Jelle
Overmars

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

t: +31625391012
b: 7 April 1982
e: overmars.jelle@gmail.com
w: linkedin.com/in/jelleovermars

About

"Born with a keyboard in my hands": With passion for all aspects of software engineering, working towards delivering meaningful products, on time, with good quality and with motivated (and fun) teams around me.

Leadership roles spanning fintech, e-commerce and digital transformation projects and experienced with thoughtful leadership, agile product- and program management, intercultural team- and performance management, developer productivity and software architecture engineering.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Backbase
Amsterdam
Since May 2020

Senior Director Software Engineering - R&D

  • Responsible for the engineering organisation in the R&D department growing it from 240 to approx 470 engineers in 84 cross-functional development teams, 8 value streams, 4 different regions and a yearly budget of 44M. Expanded into 2 new development centers: Krakow and Hyderabad.
  • Introduced the engineering management vision and practice and embedded it into the scaling model of R&D. Hired the management team with 30 engineering managers and 6 value stream engineering directors.
  • Standardised the way of working, continuously improving team productivity across all development teams, by maintaining a balance between team performance, delivery accuracy and quality and including agile, code, release, and team health metrics that serve as the leading indicators for enhancing the department performance covering the 4 dora metrics.
  • Creator of BRAVE. Introduced to the R&D department creating transparency of priorities, scope and status on all levels in the organisation and improving the accuracy and predictability of the value delivery, while respecting the autonomy granted to the development teams.
BRAVE was created in 2022 as a defining framework for the organisational setup with clear responsibilities and behaviour on all levels, fostering a unified language for product- and delivery management and ensuring clearly communicated direction creating unwavering focus in pursuit of the companies mission. It encourages transparency, ownership in context, leadership by providing direction and with strong focus on outcomes.
Backbase is a Dutch fintech scale-up with approximately 2,200 team members, specializing in the development of an innovative Engagement Banking Platform. This platform empowers banks and financial institutions to progressively modernize their customer experiences and strategically transform their business processes with a customer-centric approach. The R&D department comprises nearly 700 professionals.
BESTSELLER
Lisbon, Portugal
Sept 2018 – April 2020

Head of Development - Mobile Apps

  • P&L responsible, managing BESTSELLER e-commerce corporate start- up in Lisbon for all mobile apps across 14 brands and 12 markets.
  • Scaled the Lisbon department up to 3 cross-functional and multi- cultural teams with a total of 21 new employees.
  • Focused on increased sales via mobile channel by building a solid team culture and dynamics and measurable technology work-processes and improved technology stack.
BESTSELLER is a family-owned company from Denmark, with more than 15.000 employees and 18 different fashion brands (e.g. JACK & JONES, ONLY, SELECTED, VERO MODA) sold and marketed in 14 markets across Europe. Our e-commerce department has been founded in Amsterdam and has grown to 350 employees since 2015.
BESTSELLER
Amsterdam
Aug 2016 – Aug 2018

Software Engineering Manager

  • Lead and managed 8 teams up to 70 engineers both on payroll and nearshore. Responsible for team dynamics, happiness, performance, career growth, recruitment and budgets.
  • Transformed the technology department by applying DevOps principles that increased the software quality and delivery timelines by giving end- to-end responsibilities and reducing the operational and repetitive work.
  • Delivered the fulfillment capability to multiple warehouses for all B2C and partner (B2B2C) channels by re-thinking and re-architecting technology landscape/architecture.

WORK EXPERIENCE

BESTSELLER
Amsterdam
Jan 2015 – Jul 2016

Head of Development

  • Delivered all BESTSELLER e-commerce storefronts in 12 countries for 17 brands in 10 months, applying a responsive, mobile first and atomic design approach on Salesforce Commerce Cloud together with the introduction of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery for the scrum teams.
  • Implemented an employee performance management process based on quarterly cycles supported by objectives and key results (OKRs).
  • Introduced continuous integration and continuous delivery principles as standard for all front- end and back-end systems and reduced the release cycle to daily deployments with a clear insight and reporting on quality metrics.
eFocus
Utrecht
May 2011 – December 2014

Software Architect

  • Lead and architect the online platform of VvAA; a Dutch insurance company for medical professionals. Major achievement is the realization of the first fully automated continuous deployment configuration within the organization.
  • Architect for the online platform of Douwe Egberts; headquartered in the Netherland with 8 different brands across Europe.
Parade Technologies
Eindhoven
Sep 2005 – Apr 2011

Lead Software Engineer

  • Managed the development team of 7 developers and introduced version control on source code using SVN, a bug tracking system, continuous integration and unit testing using Microsoft TFS, build different OTAP environments, introduced standards for documentation and started working following the scrum methodology.
  • Project lead and software architect of a planning and timetable application for high school and college education for the optimal planning of students, teachers and resources. Project group consists of 10 developers.
HOB Electronics
Eindhoven
July 2003 – July 2005

Backend Software Engineer

  • Developed the internal ERP and CRM software for HOB Electronics called HOBSoft after completing my graduation internship.

Education

Amsterdam
Since 2016

Professional Courses

  • Hofstede Intercultural Management - Based on the Hofstede 6-D Model of National Culture
  • Situational Leadership - Leadership style flexibility to each unique situation or task to meet the needs of the team or team members
  • Insights DISC - Personality model based on the ideas of four main behavioral traits applied in the workplace and personal growth
Technical University
Eindhoven
2005 – 2007

Completed Master courses

  • Logic and sets, Computer Science 6, Electronic business architectures and systems, Web Information Systems, Specification, Programming proof and construction, Automata and processes and Database modelling
Fontys University
Eindhoven
1999 - 2003

Bachelor in Computer Science

Bachelor in Computer science at the Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Specialization Telematics. Graduated in 2003.

Personal

Portugal
2022

BikingMan 2022 Ultra Cyling Race

Ultra cycling race of 1000km solo and without assistance completed in 3 days. Ranked #21.
Australia - China
2011

Solo bicycle journey

Long-distance solo bicycle journey from Sydney Australia to Chengdu in China covering over 14.000km in 4 months
Erfurt, Germany
2005 - 2008

Professional Athlete

Professional ice speed skater joining the German national team and participated at the Dutch National championship 1500m.