Alvaro Garcia

Professional summary

IT and Engineering executive combining C-level leadership with hands-on delivery: architecting AI-driven applications, modular platforms, and secure cloud infrastructure across AWS, Azure and GCP. Deep expertise in payments and PCI-compliant credit-card transactional environments, AI/LLM integration, and SDLC-driven engineering leadership. Leadership is measured by the quality, speed and accountability of its decisions — my job is to give an executive team the clarity and context required to act with confidence.

Core competencies

Engineering & Technology Leadership · IT Strategy & Roadmap · P&L and Corporate IT Budget Management · Senior Project & Program Management · Global Team Leadership & Scaling · Stakeholder & Change Management · Vendor & Contract Negotiation · KPIs & OKRs · AI / LLM Platform Development & Integration · Full-Stack Software Development · Modular System & Solution Architecture · DevOps, CI/CD & SRE · Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) · Agile / Scrum · Cloud Architecture & Modernization (AWS, Azure, GCP) · Payments & Credit-Card Transactional Systems · Cybersecurity & Compliance (PCI DSS, SOC 2, SOX) · ITIL v4

Professional experience

1. IT Senior Director — The Credit Pros

   March 2022 – Present

   Lead enterprise IT strategy, software development, and operations for a U.S. consumer-credit company; manage AWS/Azure infrastructure, cybersecurity, and a portfolio of 5 vendor agencies with offshore development teams. C-level partner to the CTO driving AI-led transformation.

   • Delivered 40% business growth and 25% workforce automation through strategic IT roadmap execution, cutting innovation project costs by 20%.
   • Directed development of AI-driven applications and internal platforms — integrating LLM/Claude-based automation and data analytics within a PCI-compliant credit-card transactional environment to optimize operations and reduce manual processing.
   • Drove modular system architecture and full-stack delivery (Next.js, React, Python, Supabase) across offshore teams under an SDLC and senior project-management framework; improved DevOps delivery performance by 50% via KPI/SLA optimization.
   • Established enterprise-wide PCI DSS / SOC 2 security policies and a continuous compliance-monitoring framework.
   • Owned full P&L for the corporate IT budget, procurement, and project-management function.

2. Engagement Manager — Rackspace

   July 2021 – March 2022

   Managed 10–15 concurrent enterprise customer engagements across AWS, GCP, and Azure environments, driving cost optimization and Agile delivery.

   • Reached full onboarding and independent customer management within 1 week — a record for the team.
   • Enhanced customer reporting and KPI tracking, improving transparency and stakeholder satisfaction.
   • Led escalation management and long-range planning for high-risk cloud programs.

3. Director of IT Operations — Payclip (Clip)

   July 2020 – July 2021

   Built the IT operations strategy for a rapidly scaling payments fintech — regulatory processes, ITIL framework, and cross-functional alignment across engineering, product, and business in a card-transaction environment.

   • Consolidated service-operations collaboration across all departments within 6 months.
   • Achieved 20% budget reduction through automated procurement controls and process optimization.
   • Led cloud migration of all internal tools; restructured IT teams and vendor contracts for scalability.

4. IT DevOps Manager, Enterprise Network Services — Morgan Stanley

   July 2015 – June 2020

   Led global IT operations and network services for a Fortune 500 financial-services client, managing 300+ associates across a follow-the-sun delivery model.

   • Achieved and sustained 100% SLA/KPI compliance within 90 days through process optimization and quality controls adopted across multiple teams.
   • Managed a multimillion-dollar budget and vendor contracts; implemented Splunk monitoring across enterprise accounts.
   • Grew a high-performing team 20% year-over-year with global technical and soft-skill training while meeting attrition and customer-success targets.

5. Service Operations Manager / SAP FI Consultant — Hewlett-Packard

   2001 – 2014

   Progressive 13-year career across Problem Management, Change Management, SAP FI consulting, and global IT operations, leading cross-functional teams in the US, Mexico, and India in 24x7 enterprise environments.

   • Cut month-end-close incidents by 50% through a new IT finance strategy and KPI implementation.
   • Built an application-availability dashboard adopted as a worldwide standard, reducing analysis time by 30%.
   • Led migration of SAP FI support from the US to Mexico with zero SOX audit-compliance issues; maintained 100% root-cause-analysis success with 90% resolution within 48 hours.

Selected technical projects

• AI Document-Intelligence Platform

  Architected on AWS (S3, Lambda) with the Claude API and Supabase. Ingests field photos, extracts structured data, writes validated records. Eliminates manual data entry behind a human-in-the-loop review layer.

• Modular Workforce-Operations Platform

  Modular multi-tenant architecture with role-based access. Attendance capture, payroll and bonus logic, KPI dashboards. Real-time profitability reporting.

• Cloud Web Platforms & Automation

  Deployed on AWS (S3, CloudFront, Route 53) and Vercel with GitHub CI/CD. Integration and automation workflows built in n8n and Zapier. Claude API wired into business systems.