Roland Abou Younes, Developer in Riga, Latvia
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Roland Abou Younes

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Bio

Roland is an executive and technology leader focused on AI solution prototyping. He has 20+ years of experience in the IT sector and a solid background of 15+ years in senior management roles, focusing on business and software development. As a software developer and a manager, Roland understands technology and can relate very positively to both technical and management team members.

Portfolio

Toptal
Team Building, IT Program Management, Business Strategy Alignment...
Sun Finance Group
Architecture, New Products, Software as a Service (SaaS), Strategy, Software...

Experience

  • Business Strategy Alignment - 15 years
  • Program Management - 15 years
  • Performance Management - 15 years
  • Team Building - 15 years
  • Remote Team Leadership - 5 years
  • Python - 4 years
  • Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) - 2 years
  • Vector Databases - 2 years

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Atlassian

The most amazing...

...solution I've built is an open-source knowledge management solution with gamification, part of which Toptal adopted as Top Assist.

Work Experience

Engineering Manager

2022 - 2024
Toptal
  • Led team expansion by onboarding interns and senior engineers, splitting the team into two for billing scopes.
  • Mentored team members, built career development plans for engineers, and supported engineers' transition to engineering manager roles.
  • Oversaw and managed the performance of the billing team, in addition to streamlining the team processes to eliminate waste and optimize delivery. As a result, the team was repetitively referred to as the best-performing engineering team.
Technologies: Team Building, IT Program Management, Business Strategy Alignment, Incident Management, Performance Management, IT Recruitment, Mentorship & Coaching, Architecture, Strategy

Chief Information Officer

2019 - 2020
Sun Finance Group
  • Aligned software development teams closely with business hubs, implementing Scrum based on the Scrum Guide to ensure efficient and transparent project delivery.
  • Led the architectural transformation from a Zend-based on-site monolith to a modern, all-cloud, Infrastructure-as-Code, Domain-Driven Design (DDD) microservices architecture using Symfony.
  • Established a service desk function integrated with business intelligence tools, enabling us to monitor service levels effectively and improve performance metrics across the board.
  • Implemented processes for 100% visibility in sprint deliveries, functionality tracking, and a detailed breakdown of infrastructure and project costs, to ensure cost transparency,.
  • Introduced robust engineering budget processes, including tracking and reporting mechanisms, to manage resources efficiently.
  • Set up streamlined operational processes, covering purchase, invoice, and asset management to improve efficiency and accountability.
  • Resolved recruitment bottlenecks by establishing an overseas service development hub, ensuring we could scale the team with the right talent.
  • Renegotiated software and service agreements and led acquisitions, achieving significant cost savings while aligning services with our business goals.
  • Ensured minimal disruption to delivery and service levels while reducing engineering costs by over 30%, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Took great pride in mentoring my direct reports, fostering their professional growth, and building a strong foundation of trust between engineering and business teams.
Technologies: Architecture, New Products, Software as a Service (SaaS), Strategy, Software, Procurement, Team Management, Agile, Microservices, API Integration, APIs, Cloud, Cloud Platforms

Experience

Nur: A Self-actualizing Documentation Chat Framework

https://github.com/MDGrey33/Nur
A generative AI-empowered knowledge management solution that uses gamification to incentivize knowledge gap recovery and engagement. Users can interface with the system using its chat functions. The solution is an open-source tool and served as the inspiration for Toptal's Top Assist.

Skills

Tools

Jira, Confluence, Atlassian

Languages

Python

Paradigms

Agile, Microservices

Other

Team Building, Program Management, Performance Management, Business Strategy Alignment, Remote Team Leadership, Continuous Improvement, Incident Management, Mentorship & Coaching, Communication, Fintech, Billing Systems, Vector Databases, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), IT Program Management, Business Strategy Alignment, IT Recruitment, Architecture, Software as a Service (SaaS), Strategy, New Products, Software, Procurement, Team Management, API Integration, APIs, Cloud, Cloud Platforms, Software Architecture

Collaboration That Works

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