CTO/VP Technology
Resume:
Jason Cohen
Cell: 773-***-****
*********@*****.***
Visionary technology leader focused on implementing cutting edge technology solutions to meet
business objectives. Focus on team building and agile methodologies with a strong belief in the agile
manifesto. Capable of focusing on solving near term tactical problems and longer term strategic
planning. My focus is on building an amazing team that creates cost effective cutting edge solutions
to drive business objectives forward and having fun doing it.
Experience
GoGo
VP of Platform and Services Development
August 2010 - Present
Hired to lead all software development and QA. Moved away from proprietary solutions to more
open source technologies. Launched the first in cabin DRM supported video streaming application.
Created portal platform to allow internal airline portal creation as well as to support allowing
airlines to create their own interfaces. Built internal tools and first level support team. Managed a
complete overall of all technology to support full international support including multi-currency,
locale and language support. Created SOA services team which is now shifting to support a
microservices architecture. Supporting a shift to a more DevOPS model. Lead the initiative to move
from a waterfall project methodology to agile implementing Jira and Confluence as supporting tools.
Moved company to AWS, GitHub and Jenkins to support a CI and CD environment. Heavy focus on
mobile SDK development to build off of internally or hand to third parties for their use. Created new
process changes to manage offshore team that made our offshore team much more productive.
Managed team size of approximately 80 resources.
■ Responsible for all customer facing technology and testing as well as all backoffice
development managing a team of 80 full time and offshore resources
■ Front end technologies utilized are FatWire, Drupal, and current javascript frameworks
such as Node.js, Backbone.js, Marionette.js and Jasmine
■ Strong focus on moving towards continuous integration and deployments using Jenkins and
Docker and creating a DevOps model including the building out of a tools team
■ Starting the process to move all components to AWS to streamline internal processes and
make environment management much simpler
■ Implemented streaming video technology platform using technology solutions from Kaltura,
Widevine and Adobe
■ Creation of fully automated testing environment utilizing SOAPUI and Selenium reducing
overall testing time by over 90%
■ Moved to a services based architecture utilizing Jboss SOA and microservices
■ Decoupled front end from backend to allow architectural flexibility
■ Rebuilt entire system to support full international capabilities by implementing multiple
payment vendors, translation services integration and full locale support
■ Created an apps team to build text and talk and video player apps and create SDK's to be
used by partners
■ Implemented Jira and Confluence to better manage agile process
■ Completely revamped offshore model to maximize offshore resources using a points based
system to determine offshore project contribution
■ Manage backoffice systems such as Navision and custom revenue management workflow
system
■ Utilizing the Agile development methodology in all development projects
■ Strong management experience driving towards 100% effort from everyone in a very fun
and positive environment
Ocean Tomo
CTO and Managing Director
June 2008 – August 2010
Leader of all technology as well as business leader for all technology products. Hired first team of
developers and created all technology platforms to include search based worldwide patent site,
patent ratings engine used by Fortune 500 companies and a site to search and load patent marking
data. In charge of multi million dollar budget as well as multi million dollars in sales revenue.
Moved data center to Chicago location and created redundancy for disaster recovery. Moved away
from small legacy .net applications to more current java based technologies. Built client based
patent processing engine that allowed all internal computers to process patent data when spare CPU
cycles were available. Worked directly with international government agencies to rollout our Patent
Ratings system worldwide.
■ Managed all facets of technology
■ Managed Research practice with full P&L responsibilities
■ Complete budget control
■ Report directly to CEO
■ Implemented staffing changes in order to meet new business needs
■ Managed multi terabyte data warehouse environment
■ Managed custom java development with preference for using open source technologies
where applicable
■ Managed .net web development for legacy applications
■ Managed all IT functions
■ Managed all infrastructure initiatives including three data center locations
■ Large projects include rebuilding of transactional trading platform from .net to Java for
scalability and opening new Chicago data center location
■ Launched revamped version 2.0 of our subscription based patent ratings site
www.patentratings.com
■ Created client based application that allowed for all unused CPU cycles on all internal
machines to be used to process patent data
■ Launched patent information B2C portal www.oti.com based on open source technologies
including Lucene, MySQL, Ubuntu, Apache, and Java
■ Launched first ever product to patent marking website www.patentmarking.com
■ Rolled out a European version of our patent ratings system with the French government
■ Utilized the Agile development methodology in all development projects
Ticket Reserve
CTO
June 2007 – June 2008
Technology leader of the first market based site to trade in major sporting event tickets.
Responsible for all technology and the creation of a true platform we could use internally as well as
white label for others to manage on sites like the NCAA Final Four site. Built datacenter location out
to support growth. Expanded the site to ultimately include other live event types like concerts.
■ Managed all facets of technology
■ Reported directly to CEO
■ Implemented staffing changes in order to meet new business needs
■ Flex staffing model that included contractors and near shore resources
■ Complete budget control
■ Managed custom java development with preference for using open source technologies
where applicable
■ Managed all IT functions
■ Managed all infrastructure initiatives
■ Utilized the Agile development methodology in all development projects
■ Large projects include rebuilding entire B2C architecture and transitioning from
www.ticketreserve.com to www.firstdibz.com
Orbitz Worldwide
Director of Development
May 2005 – June 2007
Managed one of the main development teams with a focus on the customer touchpoints within all
the Orbitz brands. Managed development from the front end through to the datawarehouse.
Created one of the first true agile teams and built the first Ruby on Rails project within Orbitz. One
of a small group of technology leaders responsible for leading the buildout of the new international
platform that was a complete rebuild of all technology components utilizing the newest java based
components.
■ Managed 35 technology resources developing on all of our B2C brands such as Orbitz,
Cheaptickets, and eBookers(UK)
■ Flex staffing model that includes contractors, offshore, and near shore resources
■ Controlled multi-million dollar budget
■ Managed custom java development with preference for using open source technologies
where applicable
■ Presented to all levels of management including the CEO
■ Large projects included rebuilding international platform and rolling out new eBookers site,
rebuilding entire loyalty platform, managing all messaging development, implementing
rules based personalization platform, managing data warehouse system, and all mobile
development to name a few
■ Built out Orbitz’s CRM strategy and implemented specific components such as a marketing
data mart within a Teradata environment
■ Managed Orbitz’s first community site initiative called Traveler Update utilizing Ruby on
Rails as a development platform while utilizing a new agile development process ultimately
deemed one of the most successful projects in Orbitz history
■ Creator and manager of the Orbitz Innovation Award
■ Winner of Jboss 2006 Innovation Award for Portal Track
Washington Mutual
Technology VP
Chicago, IL, USA
May 2002 - May 2005
Hired to manage the move of all CRM and Web based technology from Accenture and build an
internal team to manage and develop these systems. Reduced costs by 85% while increasing overall
system performance by 90%. Built a brand new team of high quality motivated technical resources.
Created the first agile team at Washington Mutual.
■ Managed the move away from Accenture to an internally hired team
■ Managed all CRM and Web technology
■ Focused on delivering high end, cost-efficient, and timely solutions
■ Managed a group of fifteen resources including offshore resources and contractors
■ Managed the day to day operations of the team and served as our lead architect
■ Served as the main point of contact for our business partners and worked with them to solve
their ever changing needs
■ Utilized my strong communication skills on both a business and technical level
■ Interacted with several different technology teams to coordinate the necessary assistance
my team needed in delivering high end solutions
■ Project examples include delivering real time self learning marketing application that
integrated into the IVR, call centers, websites, and custom lead management web
application through a unified EAI layer and also created the entire marketing data mart and
analytics environment from scratch
E.piphany Software Inc.
Senior Technical Architect
Chicago, IL, USA
August 2000 - May 2002
Senior technical architect leading implementations of Epiphany’s CRM suite. Heavily involved in
internal product development as an expert in the use of our products in the field. Led small teams of
technical consultants from both Epiphany and third party partners like Accenture. Worked with
marketing and sales business groups to determine requirements and implement and direct
technical resources to meet those requirements.
■ Managed the installation and customization of our software suite
■ Managed small project teams of up to four people
■ Communicated with the key business and technology stakeholders
■ Implemented the Analytical Data Mining/Campaign Management(AP/CM), E.Sales(SFA),
Real-Time Personalization(RT), and performed data imports into our Call Center(IP) system
■ Implemented sub-second real time marketing decision engines to pitch heavily targeted
offers across web, call center, email and sales channels.
■ Roles included designing and implementing high volume Data Mining, and Sales Force
Automation projects for Fortune 1000 clients such as Best Buy, Sears, and Guidant
■ Worked with NetTracker (web log analysis tool) to parse web log data
■ Implemented custom SQL to extract, and transform, data from various sources into our
Analytical Platform application
■ Worked with our clients in setting up effective email, and direct marketing campaigns with
the E.piphany suite of products
■ Implemented Epiphany's E.Sales product, which automates Sales Force tasks
■ Designed and built custom workflows, and wrote code to customize the systems to meet the
client’s needs
■ Required to manage and design each project from a technical perspective. This meant
creating the ERD diagram/SFA workflows and managing the tasks assigned to technical
individuals on my team
FRx Software Corp.
Senior Technical Architect
Chicago, IL, USA
March 1998 - July 2000
Senior technical architect consulting for Fortune 500 companies looking to implement FRx’s
financial reporting solution. I was responsible for implementing the most difficult projects,
managing our integration partners and leading the product development of our newest product. I
was very hands-on while also managing third party integration partnerships and providing
technical leadership for our newest product.
● Required to assist the consultants with any technical issues as well as visit sites with serious
technical problems
● Managed the development, and integration, of our financial data mart.
● Worked hands on with Oracle, Informix, Sybase, SQL Server, and DB2 for AS/400
● Worked with most of the major ERP packages as well as mid range systems
● Received the 1999 Outstanding Achiever of the Year Award
● Worked at Fortune 500 clients that included like Coca Cola Enterprises, Kemper, and AT&T
Cable (formerly TCI)
● I designed several data migrations from Oracle to Oracle, SQL to Oracle, and DB2 to Oracle
● Managed and trained our technical consultants as well as designed our financial data mart
product
● Worked with several of our partners on the mapping and transferring of data from their
systems into our financial data mart
Koch Industries
Senior Software Developer
Wichita, KS, USA
October 1997 - March 1998
My primary focus was to assist in managing Koch’s move to Oracle Financials while helping to
manage the outsourced vendor Accenture’s technology resources. I was hands-on converting the
systems over as well as day to day manager of 15 Accenture technology consultants.
● Focused on implementation of IT infrastructure to support financial applications, such as
Oracle Financials
● Required to do database design, network design, and custom development
● My primary task was to combine the eight business units systems into Oracle Financials
● Converted data from many different systems into an Oracle database
● Custom report writing for our clients using Cognos Impromptu
● Managed several of the developers and dba’s we used to complete the job
Forrest Consulting
Consultant
Raleigh, NC, USA
October 1995 - October 1997
Consulted with multiple companies to implement custom financial system solutions which included
all facets of implementation from building the network, custom development, database creation/
customization and reporting.
● Focused on product implementation, hardware and network implementation, custom report
writing, data conversions, training, VBA, conflict resolution and implementing total
solutions for customers
● Installed primarily NT networks as well as SQL server
● Converted data into the new systems being implemented
● Custom report writing for our clients using Crystal Report Writer
Education
● UNC Chapel Hill
References available upon request
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