Senior Engineering Executive

Scaling Engineering Excellence & Strategic AI Transformation

Accomplished Senior Software Engineering Manager & Technical Leader with 20+ years driving high-impact software delivery, strict FDA 21 CFR compliance, enterprise AI rollouts, and resilient team culture across Fortune 100 enterprises and high-growth innovators.

168%
YoY Revenue Growth (Q2 2026)
50%
Capacity Gain w/o Headcount
10x
Defect Reduction ($3M Savings)

Executive Focus & Competencies

Demonstrated expertise bridging deep technical architecture, regulatory governance, and strategic business objectives.

  • FDA 21 CFR Compliance
  • AI Coding Agents & Rollouts
  • Empathetic Team Mentoring
  • Agile Turnaround & Gamification
  • System Architecture Reviews
  • Global Offshore Leadership
  • Patent & IP Board Governance

Executive Case Studies

Demonstrated track record of technical leadership, operational scaling, and product excellence across major organizations.

WCG

Senior Software Engineering Manager
March 2021 – October 2026
  • FDA 21 CFR Regulatory Compliance: Directed 4 cross-functional software engineering teams (~15 senior engineers) developing WCG's flagship healthcare product, InvestigatorSpace under strict FDA 21 CFR requirements, consistently meeting and exceeding audit standards.
  • 2026 Enterprise AI Rollout Lead: Educated, mentored, and coached engineering teams on AI coding, autonomous agents, skills, models, tokens, AI security, AI ethics, and AI-driven validation & testing workflows.
  • 168% YoY Revenue Contribution: Delivered feature enhancements for the flagship product that directly contributed to 168% YoY revenue growth in Q2 2026.
  • 50% Capacity Expansion Without Headcount: Scaled team workload output by 50% over two years while maintaining headcount through decision delegation, bi-weekly individual coaching, and capacity tracking.
  • Deployment Quality Breakthrough: Reduced escaped deployment defects from 1-in-3 releases to 1-in-10 by implementing peer reviews, early QA integration, and deep architectural reviews.
  • Greenfield Video App & Mobile Delivery: Led a greenfield video meeting app from inception to beta in under 12 months; revitalized retired toolchains to deliver updated iOS and Android apps to store frontends.
  • Agile Gamification & Culture: Rescued a failed Scrum implementation and gamified Agile education by hosting "Scrum Jeopardy" game shows and authoring short stories to engage teams.

ServiceTitan

Senior Scrum Master / Agile Transformation Lead
June 2018 – March 2020
  • Deployment Quality & Feature Integration: Developed and managed the bi-weekly deployment framework, slashing escaped defects by 50% while simultaneously increasing feature integrations by 50%.
  • Intellectual Property & Patent Board: Instrumental in establishing ServiceTitan's internal Patent Board to evaluate employee inventions and award patent recognition.
  • Global Team Transformation: Championed Agile adoption across globally distributed teams in North America and Eastern Europe (Ukraine), establishing asynchronous workflows and partnering with local lead engineers to bridge language and time-zone barriers.
  • Change Management Roadshows: Executed company-wide educational roadshows and individual consultation sessions to dismantle common Scrum misconceptions.

DirecTV

Engineering Manager
September 2014 – June 2017
  • 10x Defect Reduction & $2M–$3M Savings: Managed 12 embedded C++ engineers responsible for the flagship Genie set-top box software ($12M annual budget), driving down spontaneous reboots by an order of magnitude (10x) and saving $2M–$3M annually in support calls.
  • Core Codebase Protection ("Golden Goose"): Architected sub-branching strategies, implemented unit testing in existing C++ code, and strict integration gates to protect the core codebase.
  • Special-Ops Diagnostics: Formed virtual "special-ops" teams to perform deep root-cause analysis on critical technical issues that external vendors failed to solve.
  • Technical Acuity & Vendor Management: Prevented critical deployment failures by visually identifying incorrect vendor binary packages (detecting missing driver files via package file size discrepancies).

Amazon & Microsoft

Software Development Engineer & Build / QA Lead
1999 – 2013
  • Amazon e-Ink Kindle Internationalization (2011–2013): Refactored e-ink Kindle software architecture from English-only to 11 languages (including Japanese, Simplified & Traditional Chinese, and Arabic), enabling global adoption and contributing to 70% eBook sales growth.
  • Microsoft Core OS Build Harnesses (2005–2011): Architected automated build scheduling harnesses in the Core Operating System Division at Microsoft HQ in Redmond, enabling engineering teams to execute complex Windows OS builds on demand.
  • Microsoft Software Test Engineering (1999–2005): Designed automated test harnesses using scripting and API calls; led complex localization testing for Microsoft BackOffice Suite with zero post-deployment updates due to testing failures.
Professional headshot of Colm O'Toole

Executive Biography

I am a technical leader and senior engineering manager with a two-decade track record of building, mentoring, and scaling high-performing engineering organizations across Fortune 100 enterprises and high-growth innovators.

My leadership philosophy centers on empathetic mentorship, radical transparency, and empowering teams through direct ownership. Whether in the trenches with embedded C++ developers or guiding executive roadmaps, I focus on aligning rigorous engineering discipline with measurable business growth.

Specializing in turning around complex engineering challenges—from FDA 21 CFR regulatory compliance and enterprise AI rollouts to scaling team capacity by 50% without adding headcount—I foster resilient, redundant, and high-morale engineering cultures.

Education, Credentials & Affiliations

M.Sc. in Molecular Medicine
Advanced Research & Scientific Methodology
M.Sc. in Computer Engineering
Systems Architecture & Software Engineering
Certified in Agentic AI for Leaders & Certified Google AI Professional
AI models in the enterprise; maximizing AI for productivity
Certified Professional Scrum Master II; Professional Product Owner I
Recognized expertise in Scrum (3% of Scrum Masters have PSM II) & Product Owner role
ICP-ACC & ICP-ATF
Recognized expertise in Agile & Engineering coaching & expertise in Team Faciltation
S.M.IEEE (Senior Member, IEEE)
Recognized Leadership in Engineering Profession

Let's Connect

Open to executive and senior software engineering leadership opportunities. Connect to discuss strategic AI transformations, engineering management, or organizational scaling.