Robert Hope

I have extensive experience in software development as a manager and as an engineer, employ a leadership style based on empathy, transparency, and collaboration, and maintain a history of driving innovation and delivery.  My personal goal is always three-fold: I put my teams in the best position to succeed; I make the best decisions I can possibly make, when they need to be made, with the information I have; I earn the trust of my stakeholders, leaders, peers, and team members through clear, transparent communication.

I am confident in my ability to lead engineering teams to deliver on behalf of customers, and my successful delivery of hundreds of projects over my career shows my value.

Over the course of my 7+ years at Amazon, I have led multiple teams to successful results.  I facilitated the growth of the Amazon Ads Partner Network from inception to thousands of registered customers, launching over 50 projects that empowered partners to expand their customer base.  I have managed teams on both the Enterprise and Independent features of Kindle Publishing, ensuring successful project delivery on behalf of authors and publishers.  I strongly believe in operational excellence as a foundation for technical success, and I strongly believe in working closely with stakeholders to drive product success for customers.  Prior to that, I led multiple teams delivering across multiple product verticals as part of LoopNet, CoStar, and their various subsidiaries.  These teams have ranged from as small as 5-6 engineers, to as many as 15 including a QA team, to as high as 30 including managers and multiple teams. 

Aa an engineer at LoopNet, I spent the early part of my career building high-value, complex features only available at the time to major players in the industry.  I delivered a type-ahead search feature that interacted with property and address data just after Google launched their own type-ahead feature, well before it became a staple of user experience.  I delivered a fully integrated keyword search system that cleanly interacted with SQL queries at a time when Microsoft’s full text indexing could not handle performant query results at scale, which led to the Microsoft SQL Server team reaching out to me for an analysis of their product’s gaps.  I delivered a templated email delivery system before such features became commonplace.

I am passionate about fostering collaboration and continuous improvement. I create an environment where teams can thrive and grow their careers and skills.  My management experience contributes to building strong relationships with Product partners and aligning on strategy, priorities, and customer outcomes.  My strong technical background enables me to ensure appropriate technical direction while minimizing the impact of technical debt.  My ability to communicate clearly in any medium, to any audience, maximizes my ability to earn trust and act as a mentor for many.  Empowered by my obsession for doing the right thing for my customer, I successfully deliver impact on any and all team members around me well beyond the day-to-day operations of an engineering team.