Duncan Maconachie
Willoughby,NSW
Summary
Delivery Lead at Ignition Advice, overseeing digital financial advice solutions for Australian clients, including UniSuper and Colonial First State. Responsible for managing project delivery, client engagement, and collaboration with development and configuration teams to ensure successful implementation. Focus on resource management, budget oversight, and progress reporting, while prioritizing feature builds and addressing technical debt. Coordinate with global teams to ensure timely and effective delivery of platform updates and enhancements.
Overview
19
19
years of professional experience
Work History
Delivery Lead
Ignition Advice
05.2024 - Current
- Company Overview: Ignition is a fintech that provides financial institutions with a digital financial advice solution for their customers/members in order to make financial advice more affordable and accessible.
- I am the Delivery Lead for our first two Australian clients, UniSuper and Colonial First State (CFS), and I run each project alongside the Principal Product Consultant.
- The UniSuper project has been running since November 2024, and the first journey is due to go live in June 2025.
- The first phase of the project has been delivered on time and under budget on the Ignition side.
- CFS is only in the early stages, but it is on track to go live on time and on budget.
- Support European and Australian client delivery, and coordinate internal client project teams for both European and Australian clients.
- Develop and maintain client-facing delivery plans, resource plans, and budgets.
- Develop and maintain internal sprint plans.
- Lead regular team meetings, and support collaboration across the global teams.
- Plan and oversee release management activities for the global platform as changes are promoted into test and production environments.
- Drive continuous improvement in internal delivery processes to support efficient implementations.
- Define project success metrics, and communicate them to all project stakeholders.
- Proactively manage changes in scope, issues, risks, and devise contingency plans for internal and client-facing projects.
- Maintain and deliver agreed-upon project updates and communication outputs.
- Deliver and present quarterly product roadmap delivery plans to the executives and the board.
- Work closely with client-side project leadership to develop and maintain plans to ensure successful project delivery.
- Daily team handover between Australia and Europe, typically between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.
- Meetings with European teams usually occur four nights a week, anywhere from 6:30 p.m. until 10 p.m.
- In-depth weekly reporting for both external clients and Ignition executives on client projects, the Ignition global platform, and other Ignition support environments.
- I have coordinated and overseen monthly platform releases, introducing new features that need to be delivered on time to cater to the needs of different clients.
- This involves coordinating four different teams, all delivering code dependent on each other for a successful release.
- Releases need to be documented and showcased to our Australian and European teams before being approved.
- I have introduced a number of different practices to streamline the way the platform team plans their quarterly work, such as holding planning days once per quarter, bringing all teams together (tech, product, and business) to discuss the quarterly goals, requirements, dependencies, and challenges.
Scrum Master/Project Manager
Angle Auto Finance
12.2023 - 05.2024
- Company Overview: A business acquired from Westpac Auto Finance.
- I was the project manager for two initiatives for AAF.
- The first being a Settlements Automation initiative, partnering with a vendor (Affinda) to use AI to streamline the settlement process for car loans and leases.
- This process involved AI scanning and reading documents to automatically approve loans and leases, to speed up the settlement process.
- The second initiative was partnering with another vendor (Verifier) to automate the Proof of Income process required for loan applications by using the Open Banking Platform to confirm a customer's income.
- I was also managing the scrum team to build the systems on the AAF side, as well as integrate with the vendors' systems.
- I worked with a number of internal stakeholders, including Legal & Compliance, Finance, Marketing, and the Settlements and Proof of Incomes teams, to create and track the solution.
- I reported to the Executive Steering Committee on the progress of the initiatives twice weekly, and I maintained the reports for these meetings.
Scrum Master - Data & Analytics Squad and Member & Accumulation Squad
GROW Inc
04.2021 - 11.2023
- Company Overview: A start-up that was initially set up as a superannuation fund but has since transformed into a financial services company that builds superannuation platforms using blockchain technology.
- I led 2 teams of Back and Front-end Developers, Testers and BAs responsible for the delivery of software used to build Superannuation platforms for Vanguard Super, Mercy Super, Hesta for Mercy and Australian Ethical Super.
- The teams were also responsible for the creation, maintenance and delivery of all reporting that was generated for internal and client reports, and the management of the data lake and several systems used to generate data analysis and reporting.
- The team conducted data analysis to identify risks, potential improvements to practices and reporting, providing recommendations to drive business growth.
- Conducting sprint and program increment planning and activities such as daily stand-ups, grooming, show cases, coordinating releases, running the scrum of scrums, reporting on the squads progress, running sprint retros to ensure effective collaboration within the development teams.
- Coaching team members on the Agile principles and practices to promote self-sufficient practices and to continuously improve the squads of ways of working.
- Managing the product backlog, BAU requests from the service team, risks, issues and user stories to ensure the timely delivery of sprint and program increment goals.
- Working with my fellow Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Business Analysts, Project Managers and other stakeholders to define requirements, project scope and acceptance criteria.
- Maintaining the Squad Charters and taking new members of the squads through the Charter to ensure they understood the team goals, vision and ways of working.
- A start-up that was initially set up as a superannuation fund but has since transformed into a financial services company that builds superannuation platforms using blockchain technology.
- Mercy go-live: Working with the Member Accumulation and Pension Squad and the Data Analytics and Reporting Squad to bring Mercy Super across to the Grow platform from Mercer.
- This was a huge achievement for Grow as it was the companies first go-live and it gave Grow the credibility to win other tenders such as Vanguard, AE and HESTA.
- Vanguard Market Launch: Vanguard is one of the world's largest investment firms and this was their first superannuation market launch.
- The pressure to deliver was huge and my squads were able to deliver all software within time and on budget without any delays or bug fixes.
- This was particularly challenging as we had to build Vanguards platform from scratch as Vanguard Super was a brand-new product.
- Vanguard Pension Launch: Following up on the successful Vanguard launch we needed to deliver the Vanguard Pension product as a fast follower.
Program Manager/Senior Project Manager/Project Manager
Westpac Institutional Bank
07.2010 - 04.2021
- Company Overview: Westpac is a major Australian bank providing a range of financial services.
- For my last 6 months in this role, I was promoted to team leader of a team of 4 PMs within the Property Finance team in WIB.
- I was the Program Manager for Westpac's QuickSuper Program (SuperStream/Superannuation Platform dealing with rollovers, contributions etc) and I managed 2 other programs over my last 3 years there, each with several Project Managers working under me.
- This Program was market leading and Westpac was the only bank that was accredited to act as a Superstream gateway, so this added huge value to the Westpac GTS business.
- Coordinating third party suppliers and resourcing for all of the projects within the program.
- Reporting to steering committees on programs, internal initiatives, and system reviews.
- This included circulating reports as well as in-person presentations.
- Assisting bid management on pre-sales discussions and tenders and making sure that the project work will fit within the fee schedule.
- Working with clients and internal stakeholders to identify, design, develop, monitor and report on the agreed success metrics of each project.
- Ensuring provision of quality, time bound deliverables for each project.
- Monitoring and mitigating any implementation related risks and issues.
- Providing the implementation status reporting and tracking reports for all projects.
- Standard Project Management activities such as collecting requirements, drafting and obtaining sign-off on Requirements Documents for each project, running project meetings, creating and maintaining project schedules and making sure the project was delivered on time and within budget.
- Ensuring all relevant stakeholders are kept up to date with project progress and tailoring what each stakeholder is told and how often, depending on their requirements.
- Westpac is a major Australian bank providing a range of financial services.
- Implemented an IT project for Revenue NSW to integrate a payments platform in their website for infringement notices that made all online payments 30% more efficient and took out all manual intervention from Revenue NSW staff.
- I managed 'Project 458' in 2019 after APRA looked into allegations by AUSTRAC that Westpac had breached anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws.
- This project involved bringing Westpac back into line with the APRA regulations following a serious breach resulting from a product set up the previous year.
- It involved working with partnering banks that made international transactions and making sure all transactions were made in accordance with AML legislation.
- Managing the NSW Health project to implement a change of transactional banking from CBA to Westpac for all local health districts throughout NSW.
- This involved coordinating with all LHDs and the Ambulance Service to change them to Westpac and streamline their transactional banking.
- WIB partnership award in 2016 for my involvement with the QuickSuper team.
- GTS teamwork award in 2013 for my PM work on the McDonalds merchant acquiring implementation.
- I worked on large implementations for key GTS clients such as Caltex, Rabobank, Flight Centre, Citibank, Lend lease, AMP, Group Zara, Talent 2 International, LVMH and a number of Federal and NSW Government departments all to streamline transactional banking systems.
Solicitor - General Practice
Nescis Lawyers
Leichhardt
03.2009 - 04.2010
- Solicitor in a medium-large sized law firm, working in a team of 5 solicitors.
- Working on my own matters and as support for the senior solicitors.
- This work covered many areas of law.
- Legal research and analysis.
- Drafting complex legal documents and correspondence with opposing parties.
- Drafting legal advice, both on-going advice and in relation to litigation either anticipated or in progress.
- Drafting and preparing court pleadings.
- Appearing in court.
- Liaising with counsel and court staff.
- Managing up to 100 banking and finance files.
- Advising on alternative dispute resolution, negotiating settlements and appearing for clients at mediations.
Solicitor - Banking and Finance Litigation
Dibbs Abbott Stillman Lawyers
10.2006 - 12.2007
- Solicitor in a medium-large sized law firm, working in a team of solicitors.
- Working on my own matters and as support for the senior solicitors.
- This work covered many areas of law.
- Legal research and analysis.
- Drafting complex legal documents and correspondence with opposing parties.
- Drafting legal advice, both on-going advice and in relation to litigation either anticipated or in progress.
- Drafting and preparing court pleadings.
- Appearing in court.
- Liaising with counsel and court staff.
- Managing banking and finance files.
- Advising on alternative dispute resolution, negotiating settlements and appearing for clients at mediations.
Education
Certified Associate in Project Management - Project Management
Project Management Institute
07.2015
Project Management Fundamentals - Project Management
PM-Partners Group
Sydney, NSW04.2013
Master of Laws and Legal Practice - Practical Legal Training
University of Technology, Sydney
Sydney, NSW01.2006
Bachelor of Arts - English, history, politics, philosophy and similar unimportant subjects
University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW01.2000
Skills
- Project management and agile methodologies
- Budget and resource planning
- Risk assessment and mitigation
- Stakeholder engagement
References
Referees can be provided on request
Affiliations
- I have 2 kids aged 11 and 9.
- President of the Saints Basketball Club, Willoughby
- Basketball coach, the Saints Basketball Club Under 12s
- Soccer coach, Northbridge Soccer Club Under 13s
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
Delivery Lead
Ignition Advice
05.2024 - Current
Scrum Master/Project Manager
Angle Auto Finance
12.2023 - 05.2024
Scrum Master - Data & Analytics Squad and Member & Accumulation Squad
GROW Inc
04.2021 - 11.2023
Program Manager/Senior Project Manager/Project Manager
Westpac Institutional Bank
07.2010 - 04.2021
Solicitor - General Practice
Nescis Lawyers
03.2009 - 04.2010
Solicitor - Banking and Finance Litigation
Dibbs Abbott Stillman Lawyers
10.2006 - 12.2007
Certified Associate in Project Management - Project Management
Project Management Institute
Project Management Fundamentals - Project Management
PM-Partners Group
Master of Laws and Legal Practice - Practical Legal Training
University of Technology, Sydney
Bachelor of Arts - English, history, politics, philosophy and similar unimportant subjects
University of Sydney