Career Highlights & Impact
From Engineer to Leader
I've grown from a hands-on engineer into a strategic leader, guiding high-performing teams and delivering transformative digital initiatives at Sainsbury's and Fidelity International. Passionate about balancing creativity and functionality, I develop user-centric solutions through close collaboration across Product, Design, and Engineering.
With deep expertise in Engineering, Digital, and Data, I create efficiencies that drive measurable value and elevate user experiences. I'm committed to building inclusive and diverse teams, fostering a culture where innovation thrives and people feel empowered to reach their full potential.
Leadership in Action
Across my career, I've led transformative projects and high-performing teams at organisations including Sainsbury's, Fidelity International, and RSA. Below are highlights of how I've driven innovation, scaled solutions, and created lasting impact.
Sainsbury’s - Building a High-Performing Engineering Team to Transform Customer Engagement
Challenge:
Sainsbury’s needed to launch a digital initiative to enhance customer engagement, but success required establishing a new, high-performing engineering team within a complex retail environment.
Action:
I built the team from the ground up, hiring and onboarding 11 engineers in just a few months. I aligned the team with business priorities and cultivated a culture defined by agility, inclusivity, and continuous improvement. We modernised delivery processes, redefined A/B testing, and integrated advanced technologies, including AI-driven personalisation and analytics.
Impact:
The new team quickly delivered innovative digital experiences, from LLM-powered search ("Hey Sainsbury's”) to enhanced experimentation, which significantly improved customer engagement and satisfaction. This work accelerated Sainsbury's digital growth and proved the transformative impact of empowered, high-performing teams built from scratch.
Fidelity International – Scaling Global Design Standards Across 226 Digital Platforms
Challenge:
Fidelity's engineering ecosystem spanned hundreds of websites and platforms, each with inconsistent design approaches. This fragmentation created inefficiencies, slowed delivery, and diluted the user experience. A global, standardised solution was needed to align teams and enable scalable digital growth.
Action:
I built and led a cohesive global team of engineers to design and implement Global Design Standards (GDS). This reusable, technology-agnostic design system enables consistent and scalable design across all platforms. I aligned the initiative with company objectives through strategic communication and governance, fostering collaboration and a culture of quality. My team developed cross-platform, accessible components that reduced redundancy, improved onboarding, and ensured seamless team alignment.
Impact:
The reusable library cut redundant development and testing cycles, resulting in a 30% reduction in deployment time. GDS was successfully rolled out across 226 websites, streamlining workflows, improving accessibility, and setting a new benchmark for engineering efficiency and digital excellence.
eSure - Building Engineering Capability to Drive Digital Optimisation and Growth
Challenge:
Within the Marketing division, eSure lacked a dedicated engineering capability to drive customer acquisition, optimise digital performance, and deliver data-led innovation.
Action:
I established a new engineering function from scratch, securing funding and leadership buy-in while hiring and leading a high-performing team. By embedding Agile practices and fostering a culture of iterative improvement, we accelerated delivery and experimentation. I introduced advanced analytics and scalable CRO strategies, including cutting-edge A/B testing and marketing funnel optimisation, to personalise insurance products and enhance user journeys.
Impact:
The initiatives delivered measurable improvements in conversion rates, engagement, and business performance, proving the value of engineering and CRO within Marketing. My leadership in building this capability set a new benchmark for technical excellence across the organisation.
RSA - Driving Digital Accessibility and Inclusive Web Experiences
Challenge:
RSA needed to modernise its digital platforms to meet accessibility standards and deliver consistent, user-first experiences across diverse customer segments and devices.
Action:
I led the re-engineering of the More Than website, introducing a modular, accessible front-end architecture with standardised UI components for scalability and compliance. Through a user-centric and rigorously tested approach, we ensured inclusivity and performance across platforms and demographics.
Impact:
The initiative significantly improved user retention and engagement, while setting a new internal benchmark for innovation in digital accessibility. Our work was recognised with an RSA Hackathon award, underscoring the business and customer value of inclusive design.
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.”