Jon McGowan
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Toronto, ON, Canada
Toptal member since February 14, 2020
Jon is an executive IT project manager and scrum master with proven experience aligning business and developer teams seeking to build innovative software products using agile and DevOps. Jon's leadership creates high-performing teams with improved time-to-market, higher customer satisfaction, and increased software quality while accelerating productivity across an IT portfolio. He brings deep expertise in banking, fintech, insurance, and retail.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile
- Agile Project Management
- Banking & Finance
- DevOps
- Discovery Workshops
- Project Budget Management
- Project Delivery
- Technical Program Management
Work Experience
Senior Project Kickoff Trainer
WebAge Solutions
- Delivered project leadership coaching and training on Agile, DevOps, and application modernization to IT delivery teams.
- Led hands-on workshops for development teams using modern tools for DevOps, Cloud security, CI/CD, and QA automation. Clients included major banks and insurance companies along with government services such as TD Bank, RBC, City of Toronto, InnovaPost, SunLife, and Travellers Insurance.
Agile Program Manager
West Corporation
- Led eight product teams, Scrum Masters, product owners, Kanban Flowmasters, developers, and QA on the first scaled Agile program using SAFe.
- Released a successful two-month SAFe program increment with a completely modernized telecommunication MVP.
- Consulted as a trusted advisor to the Enterprise Transformation team, VP of IT engineering, and directors of development, infrastructure, and quality.
Agile Transformation Project Manager
The Home Depot
- Led the Agile transformation of a $100 million IT portfolio with over 300 employees, five release trains, and Kanban infrastructure teams.
- Stood up the Agile Centre of Excellence and SAFe Portfolio Management Office while facilitating the planning and delivery for 22 product teams.
- Improved time-to-market from 18 months to three, improved quality in production by 85%, and business satisfaction with IT by 75%.
Agile DevOps Transformation Project Manager
Royal Bank of Canada RBC
- Stood up a new $10 million SAFe Agile program for over 100 IT and business executives and engineers from AML, credit card fraud, and capital markets.
- Planned and delivered a customized Agile transformation and coaching program with KPIs to executives moving from Waterfall.
- Built a DevOps CI/CD pipeline allowing deployments every four weeks, down from 12 months and an MVP three months ahead of schedule.
Patent Innovation Office Project Manager
TD Bank
- Established a best-in-class Kanban PMO for Canada's largest fintech Patent Innovation program delivering over 80 fintech patents per year.
Process Digitization Project Manager
Bank Of Montreal BMO
- Stood up the process transformation Kanban PMO and coached a team of over 30 process transformation leaders to measure and deliver business cases with $60 million in value.
Senior Agile Project Manager
ScotiaBank
- Set up and drove an international $10 million Mobile Wallet program for the Emerging Payments team utilizing Agile, Kanban, and product design workshops gaining 800,000 new customers in 24 months.
Senior Agile Project Manager
TD Bank
- Developed TD's first Agile program for mobile retail banking, insurance, and wealth management, delivering the #1 downloaded mobile finance app. I was the program manager, Scrum Master, and coach.
Agile Project Manager
Experian
- Spearheaded as Agile project manager, product owner, and architect of a credit automation system integrated into Fortune 500s such as Citibank, M&T Bank, Ford, Bell, Telus, Rogers, and Sprint. The company sold to Experian for $50 million.
Implementation Project Manager
CGI Group, Inc.
- Delivered customized applicant tracking systems integrated into ERP systems of major clients like SAP, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, TD Bank, CIBC, RBC Moneris, and Microsoft.
Project History
TD Bank DevOps Transformation Project Kickoff
Led dozens of engineering teams and senior leaders on DevOps workshops to cut down DevOps adoption from months to five days.
Led hands-on and remote “DevOps Sprints” as intensive boot-camp-style custom workshops for new DevOps teams by teaching and showing them the best tools and how to use them on their projects.
Covered numerous application modernization technologies for DevOps, Cloud security, CI/CD, and QA automation including Docker, Puppet, Chef, Git, GitHub, Jenkins, Maven, SonarQube, Nagios, Kubernetes, OpenShift, Ansible, Selenium, Cucumber, Jira, and Confluence to name a few.
911 Emergency Response Application Modernization
Helped new team of 75 engineers on eight teams work together on a first major scaled Agile program release in only 12 weeks.
Led eight product teams, Scrum Masters, product owners, Kanban Flowmasters, developers, QA, and senior executives on their first Agile program using the SAFe methodology. Worked to deliver completely re-architectured core 911 services utilizing SOA architecture to better support agent scalability, caller geolocating, and VOIP Applications.
Home Depot Digital Transformation Project
Led Agile transformation improving: Time-to-market from 18 to three months, defects by 85%, and customer satisfaction by 75%.
Led digital transformation using SAFe scaled Agile program management on a $100 million IT portfolio with over 300 employees, five release trains, 22 product teams, and two Kanban SAP infrastructure teams. Stood up an Agile Centre of Excellence and SAFe portfolio management office while facilitating planning and delivery for 22 digital product teams working on digitization for payment applications, eCommerce, inventory tracking, logistics, business intelligence, and pricing optimization.
RBC DevOps Cloud Infrastructure Transformation Project
Led delivery of DevOps CI/CD, allowing deployments every two weeks down from 12 months. MVP three months ahead of schedule.
Stood-up a new $10 million SAFe Agile program for over 100 IT and business executives and engineers from AML, credit card fraud and capital markets embarking on a major DevOps Cloud IT transformation. Planned and delivered customized Agile project release plans, coached and led IT teams, Scrum Masters and product owners as well as supported IT and business executives with Agile team KPIs moving from Agile to Waterfall delivery.
Fintech Innovation Patent Office Setup Project
Established Fintech innovation office for major bank that facilitated the creation and delivery of 80+ fintech patents/year.
Established a best-in-class Kanban PMO for Canada’s largest fintech patent innovation program. Created processes for conducting dozens of monthly workshops to develop patentable innovations across all sectors of the bank, including retail banking, business banking, and wealth management.
BMO Retail Banking Digital Transformation Project
Led 30 process improvement consultants on implementing dozens of digitization improvements delivering $60 million in value.
Stood up process transformation Kanban PMO and coached teams of over 30 process transformation leaders on Agile, Lean, and Six Sigma to measure and deliver business cases and associated improvement projects worth over $60 million in value.
ScotiaBank International Mobile Wallet Project
Utilized Agile, Kanban, and product design workshops to rapidly develop an MVP gaining 800,000 new customers in 24 months.
Set up and drove an international $10 million mobile wallet program for the Emerging Payments team utilizing Agile, Kanban, and product design workshops to deliver MVPs in several different countries of an international bank, gaining 800,000 new customers in 24 months. The project featured in Time Magazine and was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Clinton Foundation, and Global Business Innovation Awards.
TD Bank Mobile Banking App Project
Created TD Bank's first mobile banking program using Agile and delivered the #1 most downloaded mobile finance app in Canada.
Served as program manager, Scrum Master and coach standing up TD’s first Agile Program. The program worked for 24 months to deliver iOS and Android apps for mobile retail banking, mobile insurance, and mobile wealth management, becoming the #1 most downloaded mobile finance app in Canada.
Experience Credit Adjudication Automation App
Designed and implemented a machine-learning powered credit decision adjudication automation tool in dozens of Fortune 500s.
Agile project manager, solution architect, and product owner for a credit automation system powered by machine learning models. Implemented and integrated our solution into Fortune 500s such as Citibank, M&T Bank, Ford, Bell, Telus, Rogers, and Sprint. I h elped create a product later sold to Experian for $50 million.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Software Engineering
Brock University - Ontario, Canada
Certifications
Certified SAFe Program Consultant
SAFe Institute
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum Alliance
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Skills
Tools
Java Application Servers, Microsoft Project, Jira, Jenkins, Git, Confluence, Cucumber, Claude
Paradigms
Agile Project Management, Agile Product Management, Management, Scrum, B2B, B2C, Dual Track Agile, Waterfall Delivery, Agile, Agile UX, Agile Workflow, Agile Leadership, Agile Delivery, DevOps, Azure DevOps, Continuous Deployment, Continuous Delivery (CD), Continuous Integration (CI), Kanban, Design Thinking, API Architecture, Web Architecture, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA)
Platforms
Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, Red Hat Linux, Windows, Windows Server, iOS, Android, Solaris, Java EE (Jakarta EE)
Industry Expertise
Business Systems, Technology, Architecture, Banking & Finance, Merchant Banking, Retail & Wholesale
Other
Agile Product Delivery, Agile Certified Practitioner, Professional Agile Leadership (PAL), PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), Minimum Viable Product (MVP), MySQL, PHP, Java 8, Task Management, Bid Management, Issue Management, IT Management, Vendor Management, Scrumban, Scrum Master, Scrum Testing, Scrum Product Owner, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Professional, Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Jira REST API, Business to Business (B2B), Sales Pipeline Management, B2B Lead Generation, Business to Consumer (B2C), Business, Business Planning, Business Analysis, Business Strategy, Business Models, Business Design, Project Finance, Project Management, Web Project Management, Project Services, Project Controls, Technical Leadership, Technical Training, Technical Project Management, Technical Product Management, Amazon, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Microsoft Azure, Discovery, Product Discovery, Discovery Workshops, Process Design, Process Improvement, Process Improvement Project Management, Business Plan Consulting, Business Transformation Program Management, Digital Transformation Program Management, Integrated Program Management , Portfolio Management, Lean Portfolio Management, Enterprise Product Portfolios, Project Portfolio Management (PPM), Fintech, CTO, Agile Transformation, Product Delivery, Technology Consulting, Technology Transformation, Transformational Leadership, Business Transformation, Process Transformation, Product Owner, Product Roadmaps, Delivery, Delivery Management, IT Service Delivery, Sales Pipelines, Projects, Project Discovery, Project Delivery, Project Design, Project Rescue, IT Projects, Project Reporting, Project Tracking, Jira Administrator, Agile Sprints, Agile Coaching, Agile Deployment, CIO, Program Management, Agile Program Management, Complex Program Management, IT Program Management, Technical Program Management, Pair Programming, Remote Work, Remote Team Leadership, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), SAFe 4 Advanced Scrum Master, Gherkin, Java, Prototyping, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Continuous Development (CD), Project Management Professional (PMP), Budgeting, Budget Management, Budget Modeling, Budget Controls, Annual Budgets, Project Budget Management, Schedule Optimization, Scheduling, Project Scheduling, Scheduling Tools, Design, Technical Design, Data Architecture, Code Architecture, UX Architecture, Software Architecture, Solution Architecture, Mobile Banking, Open Banking APIs, Online Banking, Commercial Banking, Investment Banking, Core Banking Systems, Investment Banking Technology, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, ITIL, Coaching, Cloud Coach, Career Coaching, Scrum Coaching, Business Coaching, Executive Coaching, Enterprise Coaching, Mentorship & Coaching, Waterfall Methodology, AIOps, AI Agents, Agentic AI, AI Tools, AI Adoption, AI Design, AI Ethics, Large Language Models (LLMs), OpenAI, Claude Code, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Artificial Intelligence Product Manager, Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS), Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Conversational AI, Vibe Coding, JSON REST APIs, JSON, Microsoft Copilot, Digital Transformation, AWS DevOps, Kubernetes, COBOL, IBM Db2
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