Dan Allen
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Marshall, VA, United States
Toptal member since June 13, 2019
Dan has over 30 years of technology leadership experience delivering technology projects that include Agile project and product management, DevOps management, software and systems engineering, cloud transformation, and management consulting. Dan is a proven change agent and thought leader with real-world expertise in successfully delivering technology solutions for startups and Fortune 100 enterprises.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Leadership
- Fintech
- Management Consulting
- Product Management
- Project Delivery
- Project Discovery
- Project Management
- Technology Consulting
Work Experience
Senior Project Manager | Agile Coach | Scrum Master
Toptal Projects
- Acted as the project manager and scrum master for developing an ATM and branch locator service with REST API for a large American bank holding company and financial services corporation.
- Developed the service to JSON API standards and enabled search features to locate branches and ATMs using address, proximity, latitude-longitude, and branch features with Open JDK, Spring Boot, and Docker.
- Served as the project manager, product manager, Agile coach, and scrum master to develop a financial data services platform for a global team. The tech stack included Swift, Java, Kotlin, React, PostgreSQL, Framework7, Scala, ArangoDB, Docker, and GCP.
- Oversaw financial data services projects that included data sourcing methods and controls, design, and implementation of the data services platform, refactoring a mobile investor app, and building widgets for third-party investor relations portals.
- Spearheaded the DevOps implementation and created data services for financial sector data consumers.
- Hired as the Agile project manager of a global team to design and develop products that allow high-net-worth individuals to build and optimize investment portfolios using machine learning. My responsibilities also included DevOps.
- Developed machine learning models that analyze financial and market data streams to identify optimal portfolio constituents to achieve investor objectives with Angular, Python, TensorFlow, PostgreSQL, and the Google Cloud Platform.
Executive Consultant
Alakai Solutions, LLC
- Provided strategic go-to-market leadership, Agile coaching, and Agile project and DevOps management of the product team and an outsourced international development team. The cloud-hosted SaaS business modeling product launched in May 2019.
- Offered technical leadership in selecting a new hosting platform and hybrid offshore development vendor for a custom home builder coop portal solution.
- Led the transformation initiative as an Agile coach to implement platform and business transformation.
- Served as a member of the board and chair of the technology committee for a privately funded online builder-supplier eCommerce venture.
Executive Consultant
Newbold Advisors
- Performed an IT service delivery assessment to identify opportunities and recommendations to improve client demand management, stakeholder engagement, and service quality.
- Integrated findings into recommendations for metrics and key performance indicators for inclusion in an executive-level monthly business report.
- Developed a comprehensive strategic plan and roadmap for a wholesale banking and mortgage sub-servicing business.
- Established standardized tracking and reporting processes for internal leadership and external government regulators.
- Implemented Innotas, a program or project portfolio framework and tool to facilitate portfolio and resource management and status reporting on roadmap execution.
- Created a change management plan and target state design to restructure an IT organization's operational service delivery processes. Worked with leadership to transform its technology platform and effectively respond to market demands.
- Offered virtual CIO/CTO/CISO technology leadership for a startup venture providing oversight and guidance for IT strategy and planning, systems and software architecture, technology selection, information security, and program management.
- Worked with a health insurance operation team for claims and membership processing to analyze business processes, create a SWOT analysis, and provide recommendations to improve quality, performance, and complexity management.
US Project Manager
Empower Pharmacy
- Staffed and led the ERP PMO that led workstreams to document current state business processes, ERP requirements, legacy implementation gap analysis in Oracle EBS, stakeholder communications, SME engagement, and vendor selection.
- Staffed and led a software engineering team to redesign, rebuild, and launch a B2B eCommerce Portal with Salesforce and Oracle ERP integrations.
- Led the design, implementation, and deployment of a B2B integration platform consisting of a developer web portal and RESTful API. The platform provided a scalable solution for the client's Salesforce and Oracle ERP integration needs.
Technical Project Manager
CloudWalk, Inc.
- Worked for CloudWalk, a payment network used by Brazilian merchants to offer buy-now-pay-later services to their customers. They act as a transactional hub for acquiring profitable receivables, then resold to their network of financial institutions.
- Oversaw the current manual assignment process planning. It uses XLS sheets and SQL statements package receivables for each Assignee. CloudWalk is experiencing significant transactional growth and is forecasted to grow 100% within 12 months.
- Led the discovery and planning team in assessing the scope and effort to build an internal tool to replace their current manual process, including an integrated solution to optimize the allocation of receivables to assignees.
- Oversaw the team that provided UI/UX personas, user flows, and wireframes. Led the project with a technical approach with tech stack and architecture.
- Pioneered the MVP scope and backlog, sprint schedule, and estimates. Developed the project plan with the timeline, resources, and deliverables for implementation.
VP for Enterprise Architecture
Fannie Mae
- Established an enterprise architecture organization of 145 people with an annual operating budget of $24 million to drive target state architectures, technology standards, application rationalization, and IT roadmaps.
- Remediated regulatory findings—in Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) matters requiring attention (MRA)—for enterprise architecture deficiencies in less than 12 months.
- Secured $20 million of strategic funding to build centers of excellence for five enterprise-shared platforms.
- Included centers of excellence in business process management with IBM Lombardi, business rules management with ILOG JRules, service-oriented architectures with TIBCO, enterprise architecture with MEGA, and reconciliation with Fiserv Frontier.
- Instituted a portfolio rationalization framework for applications and technology across the enterprise to prioritize investments, reduce costs, and drive architecture alignment, saving $15 million over three years.
- Drove technical enterprise program governance to provide project assessments, enforce prescriptive guidance, evaluate technology construction permit criteria, and drive technology mandates.
- Briefed board of directors, senior executives, and regulators on portfolio rationalization, target state architecture, and infrastructure complexity.
CTO and VP of Technology Services
Interimage
- Transformed technology organization from a low-margin tech staffing business with $100-300,000 projects into an enterprise solutions provider with multimillion-dollar projects.
- Grew the backlog from $8 million to more than $75 million through successful technical proposals, competitive pricing, and successful program execution on schedule, in scope, and at or above target margins.
- Improved profitability, increased annual revenue by 300%, and managed a 34-member technology team across five concurrent programs.
- Created the vision, strategy, and tactics to align capabilities with current and future business opportunities.
- Determined optimal software and systems engineering processes to mitigate risk, speed development, minimize time-to-value for solution delivery, and obtain CMMI level 2 certification.
- Marketed capabilities through technical presentations at conferences and leadership in technical user communities.
Senior Manager
CACI
- Led the software development process integration for the joint acquisition of AMS by CACI and CGI.
- Implemented rational unified process-based tools, asset repositories, processes, and end-user training.
- Set software development standards for a team of 250+ developers supporting three GOTS products.
VP of Technology
Chelsea Interactive, Inc.
- Rescued the launch of a $60 million multi-vendor eCommerce platform for Polo.com, Timberland.com, Maidenform.com, Elisabeth.com, ColeHaan.com, Ulta.com, Intershoe.com, and LizLange.com.
- Restructured and led software engineering, operations, and QA teams to improve service delivery, reduce costs, manage vendors and generate $40 million in annual revenue.
- Drove the maintenance and enhancement of a technology platform consisting of 15 production BroadVision v6 application servers utilizing Oracle 9i RAC database servers.
- Led the development of storefronts (client and server-side JavaScript), shared eCommerce platform components (C++ and Java), data warehouses, and business intelligence reports (micro-strategy).
Chief Technical Architect
Digex, Inc.
- Led a 6-member enterprise integration team with a $2.1 million annual budget in the design and development of an enterprise application integration framework.
- Designed and implemented a webMethods-based integration platform for ERPs such as Siebel, PeopleSoft, Clarify, Remedy, Infranet, and numerous custom applications acquired by WorldCom.
- Completed the integration platform that provided the backbone for a web-enabled portal for customers to self-service their hosted infrastructure solutions.
Director of Application Development
Clara Vista/CMGI Solutions Inc.
- Won bid for $2.4 million project to lead 10-member team in design, development, and deployment of a cyber threat KBMS, workflow, and alerting system (ATG Dynamo Application Server, JHTML, Oracle 8i RAC) for startup venture (acquired by Symantec).
Deputy Director of Information Technology
Mail2000, Inc.
- Led 15-member IT team with $2.0 million budget in IT operations and infrastructure management for startup venture specializing in the optimal delivery of 1st class mail using a distributed computing architecture (acquired by UPS).
Principal Associate, Senior Software Engineer
CACI, Inc. – Federal
- Provided technology innovation and thought leadership that transformed bleeding edge technology concepts into successful and profitable projects totaling more than $30 million in revenue.
- Served as chief architect and technical lead for design, development, and deployment of 17 production applications. Provided tooling and process integration for Requisite Pro, Rational Rose, and SQA Suite to enable the first CMM Level 3 certification for the firm.
- Led 10-member project team in the design and delivery of the global status of resources and training system (enhanced) input tool (GSORTS-E) for the joint chiefs of staff. A Sybase Jaguar Component Transaction Server application used for military readiness reporting worldwide.
Project History
Financial Data Services Platform
Led multiple concurrent projects for data sourcing, data services platform, refactoring a mobile investor app, third-party integration tools, and the company website.
My projects include data sourcing methods and controls, design and implementation of the data services platform, refactoring a mobile investor app, building widgets for third-party investor relations portals, DevOps implementation, and creation of data services for financial sector data consumers like Swift, Java, Kotlin, React, PostgreSQL, Framework7, Scala, ArangoDB, Docker, and the Google Cloud Platform.
Investor Portfolio Management Product
Led the agile development team in the design and implementation of an MVP product.
WiseWorks
https://wiseworks.net/Developed and launched a SaaS-based business process modeling tool.
CBUSA eCommerce Modernization and Agile Transformation
https://cbusa.us/Led the eCommerce platform migration to Azure, implemented Agile development practices, and managed modernization projects.
Application Assessment, Performance Optimization, and Azure Migration
https://researchdirectorinc.com/Led the implementation of Agile best practices, architecture review, and performance optimization. I also led the migration of the platform from hosted infrastructure to Azure.
I shadowed the development team, mentored product owners, and advised the client on opportunities for Agile process improvement. He evaluated the technical solution architecture and performance to determine the strategy for optimization and migration to Azure. I led the database performance optimization effort to review SQL code to improve overall system performance. I also managed the migration of the platform to Azure.
ATM and Branch Locator Service
Led Agile team in the design and implementation of an ATM and branch locator service for a large American bank holding company.
The locator service conforms to the JSON API standard and provides search features to locate branches and ATMs using address, proximity, lat-long, and branch features. I used Open JDK, Spring Boot, and Docker.
IT Strategy, Planning, and Processes for SaaS Product Company
Worked with the CEO and CTO of a fintech SaaS platform to assess technical service delivery capabilities and challenges to redesign the technology organization for scale.
Vice President for Enterprise Architecture for Fortune 10 Enterprise
https://www.fanniemae.com/Led the remediation of regulatory findings. He established an enterprise architecture team and embedded EA best practices across the organization. Secured $20M of capital investment for building shared services platforms.
I established an enterprise architecture organization of 145 people with an annual operating budget of $24 million to drive target state architectures, technology standards, application rationalization, and IT roadmaps.
I secured $20 million of capital investment funding to build centers of excellence for five enterprise-shared platforms: business process management (IBM Lombardi); business rules management (ILOG JRules); SOA (TIBCO); enterprise architecture (MEGA), and reconciliation (FISERV Frontier).
I established a portfolio rationalization framework for applications and technology across the enterprise to prioritize investments, reduce costs, and drive architecture alignment, saving $15 million over three years.
I drove technical enterprise program governance through project assessments, prescriptive guidance, technology construction permit criteria, and technology mandates.
I briefed the board of directors, senior executives, and regulators on transformation initiatives for portfolio rationalization, target state architecture, and infrastructure complexity.
VP of Technology Services and CTO
https://www.iimage.com/Transformed a low-margin $8M IT staffing firm into a world-class software development and systems integration company with over $75M in projects.
I created a business process improvement and automation practice that grew the contract backlog from $8 million to more than $75 million through successful technical proposals, competitive pricing, and profitable program execution on schedule, in scope, and at or above target margins.
I improved profitability, increased annual revenues by 300%, and managed a 34-member technology team across five concurrent programs.
I drove the company's vision, strategy, and tactics to align capabilities with current and future business opportunities.
I determined optimal software and systems engineering processes to mitigate risk, speed development, and minimize time-to-value for solution delivery while obtaining CMMI Level 2 certification.
I marketed corporate capabilities through technical presentations at conferences and leadership in technical user communities.
Technical Project Manager and Agile Scrum Master for Storage on Demand Startup MVP
https://spacereimagined.io/Oversaw and led the discovery, design, and implementation team for building the company website and a mobile app for on-demand storage.
I led the project team that designed and implemented the mobile app with a bespoke eCommerce platform with Stripe for payment processing and integration with UPS for logistics and fulfillment.
The mobile app enables customers to buy their space by the box, never paying for more than they need. Customers can schedule a box pickup or request a return delivery whenever and wherever they want.
Education
Master's Degree in Business Administration
Virginia Tech - Blacksburg, VA
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Marymount University - Arlington, VA
Skills
Tools
Visio, IBM Rational ClearQuest, Jira, Trello, SQL, Microsoft Project, Slack, Office 2016, Zoom, Office 365, Microsoft Excel, Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, Microsoft Visio, Financial Data, GIS, Miro, Salesforce, Oracle ERP, Siebel CRM, Turbo Pascal, GitLab, Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel 2016, Word 2016, Microsoft Access, Figma, GitHub, Postman, Excel 365
Paradigms
Agile Software Development, Requirements Analysis, Agile, Scrum, BPMN, Management, Incremental Development, Database Design, Database Development, Testing, E2E Testing, Software Testing, Stress Testing, Agile Leadership, Waterfall Delivery, Waterfall Development, Agile Product Management, Agile Project Management, Change Management, Team Development, B2B, Kanban, Implementation Project Management, Agile Workflow, B2C, DevOps
Platforms
Windows, MacOS, Oracle, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Azure, Unix, Firebase, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Industry Expertise
Pets, Government, Technology, Financial Services, Automotive, Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SME), Real Estate, Healthcare, Transportation & Shipping, Shipping, Banking & Finance, Software, Entertainment & Leisure
Other
Product Ownership, Policies & Procedures Compliance, Process Design, Project Management Operations, Process Flows, Apps, Backlog Management, Backlog Grooming, Feature Backlog Prioritization, User Stories, Test Cases, Agile Software Testing, Software QA, Customer Support, QA Testing, QA Test Plan Management, Quality Control (QC), Quality Management, Customer Experience Management, Web Project Management, Marketplaces, Requirements, Business Requirements, System Requirements, Requirements & Specifications, Functional Requirements, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Roadmaps, Relational Databases, Resource Allocation, Resource Management, Migration, System Migration, Migration Planning, Conflict Resolution, Client Relationship Management, Documentation, Leadership, Negotiation, Team Leadership, Stakeholder Management, Finance, Consulting, IBM Rational Rose, Enterprise Architecture, Lucidchart, BPM, Solution Architecture, Solution Design, Custom Solutions, Technology Solutions, Databases, Analysis, Project Discovery, Project Delivery, IT Projects, Agile Sprints, Agile Coaching, Data, CISO, CTO, CIO, eCommerce, PCI Compliance, PCI, Business Process Management (BPM), Cost Estimation, Budget Management, Project Budget Management, Budgeting, Zero-based Budgeting, Critical Path Analysis, Operations, IT Operations Management (ITOM), Design, IT Security, Security Testing, Integration, System Integration, Data Integration, Performance Management, Performance Testing, Vendor Management, IT Consulting, Technology Consulting, Technical Leadership, Technical Analysis, Technical Design, Technical Project Management, Startups, Project Management, Scrum Coaching, Startup Consulting, Enterprise, Service Delivery Project Management, Coaching, Scrum Master, Product Delivery, Discovery Workshops, Discovery, Project Estimation, Agile Transformation, Fintech, Technical Product Management, Remote Team Leadership, Management Consulting, Change Leadership, Agile Program Management, Risk Management, Communication, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Product Benchmarking, IT Project Management, Software Project Management, Mobile/Web Project Management, Project Planning, Project Finance, Team Management, Offshore Team Management, Distributed Team Management, Software Development Management, Business Process Automation, Business Process Flow Diagrams, Business Plan Consulting, Business Process Modeling, Business Process Optimization, Business Process Analysis, Business Processes, Process Improvement, Project Timelines, Project Scoping, Project Lifecycle, Scope, Scope Management, Scope of Work (SOW), User, User Requirements, Security, Data Migration, Database Migration, Cloud Migration, Business Analysis, Planning, Estimation & Planning, People Management, Hybrid Frameworks, Workshop Facilitation, Hybrid Project Management, Product Owner, Timelines, Configuration Management, Business Intelligence (BI), Business to Business (B2B), Release Management, Technical Requirements, Software Architecture, Cloud Services, SaaS, Microsoft, Software System Architecture Development, Supplier Quality Assurance, Waterfall Methodology, Process Development, Program Management, Project Tracking, Product Launch, Software Release Management, Sprint Planning, Advisory, Organizational Design, Compliance, IT Infrastructure, Web & Mobile Applications, Estimations, Presentations, Federal Contracting, Government Contracting, Analytical Dashboards, Acquisition Analysis, Budget Modeling, Operational Efficiency Improvement, Status Updates, Workflow, Vendor Selection, Request for Proposal (RFP), Business Transformation, Business Process Improvement (BPI), Process Improvement Project Management, Client Portals, Product Management, Tracking, Detail-oriented, Web Applications, Reporting, Back-end Architecture, Back-end Development, Data Analytics, Financial Modeling, Technology Strategy & Architecture, Procurement, System Implementation, Software Implementation, End-to-end Implementation (E2E), Regulated Entities, Process Optimization, Process Analysis, Large-scale Projects, Financials, Continuous Improvement, User Experience (UX), Customer Experience, Development, System Architecture, Product Strategy, Legacy Software, Front-end, Back-end, Executive Presentations, Project Scheduling, Applications, User Interface (UI), Operations Management, Communication Management, Business Strategy, Business Transformation Project Management, Data Management, Technical Program Management, Request for Information (RFI), Automation, Dashboards, Stakeholder Engagement, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Executive Reporting, Best Practices, Process Mapping, Investments, Risk Analysis, Budget Controls, Web Platforms, Portfolio Management, Progress Reporting, Meetings, Task Management, Organizational Structure, Project Reporting, Quality Assurance (QA), Governance, Business to Consumer (B2C), Direct to Consumer (D2C), Mortgages, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Email Marketing Automation, App Design, Mortgage Compliance, APIs, REST APIs, Infrastructure, MySQL, Financial Systems, UML, Earned Value Management (EVM), Mobile Apps, BI Reports, BI Reporting, Corporate Finance, Financial Reporting, Cloud, Cloud Platforms, Cloud Computing, Google Cloud, NoSQL, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cybersecurity, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Microsoft SQL Server, Digital Platform Development, Online Payments, Healthcare Services, Acquisitions, Chief Operations Officer (COO), Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Data Science, Business Continuity, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Smartsheet, Human Resources (HR), Manufacturing, HTML5, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Node.js, React, IT Networking, Programming, RFPs, RFQs, ITTs, Responses, Proposals & Quotes, Salesforce Sales Cloud, webMethods, PeopleSoft, BMC Remedy, RFPs, RFP Negotiation, Business Consulting, Fintech Consultant, Information Technology, Process Transformation, Operations Improvement, Quality Improvement, Performance Improvement, Productivity Improvement, Profit & Loss (P&L), Profit Optimization, Marketing, Market Fit, Economics, Accounting, Administration, Business, Strategy, Java, C++, Calculus, Oracle9i, eCommerce Design, Rational Unified Process (RUP), Swing, Software Design, Supply Chain, Machine Learning, Healthcare IT, Notion, Anti-money Laundering (AML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Staffing, Card Payments, Financial Analysis, REST, Mobile, Mobile UI, Mobile UX, Projects, Media, Regression, Warehouse Operations, Web, Stripe API, Fulfillment, International Commerce
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