My Career Journey
From Engineer to Leader
I've evolved from a hands-on engineer to a strategic leader, guiding high-performing teams and delivering transformative digital initiatives at Sainsbury's and Fidelity International. Passionate about blending creativity with functionality, I focus on crafting user-centric solutions through seamless collaboration across Product, Design, and Engineering.
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With a strong track record across Engineering, Digital, and Data, I've introduced efficiencies that generate measurable value and elevate user experience. I'm deeply committed to building inclusive, diverse teams and fostering a culture of continuous improvement—where innovation thrives and teams are empowered to deliver exceptional results.
Leadership in Action
Success Stories
I’ve guided cross-functional teams through transformation, fostering innovation, resilience, and operational excellence throughout my career. These stories reflect the outcomes of my leadership approach, which is focused on empowering people, navigating complexity, and delivering strategic impact at scale.
Scaling a High-Performing Engineering Team at Sainsbury’s
Launching a major digital initiative to elevate customer engagement at Sainsbury’s required building a high-performing engineering team from the ground up within a fast-paced, complex retail environment.
In just a few months, I hired and onboarded a cross-functional team, fostering a culture of agility, inclusivity, and continuous improvement. We streamlined delivery processes and aligned closely with strategic business goals.
By redefining the A/B testing strategy and integrating cutting-edge technologies—including AI-driven enhancements—we delivered innovative solutions that elevated the digital customer experience. This work demonstrated the transformative impact of empowered teams in driving value, modernising retail engagement, and accelerating digital growth.
Establishing Global Design Standards at Fidelity International
Building a cohesive global team of engineers to implement and standardise Global Design Standards (GDS) and reusable, agnostic solutions across Fidelity’s engineering space.
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I aligned GDS with company objectives through strategic communication and governance, fostering a collaborative culture focused on quality and consistency. By delivering cross-platform, accessible design systems, I reduced deployment issues, enhanced user experiences, and enabled code reusability across diverse engineering platforms.
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Implementing a reusable library significantly reduced redundant development efforts, testing cycles, and inconsistencies, leading to a 30% reduction in deployment time. This improvement was driven by reusable components that ensured efficiency, faster onboarding, and seamless team alignment.
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The team successfully implemented GDS across 226 websites, streamlining workflows and setting a new benchmark for engineering efficiency and digital excellence.
Fostering Growth and Innovation at Esure Group
At eSure, I established a new engineering capability within the Marketing division, hiring and leading a high-performing team to drive customer acquisition and digital optimisation. I secured funding and leadership buy-in for innovative Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) initiatives by fostering a culture of Agile practices and iterative improvement.
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I delivered scalable digital solutions integrating advanced analytics for personalised insurance products, enhancing user experiences and increasing engagement. I significantly improved conversion rates and business performance by developing cutting-edge A/B testing strategies and marketing funnel optimisations.
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My leadership in these initiatives set a new standard for technical excellence within the organisation, demonstrating the value of engineering and CRO to the business.
Engineering an Inclusive Digital Experience at RSA Insurance Group
At RSA, I led the transformation of key digital platforms to deliver inclusive, user-first web experiences at scale.
We re-engineered the More Than website with a modular, accessible front-end architecture and standardised UI components, ensuring consistency, scalability, and compliance with accessibility standards.
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Through a user-centric, rigorously tested approach, we delivered inclusive solutions across devices and demographics.
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This initiative significantly boosted user retention and site engagement while setting a new internal benchmark for innovation in digital accessibility. Our work was recognised with an RSA Hackathon award, underscoring the value of inclusive design in driving business and customer impact.
Stuart Trevithick
Global Head of Digital Standards and Practice at Fidelity International
"Elena is an active listener, gives others space to contribute and is an expert in her field. I place my trust in Elena to make the right decisions on any technical aspect of engineering. Elena is a first-class engineer, people manager and leader. You would be lucky to have secured her for a role at your company."
Kruthi Bharath
Frontend Web Developer at J.P.Morgan
"Elena actively provided constructive feedback and facilitated continuous professional development. Elena was always reliable as she provided hands-on technical support on running optimisation experiments and complex web development tasks whenever needed."
Jonas Vogel
Business Operations | Change Management | Leadership
“Elena excels in remote team management, skillfully overseeing hiring, onboarding, and ongoing development to foster a collaborative work environment.
I highly recommend Elena for her outstanding contributions, leadership skills, and commitment to driving results. She is not only a valuable team member but also a pleasure to work with.”