Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Certification
Accomplishments
Interests
Timeline
Generic
Avir Singh

Avir Singh

Global Platform Head
Johannesburg

Summary

A high performing and experienced technology leader with a proven track record of leading teams to deliver quality software solutions. Committed to using innovative technology solutions and processes to help organisations achieve their desired goals and beyond. Adept in communicating and collaborating effectively with a broad spectrum of business and technology stakeholders to achieve shared outcomes and objectives. Highly experienced in building high performing teams that continuously deliver outstanding results.

Overview

18
18
years of professional experience
102
102
years of post-secondary education
3
3
Certifications

Work History

Global Platform Head

Investec
Johannesburg
01.2022 - Current
  • Heading up Dynamics 365 platform teams globally
  • People management and leadership of platform teams
  • Recruitment of required skill sets into teams
  • Team member salary and bonus management
  • Delivery management of projects and smaller initiatives
  • Operational maintenance of platforms
  • Business and technology stakeholder management
  • Platform strategy, target architecture and roadmap formulation/execution in partnership with various tech and business stakeholders
  • D365 tenant owner and administrator
  • Creation and execution of platform engineering operating models and roadmaps e.g., blueprints and guardrails.
  • Creation and execution of Dynamics 365 enablement operating models and roadmaps
  • Vendor management and negotiations
  • Investec SA and UK management committee member

Software Development Manager/Application Owner

Investec
Johannesburg
11.2018 - 03.2022
  • People leadership and management of CRM delivery team
  • Lead and coached the analysis, development, testing, project management and scrum master team member roles
  • Assisted team members in learning, growing and career development.
  • Coached team members to achieve greater potential.
  • Recruitment of required skillsets into the team
  • Team member salary and bonus management
  • Team strategy and roadmap creation and the creation of an environment where team members can achieve team strategy and the roadmap.
  • App ownership of the Investec D365 Sales, Marketing and Servicing platform
  • App ownership of the Investec Acoustic Campaign platform
  • App ownership of the Investec Sprinklr platform
  • Operational upkeep of Investec’s CRM ecosystem
  • Delivery leadership of small, medium and bigger initiatives on the Investec CRM platforms
  • Created an environment where the team can continuously refine and improve delivery processes
  • Created platform target architectures in partnership with architects and other tech/business stakeholders
  • Created platform roadmaps in partnership with architects, product owners and other tech/business stakeholders
  • Lead the delivery of platform target architecture and roadmaps
  • Stakeholder management across the business and tech landscape.
  • Member of the tech MANCO. Assisted in formulating and driving MANCO strategy.
  • Representation and presentation in various business and tech forums

Solutions/Applications Architect

Investec Private Bank
Johannesburg
07.2015 - 11.2018
  • Owned, designed and influenced the implementation of complex enterprise wide solutions
  • Ownership of the design, end to end implementation of solutions and operational processes
  • Lead and aligned cross-functional project and domain teams to ensure alignment to agreed architectures and strategies
  • Ownership of solution, integration, application, business and conceptual data architecture responsibilities
  • Matured enterprise architectures and business capabilities via target architecture creation and roadmap formulation and execution of roadmaps
  • Translated from business strategy to tech strategy and drove implementation of said strategy
  • Partnered with multiple stakeholders in order to achieve short, medium and long term tech and business goals
  • Architecture presentations for approval and participation in various governance forums
  • Business and technical stakeholder management and relationship building thereby ensuring alignment when formulating and achieving strategies
  • Facilitated regular joint design sessions
  • Facilitatied regular initiative prioritisation forums
  • Partnered with product owners to perform pre-analysis and design that will be used as an input into initiative prioritisation discussions
  • Assisted in breaking down detailed solutions into piece meal features that can be implemented in time boxed periods
  • Partnered with technical leads and other architects to create software engineering and architecture best practices and standards
  • Ensured adherence of tech teams to the agreed upon standards and best practices
  • Design and documentation of reusable patterns that can be practically applied in various solutions
  • Maintenance of the Investec Private Bank knowledge management application (MediaWiki)
  • Prototyped, researched and development encompassing cutting edge technologies and architectures
  • Responsible for building and maintaining detailed architecture blueprints for relevant applications
  • Documented and socialised the desired future state or target architectures, and identifying the gaps between current and future states
  • Define transition plans to close the gaps
  • Resolved high level system functional issues


Systems Analyst

Investec
Johannesburg
07.2012 - 06.2015
  • Lead and guided developers both in South Africa and India through the development process, system enhancements and fixes
  • Coached and influenced the delivery teams through the continuous delivery process to ensure alignment to specifications, best practices and patterns
  • Designed solutions for both projects and small to medium enhancements based on new business and technical requirements
  • Created and drove alignment to domain application roadmaps and architecture
  • Ensured adherence of the team to the agreed upon standards and best practices
  • Team representative in initiative prioritisation forums
  • Team representative in tech guilds
  • Implemented business/systems analysis processes and artifacts
  • Partnered with business analysts and solution architects to formulate in depth system requirements and developed descriptive technical specifications and test cases
  • Partnered with test analysts to ensure test cases are created in line with business and technical requirements
  • Partnering with test analysts, developers and business analysts to investigate and resolve defects detected
  • Partnered with first line support to investigate and resolve support queries whilst adhering to the agreed upon SLA’s
  • Business and technical stakeholder management and relationship building in order to deliver business and technical features
  • Specialisation in integration patterns between various applications and technologies and the automation of manual processes
  • Maintenance of domain specific artifacts
  • Cost negotiations and vendor cost approvals


Analyst/Java Developer

Discovery Health Ltd
Johannesburg
07.2010 - 06.2012
  • Development of functionality based on new business requirements
  • Systems maintenance and bug fixes
  • Collaborated with business analysts to formulate in-depth system requirements and developed descriptive technical specifications and test cases
  • Development of reports, views and web services for business stakeholders
  • Enhanced interfaces to promote better functionality for users


Java Developer

First National Bank Ltd
Johannesburg
03.2008 - 06.2010
  • Designed, coded and maintained software solutions and documentation
  • Interpreted technical solutions into models and code
  • Developed unit test cases
  • Partnered with testers to close defects in coded solutions
  • Partnered with business analysts to verify business needs
  • Continuous integration and delivery control and deployment into test, pre-production and production environments
  • Collaborated in team-based, Agile environment to accomplish delivery objectives by deadlines


Java Developer

Standard Bank Group Ltd
Johannesburg
02.2007 - 03.2008
  • Designed, developed and documented solutions for releases and fixes
  • Interpreted formal specifications in technical solutions
  • Developed unit test cases
  • Assisted business analysts in developing technically viable solutions and ensuring that technical solutions are aligned to business requirements
  • Collaborated in team-based environment to accomplish delivery objectives by deadlines
  • Partnered with testers to close defects in coded solutions
  • Supported end-user issues and possible defects
  • Partnered with business stakeholders to verify business needs
  • Ensured infrastructure and operations are supporting application efficiently and with minimal friction


Developer/Report Writer

NGO Consulting
Durban
03.2006 - 12.2006
  • Utilizing SQL Report Writer in Visual Studio to enable an established supermarket chain to gain accurate results from their Navision database
  • Development of dashboards and management reports
  • XML and HTML manipulation for reports

Education

Developing Team Leaders -

Investec
Johannesburg, South Africa
04.2001 - 11.2020

Advanced Communication Skills -

Investec
Johannesburg, South Africa
04.2001 - 06.2019

Architecting in AWS -

Torque I.T
Johannesburg, South Africa
04.2001 - 11.2017

Agile Boot Camp -

I.Q. Business Solutions
Johannesburg, South Africa
04.2001 - 10.2013

Object Orientated Analysis And Design-UML -

Indigo Cube
Johannesburg, South Africa
04.2001 - 03.2009

Essentials of The Rational Unified Process -

Indigo Cube
Johannesburg, South Africa
04.2001 - 07.2008

Java EE Presentation Layer -

Solms Training Centre
Johannesburg, South Africa
04.2001 - 02.2008

Advanced Java -

Solms Training Centre
Johannesburg
04.2001 - 03.2007

Bachelor of Science - Computer Science And Information Systems

University of Kwazulu Natal
Durban, South Africa
01.2003 - 01.2006

High School Diploma -

Burnwood Secondary
Durban, South Africa
01.1998 - 01.2003

Skills

    Facilitation skills

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Certification

Certified TOGAF Enterprise Architect

Accomplishments

    I have built and am currently heading up a ground breaking platform team at Investec that supports multiple geographies.


    I was selected as one of key leaders to form a task team whom were accountable for the Investec single client platform strategy. This initiative involved fundamental strategic and architectural shifts across all divisions at Investec.


    I designed and lead a new implementation of Dynamics 365 into existing Investec business processes and ecosystems. This was one of the first major implementations of Cloud SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions in Investec.


    Design of the solution for the Investec Youth Account offering.


    Design and end to end implementation of Real Time AML Screening of potential clients for both Investec clients and the clients of Investec’s intermediaries. This involved integration into a COTS product – Actimize.


    Maintained and scaled the Investec Private Bank Client Information Store (CIS). This involved both technical, business analysis and target architecture.


    Designed and implemented the API enablement of the Client Information Store in order to enable the execution of automated business processes. This implementation enabled the decoupling multiple consultant and client facing applications from the Client Information Store.


    Development of the integration into a COTS solution for Voice Biometrics.


    Architected and designed a solution for the Investec Hackathon. This involved partnering and leading individuals from multiples teams. This innovation allowed clients to request a property valuation report via the mobile app when viewing a property. We demonstrated a working prototype to the judges. The innovation was placed fourth overall from thirty five teams.


    I was chosen as a representative from Investec to attend the QCON conference in London. This was an amazing opportunity where I was exposed to latest trends and innovations in the tech world and given the opportunity to network with leaders in the field of software development. The feedback was socialised with the rest of the organisation. We are currently using some of the lessons from QCON.


    I was chosen as a representative from Investec to attend the Singularity conference. The content and presentations provided valuable insight into the exponential rate of advancements globally within tech, educational and medical industries to name but a few.

Interests

Reading tech blogs and literature

Reading business blogs and literature

Reading self-improvement books

Listening to audio books

Travelling

Music

Nature walks with my family

Timeline

Global Platform Head

Investec
01.2022 - Current

Software Development Manager/Application Owner

Investec
11.2018 - 03.2022

Solutions/Applications Architect

Investec Private Bank
07.2015 - 11.2018

Certified TOGAF Enterprise Architect

09-2014

Certified Scrum Master

07-2013

Systems Analyst

Investec
07.2012 - 06.2015

Analyst/Java Developer

Discovery Health Ltd
07.2010 - 06.2012

Certified Java Developer

03-2009

Java Developer

First National Bank Ltd
03.2008 - 06.2010

Java Developer

Standard Bank Group Ltd
02.2007 - 03.2008

Developer/Report Writer

NGO Consulting
03.2006 - 12.2006

Bachelor of Science - Computer Science And Information Systems

University of Kwazulu Natal
01.2003 - 01.2006

Developing Team Leaders -

Investec
04.2001 - 11.2020

Advanced Communication Skills -

Investec
04.2001 - 06.2019

Architecting in AWS -

Torque I.T
04.2001 - 11.2017

Agile Boot Camp -

I.Q. Business Solutions
04.2001 - 10.2013

Object Orientated Analysis And Design-UML -

Indigo Cube
04.2001 - 03.2009

Essentials of The Rational Unified Process -

Indigo Cube
04.2001 - 07.2008

Java EE Presentation Layer -

Solms Training Centre
04.2001 - 02.2008

Advanced Java -

Solms Training Centre
04.2001 - 03.2007

High School Diploma -

Burnwood Secondary
01.1998 - 01.2003
Avir SinghGlobal Platform Head