Terry Patnode

Program Manager

Phoenix, Arizona, United States28 yrs 11 mos experience

Highly Stable

Key Highlights

Led critical incident response at GitHub.
Managed major incident management at American Express.
Successfully transitioned Scottrade customers to TD Ameritrade.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Major Incident Manager with expertise in IT Operations and Infrastructure Management.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Incident ManagementIt OperationsProblem ManagementIt Infrastructure ManagementInfrastructure

Other Skills

Incident CommandLifecycle ManagementCross-Functional OrchestrationExecutive CommunicationsStakeholder ManagementOperational ExcellenceProcess ImprovementImpact AssessmentService RestorationImpact PreventionBridge ManagementAfter Incident ReviewCommunicationRoot Cause AnalysisSupervisory Skills

About

IT professional with extensive experience across diverse areas of Information Technology, progressing from tape librarian to Supervisor of Operations and most recently serving as a Major Incident Manager. My most recent role was with the Enterprise Major Incident Management team at American Express, where I led critical incident response and resolution efforts. Previously, I managed a team of eight across two Network Operations Centers located in Scottsdale, AZ, and St. Louis, MO. My responsibilities included system monitoring, incident management, and full-cycle staff leadership—hiring, training, mentoring, and performance management. I conducted interviews, authored semi-annual performance reviews, promoted team members, implemented improvement plans, and, when necessary, managed terminations with professionalism and fairness. I successfully guided my team through the complex conversion of Scottrade customers to TD Ameritrade systems, ensuring operational continuity and customer satisfaction. My career reflects a proven ability to lead teams, manage high-pressure incidents, and deliver results in dynamic IT environments.

Experience

28 yrs 11 mos

Total Experience

9 yrs 6 mos

Average Tenure

5 mos

Current Experience

Github

Program Manager - Incident Coordinator

Dec 2025 – Present · 5 mos · Remote · Remote

Support Incident Coordinator (SIC)
Role Summary
As a Support Incident Coordinator at GitHub, I serve as the central point of command for high-priority technical escalations and critical service outages. I bridge the gap between Engineering, Support, and Executive leadership to ensure rapid resolution of complex issues impacting our largest Enterprise customers. My role is defined by high-pressure decision-making, clear cross-functional communication, and a commitment to maintaining GitHub’s reliability for millions of developers.
Key Responsibilities
Incident Command & Lifecycle Management: Lead the end-to-end coordination of "Urgent" and "Executive-level" escalations. I manage the lifecycle of an incident from initial triage and Zendesk engagement to final resolution and Post-Incident Reviews (PIR).
Cross-Functional Orchestration: Act as the primary liaison between Technical Support, Engineering, Customer Success Managers (CSMs), and Leadership teams. I create and manage dedicated war rooms (Slack/Zoom) to synchronize global troubleshooting efforts.
Executive Communications: Provide real-time, high-level status updates to GitHub management and executives every 30–60 minutes during active incidents, ensuring transparency on business impact, actions taken, and path to resolution.
Stakeholder Management: Manage sensitive communications for top-tier ARR customers, including drafting executive-level summaries and coordinating with the Public Sector Incident Response Team (PSIRT) for security-related events.
Operational Excellence: Maintain the SIC Active Escalations Dashboard and tracker to identify trends. I facilitate handovers between global regions (EMEA/AMER/APAC) to ensure 24/7 "follow-the-sun" support for critical issues.
Process Improvement: Drive continuous improvement by conducting Root Cause Analysis (RCA) meetings and documenting retrospectives to prevent recurrence of systemic issues.

Incident CommandLifecycle ManagementCross-Functional OrchestrationExecutive CommunicationsStakeholder ManagementOperational Excellence+3

American express

Service Delivery Analyst II

Jun 2018 – Feb 2025 · 6 yrs 8 mos · Phoenix, Arizona Area

Incident Manager who was part of the Enterprise Major Incident Management team at American Express. My mission as part of the Major Incident Management team was to prevent disruptions and significantly reduce the duration of impacts affecting customers. Enterprise Major Incident Management's goal is to drive continuous improvements in partnership with American Express Technology, Business and Strategic Partners with focus on issue detection, isolation, communication and rapid remediation.
Impact Assessment - evaluation of an incident to determine the proper bridge model and escalation process followed.
Service Restoration (SRB) - manages reactive bridges to address a known business impairment triggered by an escalation and high severity incident.
Impact Prevention (IPB) - manage proactive bridges to address an anomaly identified with active alerting and monitoring to prevent business impact.
Bridge Management - driving a bridge to address a known business impairment to ensure proper resolution.
After Incident Review (AIR) - capturing actions items, contributing factors to issues and lessons learned.
Communication - communications to the proper channels for enterprise awareness and readiness.
Responsible for root cause analysis, utilizing application management software and tools to investigate problems and collect performance and capacity information.
Work in conjunction with Service Delivery Experts to ensure Service Level Agreements for the platform/capability are maintained.
Provide coaching, guidance and expertise on service capability performance with team members.

Impact AssessmentService RestorationImpact PreventionBridge ManagementAfter Incident ReviewCommunication+3

Scottrade

Infrastructure Operations Center Supervisor

Sep 2010 – May 2018 · 7 yrs 8 mos · Scottsdale, Arizona

Assign and prioritize daily tasks and projects for Infrastructure Operations Center (IOC) Technicians
Supervise IOC Technicians and ensure that all job stream tasks, monitor alarms and reported incidents are worked per standard procedure and in compliance with regulatory and audit requirements while ensuring that risk is managed appropriately.
Accountable for successful completion of shift work, accurate turn over to the next shift and complete required reporting related to IOC efforts.
Provide guidance, coaching and development opportunities appropriate to each direct report’s individual needs. Perform all necessary management functions, including hiring, evaluations, merit allocations, and disciplinary action as required.
Perform incident manager role for production impacting incidents and lead cross functional resources in restoring services and resolving the incident.
Partner with IOC peers and across IT to ensure projects and initiatives (IT / departmental) are effectively managed and completed.
Develop and maintain documentation for current shift specific processes and procedures.
Responsible for offsite storage and tape management.
Implement and adhere to departmental security policies and procedures.

IT Infrastructure ManagementSupervisory SkillsIncident ManagementIT Operations

Mattel, inc.

Sr. Infrastructure Technician

Jun 1996 – Aug 2010 · 14 yrs 2 mos · Phoenix, Arizona Area

Monitor network management systems and provide recommendations for infrastructure improvements and modifications based on research and vendor communications.
Perform level two problem determination and resolution of all daily processes of system and network problems while utilizing research and vendor support.
Provide help desk support, LAN/WAN support and server hardware support.
Review and ensure timely and efficient processing of batch production schedules, including on lines.
Communicate with customer service, infrastructure specialist and technology center customers regarding problem diagnosis and expected time of resolution.
Assist with projects for cabinet installations and requests, OS Microsoft and Unix/Linux servers.
Escalate complex failure conditions to infrastructure specialist.
Perform tape library functions. Update documentation and perform analyzing audits on proper media handling.

InfrastructureInformation TechnologyIT Operations