BALACHANDER VASUDEVAN
Bengaluru
Summary
PMP, CSM certified engineering, project/program manager, with an MBA from IIM-Bangalore, with 20+ years of experience in leading engineering teams and at managing end to end delivery of large and complex, cross- functional, cross-geographical projects, and programs within budget, scope, and schedule. In addition, possess rich global experience in a program manager role managing large scale strategic high technology Implementations/solutions, software engineering, service Delivery for large systems spanning across diverse geographies and with tried and tested client and financial management and leadership skills.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Software Engineering Manager
NetApp
06.2023 - Current
- Responsible for ownership of multiple disaster recovery and business continuity features on NetApp OnTap software.
- Led a team of over 12 engineers (dev and qa) in delivering high quality feature enhancements across releases. Used various tools like jira and tableau to effectively manage cross geo and cross functional resources.
- People management responsibilities of 12+ engineers and responsible for their overall performance and growth.
- Improved software development processes by implementing agile methodologies and facilitating cross-functional team collaboration.
- Developed comprehensive documentation for internal software systems, improving knowledge sharing among team members and reducing onboarding time for new hires.
- Provided regular feedback to both junior engineers and senior leadership on individual performance metrics and observations.
- Negotiated contracts with third-party vendors for software services, balancing cost savings and quality assurance considerations.
- Fostered collaborative environment that encouraged knowledge sharing and skill development among team members.
- Reduced production defects by implementing thorough code reviews and automated testing strategies as a part of quality improvement initiatives.
- Facilitated seamless communication between engineering team and other departments, bridging gaps and fostering interdepartmental synergy.
- Coordinated with product management to align software development efforts with market demands, ensuring product relevance and user satisfaction.
- Championed best practices in software architecture, code quality, and testing within the engineering organization to maintain high standards of excellence.
- Negotiated with stakeholders to define project scopes and timelines, ensuring expectations were clear and achievable.
- Increased overall team productivity through continuous process improvement initiatives and effective resource allocation.
Engineering Program Manager
NetApp
12.2021 - Current
- Partnered with key stakeholders across product management, engineering managers, architects and quality engineering leaders.
- Communicated the plan, status and risk to Director, Vice President level stakeholders.
- Prioritized initiatives within the program and surface risks and trade-offs as well as recommendations to the stakeholders.
- Drove status and reporting structure in a manner consistent with the needs of the release and other stakeholders.
- Partnered with leadership to create an environment where the teams are recognized and feel encouraged
- Used data, principles and risk mitigation to assess progress to plan.
- Relied on core team and functional leader expertise when faced with important decisions.
- Fostered teamwork and strove to maintain environment of collaboration, openness, trust and performance.
Project/Program Manager
BMC Software
12.2015 - 12.2021
- Successfully led large cross-geo, cross-functional teams on complex services projects and programs for large North American customers, in areas like workload automation, IT services management, operations management and others
- Responsible for project management through all the phases of the project - from initiation to closure
- Delivered revenue of more than $ 1 million/ quarter, with margins above 45%, for 6 quarters in succession while satisfying the triple constraints of schedule, cost, and quality
- Skilled at taking over troubled projects/programs and nursing them back to a successful closure
- On occasions, was able to bring in additional business and revenue from these projects
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams (including R&D, Support, Sales) and part of various COEs (including the Helix ITSM program) on new “Services as a product” work packages and contributed to improvements on various offerings as well in the development of deliverables associated with new offering roll-outs
- Collaborated on multiple process improvement initiatives including development of a project management methodology (BMCx) based on PMBOK, now implemented across all geographies
- Collaborated in the development of new and the updation of old project management templates and tools
- Met with project stakeholders on regular basis to assess progress and make adjustments
- Pitched and built new programming strategies and one-off feature shows to boost audience interests and diversify offerings
- Coached team members on productivity strategies, policy updates and performance improvement plans to accomplish challenging goals
- Orchestrated smooth and efficient program development by collaborating cross-functionally across departments.
Project/Program manager
Wipro - Microsoft
02.2015 - 11.2015
- Created project management plans and schedules using MPP
- Conducted daily standup meetings with customer, offshore & cross functional teams
- C-level customer communication of program status in the form of meetings, status report emails, newsletters, and meetings
- Responsible for delivering projects on time and satisfying the triple constraints of schedule, cost, and quality
- Orchestrated smooth and efficient program development by collaborating cross-functionally across departments
Project Lead
Wipro - Cisco
06.2012 - 12.2014
- Led an offshore team of 8 and was responsible for ensuring that the project was delivered successfully meeting schedule, scope and time constraints
- Responsible for firming up scope, creating and maintaining the project schedule, task allocation, managing communications according to plan, managing risk and stakeholders
- Responsible for gathering project metrics and communicating the same to upper management via monthly review meetings
- Identified project scopes, constraints, risks and deadlines
- Tracked project performance to analyze successful completion of short- and long-term goals
- Decreased head-count from 10 to 8 while driving productivity by 25%
- Established team priorities, maintained schedules and monitored performance.
Senior Software Engineer
Wipro - Cisco
09.2004 - 06.2012
- Development (September 2004- June 2012) of layer 2 protocols on the Cisco 6500 switches on CatOs from 2005 till 2010.
- Tools and technologies: C programming, GDB, iOS and Cisco catos, ixia
- Port aggregation protocol and 802.3AD 802.1ag (Connectivity Fault Management)
- Cisco Energy-wise features
- Cisco service modules including FWSM, IDSM.
- Worked with project managers, developers, quality assurance and customers to resolve technical issues.
Education
MBA - Marketing, Strategy
IIM
Bangalore03.2013
B.E - Electricals And Electronics
Madras University
Chennai04.2004
Skills
- Engineering management
- People management
- Program Management
- Onshore-Offshore Delivery
- ITIL Best Practices
- Escalation, stakeholder Management
- Certified Scrum Master
- C-Level and executive reporting and management
- Waterfall and agile software models
- Lean philosophy and techniques
- Data Analysis - Tableau, R
- Jira
- Layer 2 protocols - Link Aggregation, CFM, Spanning Tree Protocols
- Data replication and business continuity software
- Storage area networks
- Financial Management & Budgeting Strategic Planning
- Ms Project and executive-Level Presentations using PowerPoint
- Risk, Scope Management
- Software Development Life Cycle
Accomplishments
- Rewarded multiple times with SPOT and equivalent awards in appreciation for engineering management as well as for leading large, multi-release programs.
- Nominated for the “Most Valuable Player” award four quarters in succession, winning twice
- Recognized by the Vice President for leading a complex, multi-technology project for an American multinational energy corporation which resulted in new business worth $1.1M
Certification
- PMP certified – 2015 - PMP #1862380
- ITIL foundation certified
- Certified Scrum Master - 2021 - 01214426
- AI For Everyone - by deeplearning.ai (Coursera) – 92.5%
- Machine Learning – by Stanford University (Coursera) – in progress
- Machine Learning A-ZTM: Hands-On Python & R in Data Science (Udemy) – in progress
- Master's Program - Data Scientist (Simplilearn) – in progress
Additional Information
- Avid reader – devour books (fiction, non-fiction), magazines of various genres
- Passionate about mobile devices, technology, apps (on multiple operating systems – Android, IOS, Windows), app markets, internet of things (IoT).
- Keen interest in music, films, quizzing, sports, photography and travel
Timeline
Software Engineering Manager
NetApp
06.2023 - Current
Engineering Program Manager
NetApp
12.2021 - Current
Project/Program Manager
BMC Software
12.2015 - 12.2021
Project/Program manager
Wipro - Microsoft
02.2015 - 11.2015
Project Lead
Wipro - Cisco
06.2012 - 12.2014
Senior Software Engineer
Wipro - Cisco
09.2004 - 06.2012
B.E - Electricals And Electronics
Madras University
MBA - Marketing, Strategy
IIM
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