Erin Gray
Scrum Master
IT Project Manager
Security Cleared (SC) Senior IT Project Manager / Delivery Manager with over 20 years of experience in delivering full end-to-end SDLC, multi-channelled e-commerce and data repository-based projects across multiple platforms and industries. Specializing in cross-functional project management, with a proven record of leading high-impact initiatives aligned with business goals. Successful at translating complex concepts into actionable roadmaps and building relationships with senior leadership to achieve buy-in on key objectives. Proficient in project governance coaching, known for a flexible approach and a strong ability to manage projects and teams of varying scopes and sizes, on or off-shore. Consistently meets demanding deadlines and thrives under pressure, with a strong service and customer quality-orientation, and excellent client-facing and communication skills.
CAREER HISTORY
Example Solutions Ltd Director / Feb 2010 – Present
Limited company for freelancing as a Consultant
CLIENTS
& PROJECTS
Scrum Master UK Government Agency (security cleared), HMRC (contract) 2024 – present
Scrum Master UK Government Agency (security cleared), Tecknuovo (contract: 6x extended) 2020 – 2024
Led two fully remote, cross functional teams and coordinated with third-party Scrum delivery teams; multi-million-pound Government-backed Critical National Infrastructure project.
Scrum Master The Law Society (fixed term contract) 2020
Project Manager The Law Society (contract: extended) 2019 – 2020
Managed a 25+ cross-functional team (including external third-party suppliers) to rapidly transition the Law Society’s events schedule online during the Covid-19 pandemic (budget: £100k) and deliver two phases of a new gated content website.
Drax Plc / Haven Power / Opus Energy
Scrum Master / Project Manager (Apr 2018 to April 2019 – Contract – extended)
Large ‘Systems of Intelligence’ project (£3m) across Drax Plc, Haven Power Ltd and Opus Energy to establish a single Data Repository. The repository infrastructure was built using AWS with a Data Lake (S3), Matillion, RedShift (Data Warehouse) and used QuickSight for visualisations/dashboards. Team of 18 was spread over 4 office locations (Ipswich, Oxford, Northampton & St. Pauls). Waterfall project with sprints.
• Strict Prince2 project governance required across all 3 companies. Used Agile for daily scrums, prioritising, reviewing and re-planning work every 2 weeks with the aid of Confluence and JIRA tools.
CACI Scrum Master / Delivery Manager (Mar 2015 to Feb 2018 – Contract – 7x extended)
• Introduced Agile practises to new cross functional teams and departments. Provided coaching and mentoring and ran workshops to show benefits and principles of Agile.
• Presented and communicated to all areas of the business and client on a regular basis including Director level and regularly presented to the Executive VP and Managing Director at the Project Board.
• Managed and set all project processes, reports, Confluence and JIRA standards.
• Managed the actuals and forecasted budget on all projects.
• Created structure and processes for numerous small projects by setting up Agile & Kanban boards, releases, sprints and meetings for CACI to use going forwards.
CallSmart
Responsible for managing a £1.4m re-design of CACI’s desktop product to a web based application hosted on Azure with a team of 8 (on and offsite) and 2 Product Owners. Coached/Mentored the team to become self organising.
Spatial Modeller 4
Coached/Mentored the first cross functional team in Agile Scrum practises to enable them to successfully meet quality and schedule goals of a £750k re-design of CACI’s proprietary scenario modelling software from MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) to WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) with a team of 9 and 4 Product Owners.
Government Website
Responsible for managing a team of 8 (on and off-shore in UK and India) to deliver successfully on time an aggressive 12 week schedule, to produce a customer facing website (£400k-£600k including hosting). Written in Java, it was hosted by Skyscape on IL3 (Elevated OFFICIAL) and IL2 (Assured OFFICIAL) virtual environments as service platforms using a Cross Domain Guard as a managed connection between the two security zones. It received security accreditation.
Responsible for managing the following Live websites, concurrently, through the Change Request process:
– Hertz (Redemption)
– DLG (Direct Line Group)
– INTO
– NIG (National Insurance Group)
– Government website
Maternity Leave Sept 2013 to March 2015
PortalTech Reply
Scrum Master / Delivery Manager (Apr 2018 to April 2019 – Contract – extended)
Delhaize
Responsible for £1.8m re-platforming project to replace the existing eCommerce solution with Hybris Multi-Channel Commerce Suite for one of Belgium’s top 3 grocery retailers. This template was to be used as the operating model and starting point to roll-out Hybris to various countries and brands owned by Delhaize.
Left project half way through UAT phase after a lengthy handover, due to going on Maternity Leave.
• Solely managed/coached the team of ~20 on and off-shore in UK and India in Agile practises.
• Responsible for direct client relationship.
• Managed the actuals and forecasted budget, 3rd party relationships and all Change Requests from estimations, to scheduling and delivery.
• Presented and communicated regularly to all areas of the business and client including Director and Partner level.
• Managed and set all project processes, reports, Confluence and JIRA standards.
• Worked with Portaltech partners to create a Roadmap for implementing future projects for Delhaize.
Tacit Knowledge Ltd Scrum Master (Nov 2012 to Feb 2013 – Contract)
Mulberry.com
• Assisted Tacit in setting up a “recovery” project for a new client. Stayed on client site to setup Agile for an international eCommerce website on a new Hybris platform.
• Mobilised and drove the project team, on and off-shore (UK, Moldova and Guadalajara), to get them in a position where they were comfortable working together.
• Solely organised all meetings and communication within the team and client.
• Protected the team from outside distractions, managed 3rd parties with the client, took away and worked to solve impediments, facilitated discussion and conflict resolutions.
• Managed the project documentation and wiki pages to Tacit best practices.
• Presented and communicated regularly to all areas of the business including Director level.
Working Links
Project Manager (May 2012 to Aug 2012 – Contract)
• Using Prince2 methodology, solely managed several internal projects from replacing the procurement system to a CRM configuration investigation.
• Presented and communicated regularly to all areas of the business including Director level.
• Managed the actuals and forecasted budgets on each project.
Salmon Ltd Feb 2010 to Apr 2012 (Contract – 2x extended)
Argos.co.uk (5 months) Project Manager
• Successfully migrated the existing website from Websphere Commerce 5.6.1 to 7.
• Solely managed 5 Servers to enable all had the latest database upgrades, Microsoft Fix Packs and catalogue launches.
• Coordinated the releases, builds, and deployments across all 5 servers.
• Coordinated with the other PMs to make sure all code, defects, patches and Change Requests in their release were captured and included within the latest migrated release.
• Managed all Change Requests, from estimations, to scheduling and delivery.
• Presented and communicated to all areas of the business on a regular basis including Director level.
Game.co.uk / GameStation.co.uk (19 months) Scrum Master
• Implemented Salmon’s first project using Agile practises.
• Mentored/Coached the team (~35 people), both on and off-shore (UK, China, India and Australia), to successfully meet tight deadlines to migrate in parallel two existing websites to new technology and develop and implement their new websites onto an ‘out of the box’ Salmon modified Websphere Commerce 7 platform to business requirements.
• Divided the team into many self-managing units with their own task boards.
• First point of contact for Programme Manager who stayed on site with the client.
• Managed the team from setting resource levels to HR objectives for permanent members.
• Solely responsible for organising all patching, branching, deployments, builds and releases across 4 servers.
• Managed all Change Requests from estimations, to scheduling and delivery.
• Liaised with 3rd party suppliers to enable their systems worked correctly on the new environment.
• Assisted maintaining and recording all actuals for the project budget.
• Presented and communicated to all areas of the business on a regular basis including Director level.
ASOS.com (Perm) Project Manager / Scrum Master April 2007 – Feb 2010
Unisys Ltd (Perm) Project Manager / Programmer Sept 2000 – April 2007
INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE
TOOLS
• Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
• Agile Methodology
• Scrum
• Prince2/Waterfall
• Project Management
• Web / Digital Development
• eCommerce
• Multi channel
• Public
• Private
• Project Planning
• Project Delivery
• Release Management
• 3rd party suppliers
• End to End (full stack) Delivery
• Organisation
• Communication up to CEO level
• People Management
• All MS Office products (20+ years)
• Jira
• Confluence
• Azure DevOps
• Trello
• Team Foundation Server (TFS)
Education
Leeds Beckett University
BSc (Hons) 2:2, Business Computing / 1996 – 2000
Courses
Certified Scrum Master
Agilebear / 2010
Prince2 Practitioner
APM Group / Dec 2017 (expired)
ACHIEVEMENTS
• During weekends and evenings around my contract with Salmon, I assisted and advised the Owner of TheClothesParlour.com in setting up the website from scratch as well as attending key financial and design meetings (3 months).
• Contributed to winning Retail Technology Week Award for IT Team 2009 at ASOS.com.
• Outstanding Job Performance enabled the team to win the Retail Technology Week Award for Home Delivery Supply Chain Excellence Project 2009 at ASOS.com.
• Received 5 achievement awards for various contributions on projects at Unisys Ltd.