Systems Engineer Product Owner

Derek Nealon Williams

Senior IT Engineer/Product Owner

San Antonio, TX 78260 210-***-**** ***********@*****.*** https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekn-williams/

SUMMARY

Experienced and results focused IT engineer and product owner with proven ability to deliver and maintain quality IT product solutions to meet business needs. Primary experience within insurance, banking, and diversified financial services. Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) and Master of Business Administration degrees.

Proven track record of success working collaboratively with product managers to translate the product vision into plans that can be actioned by the delivery teams. Skilled in overseeing tactical execution of efforts.

Recognized for being an effective problem solver and able to work well both as a team player and individually and for ability in managing concurrent projects in a fast-based, results-driven environment.

Strong analytical skills, ability to interpret data and trends, diagnose problems, and recommend action plans to resolve issues.

Excellent skills in presentation, facilitation, communication, and negotiation. Regularly promoted to positions of increased responsibility.

TECHNICAL SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS

Process and Project Management: Scaled agile framework, product management, DevOps, SDLC, life cycle management, product roadmaps, product strategy, agile development, risk management, cross functional team leadership, technical acumen, scrum methodology, documentation, and reporting.

Agile Platforms: Jira, Rally, and Confluence

Virtualization Platforms and Tools: VMWare (Vcenter, vSphere, ESXi), and Turbonomic

End-user Operating Systems: Windows, Mac, and some Linux

Back-end Operating Systems: Windows, Linux, and ESXi

Deployment and Automation Tools: Puppet, Chocolatey, and Tanium

Backup Software: IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, EMC Avamar, and Networker

Business Applications: O365, SharePoint, Box, Zoom, and Slack

Ticketing and KB Systems: ServiceNow

Certifications: Safe Product Owner and Product Manager Certified; ITIL Foundation Certified; ITIL Practitioner (Change and Control) Certified

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

USAA, San Antonio, TX 2005 – 2023

Technical Senior Agile Product Owner (02/2018 – 06/2023)

Conducted daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and backlog refinement ceremonies for two technology teams which resulted in slashing delivery time by 15 to 20% in a planning increment (PI).

Led diverse cross functional teams to implement Agile methodologies which reduced product delivery time frames by 15 to 20%.

Collaborated with management and product team to understand and anticipate business needs and translate them into product requirements.

Drove team accountability and ensured implementation of product vision, objectives, and key results (OKRs) to meet business priorities.

Partnered with executive management to prioritize features critical to business demand.

Product oversight for successful implementation of IBM Turbonomic resulting in significant virtualization resource savings.

Developed value stream and process maps to identify work improvement opportunities.

IT Senior Systems Support Engineer (03/2017 – 02/2018)

Managed offshore and nearshore contractors in India and Guadalajara. Responsible for interviews, training needs, availability support schedules, and ensuring key metrics were obtained and reported which included turnover, training opportunities, and support escalations.

Supported SME for Microsoft and Symantec Veritas cluster servers to ensure high availability (HA) for configurations and management of required applications running in multi-site data center model.

Performed ITIL/ITSM change and release management responsibilities

Technical environment: Windows 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019 servers, Office Suite, SolarWinds (virtualization monitoring), Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager and System Center Operations Manager 2012, and Active Directory.

IT Systems Support Engineer (03/ 2012 – 03/2017)

Provided current support of the VMware and HP virtualization infrastructure which consists of over 2000 ESX hosts running ESX versions 4.0, 4.1, 5.0, and 5.1. Support also includes over 4000 virtual servers.

Led initiatives to build and upgrade all VMWare virtual center servers in a multisite (Linked Mode) configuration model consisting of development, test, and production environments.

Facilitated monthly onsite meetings with VMWare technical account manager(s) to discuss current issues, upcoming technology offerings, and direction for potential VMWare tool changes.

Led cleanup efforts in the virtualization environment, bringing new standards for configuration and work-type.

IT Storage Engineer (03/2010 – 03/2012)

Provided ongoing support for infrastructure backup technology utilizing IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, Tivoli Data Protection for SQL backups, EMC Avamar, NetApp (File Share storage management).

Led efforts to bring in new EMC Avamar storage grids and technology to support new backup and storage needs for the company.

Developed new standards for various backup configurations to achieve EMC best practice for data deduplication benefits.

Led responsibilities to define and manage NFS file shares utilizing NetApp fabric-attached storage technology.

IT Software Systems Engineer (02/2007 – 03/2010)

Developed Crystal Report (business objects) reports against the configuration management database (CMDB) in support of ITIL/ITSM initiative.

Planned and acquired business and IT requirements and analysis, designed, coded, and provided documentation based around the Agile software development methodology.

Coordinated with multiple vendors to develop solutions and resolve vendor software defects. Performed execution of and coordination for software upgrades.

Provided support and communication among all ITIL processes areas that contributed to USAA’s overall ITSM initiative.

IT Software Systems Engineer/ITIL (03/2005 – 02/2007)

Led the initial configuration management database (CMDB) support team to help initiate and support the introduction of the ITIL/ITSM initiative at USAA.

Demonstrated various presentations and training across all IT departments at all staffing levels to help initiate and educate the benefits of using the CMDB via infra enterprise software system.

Developed audit standard processes to ensure data integrity within the CMDB.

Identified risks in the configuration management process and mitigate those risks by providing controls to meet audit requirements.

OTHER EXPERIENCE

USAA, San Antonio, TX

Configuration Management Engineer

IT Software Systems Engineer

DOW CHEMICAL, Freeport, TX

IT Systems Support Analyst

IT Process Information Support Analyst

UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX ONLINE

Instructor/Faculty

Taught a Management of Information Systems class.

EDUCATION

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Regis University, Denver, CO

Bachelor of Science (BS), Computer Science, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX

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