Daria Akers
Fairfax,VA
Summary
Over 27 years experience as a Technical Jill-of-All-Trades. Excels at analyzing complex situations; thinks strategically, effectively communicates between technical and non-technical stakeholders, and delivers on time, high-value results.
Overview
16
16
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Business Analyst
Paylocity
Remote
03.2020 - Current
- Managed the project to extend the calculation of taxes for employees that work in multiple states, thus allowing us to solidify our offerings to support our Professional Sports Team Vertical.
- Single handedly tackled a 4 year backlog of over 135 bug tickets and identified a major issue that was the cause of 22 of them. Documented the issue and provided cost projections to solve it.
- Created cross functional teams of Operations, Government Relations, and Tax Compliance to make sure new functionality was rolled out smoothly and on time.
- Executed analysis of risks and identified risk mitigation strategies
- Analyzed data to identify root causes of problems and recommend corrective actions for several Major Incidents that required data clean-up
Lead QA Engineer
Cvent Inc.
McLean. VA
02.2017 - 03.2020
- Managed the last phase of a project that translated Cvent's supplier focused application into 17 different languages. Coordinated all development and testing between 3 different teams in India and the US in order to complete the project on time after it was at risk of delay
- Drove initiatives to make quality a focus in every stage of the SDLC
- Evangelized Enterprise-level Scrum practices including Scrums of Scrums, ticket dependencies, and front loading work to help streamline development between teams for larger projects
- Mentored junior QEs on test coverage, automation, the appropriate level of documentation, and risk assessment
Senior Quality Assurance Engineer
The Common Application, Inc
Arlington, VA
04.2015 - 12.2016
- Managed the offshore testing effort for Common App's iPhone app, OnTrak. Verified all test plans, answered questions about the website, and helped keep the project on time and within budget
- Created and executed detailed test plans for new features and defects as well as conducting extensive regression testing on a multi-part website that handled over 4 million college applications and 20 million recommendation forms for over 600 member colleges in 14 different countries during the 2015-2016 season
Senior Quality Assurance Analyst & Release Manager
ThinkGeek Inc.
Fairfax, VA
10.2010 - 04.2015
- Spearheaded the move to Scrum from a less formal SDLC. Implemented daily scrums, planning, grooming, demos, and retrospectives
- Spearheaded a massive reconciliation between our Web store and the ERP system based on orders, items in the cart, and billing differences. Investigated more than 3,000 discrepancies and worked with developers to fix the issues. Saved Christmas for over 300 people
- Coordinated all code releases. Worked with developers, sysadmins, and DBAs to assess the risk of new features and helped create rollback plans if warranted; merged code into release candidates, consolidated all deployment instructions, and created release notes for the company
- Oversaw all work conducted by an external contractor on the customization and implementation of NetSuite
Education
Bachelor of Science - Environmental Science
Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University
Blacksburg, VA1995
Skills
- Process Improvement Planning
- Strong Communication Skills
- Technical Troubleshooting
- Risk Assessment
- Root Cause Analysis
- Stakeholder Relations
- Team Building
- Remote Team Management
- Public Speaking
- Mentoring
- Training
Certification
- Certified Scrum Master - 1/27/2009 - 2026
- Certified Scrum Product Owner - 8/22/2022 - 2026
Volunteer Work
- At Large Board Member - Fairfax - Falls Church Community Services Board
Oct 2016 – Present, Volunteer
Serves on the general board as well as the Behavioral Health Oversight and Developmental Disabilities subcommitees. The Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board is the public agency that plans, organizes and provides services for people who have mental illness, substance use disorders, and intellectual disability. - In Our Own Voice Presenter - NAMI Northern Virginia
Aug 2015 – Present, Volunteer
Presents the In Our Own Voice program on behalf of NAMI Northern Virginia on successfully living with Mental Illness to people with mental illness, their families, and the general public.
Work Preference
Job Search Status
Open to workWork Type
Full TimeLocation Preference
RemoteSalary Range
$110000/yr - $200000/yrTimeline
Business Analyst
Paylocity
03.2020 - Current
Lead QA Engineer
Cvent Inc.
02.2017 - 03.2020
Senior Quality Assurance Engineer
The Common Application, Inc
04.2015 - 12.2016
Senior Quality Assurance Analyst & Release Manager
ThinkGeek Inc.
10.2010 - 04.2015
Bachelor of Science - Environmental Science
Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University