AMY ALTMAN
HEAD OF ENGINEERING
Burlington,MA
Summary
Engineering leader with 20+ years of experience building and running large, product-focused engineering organizations in fast-moving, data-driven businesses. Proven ability to translate strategy into execution and operate engineering with discipline—planning, metrics, incident management, and predictable delivery. Deep experience modernizing platforms, operationalizing ML/GenAI in production, and partnering closely with Product, Design, and Business leaders to improve customer outcomes and revenue performance. Former startup co-founder with strong delivery instincts and ownership mindset.
Overview
2026
2026
years of professional experience
Work History
SVP, Head of Technology
WOOD MACKENZIE (Verisk)
2024 - Current
- Recruited to lead enterprise-wide technology execution and AI transformation across energy and commodity analytics.
- Led a global organization of 500+ software engineers, data scientists, and MLOps professionals across product engineering, platforms, data, and AI
- Established and scaled a 200+ engineer Technology Center in India to improve delivery velocity, operating leverage, and global coverage
- Defined AI-first strategy, governance, and operating model; moved GenAI from experimentation to production-grade capability across the enterprise
- Designed and launched a secure GenAI agentic framework in under 9 months (orchestration, governance, evaluation, tooling) to power enterprise initiatives
- Introduced AI-assisted development (e.g., Amazon Q) improving impact per engineer ~15% on legacy apps and 30%+ on greenfield delivery
- Built production-grade ML framework supporting short-, medium-, and long-term forecasting and pricing across energy and commodity markets
- Defined and operationalized engineering velocity metrics (flow, cycle time, predictability), reducing cycle time from ~15 weeks to ~4 weeks
- Delivered >$9M in first-year business value through AI-driven cost reduction, productivity gains, and cost avoidance
- Partnered closely with Product, Research, Commercial, and Finance to align roadmaps to measurable customer and economic outcomes
SVP & Chief Technology Officer
PEARSON – Higher Education
2023 - 2024
- Led end-to-end engineering execution for global learning platforms (16M+ MAU; $1B+ revenue), with strong focus on reliability, speed, and AI-driven product differentiation.
- Directed 1,000+ global engineers across software engineering, data science, ML, QA, DevOps, and technical customer success.
- Planned and executed product roadmap; increased delivery velocity 30% within two quarters through operating-model changes and execution discipline.
- Created a stability platform manifesto and phased strategy; executed first phase in one quarter and increased uptime from 95% to 99.5%
- Reorganized teams to reduce communication barriers and clarify ownership; reduced release cycle by 50% and removed $13M+ of excess cost
- Led GenAI efficiency initiatives, including AI-powered performance testing tooling that reduced cost by $1.3M
- Developed flagship AI products with OpenAI and Amazon Bedrock for students and instructors from inception through POC to production under 6 months to combat the AI threat to the business; enhanced learning outcomes by ~20%, increased engagement, reduced drop-out rates by 20%, and raised NPS scores by 25%
- Launched GenAI tutor capability (Azure + ChatGPT), reaching 50,000+ unique active users in the first month of beta
VP Engineering / CTO
NASDAQ
01.2019 - 01.2022
- Led product engineering and platform transformation for governance/board SaaS serving public-company clients.
- Led an international 300-person engineering organization across development, QA, DevOps, and technical customer success
- Set multi-year technical strategy (Azure migration, cloud-ready architecture, microservices roadmap) aligned to business goals
- Transformed waterfall delivery to predictable scrum; reduced deploy frequency from 12 weeks to 4 weeks
- Stabilized product and improved customer retention from
- Boosted competitive win rate by 25% and increased NPS to 63% (from 36%) through reliability and product quality improvements
- Integrated product/QA/release/tech support into cross-functional teams; reduced post-release defects by 50% and increased release quality score from 32% to 71%
- Launched ESG solution (OneReport) and delivered greenfield cloud-native mobile app rewrite (SwiftUI/Combine) with 9/10+ UX ratings from sampled directors
- Implemented automated CI/CD using GitLab, Kubernetes, and Terraform; improved DORA metrics, reducing change failure rate from ~20% to 0
Chief Technology Officer
VECNA TECHNOLOGIES
01.2017 - 01.2019
- Owned engineering execution, customer implementations, and cloud operations for healthcare SaaS products.
- Led full-stack development, QA, DevOps, infrastructure (AWS), product support, and professional services for customer implementations
- Reorganized teams to distribute product knowledge and improve delivery focus; reduced turnaround time on critical blocking issues by 75%
- Introduced container-based deployments cutting deployment time by ~66% and reducing deployment error rates by 90%
- Deployed self-service patient app integrated with leading EHR systems via HL7 and REST APIs; reduced integration implementation time by 50%+
Vice President of Software Engineering
MPAY, INC.
01.2015 - 01.2017
- Led product engineering and IT for payroll/HR SaaS platforms, focusing on execution, compliance, and scalable delivery.
- Managed product managers, engineers, scrum masters, IT, and QA; owned SaaS development, operations, and corporate IT
- Provided technical strategy and roadmaps as part of executive leadership; aligned investments to business and operational goals
- Led change management from waterfall to agile delivery across teams
- Increased potential revenue by 40% by releasing three enterprise SaaS product lines
- Oversaw regulatory compliance and release execution: 26+ releases (2016) and 20 releases (2017) serving 2.5M users
- Built cross-functional scrum teams and KPI guardrails; reduced pre-release defects by 35%, cut post-release rework by 40%+, and achieved 97% roadmap adherence
- Recruited and scaled org from 10 to 40+ across four teams; achieved 92% retention
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer
ACORN TECHNOLOGY
01.2005 - 01.2014
- Co-founded and scaled an enterprise fintech software business; led product engineering, delivery, and global implementation.
- Built and scaled the product from a single solution to four award-winning enterprise platforms; supported a $100M+ sales pipeline
- Drove release discipline and automation: reduced release cycle from 6 months to 12 weeks; added automated testing reducing regression cost by 20%
- Established product development KPIs (predictability/quality/efficiency), achieving 95% predictability, 82% quality, and 85% efficiency targets
- Supported growth through direct customer engagement; personally presented product value to drive $89M in license revenue
- Improved scalability/performance while reducing time to deliver new features by 25%
- Established offshore R&D; in India reducing total costs by 40%; delivered implementations across 7+ countries
Education
Bachelor of Science - Electrical & Computer Engineering
San Diego State University
San Diego, CASkills
- Engineering Execution & Delivery Predictability
- Manager-of-Managers Leadership & Org Design
- Platform Reliability & Incident Management
- Product & Engineering Partnership
- CI/CD, DevEx & Quality Systems
- Cloud Architecture & Platform Modernization
- Data, ML & GenAI Productization
- Performance Management & Talent Development
- Change Leadership in High-Pressure Environments
Websites
Timeline
VP Engineering / CTO
NASDAQ
01.2019 - 01.2022
Chief Technology Officer
VECNA TECHNOLOGIES
01.2017 - 01.2019
Vice President of Software Engineering
MPAY, INC.
01.2015 - 01.2017
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer
ACORN TECHNOLOGY
01.2005 - 01.2014
SVP, Head of Technology
WOOD MACKENZIE (Verisk)
2024 - Current
SVP & Chief Technology Officer
PEARSON – Higher Education
2023 - 2024
Bachelor of Science - Electrical & Computer Engineering
San Diego State University
AWARDS
CTO of the Year Finalist, 2018 (Vecna) | Mass Technology Leadership Council
PEOPLE & ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP
- Built and led multi-layer engineering organizations (EM → Director → VP), scaling leadership capability alongside team growth
- Established clear role charters, decision rights, and accountability models across engineering and product teams
- Hired, coached, and performance-managed senior engineering leaders; built succession plans for critical roles
- Created operating rhythms (planning, reviews, retrospectives) that improved leadership effectiveness, engagement, and delivery predictability
- Improved employee engagement scores from -30 to +20 through leadership development, role clarity, and execution stability
- Implemented performance expectations and operating rhythms for engineering leaders, improving accountability and predictability
- Enhanced learning outcomes by ~20%, increased engagement, reduced drop-out rates by 20%, and raised NPS by 25%
- Coached senior engineering leaders through periods of AI-driven disruption and reliability pressure while maintaining engagement and retention
- Generated $89M in license revenue through direct customer engagement and delivery excellence