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About me

My name is Gordon Turner, and I am passionate about technology & people and bring that energy to my projects. I have been leading teams in Toronto for over 10 years.

My superpower is understanding technical requirements, connecting them to business objectives, and then translating them into actionable plans.

Clients

Over my career I have worked with many clients across various projects, sizes and complexities. The projects included customer acquisition, loyalty programs, websites, mobile apps, retail experiences and analytics.

Fortune 100/500 brands: Organizations including Meta, Adidas, Obama Foundation, Airbnb, Pytorch, Goodlife Fitness, Boston Pizza, OLG, Aldo, Second Cup, Molson Coors, Old Navy, Imperial Oil, General Motors, Barnes and Noble, Boston Scientific, Blue Mountain, and Discover Ontario.

Skills

Leading multi-disciplinary projects: Managing teams through discovery, requirements, execution, delivery, post-launch and enhancements.

Leading RFP responses: Leading requirements gathering, including scoping, technical approach validation and risk analysis.

Stakeholder management: Setting clear, realistic goals that are well communicated to all involved, with processes to reduce risk and make success repeatable.

Technical leadership: Have led small groups of developers, integrated cross functional teams and large groups including other managers.

Compliance: Led SOC2 compliance, reviewing requirements, identifying defects, and implementing remediation.

Experience

Director of Engineering Singlekey, Toronto, ON | 2023 – Present Worked with Executive leadership team to plan product roadmap, Partnerships and supported organizational maturity. Led the SR&ED and contributed to the IRAP grant applications. Took on ownership and responsibility of SOC2 compliance and ensuring the Singlekey process and procedures were aligned. Lead scrums, triaged work and prioritized requests. Coordinated onshore, offshore and consultants to deliver features. Worked with the customer service team to address issues, improve product, and our internal tooling.

Technical Director Jam3, Toronto, ON | 2021 – 2022 Worked with Producers, Creative Directors and Strategists to provide solutions to our clients and partners. Managed reports, including weekly check ins, mentoring, career roadmaps and performance management. Worked with the Obama Foundation and Airbnb to launch a scholarship website on a tight timeline with a fixed launch date. Managed client expectations and supported team so that we had the best possible chance for success. As a Contingent worker, managed Meta ‘on stack’ projects, from scoping, resourcing, development and launch. Projects included Novi.com, Facebook Connectivity and Pytorch.

Partner, Technology ICF Next (ICF Olson), Toronto, ON | 2018 – 2021 As a Partner, collaborated with Account Directors, Project Managers, Creative Directors and Managed Services to execute and deliver websites, backend integrations and mobile apps for clients. Prepared new business pitches, evaluation of new opportunities and RFP responses for national and international opportunities. Worked closely with the client delivery team for Goodlife Fitness, Boston Pizza, The Green Organic Dutchman, Ontario Lottery and Gaming and ICF Tally. Responsible for the Enterprise Application group (40+ team members), which include team members from across North America and India. The group includes developers that support ICF Tally, SMS Wireless platform and all client backend projects. Managed multi-disciplinary teams, including Quality Assurance analysts, Business Analysts, Frontend & Backend, native mobile apps and full stack developers.

Technical Director Olson Canada, Toronto, ON | 2014 – 2018 As a Technical Director, reported to the VP Technology and working closely with Account Directors, Project Managers, Creative Directors and Managed Services to deliver world class solutions. Lead and mentor for the backend developers, mobile developers, focusing on code reviews, knowledge sharing and professional growth. Lead Architect for the Boston Pizza MyBP loyalty program, growing the business from an integration partner to a key stakeholder creating an industry leading multichannel platform.

Education

BASc • Civil Engineering University of Waterloo | 1995 – 2001

Training & Certification

FastAPI - The Complete Course 2024 (Beginner + Advanced) Udemy | 2024 (in progress)

Next.js 14 & React - The Complete Guide Udemy | 2024 (in progress)

PyTorch for Deep Learning with Python Bootcamp Udemy | 2022

Adobe Illustrator CC • Essentials Training Course Udemy | 2022

Certified SAFe® 5 Agilist Issued by Scaled Agile Inc | 2020

Languages, Libraries & APIs

What Languages do I know? • Java, Spring Boot, JPA/Hibernate • Python, FastAPI, Numpy, pandas • JS, TypeScript, React, NodeJS • Swift, Objective C, CocoaPods • SQL, database and schema management • Elasticsearch, Solr / Lucene • Bash, zsh, ksh

Software

What sort of software have I used? • WordPress (self hosted, WPVIP, WPEngine) • Meta stack • Adobe Experience Manager • Headless CMS (Contentful, AEM, headless WP) • MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle • Git, GitHub, GitLab • GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Circle CI • Fusion 360, OpenSCAD • Adobe Creative Suite

OSes, Cloud & Virtualization

Where have I developed and hosted? • MacOS • Linux (Ubuntu, CentOS) • OpenBSD • AWS, Azure, DigitalOcean • Adobe Experience Cloud • QEMU/KVM, libvirt, Docker