Candidates About

Senior Information Technology Project Manager, Scrum Master, Agile Coach
(Action Oriented, Servant Leadership, Continuous Improvement, Coaching, Empowerment)

·  Accomplished servant-leader and Project Management Professional with extensive years of Program management experience and deep knowledge of all aspects software development framework including Scrum/Scaled Agile framework.  Drive program execution, delivering continuous value through Program Increments focusing on technical excellence and good design promoting transparency via published metrics on features/capabilities aligning with enterprise business objectives.

·  Lead agile transformation, coaching cross-functional teams in the agile processes and mindsets. Established several Communities of Practice encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing.  Possesses strengths in understanding needs, managing expectations, and bridging the knowledge, communications gap between business and technology disciplines.

·  Combine hands-on technical expertise in engineering, application development with solid leadership; financial services; media; retail/consumer; commercial, healthcare; non-profit; manufacturing & entrepreneurship experiences. Computer Engineering from CUNY and MBA from Penn State University

¡ Systems Thinking & Lean Methodologies                ¡ Agile/Scrum, Waterfall  Methodologies    ¡ Servant Leadership
¡ Business & IT Planning                                                  ¡ Custom Software Development                 ¡ Testing & Quality Assurance
¡ Website & Web Development                                    ¡ Business & Process Analysis                       ¡ Enterprise & Data Architecture
¡ System Integration & Data Migration                     ¡ PMO, IT Portfolio Mgmt. & ITIL                  ¡ DevOps, TDD/CI/CD

¡ Ecommerce & Payment Processing                           ¡ Enterprise Content Management              ¡ Salesforce & CRM Systems
¡ Vendor Evaluation, Due Diligence & Mgmt.           ¡ Offshore Management                                 ¡ ITO/BPO & Strategic Sourcing
¡ AWS & Cloud Solutions                                                  ¡ Web Analytics                                                  ¡ Problem Analysis & Resolution

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Rye Brook, NY                                                                                          (3/2011 – 1/2018)

Senior Technical Manager, Agile Program Manager, Agile Scrum Master

Supported a large IT organization as Technical Project Manager and Scrum Master with a focus on the Retail (Sales and Marketing) lines-of-business in US, & Canada with 90+ branch offices with annual revenue exceeding 400M – facilitating global deliveries of application development, content management solutions CMS (8+ website redesign development), E-commerce solutions, & CRM technologies leveraging Agile Scrum / SAFe and Lean methodologies.

Key Responsibilities:

·  Drove adoption of Agile and Lean within the development teams in cross-functional partnership with business operations leadership, significantly changing long-established mind-sets and improving velocity. Led and managed agile teams, implementing Agile product roadmap and software development process

·  Successfully guided development teams through the transition from Waterfall/Hybrid to Agile development; worked with management to align long-lived cross-functional team with product model (eliminating project model) dedicated to relentlessly improving their ability to deliver solutions.

·  Communicated to sway and influence key decision-makers / stakeholders to mitigate pain points and deliver customer-focused value and outcome (over outputs).

·  Acted as a servant leader and facilitated communication between Scrum teams, Product Owners, Enterprise Architects, UX and other stakeholders on a regular basis to help ensure strategy and execution alignment

·  As Scrum Master, coached the product owner and team on Lean-Agile practices and mindsets and to build the product backlog, facilitated the daily scrum, and removed impediments to help teams meet the sprint goals.

·  Worked in partnership with the product owner and teams on user story sizing and acceptance criteria definition, facilitated the definition of “Done” and “Ready” and lead continuous refinement and prioritization of the product backlog

·  Worked with Product Management, Product Owners and value stream stakeholders to help assure strategy and execution alignment

·  Encouraged team level, and program level on Continuous Integration and Communities of Practice around SAFe, Lean, Agile and Scrum.

·  Introduced Built-In Quality practices, Test Driven Development (TDD), Pair Programming and Swarming approach to accelerate team velocity and increase 'DONE' user stories in a sprint; based on sprint retrospective suggestions.

·  Assisted with economic decision-making by facilitating feature and capability estimation by teams and by quantifying Cost of Delay (COD) thorough Weight Short Job First (WSFJ)

·  Drove relentless improvement via Inspect and Adapt workshops; assessed the agility level of the agile teams and helped them improve

·  Supported Agile PMO, Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE), and Scrum Master Communities of Practice (CoPs)

·  Improved the flow of value through value streams (value stream mapping/analysis) with the use of Engineering (XP) and Built-In Quality practices, Continuous Delivery Pipeline and DevOps

·  Managed and optimized the flow of value through the Agile Release Train (ART) using various tools, such as the Program Kanban

·  Worked with Senior Management, Business & Release Management to understand the vision of the product, prioritized and developed software release planning.

·  Oriented teams to work with agile techniques: User stories, unit testing. ATDD, automated testing, continuous integration, continuous deployment and guiding teams to become self-organized

·  Facilitated Program Increment planning readiness fostering the preparation of Vision and promoting backlog preparation through pre-and post-Program increment planning meetings.

·  Managed risk identification, mitigation and resolution to minimize the impact on project success.

·  Utilized JIRA and Confluence to manage sprint artifacts, and utilize the performance tools like capacity, velocity and burndown, to adjust sprint goals and objectives. Coached team members on utilizing these tools.

·  Organized problem-solving workshops leveraging problem-solving tools (such as 5-whys for root cause analysis and Pareto analysis) to identify the actual causes of a problem, rather than just addressing the symptoms.

·  Established offshore test team, creating procedures and oversaw creation of functional test cases, regression tests cases, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), exploratory testing and load performance tests

·  Advocated Lean HR practices and Innovation accounting - the process of defining, empirically measuring and communicating the true progress of innovation – such as customer retention and usage patterns

Key Accomplishments:

·  Facilitated platform and vendor selection for infrastructure and CMS upgrades, ultimately migrating 8+ legacy Alterian websites to Drupal’s open source environment on Aquia severs to improve usability, scalability, security, ease of implementation and management.

·  Spearheaded the creation of new Content Management System (CMS) for external facing (LLS.org) website and additional campaign websites leveraging multi-site architecture to allow scale & reduce maintenance efforts by 50% through sharing code/module/themes across multiple websites. Managed strategic site redesign to improve brand messaging, engage new users, and improve conversion. Resulted in 15% increase in Average Order Value (AOV), 25% increase in visit duration, and 8% decrease in bounce rate.

·  Led major Digital Marketing initiatives as Marketing Technology Architect to streamline registration flow and “learn more” forms leveraging design/usability best practices utilizing mobile first and progressive profiling approach resulting in 30% increase in lead conversions

·  Led major Digital Marketing initiatives as Marketing Technology PM to streamline registration flow and “learn more” forms leveraging design/usability best practices utilizing mobile first and progressive profiling approach resulting in 30% increase in lead conversions

·  Implemented Marketing Analytics & Automation Technologies including Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager (GTM) Facebook Pixels, Kiss Metrics, Crazy Egg, Google Optimize, Double Click Pixels, Website/Donation Gates and Marketing Source Code to records superior analytics, aid better conversion, A/B testing and retargeting and mapping user journey and customer lifetime value.

·  Managed all phases of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) for various custom solutions. Delivered innovative new software systems/features for retail consumer experience, including responsive mobile websites (leveraging Drupal and Aquia), mobile apps, Check21/Remote and Mobile Deposit Capture (in partnership with Transcentra and Wells Fargo), a recurring subscription engine (utilizing Chase Paymentech & Braintree), one-click transaction engine, social media logins (leveraging Gigya) and feeds, third-party express payment checkouts (Paypal, Amazon) & DIY experiences, growing digital revenue streams over 200% while significantly reducing operational costs and improving revenue per FTE ratios.

·  Revitalized & modernized the Core Retail 360 Platform with 20 million users to a Cross-Device compatible version by replacing End-Of-Life frameworks (such as Adobe Flex) to next-generation technology (such as microservices, NodeJs, AngularJS & Bootstrap to achieve responsive design) & analytics (leveraging Data Warehouse and Tableau) as a primary engine supporting the new integrated business operations of LLS.

·  Delivered Salesforce & Force.com applications from requirement through delivery across Patient Services via Agile framework.

·  Evaluated and implemented Braintree as the primary payment processor and Chase Paymentech as secondary and backup payment provider for all ecommerce transactions which resulted in cost saving of $2.5 million, improved redundancy & customer experience

·  Migrated all retail commercial applications, not available as a SAAS, to Amazon Web Services (AWS) as part of “ALL Cloud Strategy”

·  Introduced Mulesoft as Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) framework for Retail Platforms (360) to process donations, registrations, form submissions along with managing data transformations with API encapsulation. Resulted in a fail-safe robust production environment and increased development productivity by 75%.

·  Optimized the ability to wealth screen for high net-worth donors and corporations by incorporating the Wealth Engine Tool, leading to 20% improvement in lead conversion and 13% increase in revenue.

·  Led Matching Gifts Project, a strategic initiative from inception to execution to increase revenue by generating $15 million through increased awareness, initiation and submission of Matching Gifts. Accomplished through enhanced donor experience on websites, streamlined processes, efficiency through Business Process Outsourcing(BPO) and proactive outreach.

·  Managed production support of all products/applications, re-engineered streamlined workflow/processes & Kanban to increase efficiency & customer satisfaction by 50% & successfully collaborated with developers, DBAs and technical team to perform root cause analysis of all issues, thereby reducing the defect open rate by 60%.

·  Introduced significant changes to the architecture to build parallel environments in UAT and Production for uninterrupted incremental Agile Releases (continuous delivery), thereby eliminating the need for applications to go offline during upgrades.

·  Actively involved in keeping the Core Platform PCI compliant by monitoring external and internal PCI test results and closing any gaps found.

·  Developed Event Landing Pages with multimer-media support, shopping cart and Leader Boards leveraging gamification for all Retail Campaigns. (TNT, Regatta), resulted in engaged participants & 7% increase in revenue.

Clear Channel Communications (Division - Media Monitors), NY                                                              (12/2010 – 3/2011)

Application Systems Manager/IT Project Manager

·  Managed the web application projects and directed development team supporting approximately 10,000 users.

·  Facilitated agile ceremonies like Sprint planning, Daily Stand-up, Sprint Review, Retrospective and Backlog grooming sessions to prioritize the features/epics based on the business expectation.

·  Collaborated and coached the team on the agile processes, story creation and analysis, evaluation of story sizes and breaking down of stories that are too large, multitasking of stories during sprints, story pointing, reducing impediments and potential bottlenecks.

·  Drove continuous improvement via Inspect and Adapt workshops;

Vanguard Group, Malvern, PA                                                                                                                               (01/2005 – 06/2010)

Technical Project Manager & Agile Scrum Master

Over 6.5 years of progressive technical and leadership experience through Vanguard’s Technology Leadership Program (TLP) - a three-year rotational development program, selected for the outstanding potential to assume roles in leadership capabilities across the organization. Rotation assignments starting as an Application Developer, Business Systems Analyst and, User Interface Designer, progressing to Lead Project Software Engineer, then ultimately Project Manager & Scrum Master.

·  Led a multi-functional team as a scrum master to develop an executive IT BHAG Dashboard, Leading Indicator Dashboard and automate Vanguard’s key metric collection process leveraging Business Intelligent (BI) Technology tool, Cognos, as front-end/User Interface(UI), Java mid-tier and SQL backend.

·  Led IT Agile projects for Vanguard’s Marketing, Business Development Group (BDG), Flagship Services & Asset Management Services (AMS) department

·  Led sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review & sprint retrospective meetings, defined sprint goals, cleared impediments, generated user stories with acceptance criteria, managed product backlog & produced burndown charts

·  Trained the Product Owner in INVEST methodology for writing user stories.

·  Enacted change and continuous improvement increasing the productivity of Scrum teams by 16% and the quality of deliverables by 22%

·  Assisted team with making appropriate commitments through story selection, sizing and task definition and participated proactively in developing and maintaining team standards, tools and best practices reducing development time by 35%

·  Spearheaded the management including coordination of all the project work with executive management, legal, content writers, web designers, business analysts, multi-tier software developers, testers, business technology planners, and usability teams. 

·  Ensured Engineering Best Practices such as Collective Code Ownership, Acceptance Test Driven Development and Continuous Integration are met for the program.

·  Increased productivity by removing impediments, facilitating collaboration, and blocking noise and distractions from affecting the team.

·  Participated in Scrum of Scrums and highlighted team risks and upcoming deployments

·  Configured Jira to manage sprints and configured custom reports and dashboards to report to upper management and all stakeholders.

·  Led Defect Scrub Analysis leveraging a statistical sample & asking defect assignees "5 whys" to probe & determine the “real” root cause

Online E-Commerce Store, Yonkers, NY                                                                                                                                     (07/2003 – 01/2005)

Digital Entrepreneur & President
Founder of e-commerce business, specializing in designer fragrance sales, grew 1M+ revenue & customer base from 100 customers to 20,000+ the first year.

American Specialties Inc (ASI), Yonkers, NY                                                                                                              (05/1997 – 05/2003)

Plant Engineer/Technical Lead

·  Re-engineered & developed computational cost algorithms, CNC programming & designed 2D/3D drawings punching/shearing/bending/milling machinery. Performed time study, ROI, Cost Benefit and Cost Justification Analyses

·  Transformed the production methodology from a push to a pull system utilizing lean manufacturing and implemented Kanban inventory systems with suppliers and customers

·  PENN STATE UNIVERSITY, University Park, PA

Master of Business Administration (MBA) with Finance Concentration, 2008                                                         GPA 3.9/4.0

·  CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK (CUNY) – Herbert Lehman College / CCNY, New York, NY

Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering/Computer Science, 2004                                                                             GPA 3.8/4.0

·  Project Management Basics and Essentials training from Project Management Institute (PMP & PMI)

Software/Tools: Java, PHP, Javascript, SharePoint, Planview, Mindmapping, Visio, InVision, Balsamiq, Smartsheet, Innotas, MS Project, Eclipse,  Tealeaf, Pvcs Version Manager, SVN TeamTrack, GitHub, Jira, AutoCAD, Drupal, SDL (Alterian), Wordpress, Jasper Reporting, Cognos, SSRS Reports, Tableau, Salesforce.com,  ActiveMQ, Mulesoft, Netrics, Informatica Strikeiron, Experian QAS, Netsuite, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Apache, Active Directory, Google Analytics, HootSuite, jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes

Frameworks: Spring, Hibernate, AngularJS, NodeJS, React, JQuery, Bootstrap, React, PredictionIO,  Backbase, Apache Commons, Struts, JSF

Concepts: Distributed systems, Tiered development, Data Driven decision making, Service Oriented Architecture, Microservices, Responsive Design, Automated Testing, Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, DevOps, Agile software development, Kanban, LEAN methodology, Test Driven Development (TDD), Crystal, FDD, XP

Performance Tuning: YourKit, JProbe, JMeter, Chrome Web Developer Tools, New Relic, Wireshark