Release Manager Management

Objective

Utilize my communication, technical and leadership skills- enhanced by experience, training, and education- to provide the highest quality proven results

Work Experience

Merck & Co, Inc. March 2011 – August 2024

Release Manager / Test Environment Manager

Change, release management and ServiceNow operational support transition of multiple projects, applications and integrations within Amazon Web Services platform

Team lead and mentor teammates on processes, practice, tools and general onboarding of new members

Support agile projects leveraging continuous deployment to integrated development environment and iterative deployments to test and production

Lead and direct release management process improvements, release support systems and integrations

Implemented and manage a key performance indicator (KPI) report for department-wide project tracking

Manage and lead multiple test efforts with onsite and offshore resources, liaison between business and development to communicate changes

Lead release engineer technicians, other Merck enterprise groups, and outside vendors to update, test and deliver applications and processes

Coordinate test environment planning, usage and updates with global development, testing and business project teams. Includes cloud migration, software configuration, builds, platform upgrade, user access, data loads, data refreshes

Deployment planning, configuration management, and version control tracking in enterprise CMDB

Use web-based release management tool to document changes to environment architecture, infrastructure and configuration items; also administrate tool functionality

Create, analyze and manage defects related to test environments using ALM and Jira

Perform software installation in Windows and Unix environments, database updates, smoke testing, defect analysis

Projects include internal customer and product data management, software risk assessment, medical news and education, Veeva Vault content management and customer relationship management (CRM)

Contractor through Cognizant Technology Solutions since 2016

Citibank Prepaid Services July 2008 – March 2011

Senior QA Analyst / Release Manager

Manage and lead multiple test efforts with onsite and offshore resources, create and execute test cases, submit and track defects using ALM, liaison between business and development to communicate changes

Manage deployment team; implement change control improvements, including release note documentation, validate deployment artifacts match items in testing, mitigate conflicting changes

Review and analyze requirements, specifications, code, configurations, stored procedures, and test documentation

Provide QA testing estimates, create test planning and design documentation

Test batch processes for client file loading and processing; also vendor imports and extracts

Test web services using SOAP UI and harness test pages to simulate client interface

Write SQL queries using multiple joins and filters to identify, create and validate test data, application functionality and backend processes

Develop and execute automated scripts in Quick Test Pro and performance scripts in LoadRunner for web pages and web services

Deploy Windows server changes using command line and web-based consoles, modify scripts and configuration files; troubleshoot deployment issues by analyzing logs, identifying root causes

Document changes to environment architecture, infrastructure and configuration items

Support Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) environment through deployments, maintenance, monitoring and troubleshooting of applications, services and databases (in both test and Production environments)

Perform database administration activities in test environment, such as performance monitoring, permissions and schema modifications

Electronic Data Systems August 2007 – July 2008

Information Analyst

Create and review test plans and results; lead small offshore testing teams of 2 – 4 individuals; work with offshore development; train new members of QA staff

Analyze functional and technical requirements and client specific documentation for Defined Benefits system; create test documentation

Perform manual test case scripting, execution and validation; use SQL Plus to identify, select and execute test scripts and data

Independence Blue Cross January 2002 – August 2007

Systems Testing Specialist III May 2005 – August 2007

Lead tester in IS Testing small testing teams of 2 – 4 individuals; coordinated testing efforts across company systems from project initiation through implementation

Analyzed requirements and technical documentation (including process flow charts); created test documentation; performed manual and automated test case scripting, execution and validation; created and managed testing project plans

Led several testing efforts for application modifications; delegated testing tasks; assisted and trained other testers

Tested several legacy mainframe applications for enrollment, fulfillment and claims processing

Business Systems Analyst January 2002 – May 2005

Worked in Claims Systems at AmeriHealth Administrators (Subsidiary of IBC); reviewed code sets, maintained processing systems, communicated changes to IS development team

Also worked in Enrollment Support at IBC with large group employers validating employee benefit electronic enrollment data, monitored and maintained eligibility transmissions to outside vendors

Performed system testing, production file maintenance, wrote business requirements

Business lead for project to outsource printing of claim checks and Explanation of Benefits

Manipulated various data extracts from eligibility systems using SQL queries, and created various custom reports using Excel and Access for production areas

Prepared and tested systems to be able to accept Federally mandated ANSI 4010 (834) transaction and set up customers to use this file submission method

Created Access database to document all department reports; created internal policies and procedures documentation for department

Education

La Salle University Philadelphia, PA

MS Information Technology Leadership May 2009

Completed with 3.6 GPA

Courses completed include: Project Management and E-Commerce

Completed additional course in HR management post-graduation

BS Information Technology December 2001

3.3 GPA in Honor’s Program with Minor in Business Administration

Dean’s List four semesters and Scholar-Athlete Award (football) 1999, 2000

United States Military Academy West Point, NY

●Attended from June 1998 to February 1999

Hillsdale College Hillsdale, MI

●Completed 8 online courses from 2020 to 2022

Technical Skills

Applications: Wordpress; Microsoft Office: Access, Excel, Lync, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Visio, Word; Cisco Jabber, Webex; SQL Server; SQL Plus; PL/SQL Developer; SQL Navigator; SAP; HP Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Quality Center; Quick Test Pro; LoadRunner; Jira; Mantis; SOAP UI; ActiveBatch; Informatica PowerCenter, Siperian MDM (master data management tool); Electric Cloud; Power MHS; Lotus Notes, Blackboard Learning System, proprietary systems/databases

Languages: SQL, XML, Java, HTML, Visual Basic, ASP, C++, ObjectAda, .NET

Operating Systems: Amazon Web Services; Microsoft Azure Services; Windows; Linux; Unix; iOS; Mainframe; A/S 400

Volunteering

●School volunteer for technology support, classroom aide and lunch monitor;

●Parish CYO athletic director, coach, basketball coordinator; regional CYO volleyball coordinator;

●Parish Eucharistic minister

●Manna on Main Street food kitchen service providing free meals to the community;

●Municipal government service- Upper Moreland Environmental Advisory Council; candidate for Upper Moreland Township School District director in 2021; Upper Moreland Republican Committee person

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