Thomas A. Jones

tjones@spril.com
http://www.spril.com

I am a software engineering manager with five years' experience delivering complete solutions to a wide variety of clients. My background spans the software development lifecycle from requirements through database and user interface design, architecture and code development, deployment, and training. One skill at which I excel is process analysis--determining the most effective ways to implement, track, and ensure the success of projects. Another is risk management--preemptively identifying and mitigating user and organizational concerns, design tradeoffs, and scope weaknesses.

I am planning to relocate from Maryland to the Bay Area at the end of 2006 and seek a position as a director, technical lead/manager, or project manager of a team of up to 15 technical staff delivering software solutions.

Employment

Director of Engineering
Apex Digital Systems, Silver Spring, MD, October 2001-present
Technology Consulting and Software Development Firm specializing in Non-Profit and Cause-Specific Organizations  

• Lead the Engineering team, having delivering $2.6 million in client projects including:
  • Web-based proposal, project, and contract management application to support the project lifecycle for a large NGO. They devise and implement complex development projects for clients including the US Agency for International Development, the World Bank, and the United Nations.
  • Online data system for a nationwide community development non-profit to provide quantitative analysis of the success of housing, economic development, and community-building programs.
  • Federal grants-management application for distribution of millions of dollars for coastal and wetlands recovery.
  • Public website with hundreds of lesson plans and activities for the premier organization for mathematics education.
  • Proteomics Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) to store and analyze protein profiles of tissue and culture samples used in researching treatments for cystic fibrosis.
  • Web-based project management system for a major pharmaceutical company to coordinate development and launch of new drugs.
• Responsibilities include client communication, estimating, negotiating, contracting, work breakdown, team assignments, progress tracking, acceptance testing, deployment, training, and all other aspects of building and implementing clients' custom software applications.
• Lead development and implementation of the Apex Support Center, the client interface to our internal issue tracking system.
• Employ many principles of Agile methodology, including deployment of the minimal effective functionality as rapidly as possible with subsequent expansion.

Site Czar (Product Manager)
SpeakOut.com, Washington DC, November 1999-May 2001
Political activism website with 500,000 registered users during the contentious 2000 presidential campaign. The site included civic activism tools, political news, and a directory of government officials and interest groups.

• Coordinated the journalism, marketing, and engineering teams. 
• Responsible for site performance, new concept prototypes, and statistical analysis.
• Responsible for online user interface design, including the largest focus groups in history--dial polls used by thousands of simultaneous users during the conventions and debates in SpeakOut's partnership with MSNBC and Fox News.
• Established HTML, CSS, ASP, Flash, and JavaScript coding standards.

Webmaster & Product Designer
OutReach Technologies, Columbia, MD, October 1996-November 1999
Maker of the ConferEase and Embrace web conference servers for e-commerce, distance presentation, and sales management

• Lead user interface designer.
• Responsible for corporate website, including site design, coding, server maintenance, and online marketing
• Received $12,000 President's Award bonus for contribution to corporate goals and productivity.

• Designed and prototyped the electronic publishing system for a proposed U.S. Navy library of technical documentation for the E-2C Hawkeye plane. The process spanned conversion into the Interleaf document management system, document management and revision, and deployment to a dedicated portable HTML handheld viewer. The prototype won UIS an $8 million contract from the Navy.

• Developed automated test software for cellular networks using Mercury XRunner.
• Created Perl tools to manipulate and search technical documentation libraries.
• Researched, wrote, and standardized departmental documentation for successful ISO-9001 application.
• Devised and implemented the departmental intranet for document distribution.

• Migrated an online database export service application from VAX VMS to C on HPUX.
• Designed templates and C and Perl code for conversion and maintenance of the IRS Internal Revenue Manual of the extensive procedures used to process and audit personal and corporate tax forms.

• Directed a 5-person electronic publishing team and managed Sun Sparc Unix and Novell/Microsoft Windows 3.1 networks.
• Redesigned department process flow from 41 steps to 8 steps, dramatically reducing tracking cost and team frustration.
• Published complex NASA scientific and technical documents, and CSC corporate proposals.