Michelle Forrest

Michelle Forrest, PMP, BCS LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelleforrest1 Email:-17 Stephens Wood Rd, Enfield NS B2T 1H1 | Phone:- Summary As an experienced leader, I have a strong track record of building and leading data and software engineering teams. I have designed and implemented solutions in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders within various business streams. In a nutshell, I can help you make the best use of your data ecosystem, helping reduce costs, managing technical debt and ensuring industry compliance. Core Competencies and Technical Skills • • • • • • • • • • • Technical Leadership & Strategy: Extensive experience defining and leading data-driven strategies, making key decisions on technology stack, reducing tech debt, and optimizing workflows and business processes in collaboration with cross functional business teams. Team Management: Leading and mentoring teams of engineers, data scientists, and analysts to drive engineering initiatives while collaborating with functional teams (Product, Engineering, Customer Success) to translate business needs into data solutions that improve decision-making and drive key metrics. Data Governance & Security Compliance: Driving adherence to industry standards (NIST, SOC2, PCI, ISO27001) and building out robust governance frameworks. Data Architecture & Modeling: Deep understanding of data modeling, storage, and transformation, with hands-on expertise in SQL, Snowflake, and tools like dbt to build reusable data products and pipelines as well as defining and measuring business performance metrics. MLOps & DevOps: Establishing MLOps best practices and streamlining DevOps processes to accelerate delivery. CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, MLOps Pipelines Project Management: PMP and Agile Certified, experienced in managing complex, crossfunctional projects. Languages & Tools: Python, SQL, dbt, Airflow, Snowflake, Datadog, Tableau, PHP, JavaScript, Kotlin, AWS, Terraform, Power BI, GitHub, Linux, Bash/Shell Cloud Platforms: AWS, GCP, Azure BI & Analytics Tools: Looker, PowerBI, Sigma, Tableau Data Management: Snowflake, Fivetran, Data Lakes, BigQuery, Atlan DevOps & MLOps: CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, MLOps Pipelines, Git-based CI/CD workflows Professional Experience Solutions Consultant Freelance | Remote | April 2024 – Present Worked with a health industry client to define data and cyber security strategies. Interviewed operations teams, identified business goals, reviewed and documented As Is data governance and security posture as well as providing: • • • • A Cyber Security roadmap outlining short and long-term initiatives, and a plan for achieving them. Policies and procedures based on their business operations in alignment with NIST/PIPEDA. Led the response to a global security Risk Assessment and worked with the client to provide evidence and identify any gaps in procedures and policies. Prepared and presented Security Awareness Training for employees on core topics like endpoint security, Data protection, working remotely and overall IT governance. Associate Director, Data Solutions Consulting Brooklyn Data | Remote | May 2024 – October 2024 • • • • Led data strategy and execution across diverse sectors such as commercial real estate, online retail, and venture capital, focusing on building scalable, reusable data architectures, dashboards, and transformation pipelines. Collaborated with business leaders to define metrics and KPIs that measure operational success, while optimizing data frameworks to ensure the security, scalability, and accessibility of analytics resources. Managed project teams of data, analytics engineers and analysts to implement data governance, modern data stacks and analytics solutions using agile methodologies. Worked closely with clients, holding discovery sessions, defining business goals and key metrics as well as providing: o Data Strategies & Roadmaps to provide comprehensive presentations detailing short- and long-term data goals, initiatives, and a roadmap for achieving them. o Data Architecture Designs for clients’ data infrastructure, ensuring scalability, security, and performance. o Data integration and cloud migration plans for migrating client data and solutions for integrating data from multiple sources ensuring minimal disruption and maximum efficiency. o Directed teams in building integrated data products and analytics solutions that empowered stakeholders to explore business performance and make data-driven decisions. o BI and Analytics Dashboards and reporting systems to allow clients to gain actionable insights from their data, also created BI tool comparisons and made recommendations. o Knowledge transfer through presentations and training materials for end users on data platforms, BI tools, and managing data governance. Head of Data Wattpad | Remote | August 2021 – February 2024 • • • • • • • • • Led a cross-functional team of data engineers, scientists, and analysts, driving the company’s data and ML initiatives to enhance user engagement and optimize content discovery. Provided overall direction and leadership to our engineering team to achieve significant results in stabilising our data platform, rolling out key ML features and creating a new platform of self-serve analytics for our stakeholders. Focused on engagement of our users, product revenue and user safety. I supported my teams in delivering projects that improved visibility and discovery of ongoing stories via algorithmic and personalization improvements which in turn increased reader engagement. Improvements included genre / tag classification to more accurately reflect the content of our stories, personalization of recommendation rows on homepage, better search relevance. Within data/platform engineering we created a new data lake framework and migrated 90% of our data pipelines. I created a data stewardship program which improved our pipeline reliability and reduced response times by half for SREs. Led the creation and migration to a new eventing platform which improved the way we tracked user behaviour as well as working with ML engineering to productionize our ML models and evolve our MLOPs lifecycle. Worked with Atlan tools to track data to build out a data governance program within the organization. Worked with the rest of the leadership team on product strategy, prioritization and vision while improving the ways we leverage our data to support our business goals and increasing Ads revenue and subscriber base. Worked closely with product, engineering, and customer success teams to define and track key business metrics, driving improvements in revenue and user engagement. Collaborated with a partner University for AI research to understand their work and recommend experiments that were aligned with our goals. Created savings year over year by negotiating with third-party vendors to assess and implement tooling that helps move our business and technology strategy forward as well as managing renewals of existing contracts. Improved operations by providing forecasting and management of the OPEX budget for our data organization, including vendor contracts, team budgets and resource planning. Data & DevOps Engineering Manager Lixar IT | Halifax, NS | October 2018 – August 2021 • • • • • Led a team of DevOps specialists, QA analysts, and data visualization experts, providing consulting services and delivering cloud-based solutions and applications for clients across various sectors. Collaborated closely with internal teams to ensure the seamless integration of data platforms and services, enhancing data quality and reliability as well as addressing shared concerns such as identity management, usage analytics and data governance. Worked with customers to develop tailored data strategies, optimizing workflows and improving the scalability of data solutions. Fostered a culture of learning and operational improvements through effective SDLC processes, including agile methodologies, CD/CI best practices, and infrastructure as code. Established CI/CD and data governance practices that improved data platform performance and reliability, aligning data operations with business goals. Director, Software Engineering Kinduct Technologies | Halifax, NS | August 2016 – September 2018 Directed engineering teams to deliver product features, technical enhancements, and resolve security vulnerabilities while optimizing data and software systems. • • • Led an engineering team of Software, QA, DevOps, Platform and Data Engineers to prioritise and deliver product features and engineering enhancements to address technical debt and security vulnerabilities. Implemented processes and deployed industry standards to deliver successful software releases in a timely manner using agile methodology. Researched emerging best practices and implemented solutions to meet the overall vision of the organisation. Sr. IT Project Manager / Delivery Manager Consulting Unisys | Halifax, NS | February 2011 – August 2016 • • • Managed the integration of a new provincial jurisdiction into a key online legislated PPRS service (Personal property registration system). Provided ongoing strategic planning and management of multiple products, projects for ACOL online services as a Service Delivery Manager. Ensured PCI compliance was maintained by acting as a CSA3416 Internal Auditor for Finance and Incident Management control activities. IT Consultant Theodore Wile Intertrade (TWI) | Dubai, UAE | 2009 – 2010 Supported the implementation of a web-based logistics system, optimizing procurement and supply chain processes for clients across the Middle East. Senior IT Project Manager Nortel Networks | Dubai, UAE | 2007 – 2009 Managed the delivery of a large-scale fiber optic network in Iraq, coordinating across global teams to ensure seamless project execution and compliance with international standards. Education: Bachelor of Computer Science Dalhousie University | Halifax, NS, Canada Certifications: Project Management Professional (PMP) | Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) | ITIL Fdn