Austin Kwong
Markham,Canada
Summary
Results-driven leader with practical and process knowledge in Information Technology, specializing in Quality Engineering, Application Development and Maintenance synergies, IT transformation, Test Environment Management, DevOps, Release Management, Incident Management, IT governance, and Change Management.
Extensive experience delivering transformational banking and insurance programs, spearheading Quality Engineering & Quality Assurance transformations within large global teams. Driving force behind automation and DevOps optimizations, with a keen interest in exploring Generative AI toolsets.
Key contributor to the implementation of agile methodologies. Proven track record for building strong rapport and cross-functional support with technology and business partners to deliver value. Recognized as a consistent top performer and servant leader who and fosters collaborative relationships to achieve key outcomes.
Driven and decisive with a strong motivation to meet aggressive timelines while supporting continuous improvement through implementing efficiencies and driving progressive change, empowering employees and building trust, authenticity and a one-team culture
Overview
23
23
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
DIRECTOR, QUALITY ENGINEERING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE
Royal Bank of Canada
08.2018 - Current
- Provide robust team leadership and direction to the global QE/QA organization within Investor Services IT, defining quality strategies, execution plans, functional testing, automation, performance engineering, test environment management, release management and ensuring successful deliverables to clients and business partners
- Teams are located in Canada, UK and India, with a total team size of ~180
- Direct the overall Quality Engineering Transformation Strategy and establish the roadmap and vision aligned to the IS IT strategy
- Key focus on automation growth and DevOps strategies leveraging RBC in-house tooling, Generative AI, increasing efficiencies, operational excellence with a shift-left focus and effective cost management
- Strong collaboration with Application Development and Maintenance teams to ensure synergies and partnership to deliver on key initiatives
- Regularly provide transparent and succinct communication to senior and executive leadership: KPIs, project updates and dashboards
- Focus with a commercial and value focused mindset and is a proponent and leader in delivering change with an agile mindset, championing the notion of client impact, iterative delivery and continuous process and team improvements
- Management overall headcount and financial transits with an overall annual budget of $15MM+ CAD
- Partner with Third Party Vendors to ensure appropriate balance and cost effectiveness and fair negotiations
- Spearheaded and completed two major RFPs returning a savings of ~$4MM CAD
- Primary driver of key IT efficiencies focused on the QE target operating model and resourcing strategies, with a target combined savings of $14.6M over the next five years
- Facilitating cross-functional collaboration for improved decision-making processes within the organization.
- Empowering teams, provide people leadership, coaching and mentoring of the Senior Managers and skip-level staff, driving performance enablement
- Leading with authenticity and empathy, while advocating for career development and growth to achieve a culture of high performance and superior individual and team results
- Collaborate with QE Centre of Excellent groups for key performance indicators, continuous improvement on tooling, DevOps/Continuous Testing, proof of concepts, and best practices for automation and driving an engineering-first mindset
- Leading the creation of the RBC IS IT Change Review Board (CRB) and implementing processes to onboard group as of one of the first autonomous CRBs from Enterprise CAB
- Core member of the Employee Engagement Committee, spearheading team building events and promoting a work hard, play hard team culture as ‘One RBC’
SENIOR MANAGER, QUALITY ASSURANCE AND GOVERNANCE
Aviva Canada Inc.
08.2016 - 08.2018
- Accountable for all Functional Testing activities of the QA Shared Practice within the non-production environments (ACPT/QA environments)
- Leader of a distributed QA resourcing strategy consisting of 80+ individuals consisting of Full-time employees and contractors
- Financial acumen and responsible for managing a cost centre transit of over $4M
- Collaborate with Development, ePMO, IT infrastructure and business stakeholders to deliver on multiple projects and initiatives within an Agile Delivery model
- Key relationship manager with Global Sourcing Partner, Cigniti Technologies and key member partnering with TCS
- Core member and Product Owner of the Process Re-engineering and Metrics & Reporting work streams within the QA Transformation, driving continuous process improvements and change as it aligns to industry best practices – KPIs and reporting
- Responsible for driving the strategic direction of Quality Assurance as it aligns with departmental and goals of Aviva Canada
- Devise business cases to be presented to the AVP of Quality Assurance and VP of Strategy and Change to promote QA efficiencies and resource effectiveness
- Responsible for Performance Management of the Functional Testing team, providing support and mentoring of Team Leads, Senior Test Analysts and Intermediate Test Analysts
- Advocate of Quality Assurance throughout the entire SDLC and ensuring adherence to governance gateways and promoting a shift-left mindset
- Member of the Aviva Change Advisory Board (CAB) committee
MANAGER, IT CHANGE AND RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Tangerine Bank
03.2014 - 07.2016
- Collaborate with Testing & QA, Development, PMO, Enterprise Architecture and IT Operations teams to define, document and communicate release planning and scope throughout the SDLC
- Accountable for all non-production environments (DEV/SIT/UAT environments), IVR/Genesys environments, respective maintenance, environment data refreshes, source code management and defect lifecycle management
- Member of the Agile Centre of Excellence, representing Testing & QA, Change Management and Release Management teams, providing input as it pertains to Enterprise Agile Transformation
- Core member of the DevOps Agile work stream specializing in Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery, leading the evaluation of automated build deployment/orchestration, build verification testing, development unit testing, source code tooling and environment/stream strategies
- Responsible for the creation of the strategic roadmaps for both Release Management and Change Management teams as it pertains to departmental and organizational goals
- Establish the strategic migration to Jenkins CI, created new Production Implementation process flows and revised gateways (entry/exit criteria) to mitigate risk and improve quality within the SDLC
- Ensure adherence to Change and Release Management processes – software build promotion model, change requests approvals, security code reviews and testing sign-off
- Primary point of contact to facilitate Go/No Go decision with senior IT leadership
TEAM LEADER, TESTING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE
Tangerine Bank
02.2011 - 03.2014
TEST LEAD, TESTING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE
ING Direct Canada
12.2009 - 01.2011
TEST ANALYST, TESTING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE
ING Direct Canada
04.2006 - 11.2009
HELP DESK ANALYST – CONTACT CENTRE
ING Direct Canada
03.2005 - 03.2006
DIRECT BANKING ASSOCIATE – CONTACT CENTRE
ING Direct Canada
08.2002 - 02.2005
Education
Bachelor of Commerce - Information Technology Management
Toronto Metropolitan University
Toronto05-2005
Skills
- Quality Engineering & Application Development
- Team Collaboration
- Strategic planning
- People management
- Verbal and written communication
- Decision-making
- Employee development
- Budget management
- Stakeholder engagement
- Issues resolution
- Contract and vendor management
- Hiring and retention
Summary Of Qualifications
- 23 Years of financial banking and insurance experience
- Effective Leadership of large global teams consisting of ~180 members
- Provide support, coaching and mentoring to Senior Managers to ensure a high performance culture
- Completed several Transformation initiatives and Request for Proposals, with optimized and effective cost outcomes.
- Financial acumen managing headcount, financial transits and budgets of $15MM+ CAD
- Effective Third Party Vendor management with appropriate balance nearshore and offshore resourcing to support onsite teams
- Understanding of the SDLC supporting iterative waterfall, agile and DevOps
- Knowledge of software and tooling:
- Requirements and Test Management: Micro Focus Application Lifecycle Management, Zephyr, JIRA
- Defect Management: Micro Focus Quality Centre, IBM Clear Quest, QTest
- Test Automation: Micro Focus Unified Functional Tester, LeanFT, Selenium, SOASTA, SIFT, JAVA, Python
- Agile/User Story Mapping: HP Agile Manager, JIRA
- Build Management and Continuous Integration: Cruise Control and Jenkins CI
- IT Service Management: Service Now, Service Desk, HEAT, Assyst
- Source Control: IBM Clear Case, IBM RTC, GitHub Enterprise and Subversion
Languages
English
Certification
- Bachelor of Commerce – Information Technology Management – Toronto Metropolitan University
- Telecommunications Management
- Minor in Marketing
- Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) certification – Canadian Software Testing Board
- ITIL v3 Intermediate Level Certification: Service Transition – APMG International
- ITIL v3 Foundation Level Certification – APMG International
- Management & Leadership Skills certificate of continuing education – Rockhurst University
- 7 Habits of Highly Effective People course certification
- Situational Leadership II course certification
- Agile Fundamentals at Aviva Canada course certificate
- Introduction to Generative AI - Google Cloud - Coursera
2023 RBC Technology & Operations - Team Award Winner
- Team Award for delivering on key value on IT Strategic Flexibility workstreams, generating cost-avoidance, cost-savings and capacity creation for RBC IS IT.
- Accountable for the Test Automation workstream, generating a cost-avoidance of $980K/year due to automated regression and DevOps initiatives.
Timeline
DIRECTOR, QUALITY ENGINEERING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE
Royal Bank of Canada
08.2018 - Current
SENIOR MANAGER, QUALITY ASSURANCE AND GOVERNANCE
Aviva Canada Inc.
08.2016 - 08.2018
MANAGER, IT CHANGE AND RELEASE MANAGEMENT
Tangerine Bank
03.2014 - 07.2016
TEAM LEADER, TESTING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE
Tangerine Bank
02.2011 - 03.2014
TEST LEAD, TESTING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE
ING Direct Canada
12.2009 - 01.2011
TEST ANALYST, TESTING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE
ING Direct Canada
04.2006 - 11.2009
HELP DESK ANALYST – CONTACT CENTRE
ING Direct Canada
03.2005 - 03.2006
DIRECT BANKING ASSOCIATE – CONTACT CENTRE
ING Direct Canada
08.2002 - 02.2005
Bachelor of Commerce - Information Technology Management
Toronto Metropolitan University
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