Aswad Kulkarni
Thane
Summary
Insightful, astute & a multipotentialite software professional with 20 years of rich expertise in Global IT Program Management. Held significant positions in technology areas such as Consulting, Application & Infrastructure Management, Scrum Master, Technical & Agile Project Management. Experience of working in different capacities of sprawling industries like Banking & Financial Services, Payment Card Industry, Engineering, Pharmaceutical, E-commerce, Oil & Gas & Manufacturing. Demonstrated working knowledge of PMO Program Manager, Agile Product Owner, Scrum Master, Service Manager, Complex Project Management, Release/rollout Manager, Supply Chain, Business Consulting, Resource Management, Operations, Quality Management, Stakeholder Management, Finance & Administration. A global industry leader with certifications in Scrum Master, PRINCE2 Foundation & Practitioner, ITIL V3 Foundation, LEAN - Six Sigma Yellow Belt & Digital 101 & 201. Exceptional grip on Tactical & PMO Management, Agile & Hybrid methodology & applications, ALM, JIRA, Confluence, Rally, Planview EPM tool & Project / Business Management Acumen. Strong comprehension around Microsoft Project, Primavera, MS EPM, CA Clarity Tool & Service Now. Applies relevant tools and techniques to assess impact based on changes to the enabling technologies that support business processes and manage any escalations. Strong communicator with approachable for all levels in organization. Provides tactical direction and executes the programs in accordance with the objectives set by the Program Sponsor, Steering Committee, and PMO Office. Business Analysis and translating Business requirements in HLD, LLD, Possessing specialized cognition in Service Management (Incident, Change & Problem Management). Won major laurels from top senior officials namely “Bravo” & “Pat on Back” awards, for exceptional performance & customer appreciations. Proven leader in directing operations, maintenance & support of complex Programs and business Analyst to bridge gap with business teams and software teams. Develops creative business solutions, leveraging diverse methodologies & delivering engineering solutions for leading organizations. Highly adept in technology business assessments. Promotes empowerment of multi diverse teams, ensures that each team member is fully engaged in the project and making a meaningful contribution at CXO levels, and encourages a sustainable pace with high levels of quality for teams. Proven ability to create global rollout strategy for cross border teams, for signoffs at regular program milestones. Willing to define and manage a well-established program management governance process and champion ongoing process improvement initiatives to implement best practices for Program Management, Agile/scrum Project Management. Led and mentored cross-functional teams of 20–50 members, driving collaboration, innovation, and delivery excellence across multiple high-impact IT projects. Implemented structured talent development programs, including skill gap analysis, career progression planning, and tailored learning paths, resulting in improvement in employee retention and measurable performance growth. Fostered a high-performance culture by introducing regular performance reviews, recognition programs, and leadership coaching sessions for mid-level managers. Recruited, onboarded, and nurtured top-tier technical talent, aligning individual strengths with organizational objectives for maximum impact. Championed diversity and inclusion initiatives, ensuring a balanced and motivated workforce with opportunities for continuous growth.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Functional Delivery Lead + Scrum Master
Telefonica AG
05.2023 - Current
- Company Overview: Telefonica AG has RAITT Transformation program going on which is Europe’s one of the biggest transformational program. This program is aimed at modernise the business and IT landscape as well as set best in class Customer experience.
- Scrum Master is to facilitate agile process and artefacts with the agile team and drive continuous improvement by regular inspect and adapt aiming to high performance agile teams. Ensure agile is understood and enacted. Ensure that the agile team adheres to agile theory, practices, and rules.
- Helping those outside the agile team understand which of their interactions with the agile team are helpful and which are not. Helping everyone change these interactions to maximize the value created by the agile team.
- The Feature Delivery Lead (FDL) is the Interface between assigned E2E Teams and all impacted components in the corresponding features.
- Responsibilities:
- Scrum Master facilitates the Scrum Events incl backlog refinement, planning, review/demo, retrospective and Daily stand-up.
- Scrum Master demonstrates continuous improvement by ensuring all retro actions are tracked to completion.
- Scrum Master works in close partnership with tribe & program management teams in supporting the implementation of management direction for achieving overall program objectives.
- Scrum Master is responsible for WoW processes & scrum adherence.
- Scrum Master works with APO to establish the weekly cadence for product backlog refinement. While the entire core team participates, the (incremental) outcomes are published in Confluence. APO/PO drives the refinement session and Scrum Master facilitates it.
- Scrum Master establishes the weekly cadence to discuss cross-tribe/cross-value stream dependencies. All dependencies should be tracked in JIRA and the respective assignees should participate in the dependency-related discussions.
- Scrum Master establishes a cadence to flag / discuss the impediments and ensure they are properly tracked in Jira.
- The FDL coordinates e2e feature design, delivery and testing
- Is first contact for application topics (from and to applications)
- Based on feedback from all impacted applications (e.g. Billing, CCS, Payments) the FDL:
- Coordinates Design Tasks (AID, IFS) in Blueprinting
- Plans delivery per component on PI level (PI planning) and sprints
- Tracks dependencies, impediments together as Scrum Master
- Ensures feature delivery in quality and time
Project Release Manager/Scrum Master
GSK Lxp
10.2024 - 04.2025
- Company Overview: GSK for transforming the Global learning platform by integrating/collaborating with industry leaders like Degreed, Linked In Learning with internal learning platform.
- Plan, execute and deliver Project from inception to completion related to a known technology, product, or program.
- Proactively manage end-to-end delivery of engineering work through the organization and all dependent organizations, reporting out progress, ensuring dependencies are covered, overseeing the gaps between teams, processes, and systems, while removing all blocking issues leading to a successful delivery.
- Work with 2-3 scrum teams and have the technical credibility to drive constructive discussions with the engineering teams.
- Collaborate with peers and/or managers as the team's operating procedures and technology are well defined, signed off and in line with business requirements.
- Administer access to projects and resources in JIRA and generate Management Dashboards.
- Provide business context to engineers as required and competently represent team's systems to others, both inside and outside the organization. Support Product Testing.
- Analyse documented business requirements, ensuring alignment with organizational goals and operational needs.
- Collaborate with cross functional teams to create business workflows, identify opportunities for operational efficiency and compliance framework.
- Drive clarity into technical implementation by driving design discussion with the team.
- Lead meetings and workshops with stakeholders to gather and validate requirements, Prioritize features and address any challenges.
- Build and maintain integrated project schedules that account for internal/external dependencies, differing delivery approaches, numerous constraints and adequately factor-in contingency for unplanned delays.
- Negotiate features and associate/ranking priority and help the team and their customers reach consensus.
- Collaborate with engineering managers to secure resources, scope efforts, set priorities and establish delivery milestones.
- Manage project communications and be the first point of contact for the team whenever necessary.
- Run effective meetings/ceremonies for release management.
- Clearly articulate scope, timelines, dependencies, owners, actions, risks, and mitigations.
- Own project communications and ensure the right information about the status of a project is delivered to the stakeholders.
Technical Program Manager/Lead Scrum Master
Mastercard
11.2019 - 10.2024
- Company Overview: As a Technical Program Manager, overseeing projects deliveries of clients across various units globally. Responsible for managing critical IT projects for Tech Mahindra’s client Mastercard’s Shared Components & Security Solutions’ Integration Services now known as Platform Services.
- Own and spearhead end-to-end project deliverables by collaborating with different teams.
- Manage Stakeholders and escalations, lead delivery & take necessary strategic decisions with set standards.
- Govern functions related to Programs, Projects, Resources, Client requirements and performance engineering covering Quality Assurance and vulnerability management for agreed SLAs.
- Work on Implementation and Release/Deployment Planning and execution for successful implementation on Pre-Production & Production environments.
- Work with multi-functionals teams for successful implementation of the project objectives and manage Scrum deliveries through various scrum ceremonies.
- Execute delivery Agile way in terms of creating and assigning Service requests, Features, User Stories, Changes and Process Requests with the right technical information keeping timelines and deliverables for multiple programs and get approvals.
- Embed within the scrum teamwork for cross cutting across products, multiple scrum teams, and/or technologies.
- Program Governance & PI planning, organize & Lead meetings with PMTs, clients and third-party vendors/stakeholders around Roadmaps, Prioritizations, Release planning, PI/ Iteration Planning, Regular Standups with engineering teams, Demo Sessions for delivery & Retrospectives.
- Proactively identify impediments (Risks & Issues) to address critical bottlenecks in minimum cycle time, discover and solve any blockers or dependencies teams face proactively and help prevent future challenges from affecting team’s ability to deliver.
- Define, Setup and implement the defect process and ensure adherence to organizational standards.
- Collaborate with various cross functional global teams ensuring program deliveries are in line with expectations, manage issues, with abilities to prioritize and operate proactively. Manage Vendors relations, Drive, continuous improvements based on the matrix.
- Report to senior leadership with various matrix for status updates including scrum beat matrix, Release Planning.
- Collaborate with BizOps teams for activities in smooth manner with underlined Dashboards, SOPs, SLAs.
- Mastercard Global for Transformational Global Programs for Shared Components Security Solutions’ Integration Services, Data Platform & Engineering Services & Mastercard Digital Enablement Services for Devices and cluster upgrade.
- Fulfillment of Tech Mahindra’s services, provided through the Shared Components & Security Solutions’ Integration Services Division and Data Platform & Engineering services, results in successful outcome within the prescribed timelines in complex global environment.
- Spearhead Program Delivery by way of transformation & migration of XMLGW gateway, to 1000+ latest API NGINX cloud technology gateway, in different diaspora of payment transactions processing and upgrading from legacy systems to new technologies for Data transformation programs, managing Product development.
- Upgrade the XMLGW Gateway from current XMLGW version 8.3 to the latest XMLGW version 9.3 and then to API NextGen Cloud.
Offshore PMO Program Manager – Agile Scrum Master
ATT USA
02.2018 - 06.2018
- Single Point of Contact (SPOC) at Offshore for status of All Program/Project development Activities.
- Initiated introduction of Program Governance, Program/Project Plans, Project Reporting & monitoring all requirements including Licenses, Leading delivery.
- Prevented team distractions, impediments or team conflicts & maintained focus on project deliveries.
- Offshore Program Manager – Agile Scrum Master, Wilhelmsen Ships Services, Aug 2017 – Jan 2018
- Single Point of Contact at Offshore for multiple Program/Project development Activities including Business Analysis.
- Implemented Agile Methodology covering sprint planning, daily scrums, retrospectives, release meetings, and software demonstrations.
Project Manager – Sr. Business Analyst
Tech Mahindra Ltd.
04.2017 - 07.2017
- Worked on various CBEM activities to contribute to Practice growth, RFPs & supported recruitment initiatives.
- Worked on SharePoint for document management.
- Project Manager – South Asia - Infrastructure Management Johnson and Johnson Ltd., Aug 2016 – Nov 2016
- Managed multiple Infrastructure Projects for Southeast Asia region related to Data Center and Customer acquisition-IT Management.
- Quantified and managed product backlog, burn down metrics, and velocity as well as task breakdown.
Senior Technical Business Analyst – South Asia - Supply Chain Management
Medtronic India Pvt. Ltd.
11.2015 - 07.2016
- Formulated Inventory Management/E-commerce Solution at customer site, launched new customers in E-commerce, trained them for ensuring flawless order management.
- Managed Supply Chain Management across India at its customer sites.
- Automation of complete procurement Cycle and Inventory management.
- Sales Enablement through IT transformation.
- Project Manager – Planview, BrightIdea, IP Manager Ahlstrom Corporation, Oct 2014 – Oct 2015
- Managed (L2 & L3 support) through Plainview for global Project Management
- Administered the end-to-end Bright Idea Application and processes within.
- Administered the Thompson Reuters IP Manager Applications management and developed internal modules as per business requirements.
Project Manager – Planview, BrightIdea, IP Manager
Ahlstrom Corporation
10.2014 - 10.2015
- Managed (L2 & L3 support) through Plainview for global Project Management,
- Administered the end-to-end Bright Idea Application and processes within.
- Administered the Thompson Reuters IP Manager Application management and developed internal modules as per business requirements.
Education
Postgraduate - Operations Management
Welingkar Institute of Management
Graduate - Economics & Computers
Mumbai University
Skills
- Project management expertise
- Process Management and Improvement
- Oracle WebLogic, SQL Server, MySQL
- Transition & Transformation Management
- Agile project management
- Project management office leader
- Critical thinking
- Business Management Support
- Infrastructure Management
- Product Owner Support
- Stakeholder Management
- Service Management
- Project Portfolio Management
- MS Teams, MS Project
- MS Office, Planview Clarity
- Naya Services SCM ServiceNow
- ALM, JIRA, Rally, Remedy, Confluence
- ServiceNow, BrightIdea
- MS Dynamics CRM
- SAP FI-CO
- MS EPM
- Thompson IP Manager
- Agile metrics tracking
- Agile coaching
- Sprint planning
- Project management
- Agile best practices
Certification
- Scrum Master
- PRINCE2 Foundation & Practitioner
- ITIL V3 Foundation
- LEAN - Six Sigma Yellow Belt & Digital 101 & 201
Languages
English
Bilingual or Proficient (C2)
Hindi
Bilingual or Proficient (C2)
Marathi
Bilingual or Proficient (C2)
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES
- Mar’2010 to Oct’2014: Capgemini India Pvt. Ltd. | Transition & Transformation Manager
- Dec’2009 to Mar’2010: HCL Technologies Ltd. | Project Manager
- Aug’2006 to Dec’2009: Mahindra Satyam Computer Services Ltd. | Business Consultant
- Mar’2004 to July’2006: Capgemini Ernst & Young Consulting India Ltd. | Sr. Consultant
- Apr’2002 to Mar’2004: Max New York Life Insurance Ltd. | Executive – Accounts & Administration
- Jan’00 to Apr’2002: Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. | Sr. Executive
- Apr’99 to Dec’99: AGNI Electrodes Pvt. Ltd. | Manager – Accounts & Operations
- Jul’98 to Apr’99: R. S. Sardesai & Co.| Accounts Assistant
Timeline
Project Release Manager/Scrum Master
GSK Lxp
10.2024 - 04.2025
Functional Delivery Lead + Scrum Master
Telefonica AG
05.2023 - Current
Technical Program Manager/Lead Scrum Master
Mastercard
11.2019 - 10.2024
Offshore PMO Program Manager – Agile Scrum Master
ATT USA
02.2018 - 06.2018
Project Manager – Sr. Business Analyst
Tech Mahindra Ltd.
04.2017 - 07.2017
Senior Technical Business Analyst – South Asia - Supply Chain Management
Medtronic India Pvt. Ltd.
11.2015 - 07.2016
Project Manager – Planview, BrightIdea, IP Manager
Ahlstrom Corporation
10.2014 - 10.2015
Graduate - Economics & Computers
Mumbai University
Postgraduate - Operations Management
Welingkar Institute of Management