Jess Alexander

Agile Expert | Process Improvement | Technical Communicator

Des Moines Metropolitan Area

About

My passion for technology stems from my childhood fascination with my dad's engineering mindset and problem-solving skills. I enjoy creating useful and impactful solutions that meet the needs of my clients and users. As a Delivery Lead, I have increased team velocity by 100%, collaborated with over 10 teams, and communicated in-depth requirements for a complex notifications system. I have also developed an in-depth domain knowledge base in agronomics and event-driven architecture, documented and broke down complicated processes, and leveraged Software Development Lifecycle to create a data clean-up process. I am always curious and thorough in my work, and I thrive in cross-team collaboration and leadership roles. My primary goal is to empower my team wherever possible and deliver value to my stakeholders.

Experience

  • Pella Corporation (Full-time · 2 yrs 3 mos)
    • Technical Product Manager
      Aug 2025 - Present · 1 yr

      API consolidation and Master Data Management Strategy across the Pella Family of Brands

    • Senior Digital Software Engineer
      May 2024 - Jan 2026 · 1 yr 9 mos

  • Lean TECHniques Inc. (4 yrs 2 mos)
    • Delivery Lead, Technical Liason: John Deere Notifications
      Jan 2023 - Feb 2024 · 1 yr 2 mos

      Increased team velocity 100% by creating well-defined, consistently sized user stories from our Roadmap. This productivity has been sustained by the development team for 7 months and has the added benefit of smaller changes, less risk, and clearly communicated forward progress. Collaborated with over 10 teams over the course of 9 months. Communicated in-depth requirements including notification templating, permissions, notification preferences, global translations, and prompt delivery. Personified a systems thinker while referencing nine queue-driven microservices to explain requirements and side-effects of proposed changes. Monitored, investigated, and collaborated to repair issues causing API calls to take longer than 1.5 seconds to return, causing a negative user experience.

    • Software Consultant, Scrum Master: John Deere Notifications
      Nov 2020 - Dec 2022 · 2 yrs 2 mos

      Developed an in-depth domain knowledge base in order to serve as the team's Subject-Matter Expert. Documented and broke down complicated processes into user stories in order to have clear acceptance criteria communicated to the team. Leveraged Software Development Lifecycle to create a data clean-up process removing non-compliant data owned by 140,000 organizations to conform to John Deere’s new Terms and Conditions user contract. Built skillset for cross-team collaboration as the Notifications system consumes information from 45 different systems and serves notifications to hundreds of internal and external systems.

    • Software Consultant: Growers Edge
      Jul 2020 - Nov 2020 · 5 mos

      Collaborated with the existing client team to discover solutions to address fragile system patterns. Encouraged and uplifted teammates in order to support positive mental health while working in a high-stress environment.

  • Consultant at John Deere
    Jun 2017 - Feb 2024 · 6 yrs 9 mos

    I supported the HDP and Enhance teams while working for Source Allies. I supported the Data Platform Notifications team while working for Lean Techniques.

  • Software Engineer at EveryIncome
    Feb 2019 - Dec 2019 · 11 mos

    Analyzed third-party data structures and offerings to ensure Every Income business strategy could be fulfilled. Worked with a consultant to gain insights into market demands and usability. Designed and implemented a custom Content Management System (CMS) to support the company's Content Delivery Application (CDA).

  • Software Consultant: John Deere IMET at Source Allies Inc.
    May 2017 - Jan 2019 · 1 yr 9 mos

    Established a basic understanding of 10 different technologies over the course of 18 months. Helped to reduce staffing turnover by 50% by practicing vulnerability and playfulness in pursuing expertise in the diverse global agronomic domain. Fostered an inclusive work environment for LGBTQ+ team members as well as holding space for remote workers' voices to be acknowledged and not talked over.