Academy Sports + Outdoors

UI Engineering Manager
November 2017 – Present

Change, anticipated or not, is always positive if you look for it. This particular change took me from Columbus, Ohio after nearly 20 years and moved me to Houston, Texas. What I found was a great city and a great business with lots of e-commerce potential waiting to be tapped. The entire technology stack, particularly in the UI, needed a solid update, and all the things done and learned at DSW could be readily brought to bare. An updated web experience, mobile apps, in-store devices, and advanced customer touch-points are all on the table. Keep an eye on the Academy web site to see what happens.

Responsibilities
Manage a team of front-end developers building and deploying best-of-class user experiences in an Agile, IBM WCS eCommerce, retail environment
• Hire and manage staff of UI developers for web site development
• Drive technological change for a more flexible, maintainable UI
• Work with other managers to bring alignment around new architectural decisions and direction
• Drive changes to code management practices and bring greater efficiencies to the development flow
• Improve quality of deliverables, reduce defect rates, and increase speed to delivery for web site development
• Advocate for and implement new development tooling for UI team to increase developer efficiency by as much as 20%

Manage a team of scrum masters and evolve the overall Agile practice within the eCommerce development organization
• Hire and manage a staff of scrum masters to support deliverables across WCS UI, WCS back-end, Sterling services, and others
• Update practices from a mix of waterfall and Agile to a SaFE Agile system
• Work across disciplines with other teams and managers to drive adoption of Agile methodologies
• Identify opportunities for collaboration on Agile development with Enterprise development teams and engage with them to create a smoother hand-off for projects that deliver into the eCommerce environment
• Hold teams accountable for delivering on commitments and evangelizing Agile benefits across the organization