Ross Wiersema

Experience

• 

  Burke Porter Machinery

  May 1997 - Jun 2012

  Software Engineer

  Global leader in Vehicle Test Systems.Reporting to the Vice President of Engineering with six direct reports.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING LEADERSHIP● Company growth drove the need for a hybrid role to both manage people and develop software. The Vice President of Engineering selected me for the role. I recruited and hired two software engineers bringing the group size to five. I led the group to support a 30% increase in global vehicle test machines. Through people development and continued software optimization I reduced the group size back to three while maintaining the increased product footprint.AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ● When I started this role, each custom machine required custom software even though much of the core functionality was common. The Software Engineering Manager tasked me with creating a software platform containing the core functionality to be deployed across the custom machines. I created and maintained the software platform including the unit test framework using the Extreme Programming methodology in C, C++, and C#. This resulted in a 25% reduction in development time. The unit test framework enabled regression testing for all software platform changes. Show less

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  Johnson Controls

  Jun 2012 - Jul 2014

  Software Project Manager

  A multinational technology and industrial leader with 170,000 employees.Reporting to Engineering Manager with software project development teams of 50 Engineers.GLOBAL SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT● I wanted to continue my development in software management rather than software development. I was hired by the Engineering Manager to lead a global software development team of about 50 engineers distributed in Michigan, Bulgaria, and India in producing a Heads Up Display application and an Instrument Cluster application. I created project estimates, plans, and schedules. I led the team in meeting customer deliveries, configuration management, change management, risk management, issue resolution, and project budget management. The result was the first functional prototype Heads Up Display - Instrument Cluster combination within the company. A competitor purchased the Electronics Division and brought the application to production. Show less

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  GHSP

  Jul 2014 - now

  A privately held Automotive UX Electronic Controls & Technology subsidiary of JSJ Corporation with 2,000 employees.Reporting to the CTO with six direct reports and a global team of 30.GLOBAL LEADERSHIP / PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT:● I was promoted by the new VP of Sales & Program Management to drive expansion and alignment of Program Management support with the production facilities and to commonize the product development process across regions and product lines. We achieved the following based on these goals: ● 25% increase in efficiency through global development efforts ● 4 new application spaces entered ● Responsible for $10 million in Capex, $7 million in tooling, and a department budget of $2.5 millionPMO DEVELOPMENT:● With promotion to Director of PM I also took over leadership of the Program Management Office (PMO). This group included representation from Program Management, Business Unit Management, Engineering, and Finance. I created a departmental plan based on the Rockefeller Habits that included three to five year thrusts, annual initiatives, and quarterly rocks. The outcome was: ● Award of the first Battery Electric Vehicle application in China ● Projects with three new OEMs ● Award of three unique applications on the same vehicle ● Expansion to refrigeration controls in the appliance spaceSTRATEGIC PLANNING:● The strategic planning process being used did not contain sufficient data security and did not support consensus between top-down and bottom-up approaches. The VP of Program Management and Sales challenged me to address these issues. I implemented a system and process for entering and reporting program information used to create strategic business plans for sales, development, and capital. This resulted in a strategic business plan focused on the limited diversification model with 8% year-over-year sales growth supported by a $30 million annual development budget and annual capital investment of $17 million. Show less Reporting to the Director of Program Management with four direct reports.MICROSOFT AZURE / MICROSOFT POWER BI / DASHBOARD METRICS:● Project reporting across the organization was decentralized and the data was not trusted to be current. The Director of Program Management tasked me to investigate and deliver a solution that consolidated project data and reporting across the portfolio. I led the development of an Azure based data model and business intelligence solution coordinating data from Microsoft Project Online and SharePoint for presentation in Power BI. With project data being pulled from already existing work products, the time requirement for Program Managers to produce additional data and reports went from ~10% to 0%. The project took less than six months to complete and became the template for executive dashboard reporting across the enterprise.CAPABILITY MATURITY MODEL INTEGRATION (CMMI):● Customer requirements for quoting and project award drove the need to implement and sustain demonstrated software development process maturity and improvement. To meet this requirement I implemented the Program Management portion of the Software Development Process that led to achieving CMMI Level 3 certification. This resulted in growth from 10% of projects containing software to 90% of projects containing software and enabled us to secure a marquee program at a global OEM where we supplied the software for 100% of their vehicles, including those where our competitor supplied the mechanical embodiment.PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT:● With expansion of software projects to new customers and applications I was given the opportunity to recruit and hire additional Software Program Management members. I recruited and hired two Software Program Managers, recruited an internal transfer, and developed a project coordinator through an internship program. With this team in place we were able to support all software development projects internally. Show less Reporting to Program Group Manager with software project development teams of 15 Engineers.SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT● I was hired at GHSP as the only Software Program Manager with the opportunity to build a Software Program Management team and process. I led the software planning, execution, monitoring and control of the global launch of an industry defining rotary shifter. This successful launch resulted in the shifter being nominated as an Automotive News PACE Award finalist which is recognized in the global automotive industry for identifying and celebrating the latest game-changing innovation. Show less

  • Director of Program Management

    Feb 2019 - now

  • Software Program Group Manager

    Nov 2015 - Feb 2019

  • Software Program Manager

    Jul 2014 - Nov 2015