Kevin Howren

About

CTO-level leader who drove a major post-buyout transformation at NPact—modernizing engineering (CI/CD, QA, observability), moving products toward SaaS/cloud, and scaling the org from ~20 to ~70 while maintaining 97% retention. Uses instrumentation and workflow analytics (including Atlassian-derived data) to improve delivery, citing an ~80% reduction in feature/bug churn through better scoping and requirements. Comfortable with board-level ROI decisions and customer/fundraising conversations, translating technical tradeoffs into clear business outcomes.

Experience

Education

Key Strengths

• Led post-buyout transformation as CTO, shifting consultancy-built products toward SaaS/cloud with modern engineering practices
• Data-driven process improvement using telemetry/observability and Atlassian-derived metrics
• Reduced feature/bug churn by ~80% by improving Product–Engineering scoping and requirements
• Scaled engineering org from ~20 to ~70, hiring/promoting managers and directors
• Achieved 97% retention during rapid growth and significant organizational change
• Strong change-management pacing and culture building through active listening and team ownership
• Executive-level technical leadership: unblocked multi-region cloud issue by applying prior experience without taking over execution
• Board/CEO influence via clear ROI analysis; prevented low-ROI AWS-to-Azure migration and redirected funds to higher-impact work
• Experienced remote leadership (15+ years), fostering accountability via in-person touchpoints and psychological safety ('freedom to fail')