Robert Bland
Franklin,Tennessee
Summary
Expert in leading complex healthcare technology projects with a strong grasp of technical and business aspects. Proven track record in managing multifaceted initiatives and engaging stakeholders effectively. Key strengths include team leadership, customer service, and delivering business value through innovative technology solutions.
Overview
30
30
years of professional experience
10
10
Years of Software Development Management
Work History
Manager, Application Development
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, Tennessee
2016 - Current
- Led six distinct cross-functional teams delivering clinical, administrative, and educational applications across the enterprise, prioritizing work to align with strategic clinical goals.
- Established and coached Agile practices, enhancing delivery predictability and fostering team collaboration.
- Partnered with stakeholders to define system requirements, translate business needs into technical solutions, and maintain product roadmaps and backlogs.
- Oversaw QA and production support processes, leading incident response and root-cause analysis to improve application reliability and user experience.
- Managed operational budgets, resource planning, and vendor relationships to control costs and meet delivery timelines.
- Recruited and mentored department staff to enhance team performance.
- Produced stakeholder reports and risk-mitigation plans to inform decision-making and address potential challenges.
Principal Application Developer
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, Tennessee
2013 - 2016
- Designed, developed, and maintained outpatient order management applications (orders, diagnosis, charge capture) to support clinical workflows.
- Implemented user interfaces to improve staff interactions and reduce workflow friction.
- Conducted code reviews and refactoring to enforce standards and optimize application performance.
- Led root-cause analysis and resolution of production issues to improve system stability and uptime.
- Authored technical specifications from functional requirements and collaborated with project managers to deliver projects on schedule and within budget.
- Applied Agile practices to move solutions from prototyping to enterprise-quality testing and deployment.
- Maintained thorough documentation of processes, workflows, and troubleshooting procedures.
eBusiness Project Lead
IBM
Nashville, Tennessee
2004 - 2013
- Consistently led high-profile, complex, business-critical applications for executive management, leveraging strong understanding of business and technical aspects to meet precise deadlines and tight budgets.
- Managed eBusiness project and received specific requests for leadership due to strong project and technical skills, thorough knowledge of eBusiness technologies, and deep understanding of client needs.
- Managed more than 12 successful eBusiness projects for a major international tire manufacturer in Nashville, TN, including teams of more than 20 people.
- Estimated project resources, time, and costs, created and maintained project plans, assigned project tasks to team members, led project meetings, reported project results, analyzed team effectiveness, facilitated requirements gathering sessions, created analysis and design documentation, developed project code, organized project testing, and drove project deployment.
- Collaborated with business analysts and architects to gather requirements and prepare functional and technical specifications for the development team.
- Managed and maintained clusters of WebSphere Application Server instances as well as WebSphere Process Server instances.
- Trained team members on project processes and tools.
- Trained and demonstrated use of applications developed in project at multiple client locations across the United States and Canada.
- Created comprehensive training resources to effectively guide team members in their learning.
Faculty Member
University of Phoenix
Nashville, Tennessee
2007 - 2010
- Delivered instruction and facilitated learning in various Information Technology courses at the largest private university in North America in Nashville, TN.
- Facilitated on-campus courses sessions and weekly online discussions to engage students in course topics.
- Created instructional materials and student assignments to enhance understanding of course topics.
- Evaluated student performance on assignments and assigned grades based on that assessment.
eBusiness Development Lead
IBM
Nashville, Tennessee
1999 - 2004
- Led development of 8+ eBusiness projects for major international tire manufacturer, enhancing online presence and customer engagement.
- Architected, designed, and developed eBusiness projects, leading architecture and development teams of up to 8 people.
- Managed complex integrations between client legacy systems and web-based applications, ensuring seamless functionality and improved user experience.
- Configured WebSphere Application Server and deployed applications, streamlining deployment processes and improving application reliability.
- Earned I/T specialist certification through comprehensive training and exams.
Application Developer
IBM
Nashville, Tennessee
1996 - 1999
- Collaborated with team of consultants to develop architecture and design for large client/server application for nationwide insurance corporation in Fredericksburg, VA, using IBM’s VisualAge Smalltalk on OS/2 and Windows NT.
- Led the development team and managed the architecture, design, implementation, and testing of four major components of the application.
- Developed an architecture, design, and implementation of a Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) and Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) solution to manage Microsoft Word documents from within the application.
- Converted multiple components of the application from version 3.0a of IBM’s VisualAge Smalltalk to version 4.5a.
- Created multiple views, corresponding controllers, model classes, and comprehensive supporting documentation to enhance application functionality.
- Mentored IBM team members and client organization staff in Smalltalk skills, fostering knowledge transfer and skill development.
- Reduced customer service representatives’ phone time per customer by 5-10%, and reduced the amount of time required to train new customer service representatives by weeks.
- Handled customer relations through effective management of IBM team members’ schedules for classes or vacation.
Education
Master of Science - Computer Science | Software Engineering
Vanderbilt University
Nashville05-1996
Bachelor of Arts - Mathematics | Computer Science
Hendrix College
Conway, AR06-1994
Some College (No Degree) - Electrical Engineering
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, ARSkills
- Product management
- Project management
- Technical leadership
- Budget management
- Stakeholder management
- Time management
- Critical thinking
- Effective communication
Timeline
Manager, Application Development
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
2016 - Current
Principal Application Developer
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
2013 - 2016
eBusiness Project Lead
IBM
2004 - 2013
Faculty Member
University of Phoenix
2007 - 2010
eBusiness Development Lead
IBM
1999 - 2004
Application Developer
IBM
1996 - 1999
Master of Science - Computer Science | Software Engineering
Vanderbilt University
Bachelor of Arts - Mathematics | Computer Science
Hendrix College
Some College (No Degree) - Electrical Engineering
University of Arkansas