Darren Hubbard
Senior Project Manager
with Technical, Agile and Information Security Skills
London & Kent
E-Mail: cv at darrenhubbard dot com
Professional Profile
An accomplished Senior Project Manager, Technical Project Manager, and Scrum Master, with over 20 years’ experience of successful change delivery, who achieves results by focusing firmly on value and delivery. Possesses a technical mindset and background, combined with a natural inclination to simplify processes, minimise complexity and focus on business value in delivery. Recognised as a trusted coach, mentor, and leader, with expertise in providing servant leadership skills and support to improve both team and individual performance. Brings together colleagues, suppliers, and outsourced resources to deliver projects within time and cost constraints, frequently against the odds. Keen to further develop a diversity of skills in a project role.
Key Skills
- Agile and waterfall methodologies
- PRINCE2 / MSP project management and delivery
- Technical expertise
- Coaching and mentoring
- Leadership and staff management
- Supplier Management
- Risk Management
- Stakeholder Management
- Business improvement
Professional Experience
Senior Project Manager May 2011 - Dec 2022
Direct Line Group
- Led business and technical project teams of up to 10 colleagues, plus offshore and outsourced supplier teams of up to 20, and controlled project budgets of up to £2.5million
- Managed a portfolio of 7 project deliveries into the IT Security area, leveraging expertise in network security and infrastructure solution design.
- Collaborated with senior business managers and teams across the organisation to coordinate successful project delivery
- Coaching and mentoring colleagues to achieve best practice in Agile methodologies, including Scrum, Kanban and Flight Levels
- Supporting squad members and product owners in managing Agile events, ceremonies and artefacts, visualising work in progress, reducing cycle times and recognising opportunities for optimisation
- Contributed to decision-making within squads, enabling them to select the best methodology
Key achievements
- Implemented multiple information security solutions, aligned with Group standards and policies, to mitigate and minimise risk, including a new out of date SIEM solution required to be delivered by regulators to a firm deadline
- Established open, trusting communications with the offshore team, based on a mutual understanding of expectations
- Delivered a successful integration of new systems with legacy IT estate, as part of a larger programme of IT change, delivering on schedule and within budget
- Delivered several information security platform upgrades including implementation of Data Loss Prevention tools, Threat Intelligence and response workbooks, at rest and in-transit Data Encryption, replacement SIEM project, and Identity and Access Management (IAM) tooling with CyberArk
- Significantly improved the relationship between the delivery and technical teams by recruiting the right people, simplifying the approach and interacting with stakeholders to understand emerging issues
- Became the go-to person for turning around under-performing projects, including transforming 2 branded insurance projects to avoid heavy penalties associated with delays
- Saved £600 per day by agreeing a simplified approach to penetration testing, eliminating the need for external testers
- Played an integral role in transitioning the organisation to Agile methodology, overcoming challenges associated with remote delivery during Covid lockdowns to deliver business improvements at speed
- Reduced cycle times by 30% in the early stages of implementation by coaching squads, both in groups and one-to-one, to optimise their workloads using ActionableAgile metrics
PCI DSS Compliance Manager (secondment) Jun 2016 – Mar 2017
Direct Line Group
- Identified technical risks with non-compliance in security standards and implemented, monitored and evidenced changes to maintain compliance
Key achievements
- Enabled the team to achieve on-going accreditation, with no compensating controls required
Senior Project Manager Sep 2005 – Dec 2010
RBS Plc
- Delivered the business integration of ABN AMRO’s Credit Insurance Derivatives trading area into RBS, successfully migrating and integrating €2billion of trades
Early Career Summary
RBS Plc: Project Manager and Interim Programme Manager 2005 – 2008
ING Bank NV: Technical Project Manager 2004 – 2005
ING Bank NV: Network and Security Architect 2002 – 2004
ING Bank NV: Technical Analyst (Graduate Trainee) 2002 – 2002
Qualifications
MSc degree: Human Factors with Ergonomics (Cognitive Psychology), University College London 2001
MEng (Hons) degree: Computing, Imperial College London 2000
Professional Development
Certification: Professional Kanban 1 (PK1) 2022
Certification: Professional Scrum Master (PSM1) 2022
Certification: ICAgile Certified Professional Agile Coach (ICP-ACC) 2021
Certification: ICAgile Certified Professional Agile Team Facilitator (ICA-ATF) 2021
Certification: AgilePM Practitioner (DSDM) 2020
Certification: Certified Scrum Master (CSM) 2019
Certification: Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) 2019
Certification: CyberArk Certified Trustee Level 1 2019
Certification: ITIL Foundation 2018
Certification: Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) Practitioner 2005
Certification: PRINCE2 Practitioner 2004
Certification: Check Point NG Certified Security Expert PLUS (CCSE+ NG) 2003
Certification: Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA) 2003
Certification: Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) 2003
Other Experience & Technical Skills
- Stakeholder management (including C-Suite), budget management, supplier management (including offshore), risk management, project and delivery management, portfolio management, waterfall and agile methodologies, Scrum Master, Kanban, servant leadership, project plans, change management, Microsoft Project, Jira, software delivery, SDLC, infrastructure delivery, information security, regulatory projects, matrix management, people management, mentoring, coaching, operational readiness
- Networking (Cisco), Firewalls (Checkpoint), VPN, Security platforms (deliveries in CyberArk, LogRhythm SIEM, Anomali TIP, ForeScout NAC)
- General infrastructure and technical mindset
Further Details
Voluntary positions:
- Former Justice of the Peace (Magistrate) for North Kent Bench, 2011 – 2022
- Volunteer at Wye Community Farm
- Training Officer for local target shooting club
- Coastal Guardian for the Kent Coast
Interests:
- Technology and Development (cloud platform engineering, AWS, Python)
- Self-improvement and management techniques
#CV