Steven Southerland
Georgetown,Texas
Summary
Results-focused, Senior IT Manager with 15+ years of proven success in developing and leading cross-functional, high-performing technical teams to execute and deliver major technology initiatives. Highly-effective communicator, collaborator, facilitator and contributor to key partnerships, projects, and shared cross-domain objectives to achieve positive impact on all business goals.
Overview
18
18
years of professional experience
13
13
Certifications
Work History
Manager VI - Shared Application Services and Customer Relationship Management
TEXAS COMPTROLLER OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS
Austin, Texas
04.2020 - Current
- Managed a team of 27 professionals who collectively formed 7 specialized units: CI/CD, Middleware, Agile Delivery, Solution Architecture, Mainframe Support, Mainframe Modernization, and Security Coordination
- Managed legacy modernization initiative by leading the transformation of legacy mainframe programs into modernized solutions using cutting-edge technologies such as AWS Fargate, CloudFormation for Infrastructure as Code, Code Pipeline, Code Deploy, CDC/IDR, Kafka, MongoDB, React, NodeJS, Material UI
- Pioneered CPA’s first cloud-native application with event-driven microservices architecture
- Transformed Middleware and CI/CD teams as part of a strategic reorganization, introducing data-driven dashboards for enhanced work visibility and streamlining processes for seamless collaboration
- Achieved a 70% increase in productivity and accelerated pipeline delivery by meeting customer demands with precision
- Led an agile delivery team of senior scrum masters, product owners, UX designers, and Atlassian administrators across multiple portfolios
- Transformed from traditional waterfall methodologies to agile practices, resulting in enhanced predictability, accelerated delivery cycles, and an elevated customer experience
- Led and coordinated Agile initiatives with other leaders as a founding member of the Lean-Agile Center of Excellence, resulting in increased customer satisfaction by 25% through improved Agile practices
- Facilitated Agile training for stakeholders across all levels of the organization using live training, webinars, and workshops
- Organized and presented at the annual agency-wide in-house Agile conference (CPA-AgileCon), reaching over 500 attendees
- Oversaw the entire hiring process, from resume screening to interviewing, and hired 18 new personnel within 2.5 years, growing the team by 200%
- Maintained a 99% retention rate by fostering a positive and collaborative work environment.
Manager, Systems Engineering
RACKSPACE
Austin, Texas
10.2018 - 09.2019
- Led a high-performing distributed team of six systems engineers and software developers in developing a cloud-based monitoring ecosystem for internal and external customers
- Aligned the team’s objectives with the organization’s vision, strategy, and goals
- Integrated data feeds from disparate source systems into Kafka and InfluxDB using container-based microservices in GKE
- Achieved data processing capacity of 3.5 million metrics per minute and enabled real-time data analysis and visualization for internal and external customers
- Served as Product Owner on several Scrum teams
- Owned, managed, and prioritized product backlog
- Worked closely with customers and stakeholders to transform requests into actionable user stories with clearly defined acceptance criteria
- Ensured that the highest-value items were addressed in each sprint, leading to enhanced customer value
- Enhanced team cohesion and collaboration across geographically dispersed members by implementing frequent and transparent communication strategies
- This initiative strengthened interpersonal relationships, resulting in increased productivity, efficiency, and a more positive work environment
- Collaborated with project management to integrate diverse project plans and roadmaps, utilizing Smartsheets and Aha!, with the development team’s Agile boards in Jira
- This strategic alignment not only enhanced the precision and uniformity of reporting functions but also bridged the gap between traditional waterfall and agile practices
- The successful fusion of these methodologies led to improved project flexibility, increased team adaptability, and accelerated delivery times.
Manager, Infrastructure and Operations
HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION
Austin, Texas
08.2011 - 10.2018
- Directed the daily operations of a cross-functional team of 10, spanning systems engineering, operations, and vendor professional services
- Oversaw the administration, maintenance, and operation of all monitoring and reporting systems, thereby ensuring the health and performance of essential social services applications
- Orchestrated the development and management of the HHSC TIERS Infrastructure and Operations Command and Control Program, which proactively monitored the health of crucial social services applications
- Demonstrated agility in swiftly responding to risks and seizing opportunities
- Revamped the dashboard underpinning the HHSC TIERS Operations Program, enhancing threshold accuracy by 40%
- This improvement fostered a proactive response mechanism to alerts, thereby reducing the mean time to repair (MTTR)
- Established a comprehensive automated reporting system that amalgamated data from various sources
- This implementation significantly expedited team engagement by reducing response time by 50%, and diminished manual reporting tasks by 95%
- Played a pivotal role in the integration of ITIL best practices
- Instituted a solid event management system and contributed significantly to the transformation of the incident, problem, and change management systems into a unified, automated program.
Senior Product Manager
PLATINUM SALES SYSTEMS
Austin, Texas
01.2008 - 05.2011
- Directly oversaw IT systems, services, and support for cutting-edge online marketing products and services provided to the real estate industry
- Delivered strategic plans, roadmaps, and technology adoption advice to the senior leadership team
- Designed and developed systems/technology that secured a deal with Keller Williams International
- Realized the creation of 77k new clients and a $1.2M annual increase in revenue
- Overhauled the administrative system, created a user portal that enabled customers to personalize video, and consolidated three different services into a central control/data source
- Boosted operational/administrative efficiency and significantly enhanced user experience
- Constructed a truly unique and innovative advertising system that enabled Agents to increase revenue sourced from community websites by over 30% annually.
Education
Bachelor of Applied Arts & Sciences -
TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Skills
- Business Administration
- Complex Problem-Solving
- Project Management
- Key Performance Indicators
- Cross-Functional Team Management
- Brand Management
- Sales Techniques
- Salesforce Management
- Business Planning
- Operations Management
- Contract Management
- Negotiation
- Verbal and Written Communication
- Team Leadership
- Budget Control
- Performance Evaluations
- Time Management
Certification
- Amazon Web Services Cloud Practitioner
- SecDevOps Foundation (SDOF)
- SecDevOps Practitioner (SDOP)
- Certified Agile Leadership for Orgs (CAL-O)
- Certified Agile Leadership for Teams (CAL-T)
- Certified Agile Leadership Essentials (CAL-E)
- Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
- PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
- Agile Project Management (ICP-APM)
- ITIL V3 Intermediate in Service Strategy
- ITIL V3 Intermediate in Operational Support & Analysis
- ITIL V3 Foundation
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
Manager VI - Shared Application Services and Customer Relationship Management
TEXAS COMPTROLLER OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS
04.2020 - Current
Manager, Systems Engineering
RACKSPACE
10.2018 - 09.2019
Manager, Infrastructure and Operations
HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION
08.2011 - 10.2018
Senior Product Manager
PLATINUM SALES SYSTEMS
01.2008 - 05.2011
Bachelor of Applied Arts & Sciences -
TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Similar Profiles
Rhiannon GilardiRhiannon Gilardi
Research Analyst at Texas Comptroller of Public AccountsResearch Analyst at Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
David ChristopherDavid Christopher
Tax Compliance Officer III at Texas Comptroller of Public AccountsTax Compliance Officer III at Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
Daniel MyrtleDaniel Myrtle
Senior Auditor at Texas Comptroller of Public AccountsSenior Auditor at Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts