Sarah Gruneisen
Engineering Manager FinTech at bol.com
Amersfoort, Netherlands
[email protected]

My name is Sarah

I practice coaching as a way of leadership that creates accountability, helps us move through obstacles and conflict together, and helps you to apply your passion.

Although I was born and raised in California, United States, I have lived half of my life abroad! Shortly after graduating from the University of California, Davis, I moved to Switzerland and started working as a Software Engineer. I always loved psychology, science, and exploring other cultures and therefore spent most of my twenties traveling and discovering many of the lands and cultures. In my early thirties, I started a family, and am now living in the Netherlands. I am a mother of three, and therefore I find myself more grounded, yet I forever have an adventurous and inquisitive soul.


An Engineering Manager with > 20 Years of Full-Stack Software Engineering / Agile Coaching Experience.

We hire people because of their expertise and ability, and I trust that everyone on my team has this. I practice coaching as a way of leadership to shine a light on the skills that exist in each team member already. I empower them: • To take accountability for their responsibilities and actions • To transform failure into lessons learned • To connect more deeply with members of their team, customers, and the organization • To discover delight and purpose in what they do • To stay out of the drama and resolve conflict effectively • And to inspire their inner passions and motivations to do a job that has a personal purpose. All of this leads to improved performance and added value to our end customers.


My leadership values are empathy, autonomy, and authenticity. I seek to understand rather than to persuade others, give others/and yourself freedom/space/trust to solve problems, and embrace their/your intrinsic value, and genuinely be who you are.
Experience leading teams of senior software engineers (this includes individual coaching and direct performance management of tenured software engineers). I know how to balance my people and technical skills in an effective way to empower my team and deliver results.
Constructively challenge teams/leaders to achieve breakthroughs in behavioral patterns.
Well-versed in what makes a product valuable.
Successfully launched new Agile Scrum/Kanban teams, brand-new minimal viable products, and company processes to flow more effectively.
A compassionate approach to communication, a good sense of humor, and genuine interest that the people I work with are successful and grow.
Experience as a hands-on software engineer, so I understand the core principles of the engineering work that is going on in my team.
Well organized, know how to prioritize, and keep an overview in a dynamic and complex environment.
ENFJ-A


Career History

Coach (Jan 2022 - present)

Avagasso Coaching Community - avagasso.com
coaching

Engineering Manager FinTech (Jan 2021 - current)

bol.com - Utrecht, Netherlands
E-commerce
  • Train and coach on topics related to Agile, Liberating Structures, Coach Leadership presence, coaching methods, IT skill progression, Diversity and Inclusion, etc.
  • Lead, manage, inspire and coach IT professionals.
  • Support, facilitate, and stimulate personal and craft development of IT professionals.
  • Enable and monitor performance of IT professionals (share expectations, give feedback, represent in calibration, monitor, and adjust remuneration) .
  • Create a safe working environment built on our company values (passionate, together, trust, responsibility, sincerity, and grounded).
  • Build teams, including fitting skill-sets to team purpose, recruitment, and onboaring of internal and external IT professionals.
  • Enable, guard, and improve team and cross-team collaboration.
  • Set up teams for success by stimulating a culture of autonomy, entrepreneurship, and continuous improvement.
  • Co-lead product development and delivery.
  • Responsible for the IT innovation and technical operation (you build it, you run it, yu love it, compliancy, security, operational quality, and other non-functional requirements) of the product.
  • Contribute to business results while ensuring technology advancements (eg. to manage technical debt) are also incorporated in the product.
  • Be a sparring partner for business and clients/partners (stakeholder management) ensuring expectations and goals are clear.
  • Manage vendors of both software/SaaS-vendors and suppliers of external contractors.
  • Manage both personnel and non-personnel budget.
  • Lead, manage, or coordinate the implementation of IT wide initiatives and/or one or more IT-projects.
  • Active and supporting role in IT wide strategy development.
  • Negotiate and influence inside and outside bol.com (management).
2021 2022
Utilized Technical Skills
  • Leadership, Individual/Group Coaching, Trainings, Workshops, Presentations, Agile methodologies, Liberating Structures
2021 2022

Research and Development Team Lead / Agile Coach (Jan 2019 - Dec 2021)

Onetrail - Zeist, Netherlands
EDI supply chain, data logistics
  • Lead an internal research and development multifunctional software development team.
  • Lead projects internally and externally as a project manager / Scrum master depending on the project structure.
  • Introduced internally and to external companies an agile way to lead teams.
  • Train all people in the organization (including external partners) in Agility and Scrum.
  • Coach Onetrail through a complete agile transformation including coaching for product owners, Scrum masters, development teams, stakeholders, and leaders.
  • Facilitate company meetings (both in person and remote) weekly using a vast array of Liberating Structures.
  • Develop team leadership applications using MS Flow and PowerApps and Trello Butler.
  • Developed a project management automation application based on project type templates using Trello and Jira integration features.
  • Led the Civity Customer Project team to improve project time estimations, continuously automate, and improve as they work while simultaneously delivering high-quality project work on time.
2019 2020 2021
Utilized Technical Skills
  • Leadership, Scrum, Agile methodologies, Liberating Structures, MS PowerApps, MS Flow, Office 365, modern SharePoint, slack API, Jira API, Trello API/Butler
2019 2020 2021

Mission Critical Software Engineer (Aug 2016 - Dec 2018)

Schuberg Philis - Schiphol-Rijk, Netherlands
infrastructure management, DevOps enabler
  • Designed / developed / migrated an internal team connecting integration automation platform.
  • Designed / developed an internal Chef automation test framework.
  • Installed / trained the test framework for Moneyou.
  • Developed on a Backend MidLayer for the MoneYou Mortgage application.
  • Created an internal facilitation team (focus on Liberating Structures).
  • Organized / Facilitated a Schuberg onsite Liberating Structures meetup.
  • Presented at a CodeMotion conference.
2016 2017 2018
Utilized Technical Skills
  • MS PowerApps, MS Flow, Office 365, MS Graph, MS SharePoint Designer, modern SharePoint, slack API, PowerShell, Chef 12-13, Ruby, Perl, Gitlab CI, Selenium, Java8, Spring, SOAP, Jenkins, Scrum, Agile methodologies, Liberating Structures
2016 2017 2018

Senior Software Engineer (Oct 2015 - Jul 2016)

Woodwing - Zaandam, Netherlands
Digital asset management
  • Developed on the Backend of the Elvis DAM (digital asset management) cluster product.
2015 2016
Utilized Technical Skills
  • AWS EC2/S3/kinesis/CLI, Java8, Scala, Spring, big data, elasticsearch, jwt.io, Swagger, Bash, jQuery, Javascript, Angular, Linux, ANT, Maven, Gradle, git, Scrum, Agile methodologies
2015 2016

CEO and Software Engineer (Apr 2010 - Oct 2015)

Avagasso GmbH - Maschwanden, Switzerland
software and internet
  • Founded companies: "Sarah Gruneisen Software Solutions" and "Avagasso GmbH".
  • Created / implemented business plans.
  • Managed on all levels including people, marketing, sales, resources, project management, and administration.
  • Responsible for all phases of the software development lifecycle including requirements analysis, specification, design, implementation, debugging, testing, and support.
  • Designed / developed / trained / supported SharePoint implementation of intranet and tools for a nuclear energy company, BKW Energie (3 consecutive 1-year contracts).
  • Designed developed Intranet Parent Web application for a daycare, KITA Forsthaus.
  • Consulted / demonstrated a school information system for the International School of Zug.
  • Designed / built a web shop for a clothing retail company, Carousel.
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Utilized Technical Skills
  • Scrum, MS SharePoint 2010, MS InfoPath 2010, Java, JavaScript, PHP, HTML, CSS, XSL, XML, MySQL, SQLServer, Linux, AWS EC2/Route 53/Elastic Beanstalk, Ruby on Rails, Fedenaa, WordPress
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Head of Software Engineering / Architect (Jan 2008 - Jul 2010)

smarcom AG (DIMOCO Vending AG) - Bern, Switzerland
computer hardware and micro electronics integration solutions.
  • Member of the management team and reported directly to company CEO.
  • Led multifunctional software team and software development activities.
  • Designed / owned / executed the software development processes ( Software Release Process, Software Requirement / Specification Templates, Change Management Process, etc)., the company Resource Management process, and the company Competence ( skill ) Management process.
  • Designed / developed the sM2Mart Framework (one framework enabling high professional and remote coordination, survey, support, and update for machine management, mobile payment for public and private vending, logistics, emergency devices, and operations).
    sM2Mart : smarcom machine to machine architecture
  • Designed / implemented the smarpay service built upon the sM2Mart framework (pay Vending machine product by mobile).
    sM2Mart : smarcom machine to machine architecture
  • Responsible for formulating customer requirements / technical specifications.
  • Designed BdB Vertera Teller Cash Recycler Test Strategy / Plan for Talaris.
  • Implemented automated test scripts for testing scenarios.
  • Installed / setup / supported the internal wikipedia.
  • Install hardware device software updates and tested M2M devices via HyperTerminal and machine understood commands (ATD, Text, and Data uploads).
2008 2009 2010
Utilized Technical Skills
  • Java (Servlet, Spring, JSP, Apache Ant), EVA-DTS Vending Machine Interface, Assembly, TwikiWiki, JavaScript, PHP, DHTML, XML, XSL, CSS, PL/SQL, MySQL, Apache Web Server, Apache Tomcat, Perl, Bourne/Korn Shell (ksh), Linux, Scrum
2008 2009 2010

Senior Software Architect (Oct 2007 - Oct 2008)

MondayCoffee AG - Adliswil, Switzerland
software and internet
  • Analyzed customer requirements,
  • Formulated project specifications.
  • Created technical plans for projects.
  • Maintained architecture designs and diagrams.
  • Implemented SharePoint WSS and MOSS project solutions for both internal and external customers (templates, application customizations, custom web-parts).
  • Designed / implemented an advanced reusable server-side solution that automates site creation for customers and allows site super-users to administer site users without giving customers or super-users administrative rights.
  • Upgraded from WSS to MOSS and downgraded from MOSS to WSS.
2007 2008
Utilized Technical Skills
  • Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), MS Office SharePoint Server ( MOSS ), C#, MS Office SharePoint Designer 2007, SQL Server Management Express Studio, MS Visual Studio2005, SQL Server, Perl, Active Directory, STSADM, MS IIS, ASPX
2007 2008

Product Lifecycle Manager (Oct 2005 - Sep 2007)

TDC Switzerland AG (now Sunrise Communications AG) - Zürich, Switzerland
telecommunications
  • Responsible for all relating to the Service Assurance Monitor product (IP Traffic and Network Device Statistic Reporting).
  • Managed change requests and designed / implemented proper change request management.
  • Designed / implemented / exercised proper change request management.
  • Proactively responded to stakeholder concerns and needs and maintained the product roadmap.
  • Initiated projects to ensure the roadmap was a reality.
  • Created documentation, architecture diagrams, interface diagrams, TOM ), and improvement strategies describing OSS / BSS fulfillment, assurance, and billing.
    TOM : Telecom Operations Map
  • Published product newsletter and hosted Question and Answer user forums.
  • Provided technical expertise to service development and customer projects.
  • Initiated the OSS Assurance Application team, enabling managers to use the same processes to increase efficiency and improve system design.
  • Managed product related projects (Split SAM into recourse monitor and service monitor. SAMiala: SAM Inventory Adapter log file analyzer, SAM 4.4 Upgrade)
  • Initiated / designed / implemented / maintained a web application to display service statistics visually, also used for troubleshooting and showing messages to the customers.
  • Trained internal employees throughout Switzerland.
2005 2006 2007
Utilized Technical Skills
  • Netcool/Proviso 4.1-4.4, Silverstream Server, Solaris 9, Oracle 9i, Perl, Linux, SNMP, PHP, MySQL, PL/SQL, JavaScript, BourneShell
2005 2006 2007

Application and System Engineer (Apr 2001 - Oct 2006)

Alcatel Schweiz AG (now Nokia) - Zürich, Switzerland
telecommunications
  • Primary role: Sofware Engineer/Developer although hold many versatile positions depending on the needs of Alcatel's customers: as a Product Lifecycle Manager, Network Engineer, and Project Manager
  • Responsible for all phases of Sofware Development Lifecycle (for customers: Swisscom Mobile, Swisscom Fixnet, Sunrise, Orange, Betti Bossi, internal) including requirements analysis, specification, design, implementation, debugging, testing, and support keeping in mind the set of Alcatel values: Customer First, Innovation, Teamwork, Respect, and Accountability.
  • Single point of contact for all product-related projects, issues, and change requests,
  • Initiated and led internal projects (Test Case Manager, Management by Objectives, Unhappy Hedgehogs)
  • Technically led for specific implementation projects.
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Utilized Technical Skills
  • Netcool/Proviso 4.1, Silverstream Server, Solaris 8-9, Oracle8i-10g, Perl, Bourne/Korn Shell, PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, Apache Server, MS IPTV 1.1, MS Server 2000, Portal 7.0, Infranet 6.1-6.5 (BMR), TIBCO Bus, Perl TK, Rational Unified Process, XML, XSL, CSS, Apache Ant, Java (Swing, SOAP), Advanced MS Excel Functions, MS Excel Macros, C/C++, PL/SQL, BSCS, extreme programming, Agile methodologies
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Software Engineer Consultant (Jul 2000 - Oct 2000)

Cambridge Technology Partners - San Mateo, California, United States
software and internet
  • Designed a wire-frame for a customer front-end application.
  • Designed the "Partner Portal" for Agilent Partners.
2000
Utilized Skills
  • front-end design patterns
2000

Software Engineer Intern (Jun 1999 - Sep 1999)

Alcatel USA (now Alcatel-Lucent) - Petaluma, California, United States
telecommunications
  • Designed and implemented the Bug Review Automation Tool
1999
Utilized Skills
  • Oracle 8i, Solaris 8, PL/SQL, JavaScript, Web Alchemy, Web-DB, Continuus, Perl
1999

Civil Engineering Department Web Master (Apr 1998 - Jul 1999)

University of California, Davis - Davis, California, United States
education
  • Developed the Civil Engineering department web page.
1998 1999

Office Assistant (Jan 1997 - Dec 1997)

University of California, Davis - Davis, California, United States
education

Conference Assistant (Jun 1997 - Sep 1997)

University of California, Davis - Davis, California, United States
education

Lab Assistant (Oct 1995 - Jun 1996)

University of California, Davis - Davis, California, United States
education

Cashier (Checker) (Apr 1994 - Sep 1995)

Holiday Quality Foods - Redding, California, United States
food


Education

University Degree Bachelors of Science in Computer Science Engineering
1995-2000
University of California, Davis

Soft Skill Education

*=Certificate
The Influential Communication Programme
2 days in 2022
Bureau Zuidema Learning Solutions in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Stretch to Fit
10 days in 2022
Sentor in Hippolytushoef, Netherlands
Liberating Structures Immersion Workshop
2 days in 2021
Liberating Structures in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Dare to Lead
6 days in 2021
bol.com in Utrecht, Netherlands/online
Leaders Who Coach Cohort *
4 months in 2021
Better Conversations in Online
TSS Public Academy Advanced including Insights coaching
2 days in 2019
TSS in Zeist, Netherlands
Liberating Structures Immersion Workshop
2 days in 2017
Liberating Structures in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Presentations techniques and customer handling
1 day in 2005
Alcatel in Zürich, Switzerland
Competence Management
4 days in 2005
Alcatel in Zürich, Switzerland
Giving Presentations
1 day in 2004
Alcatel in Zürich, Switzerland

Language Education

*=Certificate
Dutch, B1 part 1 Dutch
3 months in 2020
Taalthuis in Amersfoort, Netherlands
Dutch, A2 *
4 months in 2019
Taalthuis in Amersfoort, Netherlands
Dutch, A1 *
4 months in 2018
Taalthuis in Amersfoort, Netherlands
Dutch, Level 1
3 months in 2013
Berlitz in Virtual Classroom
German Certificate 2
5 months in 2005
Berlitz in Zürich, Switzerland
German Certificate 1 *
5 months in 2004
Berlitz in Zürich, Switzerland
German, Levels 2-6
1 year in 2003
Berlitz in Zürich, Switzerland

Technical Education

*=Certificate
Introduction to Kubernetes
2 days in 2018
Schuberg Philis in Schiphol-Rijk
Introduction to Docker
2 days in 2018
Schuberg Philis in Schiphol-Rijk
Chef basic/intermediate
2 days in 2017
Chef in Schiphol-Rijk
Introduction to Scala
5 days in 2016
Woodwing in Zaandam, Netherlands
Configuring MS Office SharePoint Server 2007 *
exam only in 2007
Prometric in Zürich, Switzerland
Netcool/OMNIbus: Administration, Configuration
1 week in 2007
Alcatel & IBM in Zürich, Switzerland
Alcatel IPTV: Detailed Installation, Architecture, Detailed Overview
1 week in 2005
Alcatel & MS in Antwerp, Belgium
J2EE Programming with EJBs: Bea WebLogic Server 8.1
1 week in 2005
Bea in Zürich, Switzerland
Proviso 4.3: Administrator and Operator *
8 days in 2005
Micromuse in Paris, France
Infranet 6.5 sp2: Implementing Pipeline Rating
1 week in 2004
Portal in Slough, United Kingdom
Infranet 6.1: Developer 1, Technical Foundation, Functional Foundation *
2 weeks in 2001
Portal in Slough, United Kingdom
Getting Started w/ JavaScript
3 days in 2000
Cambridge Technology Partners in San Mateo, California, United States
E-Commerce *
3 days in 2000
Cambridge Technology Partners in San Mateo, California, United States
Java for C++ Developers
3 days in 2000
Cambridge Technology Partners in San Mateo, California, United States