community• Delivered training on-site in Ottawa and Toronto to extend skills coverage • Presented technical talks at the world’s leading Java conference in San Francisco • Developed a public speaking workshop which improved presenter confidence by over 40% Show less

  • Software Development Manager

    Jan 2015 - Jan 2018

  • Senior Quality Assurance Team Lead

    Jan 2009 - Jan 2015

  • Software Quality Assurance Lead

    Jan 2004 - Jan 2009

  • Quality Assurance Tester

    Jan 2001 - Jan 2004

  • Mainframe technical support specialist

    Jan 1997 - Jan 2001
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  John Lewis & Partners

  Nov 2018 - Jul 2019

  Partner and creator of excellent customer experiences

  Real hands-on experience selling in a John Lewis store. Delivered excellent service understanding needs, identifying options and enabling customers to buy with confidence. Demonstrated my passion for retail daily. Shadowed customer experience and digital teams at head office to gain further insight into the business.

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  Exploring a new delivery lead or similar leadership role

  Aug 2019 - Nov 2019

  Leader of software development teams

  Loves working with people as a leader of engaged teams. Motivates and inspires to deliver customer and business value regularly. High emotional intelligence with ability to collaborate across teams and build stakeholder relationships. Experience facilitating scrum ceremonies, coaching and mentoring teams to learn from failure, continue to improve and deliver high-quality software. Creates an open environment encouraging regular feedback and celebrating successes. Delivers excellent customer and employee experiences. I'm looking for a leadership role in a software development / digital e-commerce company who puts its employees and customers first. Please contact me for a copy of my CV. Show less

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  University of Southampton

  Nov 2019 - Dec 2022

  Head of Delivery

  Delivery manager leading a multidisciplinary team of web developers, software engineers, UX designers and content designers. Transforming Southampton University’s digital services using a user-centred design (UCD) delivery approach. Responsible for prioritisation, definition and deliver of the product backlog for multiple digital products in collaboration with the product manager. Using agile delivery methodologies facilitating scrum ceremonies including standup, sprint planning, backlog refinement and retros. Built strong relationships with key business stakeholders ensuring business needs are met alongside user needs.JIRA administrator (automation, workflows, configuration) with experience using Figma and Miro. Show less

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  John Lewis & Partners

  Jan 2023 - now

  Delivery Lead and Partner, John Lewis Digital

  Leading the delivery of incremental improvements to johnlewis.com in the John Lewis Digital team.Lead a team of developers, QA, business analyst, UX and UI designers to consistently deliver a better customer user experience on the 'basket' and 'wish list' pages on johnlewis.com. The basket page is a critical element of the customer journey. Using a UCD and agile approach we remain laser focused on the customer and improving their journey throughout the website. We hypothesise and experiment regularly to deliver value or fail quickly and iterate. Show less