Russell Samuels

• Formulate business strategy with others in the executive team
• Design policies that align with overall strategy
• Implement efficient processes and standards
• Coordinate customer service operations and find ways to ensure customer retention
• Ensure compliance with local and international laws (e.g
• Data protection)
• Oversee the implementation of technology solutions throughout the organization
• Manage contracts and relations with customers, vendors, partners and other stakeholders
• Evaluate risk and lead quality assurance efforts
• Oversee expenses and budgeting to help the organization optimize costs and benefits
• Mentor and motivate teams to achieve productivity and engagement
• Report on operational performance and suggest improvements
• Conduct regular dialogues to ensure that all objectives are met, including the creation and implementation of Personal Development Plans

Responsible for the implementation of the IT strategy supporting the management of the lifecycles of the Metropolitan legacy systems

• Develop insights into market, leading to effective market segmentation and development of strategies per targeted segment
• Manage the roll-out of application and software development strategies and plans to internal clients
• Ensure that application and software development addresses the needs of the clients
• Present and discuss current and future versions of solutions to clients at a senior level
• Create and present professional proposals and presentations that respond to client needs
• Orchestrate internal resources and technology offerings to help secure new business contracts
• Embark in on-going improvement initiatives that will enhance business applications and their integration, resulting in efficiencies for the organization
• Ensure synchronization between business applications, processes, user requirements and systems
• Staff development and management

• Manage a team of software developers, business analysts and related personnel to develop, maintain and support software
• Participate and initiate collaborative planning processes for business technology, including “make vs
• Buy” decisions for technology
• Participate in all aspects of the software development life cycle, from defining the strategy and architecture through deployment and support
• Develop project schedules including critical paths, resource leveling, time estimates and work breakdown structures
• Ensure that IT projects in support of customer needs are delivered in a timely manner and within a prescribed budget; identify, evaluate, and mitigate the risks affecting any project
• Review and assist in the development of all project-related documentation, including design documents, functional specifications, help files, project proposals, business cases, technical specifications, training manuals and user manuals
• Build and manage teams, including recruiting of additional team members
• Maintain excellent communication channels between the IT department and the assigned customer groups
• Ensure IT standards are followed
• Coach/mentor other Applications team managers, pertaining to administrative and project management processes and documentation

• Architects solutions by studying existing technology architecture;; evaluating solution alternatives; developing prototypes; and writing detailed technical requirements;
• Delegates tasks to, organizes, mentors, and motivates a team software developers;
• Fosters a culture of continuous improvement in all areas of technology and instills the principles of this culture
• Works together with senior software developers to plan and execute projects;
• Ensures that teams have appropriate product and technical specifications, direction, and resources to deliver products effectively by establishing realistic estimates for timelines while ensuring that projects remain on target to meet deadlines;
• Provides detailed and timely status updates to management;
• Helps establish and enhance development policies, procedures, and standards and enforces their implementation upon their team of developers;
• Maintains technical knowledge and understanding of the latest development methodologies and best practices by participating in educational opportunities, reading professional publications, maintaining personal networks, and participating in professional organizations;
• Ensures quality and consistency throughout the architecture and implementation of the code base;
• Acts as a competent advisor to their manager and team;
• Accomplishes department and organization missions by completing related tasks as needed;
• Helps developers resolve technical issues;
• Helps developers resolve employment issues and requests including schedule management, time-off requests, and conflict resolution;
• Monitors developer performance, establishes plans for improvement when necessary, conducts annual reviews in conjunction with management
• Responds to occasional system errors, including during off hour and coordinates response amongst the team
• Establishment of Java competency for business application development

• MPE to UNIX migration
• Develops complex software products to meet customer requirements
• Participates in the modeling of database schemas to meet requirements.
• Organizes and conducts project design sessions and designs flexible solutions to meet project requirements
• Performs reviews and integration testing to assure quality of project development efforts
• Interfaces and collaborates with other business units on specifics of projects, new technologies and deadlines
• Ensures project artifacts are placed under version control and labels each product release
• Actively identifies and responds to project risks
• Supervises, mentors and provides performance feedback for project team members
• Formally evaluates team member performance after project completion
• Deploys and monitors project releases
• Supports production systems as needed
• Monitors projects after production release to identify and resolve issues
  Provides problem solving support
• Keeps fully abreast of IT trends and changing technologies

• Research new IT technologies.
• Implement and operationalize new IT technologies.

• Responsible for development, maintenance of Line of Business Applications for medical aid administration
• Medical Aid Client web portal development and legacy system integration

• Life Insurance line of business system development and maintenance

• Test Manager, Implemented test-plans and test-cases built on high-level and detailed design
• Manual and automated testing

Administration duties relating to reassurance processing and complex system configuration