Alan O'Keeffe

Software Development Manager at Amazon

Ireland

About

Experience

  • Amazon (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland)
    • Software Development Manager
      Jan 2022 - Present ยท 4 yrs 7 mos

      ๐—˜๐—ป๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ฟ | ๐—ฅ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ข๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ & ๐—˜๐—ป๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด | ๐—”๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜‡๐—ผ๐—ป Led a distributed team of 6 engineers across Ireland, the US, and Poland, driving delivery of internal tooling used across Ring's operations and engineering organisations. ๐—ฃ๐—ฒ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฒ & ๐—Ÿ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ฝ - Onboarded and ramped new hires; coached junior engineers directly and empowered senior ICs to do the same - Managed performance proactively through structured feedback and clear goal-setting - Conducted 80+ interviews across the EU and US over three years, contributing significantly to Amazon's hiring bar ๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ด๐˜† & ๐——๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜† - Defined team Charter with clear, prioritised goals; adapted roadmaps efficiently when unplanned demands arose - Contributed to Senior Leadership Milestones and ensured alignment with org-level 1-year and 3-year plans - Reported weekly on operational metrics for all services owned by the team - Proactively identified and pitched new features to internal customers, expanding team remit and tool adoption - Deprecated unused functionality to reduce support overhead and sharpen team focus ๐—ฃ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€ & ๐—–๐˜‚๐—น๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฒ - Introduced Retrospectives and transparent sprint planning to improve team delivery - Fostered ownership culture through team-driven initiatives (naming contests, icon and branding votes) - Launched bi-annual innovation awards to recognise and encourage innovation across the organisation - Led AI adoption by appointing a team AI champion and running weekly sessions to share wins and learnings openly

    • Senior Software Development Engineer
      Aug 2019 - Jan 2022 ยท 2 yrs 6 mos

      ๐—ฆ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐—ณ๐˜๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐——๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ | ๐—ฅ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฆ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† & ๐—ฅ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ข๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ | ๐—”๐—บ๐—ฎ๐˜‡๐—ผ๐—ป Led software development for a newly formed Development team following Ring's acquisition by Amazon, driving technical integration into Amazon's engineering culture, systems, and processes. ๐—ž๐—ฒ๐˜† ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€: ย ย โ€ข Pioneered adoption of Amazon's build and deployment systems across multiple languages, navigating internal documentation and hands-on experimentation to establish best practices ย ย โ€ข Architected and deployed internal web infrastructure secured behind Amazon's authentication and authorisation mechanisms on AWS, with a serverless-first approach to minimise cost and operational overhead ย ย โ€ข Set technical standards and mentored junior engineers, accelerating team onboarding and alignment with Amazon engineering principles ย ย โ€ข Collaborated directly with internal stakeholders, applying a "working backwards" methodology to define requirements and shape project architecture from the ground up ย ย โ€ข Ensured quality and compliance through rigorous Design Reviews and Security Reviews on all projects, adhering to Amazon best practices

  • Microsoft (On-site)
    • Software Development Engineer
      Oct 2013 - Jun 2019 ยท 5 yrs 9 mos

      ๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐—ณ๐˜๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐——๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—˜๐—ป๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ | ๐— ๐—ฆ๐—ก, ๐—•๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด, ๐—ช๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐˜„๐˜€ ๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐˜€ | ๐— ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ณ๐˜ Joined as a junior engineer on a newly formed team of ~60 in Dublin, responsible for building and launching the next-generation MSN.com website, with direct ownership of the MSN Sports pages. Following a successful launch, the team transitioned to owning MSN.com's content management system (CMS) and its content ingestion platform, serving both the website and store applications. The team subsequently moved into the Bing organisation to support search content CMS requirements, and later into the Windows Universal Store organisation, delivering content for the Microsoft Store and the news feed of the newly launched Microsoft Edge browser. Progressed from junior to senior engineer over the course of these engagements, taking on increasing responsibility including on-call live site support, design decision-making, and requirements gathering with Product Managers and Designers. ๐—ž๐—ฒ๐˜† ๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ต๐—น๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ต๐˜๐˜€: ย ย โ€ข End-to-end experience building and scaling a production service from the ground up across three major Microsoft organisations ย ย โ€ข Developed strong architectural expertise spanning monolithic, microservice, and serverless patterns, as well as the evolution from server-side to client-side architectures ย ย โ€ข Supported mission-critical CMS infrastructure serving millions of users across MSN, Bing, and Windows platforms

    • Service Engineer
      Jun 2011 - Oct 2013 ยท 2 yrs 5 mos

      ๐—ฆ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—˜๐—ป๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ | ๐—ข๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—˜๐—ป๐—ด๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด | ๐— ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ณ๐˜ Joined as an Intern before transitioning onto the Graduate Program, working within the Office Engineering organisation in Dublin as part of a globally distributed, follow-the-sun model supporting the core Office Engineering Lab in Redmond. ๐—ž๐—ฒ๐˜† ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€: ย ย โ€ข Developed and maintained imaging systems, test harnesses, and lab infrastructure supporting International Localisation testing, using C#, JavaScript, PowerShell, and SQL. ย ย โ€ข Took ownership of Office 365 international deployments (SharePoint Online & Office Web Apps), diagnosing localisation failures, and filing detailed bug reports to core developers with actionable remediation steps for international markets. ย ย โ€ข Automated recurring engineering requests, including the integration of new Office builds into imaging systems and test harnesses, reducing manual overhead and improving release cadence. ย ย โ€ข Established an internal self-service forum to empower internal customers to resolve recurring issues independently, improving team bandwidth and reducing inbound support noise. ย ย โ€ข Introduced structured ticketing processes to improve workflow visibility and cross-team communication. ย ย โ€ข Ensured physical lab machines and VMs were consistently ready for automated test runs, maintaining high availability across daily and weekly build cycles. ย ย โ€ข Travelled to Redmond, WA to negotiate the inclusion of automated localisation tests into the core Office build pipeline for key languages โ€” enabling earlier detection and resolution of international issues.

  • Engineering Intern at Bord Gรกis Networks
    May 2010 - Sep 2010 ยท 5 mos

    Responsibilities included: โ€ข Compiled a list of the various Cathodic Protection (CP) points along the pipeline network from various sources such as pipeline strip maps, above ground installations (AGIโ€™s), ducting and engineering line diagrams, and Graphic Information Systems (GIS) โ€ข Required to investigate the discrepancies between the sources and escalate these to the relevant teams. โ€ข Prepared Data to be transferred to the new Maximo Automated program which was due to come into operation in November 2011 โ€ข Became familiar with the Honeywell Experion PKS control system software which was used to monitor the pipeline โ€ข Helped the C&I Technicians to setup alarms for the SCADA network for a new SKID unit so it could be monitored โ€ข Went on site to Curraleigh West and Bawnaglough AGIโ€™s and Whitegate PowerStation to perform tests. โ€ข Helped test a new GPS unit which was to be used to record the GPS co-ordinates of CP test posts along the network

  • Salesperson, Cashier, Warehouse Person at Currys
    Feb 2007 - Oct 2009 ยท 2 yrs 9 mos

    Responsibilities included: โ€ข Tills counted every three hours and the discrepancies investigated โ€ข Helped with customer issues such as faulty products. โ€ข Developed good people skills and trust from the management due to the length of time employed by Curryโ€™s. โ€ข Developed prioritizing skills as was often needed to supervise the floor while the manager was on conference call or in a meeting and was also required to sell or count products if needed. โ€ข Acknowledged deliveries, Weekly product counts, Reported discrepancies โ€ข Put stock onto the floor and merchandised and dealt with customer repairs and faulty products. โ€ข Re-installed Software or drivers, or restored laptops to the factory settings where possible to prevent the product from โ€ข having to go for repair โ€ข Learned great organization skills as all items of stock and paperwork would need to be located quickly. โ€ข Required to help the managers balance the safe daily. โ€ข Transfer Stock to and From Mahon Point stores by car. โ€ข Developed Strong Team working as it was required to work together to achieve sales targets. โ€ข Required to help the customer to find everything that they were looking for in a particular product. โ€ข Attended various product road shows in both Dublin and Glasgow โ€ข Trained staff in these new products and roles.