Transforming Discover through a focus on learning, automation, and efficiency
It's safe to say that David Lyons is passionate about making Discover® employees more efficient at their jobs. He and his team have helped to automate over a million hours of manual tasks using business and robotic process automation (RPA), a fulfillment of the Discover value of getting better every day.
As an Automation Program Manager, David’s role is to identify use cases where automation would free Discover employees for more high-value work. In addition to identifying use cases, he also owns the governance, maintenance, and communication strategies for existing automation tools.
David has been instrumental in the growth of the RPA program over the last two years by identifying new RPA use cases and determining strategy for use case identification for the RPA team at Discover. The dollar value and number of hours automated doubled between 2020 and 2021 and increased again in 2022. This growth has allowed more RPA engineers and a team of apprentice developers in Chatham.
With an eye always towards how to increase automation and efficiency, David is particularly excited to see how AI (Artificial Intelligence) and machine learning change the automation space.
"I think initially the opportunity is for integration with existing automation tools to move our program more towards intelligent automation. This will make our current automation tools and processes smarter, more adaptable, and more data driven. Machine learning has the potential to provide valuable insights into the efficiency of our current automations and to drive future automations by utilizing data to identify and automate the highest-volume and most impactful processes," says David.
Get to know David
Why Discover?
I am inspired by Discover's culture that focuses on diversity and inclusion and rewards innovation and creativity. I think the level of focus on the customer experience is unique as well as the shared experiences that product teams have from going through the Agile Dojo program.
What is your tech origin story?
Early in my career I had a role in process improvement using Lean methodologies. I quickly learned from that role how impactful technology implementation or changes could be on processes and people as well as a company's performance. Seeing that impact and learning more about how new technologies are implemented sparked my interest in pursuing a career in technology.
What are your hobbies outside of work?
Traveling, reading, cooking, watching sports
Favorite movie?
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
What's the best food you’ve ever had?
LA street tacos
