Curriculum Vitae
Personal Profile
| Name | Noel O’Sullivan | Date of Birth | December 1975 |
| Address | 1111/63 Crown St Woolloomooloo NSW 2011 Australia |
Nationalities | Irish & Australian |
| Mobile | +61 (414) 303-446 | ||
| Home | +61 (2) 9356-2158 | ||
| noel@ardgillan.com |
Skills Summary
| Architecture & Strategy | I promote a structured approach to enterprise and solution architecture based on business needs and long-term goals balanced with IT capabilities, existing software portfolio and integration complexity. The result should be a fit for purpose solution that achieves the business goals and enables future extension. |
| DevOps | Extensive experience with creating sustainable, operable hosting services and platform offerings including lifecycle process engineering and automation approaches to support Agile and traditional projects. Strong experience with Packer, Docker, Puppet, Vagrant, Splunk & IaaS Cloud. |
| Development | 19 years experience in Java, J2EE and related
technologies, including modern frameworks, development and automation tools and
standards as well as all major application containers. Experience in C, C++ and many other languages including scripting languages. Experience in various flavours of SQL. I am very confident in approaching any new language and tool. |
| Methodology | Experience with Rational Unified Process (RUP), Business Component Development (BCD) and Agile Methods (Feature Driven Design, eXtreme Programming, etc.) and hybrids. Co-authored the CANVAS method while at Avoga. |
| Business Domains | Broad experience in Retail Banking. Experience in Treasury. In-depth knowledge of Investment Wrap. Strong foundation in Superannuation and FOREX. Experience in Insurance. |
| Systems | Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, Mac OS X, Windows. WebSphere, WebLogic, JBoss & Tomcat. Oracle, MySQL, IBM DB2, and Microsoft SQL Server installation and administration. Broad experience in Unix configuration management and administration including extensive automation. |
Employment History
| May 2009 - Present | Westpac Banking Corporation, Level 5, 151 Clarence St, Sydney 2000 |
| Position | Senior Solution Architect, J2EE and WebSphere Subject Matter Expert |
| Profile | My current role is a solution designer in the Java and integration area.
In the first years of this role, I successfully delivered the upgrade and
operational transformation of the bank's highest-volume Java platform.
Based on the lessons learned, I authored a comprehensive
Enterprise Java Hosting Strategy, which addresses transformation of the
bank's fleet to a more simple and sustainable model. This involved engaging with disparate parts of the IT function (CTO, infrastructure, development and engineering) and creating a coherent approach that addresses the true pain points of running the fleet. Having gained endorsement and funding for the strategy at the GM level, I created the entire architecture of the resultant Platform-as-a-Service and assured delivery in a complex multi-bank landscape with significant out-sourced components and engaging ~20 development teams and several operational and project teams to deliver 350 servers for existing and new applications. I also delivered all key technical assets, the engagement process and operational models and transitioned the platform to a BAU service. I brought the disciplines of my extensive software development background to bear on the process too, assuring that all software (in several languages), configuration and automated processes are source-controlled, continuously built, testable and versioned. The next evolution of this service this service is to make it available in commodity IaaS cloud environments and to provide a Docker-ready version. Both ot these were anticipated by the strategy and I have prototyped both for further development. |
| October 2007 - November 2008 | Bank of Scotland Treasury, Level 24, 45 Clarence St, Sydney 2000 |
| Position | Solution Architect and Development Lead |
| Profile | BOS Treasury provides a suite of Foreign Exchange services to other members of the
HBOSA group - including to retail customers through BankWest. An existing pricing
core, written in J2EE, was extended and enhanced to accommodate the needs of the
Australian Market while it was enhanced to be a core platform for FX trading. Key integration challenges included reflecting trades to an unreliable deal booking system (Quantum) through asynchronous messaging, and providing intranet web-based applications to leverage the quoting and dealing capability. These were based on a blend of existing J2EE components as well as Spring, Hibernate, JSF and AJAX technologies (notably mixing fit-for-purpose components from the RichFaces and DWR frameworks). This allowed for extremely rich behaviours through standard browsers enabling real-time notifications to and interventions by dealers. Another challenge was providing a highly-available service interface to the same platform to provide FX banking services through BankWest's Corporate and Retail Internet Banking System. I drove the architecture and design of this interface drawing on the best practice SOA experiences developed over several years. As a result, this functionality was delivered in a very short time while maintaining facets of quality, availability and evolvability. |
| November 2005 - August 2007 | SMS MT (formerly AVOGA), 66 Berry St, North Sydney, NSW 2060 |
| Position | Senior J2EE Architect / Senior Solution Architect |
| Profile | This role involved working on-site with large corporate clients
in a range of roles. The work varied from enterprise through solution
and application architecture development as well as J2EE implementation. Clients were predominantly from the financial and government sectors, notably CUSCAL, IAG, Allianz and the NSW OSR. My approach to J2EE development is pragmatic one that focuses on timely delivery with high quality. Where possible, well-established industry-embraced frameworks were used to speed development, reducing the burden of "grunt" coding and to leveraging abilities of experienced Java professionals. There was a focus on establishing business domain models and packaged coarse-grained services up-front, which can be used to provide a common language and to establish a skeleton for the application core; this is the core of domain-driven design. This process also establishes the use of appropriate patterns and coding standards. There is a strict separation of concerns between application tiers and I encourage use of appropriate frameworks for User Interaction, Business and Persistence tiers. I endeavour to deliver clean, well-factored, documented, maintainable code first and attempt to avoid premature optimisation by empirically examining performance bottlenecks and compromising design for performance only where absolutely necessary. Quality is also heightened through the extensive use of modern Version Control systems, Unit Testing, Automated (repeatable) Builds and Continuous Integration. In establishing high-performing development teams, I like to support good processes and culture through the use of issue and bug-tracking tools and team wikis that encourage open collaboration and information sharing. A strong focus of these roles was on enterprise application integration, designing/implementing solutions based on SOA principals and exposing business functionality from existing systems. This included architecting pragmatic SOA approaches, implementing Proofs of Concept and establishing SOA infrastructure assets such as Enterprise Domain Models and Service Definition Repositories. Implementation technologies included a range of commercial and open source alternatives and hybrids of same. Adoption of and adherence to corporate and industry standards was common and one project piloted the used of the ACORD insurance messaging standard. As a consulting style, I usually take an influencing approach to achieve outcomes beneficial to the business and IT stakeholders. By establishing credibility, it is possible to become more prescriptive over time. I regularly drew upon my strong business domain knowledge from the investment and wealth management background to provide extra value to clients. |
| January 2004 - September 2005 | AMP Australia, 33 Alfred St, Sydney, NSW 2000 |
| Position | Technical Architect |
| Profile | Initially engaged by the business, my role was to
define the solution architecture for a contemporary product platform in
the superannuation/pension and investment space. This was to be based on providing
Wrap and SMA like features to the mass market within a Superannuation structure. As it became apparent this would be a major strategic enterprise initiative costing tens of millions of dollars, the role of Principal Solution Architect was created and filled by AMP. I worked closely with him and others in refining, documenting and promoting the solution architecture and in exploring other Solution Alternatives in a rigorous manner as the business clients changed emphasis and direction. Feedback to the business users on their strategy, direction, process reengineering, strategic technology choices and vendor negotiations were common; in the pre-implementation phase close collaboration between business and IT was pursued. As part of the project, a Proof of Concept was initiated which included the preparation of a repeatable development methodology and which used Spring, Hibernate, Maven and related tools. This was a significant extension to my comprehensive experience with Java toolsets. |
| October 2001 - December 2003 | AMP Australia, 151 Clarence St, Sydney, NSW 2000 |
| Position | Analyst Programmer/Technical Lead/Technical Architect |
| Profile | Initially the position involved the documentation and
rationalisation of development of a mixed-technology third party
Investment Wrap product. As relations with the vendor were severed, development of
new J2EE functionality was taken in-house where I acted as technical
lead and mentor for the team in the area of J2EE
architecture and development. Several integration projects followed using custom coarse-grained services based on a range of technologies including XML and WSDL. I lead the development of a new J2EE development framework for AMP along with accompanying coding, design and documentation standards as well as selection of development, build and deployment technologies. There was a strong focus on best-of-breed, low-cost, industry-standard tools and an adherence to J2EE industry best-practices. Design and architectural patterns were strongly leveraged while aspects of Component Based Development and Feature Driven Development were encouraged in development. Business functionality was delivered with the framework, proving the technologies and generating business benefit. All artefacts were delivered on time and within budget and greatly exceeded performance and quality expectations. |
| April 2001 - July 2001 | Deutsche Bank, L18, 225 George St, Sydney, NSW 2000 |
| Position | Analyst Programmer/Technical Lead/Technical Architect |
| Profile | The Whitelabel project endeavoured to present multiple
retail financial services in a generic and consistent way using
best-of-breed open technologies. This n-tier system included extensive
use of Apache SOAP Server, XML and WSDL, BEA Weblogic Server and
several open-standards based products primarily from the Apache Project. This was a streamed development involving multiple teams working with the Business Component Development (BCD) methodology. I contributed architectural insights to the Infrastructure design team while leading the development of a prototype for the Financial Products team. Due to the withdrawal of a major purchaser of the system, the project was mothballed indefinitely. |
| October 1999 - March 2001 | Whitewolf/Advantage, 51-55 Mountain St., Ultimo, NSW 2007 |
| Position | Senior Developer/Technical Lead/Technical Architect |
| Profile | Whitewolf/Advantage was a consultancy group
specialising in development of fully transactional web sites. Work
included full end-to-end projects as well as acting as expert staff
working with client teams. Systems Architecture of Transactional Web Sites for major clients. Design and development using all elements of J2EE (JSP, Servlets, EJBs, JMS, JTS, JDBC) primarily using BEA Weblogic Server and Weblogic Commerce and Personalisation Servers. Work with other languages and technologies was performed as the need arose (e.g. XML, HTML, CSS, XHTML, XSL, PERL, TCL), including development and use of in-house tools. Team Leadership role with extensive mentoring. Tight client deadlines frequently required quick but cogent decision-making. Close work with management to ensure correct strategic technology choices. OO Analysis and Design using Unified Process, UML and Design Patterns. Extensive work with multi-technology n-tier systems. These included Solaris, Linux, Windows NT and numerous development tools. |
| July 1997 - August 1999 | Beacon Systems Ltd., Dublin Exchange Facility, IFSC, Dublin 1, Ireland |
| Position | Analyst/Programmer |
| Profile | Software design and development using Java, SQL (Oracle/SQL Server), CORBA and the UML (using Rational Rose) and to a lesser extent C, C++, APL and several scripting languages. Evaluation, selection and use of products and technologies, including UML, Java, CORBA, RMI, Servlets. Trained colleagues and acted as mentor. Project leader for key Internet project. Contributed to multiple teams simultaneously. Integration of legacy systems. Extensive system administration including networking various operating systems, new product selection and deployment. Installation and maintenance of a highly secure firewall. |
| Summer 1996 | Beacon Systems Ltd., 10 Lower Mount Street, Dublin 2, Ireland |
| Position | Java Programmer, Website Builder and Systems Administrator |
| Profile | Built a website for a currency trading software company. Developed Java applets to demonstrate a small section of the company’s software and to evaluate the language’s potential. Administered a heterogeneous network (including Sun Solaris, Windows NT, Windows 3.11 and ’95). Established Internet access for all users within the company. |
| June 1995 - March 1996 | Gateway 2000, Clonshaugh Industrial Estate, Dublin 17, Ireland |
| Position | Telephone Technical Support Agent |
| Profile | Assisted PC users of all levels with both hardware and software technical problems. Responsibility for on-site support and/or replacement part deployment. Worked as part of a team; assisted in training of staff. Reported technical and procedural issues through the company hierarchy as necessary. |
Education
| 1980 - 1987 | Réalt Na Mara National School, Skerries, Co. Dublin, Ireland |
| 1987 - 1992 | Holy Faith / De La Salle College, Skerries, Co. Dublin, Ireland |
| 1992 - 1997 | University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland |
Examinations
| 1990 | Intermediate Certificate 9 Honours | |
| 1992 | Leaving Certificate - Higher Level | |
| Applied Mathematics Business Organisation Engineering English Mathematics Physics Technical Drawing Irish (Ordinary Level) |
A C A C B A A C |
|
| 1993 | First Year Computer Science exams | II.1 (average) |
| 1994 | Second Year Computer Science exams | II.2 (average) |
| 1996 | Third Year Computer Science exams | II.1 (average) |
| Statistics & Numerical Analysis Artificial Intelligence Systems Software & Data Communications Computer Architecture Computer Engineering Computers in Society Software Engineering & Compiler Design |
II.1 II.2 II.1 II.2 II.1 I II.1 |
|
| 1997 | Computer Science BA (Mod.)
Honours Degree, result II.1 The degree year included a major
project. In my case, this was the development, in C++, of an
application for firework/pyrotechnic simulation. Final year subjects studied were Distributed Systems, Information Systems, Systems Modelling and Computer Vision. |
|
Other Interests
| Being Generally Active | I try my hand at a lot of activities. Perennial favourites include bush walking and running, while I am trying to establish myself as a competent tennis player and sailor. |
| Travel | I have enjoyed travelling extensively and continue to see more of the world. Italy's a perennial favourite and South America's just dementedly brilliant. |
| Music | I have played piano and sung both in choirs and solo. I am deeply interested in all types of music from classical to contemporary ... except country. |
| Acting, Theatre and Cinema | I hold Gold Medals from London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art for Acting and for the Speaking of Verse and Prose. I have also competed in several drama competitions and in 1997 won the senior all-Ireland category in Feis Maitiú. More recently I have established a small acting group and have crazy ambitions of mounting a production on the Sydney fringe. I attend professional and amateur productions and have a broad appreciation for international film as well as populist pap. |
Referees
| Mr. Justing Pang Principal Infrastructure Lead Middleware Practice Enterprise Infrastructure Services Westpac Banking Corporation |