My experience as the Head of Software Production System for BCSS at Ericsson Ireland

I started in Ericsson in 1998 as a developer fresh from college after studying a degree in Electronic Engineering in University College Galway, Ireland.  I spent a few years working as both a developer and tester before moving into system test working with large scale systems and pushing our s/w to extreme limits.

From there I went on into team leading in the system test area and then into both project and line management.  Around 2004/5 I ended up as the Integration and Verification (I&V) Manager of the original OSS products (OSSRC).

I worked across many more projects engaging with Agile Software Development which puts the customer at the centre of everything. This drives teams to take full ownership and accountability for their output. This really resonated with me, and I accelerated my early career by motivating my team and working on core leadership skills to drive ownership and accountability.

I spent many more years working in R&D and during this time I had my 3 children. I am always grateful to Ericsson for the support during this period. Each time I returned from maternity leave I looked for new opportunities and always embraced new areas of R&D. I was excited and driven to learn new technologies and new areas of product development. I finally ended up working as Head of Operations and Program for PDU OSS. This was a key role as it gave me exposure to all areas of R&D from strategy definition to driving strategy execution. During this time, I became a trainer on the Ericsson proprietary Product Development Leadership training course which is still being run today and is one of the highest ratings and requested courses by Product Development Leaders within Ericsson. As a trainer, you always need to keep up with the latest trends in both technology and product development practices, so this has been a key driver for me to be up to date on my own learning.

In 2017, I left R&D for a few years working in Services, starting in Service Delivery, and then taking a key role heading up XaaS for BDGS. Again, this was a big learning curve for me, but I enjoyed the challenge and continue to broaden my competence in the Services side of the business.

I re-joined R&D as the ADP Program Manager driving cloud native development in BCSS. This really helped me understand the core of cloud native development.

And finally last year I applied for my current role as Head of SPS for BCSS and here I am today.

It feels great to have come this far. I constantly acknowledge that I have built up very broad knowledge on all the different parts of the Ericsson business.  This really helps me to execute my current role but also helps me to contribute to the broader BCSS business and, of course, my own CNE LT on all the different areas and challenges.

Leadership style

I am passionate about leading and developing people, empowering teams, and driving outstanding team performance.

As a leader I live our Ericsson values - professionalism, respect, perseverance, and integrity every day, I am customer oriented and have the passion to drive our business towards success for ourselves and our customers. 

I truly believe, when we have clear ambitions, a collaborative, trusting and transparent environment, with exciting technology people can do extraordinary things.

Technology

I am always excited about technology. In my current role as head of SPS, I believe that AI and Automation play a significant role in how we develop and build our s/w. Our goal is to leverage all the fast evolution of the Cloud Native tooling and support our development community by staying ahead of the curve.

We need to focus on automation and simplifications of our s/w systems allowing our developers to focus on adding customer value.

I am also very energised about the challenge our world faces when it comes to climate change; we need to be very focused on sustainability in everything we do.

Career progression and training

I am always motivated by the opportunities to learn new skills and take on new challenges. 

My new role is to create and provide a compelling state of the art Software Production System as a Service to Ericsson R&D that gives Ericsson and BCSS R&D a competitive advantage in 5G, 6G and Cloud Native. The Software Production System should enable a continuous, efficient, and secure design, integration, test, delivery and deployment of solutions, network functions and µ-services.

My team and I are working on many opportunities to enable Ericsson development teams to build and deliver high quality s/w to our customers.  One of the exciting challenges we have right now is building the Cloud Native Software Flow framework that enables and simplifies the flow of our cloud native s/w from the code written on our developers’ laptops all the way to our customers’ live Networks.

Personal life

One thing that has motivated me all my life is my family. Growing up I had the constant support from my 4 sisters and brother.  We always support each other to reach our full potential in everything we do, simply put - if you do it then do it right!

Today I support my own 3 children in everything they do. My goal for them is that I support them to reach their full potential both socially, academically, in sport and music.

This is also something I bring into my own leadership style; my duty is to create the right environment for my team and my organisation to reach its full potential.

Advice

My advice to others would be every day to continue to learn new skills and new technologies, build up your competence and always strive to reach your full potential.  Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself to take on the next step, you are the CEO of your own career.

About Ericsson Ireland

We are always looking for people to join the team at our Athlone site in Ireland and help build the future of telecommunication technology. To find how you could be part of the team and our site at Athlone click here.

To see available roles at Ireland, click here and get to know our colleagues here.