BBBlair Boylan
Get in touch →
Get in touch →
All roles

Jan 2015 — Jan 2020 · Boulder, CO

Enterprise Architect

Gloo

Led enterprise architecture modernization and portfolio delivery practices across a growing platform business while also participating in functional management across departments and teams. Responsibilities extended into resource allocation, budgets, functional planning, management accountability, organizational effectiveness, and the operating structures required to translate company strategy into coordinated execution. Gloo operated at approximately 200 employees during Blair's tenure.

Solution ArchitectureStrategy

Narrative

What this role was actually about.

Gloo was the move from individual application work into enterprise architecture. Domain modeling, service orientation, API contracts, portfolio-level delivery structures. The discipline that taught me to start with the system, not the screen.

Initiatives & deliverables

What I built, shaped, designed, led, or translated.

Microservices Platform Architecture

Supported the transition toward a more service-oriented platform architecture using clearer domain boundaries and API interaction models.

  • Created domain maps, API contracts, and sequence diagrams that clarified service responsibilities and interactions.

    Impact: Improved architectural clarity and enabled teams to align implementation decisions to a more modular platform structure.

SAFe Portfolio Implementation

Helped implement portfolio planning and delivery structures to improve coordination across initiatives and teams.

  • Defined ceremonies, roles, artifacts, and portfolio-level planning structures to improve delivery flow.

    Impact: Improved alignment between strategic priorities and execution planning across teams.

Achievements

Linked outcomes.

  • Microservices Modernization

    Enterprise Architecture

    Supported a service-oriented platform architecture using domain maps and interaction models.

  • Portfolio Delivery Enablement

    Program Delivery

    Implemented portfolio structures and governance practices that improved planning and execution alignment.

  • Product Roadmap Influence at Gloo

    Enterprise Architecture / Product Strategy

    Strategy and platform architecture work at Gloo directly influenced product roadmap direction and sequencing.

  • Industry Conference Technical Representation

    Solutions Engineering / Industry Representation

    Represented Gloo at multiple education-technology conferences, demonstrating and explaining the platform to attendees. At Nymbl, attended a tolling-industry conference alongside a partner to support new-project discussions and represent the technical side of proposed tolling solutions.

  • Product & Partner Platform Knowledge Repository Architecture

    Knowledge Management / Solutions Engineering

    At Gloo, created a centralized knowledge center documenting platform functionality and connecting individual capabilities back to company strategy, creating a coherent repository for understanding how the platform fit together. At Nymbl, helped structure and maintain internal knowledge repositories for partner platforms so teams could understand partner capabilities and use them during solution design and customer engagements.

  • Quarterly KPI & Initiative Value Tracking

    Strategy & Operations

    At both Gloo and Nymbl, helped define KPIs for initiatives and departmental goals and participated in quarterly reviews evaluating performance, progress, and outcomes against those measures.

  • Employee Engagement & People Partnership

    People Leadership / Organizational Effectiveness

    At Gloo and Nymbl, formally partnered with HR/People on employee engagement and organizational-health efforts, including employee surveys and pulse checks, team-health initiatives, organizational design, offsites, internal communications, retention, and culture programs.

  • Functional Management & Resource Accountability — Gloo

    Executive & Operational Leadership

    At Gloo, participated in directing departments and teams with management responsibility spanning resource allocation, budgets, functional planning, and accountability for execution, extending the Enterprise Architect role beyond architecture into broader business and operational management.

  • Non-Engineering Domain Stakeholder Translation — Gloo & Nymbl

    Stakeholder Leadership & Solution Architecture

    Led discovery, architecture, and operating-model work primarily with non-engineering customer stakeholders, including stakeholders at a radiology organization at Nymbl and operators of in-person personal-growth programs at Gloo who needed to digitize their products and services.