The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (The CISI)

London School of Computer Education

Oaklands College

Monks Walk School

Senior Product Manager - Investments at CMC Markets

FinTech assistance, acceleration, and financial services transformation.

Opus Una

Associate

Skills: Product Operations · Director level · Product Concept

PM Lab

Managing Director

Control Function responsible for Product within Invest, this stretches from the D2C proposition and plan to the B2B ambitions and positioning. With multiple reports with a range of skills, I have ownership over the market fit, governance, the various squads, and our ultimate delivery and success.

CMC Invest

Head of Product

Joined the company to continue the development of CMC Invest and to lead the product needs and delivery. During the project, I was required to take control of all API and frontend technology teams and squads as part of a transition. Additional Product Managers were brought in to create more squads which reported to me. The project successfully pivoted technology needs did a successful tech and project handover, and achieved the targeted release date.

Senior Product Manager - Investments

Brought into a high performing team to join the labs' innovation initiative, focused on leading the product needs for a new investment proposition based in the UK. 

 - Mapping out the competitive landscape, understanding the existing technology and partners available, create a plan around features and customer needs balanced against the ability to deliver
 - Stakeholder buy-in across the whole global group to explain and approve the proposition
 - Running the primary squad focused on API creation and frontend (PWA) delivery while mapping out the downstream requirements

Product Consultant

Providing regulatory assistance and guidance for Tulipshare, as well as assisting with any fundraising. Enabling connections and giving insight into the UK regulatory landscape, and helping them to understand order flow and custody agreements across both the UK and US.

Tulipshare

Strategic Advisor

Assisting with investment selection, performing technical analysis, and product consultancy.

Licas Ventures

Partner

Focused on the technology selection, product-market fit, and project planning for Dodl by AJ Bell. A new offering focused on a different target market which utilised the existing technology stack as well as provided new enhancements.

 - Providing a framework to focus the stakeholders and refine the needs of the project and its fit in the wider market
 - Running the partner selection program to assist which outsourced frontend agency would be brought in, as well as the technology selection fitting with the wider company objectives
 - Working on the design, feature needs, strategy and timelines, as well as upskilling the existing team 
 - Delivered a new API suite, as well as a Flutter app for iOS and Android

Dodl represents a new approach for AJ Bell, both in terms of technology but also from a market perspective. Targeting first-time investors with a guided experience, Dodl gives customers a focused flow to understand the essentials and acts as a bridge between those wanting a DIY investment service but assistance during the selection and blocking out the noise.

AJ Bell

An independent company offering consultancy services to financial firms needing technical or product experience and assistance. Working with clients like AJ Bell, CMC Markets, and New Horizon Global Advisory, to define new brand propositions, and cover regulatory challenges.

Sneddon Consultancy

Director

As one of the original co-founders I was responsible for the technical planning, execution, and development. 3rd party integrations, B2B sales, end customers interviews, to presenting to shareholders, I was involved in all aspects of the business.

- Requirements gathering and project scoping with stakeholders at all levels
- Working with internal developers, outsourced agencies, and third-party providers in unison
- Involved in fund raising, business readiness, representing the company to shareholders and customers alike
- Expanding the team and managing multiple project handovers between different teams and companies
- Taking an idea into a business plan, technical specification, sprint management, to ultimately shipping the project with complete end to end ownership
- Youngest company to ever raise over £500,000 on Crowdcube
- Delivered an iOS and Android app, full API suite, and land the groundwork for future product expansion 

Genuine Impact analyses over 13,000 potential investments for DIY and professional investors around the world, delivered as a mobile web app. Having raised over £500k in a pre-seed round, bringing in over 500 new investors, we delivered multiple iterations of the application.

Genuine Impact

Co-Founder and CTO

As Product Manager for Figaro, I was responsible for strategy, new feature development, commercials, collaborative development with clients, and feature ownership.

- Meeting and working directly with clients
- Collaborative projects and new product launches, where multiple clients participate
- Requirements gathering and working with the Project and Delivery teams
- Profitability and risk calculations on new projects as well as new pricing strategies
- Working with data vendors (e.g. ICE, Morningstar, FundsLibrary, SIX and Financial Express) to setup partnership agreements and other commercial structures
- Working with 3rd party suppliers (e.g. AutoRek) to create new integrations and cross sell opportunities 
- Supporting Relationship Managers with project roll outs and pre-sale activities 

Figaro is an on premise or SaaS installed piece of software. Used by over 60 financial firms in the UK and Ireland, and responsible for over £160bn in AUM. Primarily used by wealth managers and stock brokers (e.g. Charles Stanley, Jarvis, AJ Bell, Quilter, Interactive Investor.)

A selection of my projects:
- Lifetime ISA (full API integration)
- MiFID II Costs and Charges, specialising in EMT consumption
- Commercial partnerships with data vendors for maintaining interfaces and prompting vendors
- Pricing committee for approving collaborative developments
- CASS project (Argon) a new complete end to end CASS solution for UK clients
- PSD2 and OpenBanking for wealth managers
- Webhook creation and integration
- Performance FX attribution
- Automatic payment matching during client money bank statement import

Product Manager

Focused on partnership delivery and management.
 - Pre-sales 
 - Project scoping and requirements gathering
 - Feasibility and profitability assessment
 - Risk and compliance assessment as well as partner due diligence 
 - Project implementation
 - Product maintenance and ongoing support

Partnerships governed both B2C growth and B2B (including B2B2C) projects, as a team we were multinational looking after projects in Italy, the United Kingdom, and prospecting in other European countries.  

A selection of my projects:
 - Moneyfarm powered by Allianz Global Investors
 - Moneyfarm powered by AllianzGI for Uber Partner Drivers
 - The Moneyfarm Pension (SIPP which is also a Qualifying Work Place Scheme)
 - B2C strategy development and pricing review
 - MiFID II readiness and project review
 - Common Reporting Standards
 - Goal based investing for discretionary wealth management
 - Custodian and broker assessment
 - Instrument data provider and Advisor data solutions

MoneyFarm

Partnership Technical Product Manager

As part of a restructuring process I was promoted to Head of Execution Only. This role saw me looking after interactive investor's core proposition and accountable for its trading platform. 

I became the product owner for:
 - SharePrice
 - Trading platforms (ii, Trustnet Direct, Telegraph Investor, Motley Fool Share Dealing as well as unreleased white labels)
 - New ii retail brand (currently in beta)
 - Complex products
 - Spread Betting, CFDs and Forex
 - Equity trading

Outside of the strategic planning and project planning I also had another set of KPIs.
 - Ensuring the right range and breadth of securities on the platform
 - Offering a wide and deep selection of functionality and tools on our public sites
 - The acquisition of IPOs and new listing opportunities
 - Growing the groups' AUA 
 - Increasing the volume and revenue of and from trades
 - Enhancing the core XO product 
 - Growth of derivatives revenue
 - Aiding in technical pre-sales and building the white label offering
 - Investigation of alternative revenue streams

Interactive Investor

Head of XO

Promoted to spec, build and maintain the digital wealth management proposition and infrastructure.
From building supplier relationships to managing the technology used. 

My role was key in deciding partners, business case development as well as the funding and commercial execution of discretionary within ii. I was responsible for the delivery and ongoing management of not only staff but of the core discretionary proposition as well. 

Part of developing the business case was not only the sourcing of suitable hires for the initial build and BAU but also insourcing the cross-platform integrations. The business cases had multiple methods of implementation as well as varying head count.

The business cases were each supported by a complete profit loss projection which managed the technology budget for upfront capex as well as the future opex.

Alongside these responsibilities I was also involved in the technical pre-sales of new white labels. Out of the white labels we engaged with, one successfully signed and development has now started. As well as technical pre-sales I assisted with the existing white labels and partners. This ranged from the commercial agreements to pricing and prioritising of new features.

I also became the product owner for ii's sister stock-broking company: SharePrice. This responsibility saw me lead the BAU and analytical day to day running of the brand as well as the forward-facing strategy. My key objective was the strategic future of the brand to compliment and further the core business objectives.

I was the first member of a smaller "start-up" style management team with ii to develop desirable R&D products. We were expected to be flexible, agile and cost-centric to ensure we could move quickly to the changing landscape.

Head of Technology Digital Wealth Management

A temporary position while the current trading development was working on separate projects.

-	Managing the development team, five strong including contractors, responsible for the trading platform, all backend APIs and White Labels
-	Working with different team leads, four other teams, to manage cross-platform dependencies and releases
-	Consulting with 3rd parties to aid with White Label acquisition as well as planning White Label development effort
-	Regular meetings with White Labels during pre-sales and throughout the initial build
-	Project planning multiple development stacks (mostly based on Zend 1.12 and Zend 2)
-	Maintenance of the existing platform and planning future sprints as the scrum master
-	Production access for resolving P1 issues and aiding with daily system maintenance
-	Liaising with multiple departments, from Contract Centre to Compliance, to gathering requirements as well as assisting with creation of business cases
-	Responsible for out of hours processes, such as quarterly fees, as well as any other business critical tasks relating to the range of trading platforms
-	Reported to the CTO as well as working alongside different PMs

Head of Trading Development

I worked as part of a team with 8 other developers. The work was set by business priority and scored by the developers. We worked in an agile environment with two week sprint cycles.

A side from the main share dealing platform I worked on white label projects and other code bases. Examples of the other code bases include the product comparison/best buys on MoneyWise.

-	Worked on the share dealing platform as well as secondary code bases
-	Used Zend 1.12 and Zend 2 on AWS instances across multiple environments
-	Supported and development legacy systems which connected PERL and Oracle to the new PHP MySQL stacks
-	Integrating micro frameworks using JSON-RPC and SOAP
-	EC2 Severs running Amazon Linux as well as other AWS solutions, ranging from S3 to SNS
-	Used a range of new technologies and software:
o	Full Atlassian suite, GrayLog, AppDynamics, BugZilla, SVN and GIT
-	Assisted the development cycle in an agile environment with regular sprint planning
-	Worked with 3rd party suppliers of data e.g. Xanite, MorningStar, Finex and MDG
-	CLI and Test Driven development (PHP Unit)
-	Performed system support on multiple stacks and environments
-	Used Bamboo to assist with code deployments as well as CI with our nightly environments
-	Used AppDynamics to report and benchmark the systems to monitor for improvements, as well as flagging potential issues within the code
-	Maintained a number of different code bases ranging from data importers, Restful APIs to admin interfaces
-	Reported to the Head of Trading Development

PHP Programmer

My role was to manage the developers as well as working on the core code base. Myself and the CTO would plan project sprints, as well as maintaining a bug free development environment, with the help of Jira ticketing system.

I was always involved with the integration of AWS resources into our code base. Such examples include SQS and SES to handle to emails.

The main website is a social sporting cloud solution for schools and grassroots alike.

-	Developed new plugins and code in Elgg.
-	Created both version of the PE Assessment Tool.
-	Implemented AWS SQS for use with AWS SES.
-	Used Jira to aid in project and sprint planning.
-	Worked with Ubuntu EC2 servers on AWS using an automatic scaling group.
-	Used a range of AWS resources:
o	EC2, EC3 – Buckets, SQS, SES, CloudWatch, RDS and Route 53
-	Managed two other developers and any short terms contractors.
-	Worked with CodeIngiter to developer a thin API and services layer.
-	Also used Zend which was custom bootstrapped into Elgg.

Sporting Nation LTD

My role at Specsavers was spilt between developing applications to reduce man-hours and supporting all applications. The support role required me to support all application software, servers and documentation. We were not responsible for the internal networking/infrastructure.

The development role saw me having purpose build servers commissioned and new sites developed for specialist requirements.

A range of my developments where shared with other divisions of Specsavers.

-	Supported the servers used by Asia Pacific branch of Specsavers (Australia and New Zealand.)
-	Maintained and supported over 300 AU and NZ Linux servers (Red Hat) across all stores.
-	Developed in house tools to aid with day to day tasks.
-	Put forward change requests to the UK for new software or access to API’s.
-	Supported desktop applications to large financial in house developed web sites.
-	Worked mostly with Red Hat, MySQL and Oracle.
-	Primary role was Senior Level 2 Support for all IT issues.
-	Developed the first web standard document for Specsavers Globally.
-	Supported application software such as Compiere.

Specsavers

IT Support Level 2

The heavy involvement with clients ensured we were transparent with our development. Due to the structure of the company it was vitally important to ensure time estimates where predicted from an early stage.

It was an extremely high pressure environment with different levels of clients joining each week. Every client would have a programmer assigned as their client manager. The role was spilt between managing clients and developing new code.

-	Part of a team of PHP Programmers.
-	Handled my own set of clients as well as maintained and assisted with general work.
-	Developed an e-commerce and stock management system based off 1.7 CodeIngiter.
-	Heavy use of SVN and multiple branches during development.
-	Implemented a bug and project tracking tool to aid all team members.
-	Primary role to fulfil client customisation and aid in new client acquisition. 
-	Assisted with the VM creation on our Linux servers (Ubuntu.)
-	3rd April awarded certificate for speed of development and client relations.
-	Involved in all stages of a client’s life cycle, design and support.

OandC Marketing

Programmer

My first role at Thermo Products was focused around the LAMP e-commerce site and the marketing strategy. The primary role quickly switched as the marketing became more automated. My focus was then fully on developing the ASP.NET e-commerce platform.

I had to not only understand the products to assist with the sales but also a firm understanding of emerging technologies which could be leveraged.

Multiple upgrades, redesigns, API implementations and server migrations later I was offer a permanent placement on the board of directors.

-	Joined the company as a SEO and marketing manager.
-	Late 2009 my primary role ended as I had optimised the PPC budget and automated the marketing.
-	Worked on two different e-commerce platforms:
o	ASPDOTNETStoreFront – C#, ASP.NET, MS SQL and IIS.
o	Kryptronic – PHP, MySQL and Linux (Ubuntu.)
-	Agile software development pattern alongside the primary stakeholders.
-	Early 2010 sent on C# Programmer Course (MCTS Certification.)
-	Performed version upgrades, ad hoc development, server management, adding payment gateways, enhancing security, managing the marketing budget and API implantation.
-	Attended ASPDOTNETStorefront Conference and master class in Las Vegas in 2011.
-	Started a new company selling large chunks of our custom code for ASPDOTNETStorefront as well as server hosting and marketing solutions.

Worked on E-TradeCounter, Thermo Products and Dot Net Developments.

Thermo Products Ltd

Lead Programmer

Large projects scope ranging from front end code adjustments to website CMS implementation.
Developed personal projects such as text based online multiplayer games.
Created an ad supported multiplayer game.
Created my own forum system to integrate with my developments.
Designed my own blogging platform.
Basic Facebook applications as well as integration.
Part of the MySpace application Beta – resulted in early release of my applications.
PHP focused, earlier work was created without the aid of frameworks.
Developed API driven applications such as stock bidding games
Currently using CodeIngiter framework for new projects and development.

Earlier freelance work was mostly design and content focused. I slowly made the change to programming in a LAMP environment over time.

General freelance work was normally small projects or aiding start-up companies. An amount of freelance work was self-driven as well as being self-funded. My love for games and programming meant I was often driven to create my own text based online game from scratch.

Any self-projects which were too complex would result in multiple applications, each developed around the more complex issues.

Self Employed

Freelancer

Started as a glass collector, was promoted to waiting staff and ended up maintaining the website.
Noted by the regional manager for hard work and dedication.
Trained new members of staff and aided the recruitment process for any prospect employees.
Offered a full time position for when I finished college which intentions of assisting the regional manager.

My work at the Doctor’s Tonic was noted multiple times for dedication and going above and beyond. The primary role was maintaining the bar during peak hours. This would range from ensuring a stocked bar, the availability of glasses to assisting with any other members of staff.

Due to my passion for technology I was put in charge of the more technical aspects of the website. This involved content publishing and design changes.

Alister Sneddon