Raiza L. Cortes Hernandez

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Name Raiza Lorena Cortes Hernandez

Date of Birth 04 June 1986

Nationality United States of America

Address Lychener Straße 45

10437 Berlin

Tel. +49 157 50150700

E-Mail raizacortes@gmail.com

WORKING EXPERIENCE

07/2015 – Present Loopline Systems GmbH, Berlin, Germany
Product Manager

• Successfully manage all phases of product development for a B2B product with a group of highly skilled back-end/front-end developers, UI/UX designers and QA engineers. 
• Negotiate with business stakeholders to define features for each release.
• Use agile software methodologies in order to break down and prioritize complex features into manageable tasks. Conduct daily standups, plan and track tasks and project progress using JIRA. 
• Manage and maintain the product roadmaps and vision. Work closely with all departments and teams to better define and implement better customer solutions.
• Create processes in order to collect, evaluate and manage customer requests and bugs reports.
• Perform market research, and collect customer needs by conducting user interviews, surveys and focus groups. 
• Analyze and track KPIs in order to create simple and intuitive user experiences for desktop and mobile.
• Create wireframes and prototypes using tools like Axure, Sketch, Invisio and Keynote. Test prototypes by conducting A/B tests and user testing.
• Create agile user stories, edge cases, and specifications for new features to be developed by the IT team. 
• Communicate the needs and specifications of new features to the IT team and all departments.
• Assist human resources with recruiting and hiring team members. Provide onboarding for new hires.

03/2009-09/2014 The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Maryland, USA                             

Information Technology (IT) Project Manager (06/2013-09/2014)

• Managed the complete system life cycle from initiation to implementation to include: modernization of a cryptographic system, big data software and text analytics software solutions for various government clients.
• Consulted with stakeholders to understand their needs and requirements.  Defined requirements and documented project development plans.
• Conducted budget analyses and project timelines.
• Responsible for identifying, analyzing, measuring and managing project risk. Tracked and resolved project issues.
• Negotiated and created staffing plans.  Provided tasking and managed two teams of technical staff and engineers. 
• Supervised technical teams’ work on project design, testing and implementation. 
• Managed all stages of IT projects ensuring customer deadlines were met.
• Analyzed, prepared and documented operational procedures and technical guidelines.
• Gave product presentations and demonstrations to customers and C level managers to report progress, problems, risks and deliverable status. 

Systems Engineer (10/2012-09/2014)

• Managed the requirement analysis process of an anthropomorphic test device (ATD).
• Analyzed and ensured quality of technical and programmatic requirements. 
• Maintained a system requirements database using IBM Rational DOORS.
• Previously responsible for the risk management process of an information system.  Created a risk strategy to collect and identify technical risks, provide risk assessment and monitoring.
• Delivered system risk analysis status and technical documentation to customers and senior management.  Maintained and updated a risk database. 

Principal Investigator for Independent Research & Development Studies (IR&D) (10/2010-09/2014)

• Developed research proposals and presented them to the IR&D panel.  Received funding for multiple IR&D research studies in the areas of cryptography, data compression solutions, Big Data analytics and text analytics.
• Responsible for managing research grants and ensuring success of the project.
• Executed project proposal, project plans, created financial plans, found resources and reported project progress to the IR&D panel.

Information Technology Engineer Team Lead (03/2009-06/2013)

• Started as a member of an IT engineering team and later became the IT team lead that implemented a cryptographic system for a government client.
• Evaluated technical requirements and identified essential software and hardware components. 
• Created detailed trade-off studies and system risk assessments and documented results.
• Managed the procurement and acquisition of system commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components. 
• Integrated software and hardware components in order to built a prototype system; conducted integration testing.
• Identified security vulnerabilities and applied security policies to both Windows OS and Linux OS prototype systems.
• Created detailed test plans and conducted in-house testing and proof of concept (end-to-end) testing at government facilities.
• Assembled systems for deployment and supported field installation and acceptance testing.  Coordinated system deployment at sites across the US.
• Identified and established training requirements and provided user training.  Created a system operations manual.
• Planned for system’s maintenance and logistics support for the planned lifecycle.  Created a system-integrated logistics support plan.
• Implemented maintenance and problem resolution procedures and monitored customer satisfaction and maintenance support. Tracked and provided monthly system status.
• Gave client presentations on system development status and presented to the organization’s director and the executive management team, as well as to the entire department (500 employees).
• Provided guidance, training and technical documentation to network engineers and Windows administrators in order to transition the system from the engineering division to the operations/administrative support division.
• Won the Innovation Award of the Year (2009) for implementing an innovative system solution that solved a highly visible customer problem. 

05/2008  – 08/2008 National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST), Maryland, USA

Intern at the NIST Center for Neutron Research Laboratory

• Worked on a software development project for the Distributed Data Analysis for Neutron Scattering Experiments (DANSE).
• Designed and developed a software prototype in Python that helped to understand the deformation of proteins as they pass through a separation medium.

06/2007 – 08/2007 Universidad de Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, USA

Research Assistant

• Member of a small research team that implemented a non-commutative cryptosystem and conducted cryptanalysis. 
• Presented study results at the San Diego American Mathematical Society (AMS) Convention.

EDUCATION

04/2015 – Present Master of Business Administration (Online MBA)

University of Bradford, Bradford, UK

08/2009 – 12/2012 Master of Science, Systems Engineering

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

08/2004 – 12/2008 Bachelor of Science, Computer Science

Universidad de Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, USA

 
LANGUAGE SKILLS

• Spanish – Native language
• English – Fluent
• German – Basic 

 
TECHNICAL SKILLS

• C++, C, C#
• MS Office Products 
• Requirement analysis
• Python
• Basic HTML, CSS
• MS Visio, MS Project
• MS SharePoint
• Axure
• Wire-framing & Prototyping
• IBM Rational DOORS
• Keynote
• User Experience (UX)
• Windows, Mac & Linux OS
• JIRA Admin, Confluence
• Technical writing
• Github
• InVision
• Data analysis