Akinola McLean

Experience

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  First Citizens

  May 2007 - May 2008

  Network Technician

  Maintained and repaired hardware and peripheral devices for both internal and external users at all branch locations. Performed troubleshooting to minor system failures and identify bottlenecks to ensure long term efficiency of network.

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  University of Trinidad and Tobago

  Sept 2008 - Dec 2011

  Conducted health and safety inspections and risk assessment exercises at all locations in areas of responsibility.Collected data on work environments for analysis. Implemented and conducted evaluation of programs designed to limit chemical, physical, biological, and ergonomic risks to workers.

  • Technical Analyst

    Jan 2009 - Dec 2011

  • HSE Technician

    Sept 2008 - Dec 2008
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  Digicel

  Dec 2011 - Nov 2012

  Implementation and maintenance of all business applications in use including billing, roaming billing, payment and financial management systems, voucher management and dealer point of sale systems. Selected as 1 of 7 high-caliber professionals out of 26 company territories. Provided with the unique opportunity to launch a professional career in the IT field in the world of Telecommunications over a 12-month training period. Maximized exposure to technical expertise through the job rotation training and completed multiple, relevant certifications. Oracle | SQL | VMware

  • IT Applications Analyst

    Sept 2012 - Nov 2012

  • Graduate Acceleration Programme (Digicel GAP)

    Dec 2011 - Nov 2012
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  Infotech Caribbean

  Nov 2012 - Feb 2015

  Solutions Consultant

  Operated as technical and project lead on 22 major database, messaging, technology and business transformation projects within the Caribbean. These projects ranged from servicing medium-sized to large companies such as Beacon Insurance, Guardian Holdings Limited and Jamaica Stock Exchange. Additional accomplishments included creating and managing the company's internal Cloud Management System.

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  Digicel Group

  Feb 2015 - Oct 2017

  Business Insights Manager

  Orchestrated the expansion of business intelligence capabilities available to the executive and senior management of the PLAY organization through descriptive, predictive, prescriptive and cognitive analytics. In one year, the insights provided lead to 30% market share.Other Achievements:- Created detailed reports to identify business, resource and process gaps to Senior Management- Developed the Business Insights framework for Digicel PLAY analytics- Developed and managed a high performance Business Insights Unit- Created predictive models to forecast churn and identify upsell opportunities. Show less

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  Hyuna International Ltd.

  Oct 2017 - Aug 2021

  Maintain data and infrastructure architecture standards across all the business’s strategic systems.Performance management and performance coaching for 10 team members including the development of KPIs and Metrics.Lead the business’ core solutions team that drives solutions to increase business profitability.Conduct Data and Infrastructure integrity reviews on systems and downstream data consumption.Implement and oversee systems and controls to Review and validate changes to sensitive and private data.Work with stakeholders to assist with data-related technical issues and support their data infrastructure needs. Ensure sound recruitment practices for technical hires by serving as 1 of 4 Hiring manager within the company.Manage bonus, overtime and performance incentive calculations for technical teams to ensure equity, fairness and budget control.Provide coaching support to team leads and other managers within the company on key people management and strategic business decisions including crisis management issues, conflict resolution, people management issues, team building, performance coaching, goal setting and troubleshooting. Show less Define and maintain a Target State Data Architecture and roadmap.Govern the changes to the Data Architecture and Infrastructure cover 14 companies operating in 6 countries (countries/continents).Senior escalation point and subject matter expert for Data Architecture activities; advising CEOs, General Managers, Directors and Technical Leads with the group of companies.Provide strategic support to group through training, Research., development standard and serving as a consultant to the business.Design, lead and establish the governance systems for the Data Repositories.Lead implementation, change management activities and performance monitoring for procedures, systems, and controls that are necessary to ensure data accurate. Show less Subsequently promoted to a dual role after resolving most of the creation issues to:1. Maintain the data’s stability 2. Tackle data consumption issuesAchievements:- Resolution of all Big Data issues were accomplished within 6 months.- Insights generated increased the billable customer base and the expected revenue by approximately 25% and 19% respectively. Analytics:• Use analytical techniques (visual, logical, statistical) to generate insights on the digital products and their performance• Connect data insights to business problems and implications and present those findings to a wide range of stakeholders, including senior business managers• Work in conjunction with vendors and the suppliers of the products to ensure analytics are properly set up including events and payloads.• Develop proprietary data sets to support analysis, e.g., by integrating data from 3rd party APIs with internal data sourcesReporting:• Transform raw data into visually appealing and actionable insights to support decision making• Report on key metrics, analyse and interpret trends and proactively provide actionable insights based on data from internal and 3rd party data sources• Gather requirements and set up reporting dashboards and presentations for key stakeholders based on set business requirements• Design optimal solutions for data collection using industry best practices and organization governance philosophiesDBA: - Real time alerts and anomaly detection are done live on the stream using (Kinesis Analytics).• Build, administer, tune and support databases and database cluster nodes.• Ensure information security and data encryption, backup, recovery and replication.• Develop complex NoSQL, SQL schema structures and design ETL workloads.• Perform admin tasks -- compaction, repairs, backup and restore.• Providing 24/7 support for production systems. Show less

  • Chapter Lead - Data and Infrastructure (Head of Department)

    Jan 2020 - Aug 2021

  • Group Data Architect

    Aug 2019 - Aug 2021

  • Business Intelligence Lead / Database Administrator

    Oct 2017 - Aug 2019
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  Milkbox

  Aug 2021 - May 2023

  Head of Data Engineering and Infrastructure
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  CIBC Caribbean

  Aug 2021 - now

  The Director, Data & Innovation, TI&I is accountable for the Bank’s technology assets which support data for the entire enterprise and for the formulation and implementation of applications developed within this portfolio, with a focus on growth, stability and cost effectiveness. The incumbent provides expert advice to key stakeholders on the use of technology to advance and enable key investments in support of the implementation of business strategies. The Director is responsible for the applications within the portfolio and for leading and managing all delivery features of these applications, including responsibility for the technology design, development and support of the data technology. Show less The Associate Director, Data Engineering is responsible for the design and implementation of business intelligence, analytics and big data solutions for the Bank. The incumbent leads the data engineering team in the design, build out and management of the Bank’s data infrastructure, ensuring it is reliable and utilizes a high degree of automation around the set-up and maintenance and includes the introduction and incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning, and provides high-value, timely analytics and data solutions. The incumbent owns and drives the Bank’s data engineering roadmap, data analytics initiatives, building of new systems where required and provides support on technology strategy and direction. Show less The Senior Solutions Architect participates at a strategic level in developing and applying acomprehensive, conceptual and effective understanding of the enterprise architecture to awide range of business and technical situations across the organization. The incumbentoperates as senior advisor to the Deputy Chief Information Officer and Associate Director,Architecture Services providing consultative guidance on the architecture practice and highlycomplex architectural solution options and is a point of escalation for the Solution Architectsprior to the Associate Director’s review of solution (for the more complex architecturalsolution options). The incumbent participates at a senior level in analyzing enterprise-widetechnology environment and operations changes and is a member of and contributor to thevarious Enterprise Architecture governance boards (including Deviation (DEV), TechnologyAcquisition Governance (TAG) and Enterprise Architecture Review Board (EARB) reviewingand recommending actions related to the board presentations, acting in a delegated positionin the event the Associate Director Architecture Services is unavailable. The incumbentproactively contributes toward the development of the technology segment’s tactical plansin support of business initiatives and provides directional guidance to staff. The incumbentwill lead the development of complex and enterprise critical architectures to enablealignment to business strategic outcomes. Show less o Design, develop, optimize, and maintain data architecture and pipelines that adhere to ETL principles and business goalso Solve complex data problems to deliver insights that helps the organization’s business to achieve their goalso Build and maintain relationships with Solution Vendors; technical counterparts to facilitate opencommunication on projects.o Create data products for analytics and data scientist team members to improve their productivityo Advise, consult, mentor and coach other data and analytic professionals on data standards and practiceso Foster a culture of sharing, re-use, design for scale stability, and operational efficiency of data and analytical solutions Lead the evaluation, implementation and deployment of emerging tools and process for analytic data engineering to improve the organization’s productivity as a teamo Develop and deliver communication and education plans on analytic data engineering capabilities, standards, and processeso Accountable for delivering solution designs that conform to agreed solution architectures and technology standards and mitigates risks.o Responsible for meeting development schedules and ensuring delivered solutions meet business, technical, and quality requirements.o Partner with business analysts and solutions architects to develop technical architectures for strategic enterprise projects and initiatives. Learn about machine learning, data science, computer vision, artificial intelligence, statistics, and/or applied mathematics Key Achievements:o Developed the Data engineering framework for CIBC Caribbeano Developed a high-performance Data Engineering Unit and Chapter Show less

  • Director, Data & Innovation

    Nov 2024 - now

  • Associate Director, Data Engineering

    Oct 2023 - Nov 2024

  • Senior Solutions Architect

    Apr 2022 - Oct 2023

  • Data Implementation Architect

    Aug 2021 - Apr 2022