Leon Calin

Leon Calin

Summary

A proven people/technology manager with 7+ years of people management and 19+ years of software development experience. Specializes in building and leading teams developing and integrating enterprise applications for Human Capital Management, Government, and Defense. Excellent communicator with international experience in Romania, France, and Czech Republic.

Extensive SDLC experience, from gathering requirements and systems design to managing development, testing, deployment, and maintenance of enterprise software projects.

Passionate about leading Lean/Agile change initiative in large software enterprise towards adoption of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) to better serve the changing needs of the business.

KEY QUALIFICATIONS

Functional Skills

IT Project Management, Technology Management, Interpersonal leadership, Coaching, Career Development, Performance Assessments, Full Life Cycle Development, Agile Methodologies, Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Lean Startup , Iterative Methodology, Application Design and Development, Configuration Management, Requirements Management, Software System Architecture, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Accessibility (Section 508 compliance)

Management Tools

Jira Agile, Jira Portfolio, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Office Suite

Languages

Java, J2EE, JSP, Freemarker, Javascript, HTML, CSS, PL/SQL, XML, Groovy, Unix Shell Scripting, C++, Delphi, PowerBuilder, UML, WSDL, BPEL

Technologies/Frameworks

Hibernate, Spring, Struts 2, Maven, Ant, JUnit, MyBatis/iBatis, Web Services, WSDL, Oracle SOA 10/11g, ESB, ETL, Apache Solr/Lucene, Selenium, Citrix

Databases

Oracle, SQL Server, Interbase, Sybase, MS Access

Platforms/Tools

Windows, Linux, OSX, Mobile Computing (iOS), Cloud Computing (AWS), Apache Tomcat, JRun, Eclipse IDE, Visio, SoapUI, Toad, SQL Developer, StarTeam, CSV, Perforce, Bamboo, Jenkins, Crystal Reports

 

CAREER Experience

TECHNICAL PROJECT MANAGER

May 2016 – Present

Financial Regulatory Agency, Rockville, MD

Manages a diverse agile team of 12 developers part of FINRA's Technology department supporting the Enterprise Data Sharing Platform product. Responsible for providing leadership and being the technology roadmap partner for next generation cloud based Data Sharing Platform (CRISP) as well as for maintaining the existing on-prem legacy Data Sharing Platform (DSH) and Data Warehouse system. Served as Scrum Master for the cloud based platform and Agile Lead for the legacy systems. Responsible for the successful delivery into production as well as the maintenance of each of the supported products.

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING MANAGER

Jan 2012 – May 2016

Monster Government Solutions, McLean, VA

Manages a diverse technical team of 8 – 10 developers supporting the Monster Hiring Management (MHM) suite of products. Responsible for providing IT leadership and being the technology roadmap partner for various MHM products like Seeker, Question Library, Analytics as well as shared services like Document Manager and integration with external Data Warehouse systems. Served as Scrum Master or Coach on every major product release. Responsible for the successful delivery into production as well as the maintenance of each of the supported products.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

• Shortened the major release cycle by 25% after identifying a critical process bottleneck during each major release as the update of the legacy customizations for 40+ clients at the end of the development cycle. Successfully championed in front of upper management and implemented the holistic inclusion of customizations as part of each Product Backlog. Removed critical resource dependencies through customizations knowledge transfer from the small TC team to the larger engineering team.
• Shortened the maintenance release cycle from 2 months on average to 1 month to increase the cadence of value delivery to clients and reduce feature delivery lead time.
• Increased the team’s productivity and the pace of feature delivery in a sustainable manner through the adoption of Agile Scrum methodology. Lead the adoption process by pioneering Scrum for the delivery of a highly customized Seeker application for OPMs Presidential Management Fellows Program in ½ the time of the competition which led to wining a new strategically important client. Since then I served as Scrum Master or Scrum Coach during every major release for a team geographically distributed between the USA and Prague, CZ. Used Jira Agile to facilitate collaboration between the two remote locations. Applied Scrum of Scrums for release level management.
• Reduced significantly the Monster Hiring Management (MHM) suite technical debt by refactoring and data migration of the Document Management service, one of the most complex shared services across the MHM suite. Expanded our technology stack to support upcoming business needs in the areas of cloud documents storage (AWS S3), mobile Seeker app (iOS), and intelligent search (Solr) by collaborating with Architecture and Operations SMEs on several prototype projects.
• Increased the morale and retention rate by mentoring internal talent to grow into positions of increased responsibility and contribution as well as test-driving new talent through our internship program.

TECHNICAL CONSULTING MANAGER

Jan 2010 – Jan 2012

Monster Government Solutions, McLean, VA

Managed a team of 4-5 developers and testers tasked to implement and maintain customizations of the core product suite of applications to fit individual customer needs. Customizations range from the look and feel of the User Interface for the Seeker facing applications to Custom Reports in the MHM Analytics solution as well as various Systems Integrations and Data Warehouse solutions. Utilized project management tools and documentation to enhance project delivery, tracking and metrics.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

• Implemented a new release vehicle to deliver customizations requests on a regular basis. Streamlined existing processes and/or implemented new ones to improve transparency and predictability leading to a reliable 2 weeks Custom Release cycle. Consolidated all custom requests into a single backlog used for all Custom Releases.
• Partnered with Professional Services group on documenting requirements for custom solutions; created and managed project plans across the whole customer base for road map releases as well as individual custom projects; managed work pipeline and provided status to stakeholders across different groups in MGS.
• Managed a small team of developers to migrate a customized MHM and Analytics solution for the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to the latest Enterprise platform. Participated in regular client status updates, responsible for risk management plans and overall technical project plan.
• Increased the software quality and productivity by mentoring and training developers on new core product suite customizable features as well as establishing software development best practices.

TECHNICAL CONSULTING LEAD

Oct 2007 – Jan 2010

Monster Government Solutions, McLean, VA

Lead and mentored the Technical Consulting team of 4-6 developers to build customized solutions and integrations of the MHM system with third-party systems like Brainbench, pan, ePredix, and PeopleSoft.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

• Successfully delivered a customized solution for the BOP based on the core MHM suite using an iterative software development process which led to over $1.5M yearly subscription revenue.
• Partnered with Professional Services in business and functional requirements definition and project plan definition; led the architecture, design, and implementation of the BOP customized solution; ensured solution quality and technical integrity through regular reviews of requirements, design, and code; generated technical schedules, risk management plans and performed task management oversight and technical status; participated in regular client status updates and internal executive level monthly showcases.
• Performed a feasibility study for outsourcing the rewriting of the existing client-server Delphi jobseeker application as a J2EE web application leading to decision to take this effort in-house.
• Increased MGS footprint in TSA by implementing the first Web Services Integration of MHM with their hiring portal using Oracle SOA 10g (ESB, OWSM). Involved throughout the whole life cycle of the project including design, development, unit and system integration testing, deployment, and maintenance. Coordinated the technical aspects with the integration partner through remote and on-site meetings.

SOFTWARE ENGINEERING TEAM LEAD

Aug 2003 – Oct 2007

Monster Government Solutions, McLean, VA

Lead a team of 4-5 developers to grow the existing ATS application into the MHM enterprise suite. Actively participated in restructuring the team under new management after the QuickHire acquisition while preserving productivity.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

• Evaluated several third party tool vendors to implement the first version of MHM Analytics product. Selected the most cost effective option and worked closely with the selected vendor to integrate their tool with MHM system.
• Finalized the implementation of Web Accessibility into the MHM suite for the first time by following the Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act. Successfully passed first independent compliance testing by auditors hired by our clients. 
• Managed the transition of all legacy client-server ATS systems to the latest production version of the MHM product. Coordinated a cross-departmental group of specialists to ensure the successful transition of all clients to the latest core production version while preserving their data and customized configuration.

SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Apr 2000 – Aug 2003

QuickHire, Inc., Alexandria, VA

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

• Participated in the redesign of the ATS (formerly QuickHire) product as a web application using J2EE technology and provided support throughout the entire project lifecycle.  Evaluated design, component, and COTS functionality; refactored code to stop memory and connection leaks and to improve performance; implemented customized table tags in JasperReports Open Source reporting engine to support Section 508 compliance for MHM’s reporting module UI.
• Served as Technical Lead and dedicated POC on BOP project to successfully develop a highly customized version of the legacy MHM System (formerly QuickHire) successfully used by BOP’s Delegated Examining Unit for more than five years. Implemented a Rapid Application Development process to bring the project back on track and deliver a solution meeting the client requirements leading to a satisfied strategic customer and business expansion through new MGS service purchases. Participated in onsite client meetings to clarify business and functional requirements. Set up onsite UAT sessions to capture user feedback first hand. Deployed and personally supported client through transition to the new system and subsequent releases. (Windows Client-Server application using Delphi 5.0 and InterBase 5.5 database)

SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Oct 1997 – Apr 2000

CGI, former Stanley Associates, Inc., Alexandria, VA

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

• Designed and developed a customized CAD component for the CAEMS (Computer Aided Embarkation System) module, part of the MAGTF – LOGAIS family of systems which provided the US Marine Corps a toolkit of capabilities for deliberate and crisis action planning. This component (CAEMS Templating) assisted the user in placing equipment on an AutoCAD drawing of a ship and was implemented using Visual C++ 6.0 (MFC, ActiveX Data Objects, ODBC) and AutoCAD OEM R14 graphic engine (LISP, ObjectARX). The UI was developed using MFC and LISP integrated in the OEM’s GUI, and the graphic engine connection with the external database was created using ODBC, ADO with ObjectARX libraries for C++.
• Performed 16 to 32-bit MAGTF - LOGAIS software migration from PowerBuilder 4.0 to 6.5 and from WATCOM SQL 4.0 to Sybase SQL Anywhere 5.0 database.  Added functionality and maintained the old 16-bit CAEMS Templating module written in C/C++ on a Sirling CAD++ engine. 
• Developed the Reports module for DISA’s Personnel and Contracts Management System project using Delphi 2.0 with Crystal Reports 5.0 and Oracle 7.2 database.

Education & professional development

Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Scrum Alliance - Aug 2012

Master of Science, Information Technology, University of Valenciennes et du Hainaut-Cambrésis, Valenciennes, France - June 1995

Bachelors of Science, Control and Computer Engineering, Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania - June 1994