Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Websites
Certification
Languages
Tools
Affiliations
Timeline
Generic
KAVITHA PODUVAL

KAVITHA PODUVAL

Bangalore

Summary

An accomplished executive leader with a proven track record of driving global organisational growth and excellence. I am highly enthusiastic about efficiency and dedicated to delivering cross-functional, transformative solutions that enhance customer experiences. With a passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), I have taken on a leadership role in driving DEI initiatives and fostering an inclusive work environment. My background includes a unique combination of consultancy and diverse industry experience, encompassing functional and technical solutions, products, and platforms. I am consistently recognised as a high-potential, high-performing visionary and strategic leader who maintains a fun and engaging work environment.

Overview

18
18
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

Director|Transformations,Strategy & Innovations

Cargill
Bangalore
06.2022 - Current
  • Part of the Corporate strategy team leading Strategic lighthouse initiatives, Agile Transformations, Coaching Office In Cargill (Global) as a horizontal of CoE, driving change initiatives across the Enterprise including Product transition, DevOps, Enterprise Agility, OKRs, Tools, Agile adoption and maturity
  • Define and steer the organisation's strategy -Cargill 2025 - in execution working towards Cargill 2030 transformation strategy
  • Working with the Corporate Business Transformation, Enterprises, functions, plants and direct customers team in defining companywide Agile Framework to drive value faster and better
  • Define and deployed Business specific detailed Agile Frameworks for Software, Hardware (multi-disciplinary) product development Integrated DevOps, Test automation for Software, Firmware Agile projects
  • Building Agile Competency through training for project teams and leadership, grooming Agile champions, facilitating role-based training, certifications
  • Established Governance process, standardized KPIs for Agile programs, initiatives as per compliance mandates
  • Achieve customer experience by focusing on the business outcome through technology usage
  • Driving the Organization's strategy to accelerate business outcomes and location diversity
  • Manage and facilitate business expansion and relevant talent growth conversations in India
  • Leading Leadership Council member for D&I in the entity, leading various initiatives including Mentor-Mentee,Stand Tall ,LGBTQ+,PWD ,Returning mothers and anchoring topics of unconscious bias in Cargill India etc. Is Responsible for developing and executing the India DEI strategy that elevates the employee experience and builds a diverse leadership pipeline to drive growth and profitability partnering across HR , Environmental (Cargill cares Council for Sustainability )and Social Responsibility (ESR) to define, prioritize and embed best-in-class DEI practices
  • Part of the Cargill India Leadership team to improve and cultivate inclusive,customer focused and accountable teams that consistently achieve outstanding results .Represent center in various forums like NASCOM's , SSON and Avatar events
  • Responsible to develop and grow a global team of Program Managers ,Enterprise coaches ,Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches across multiple physical locations - including work assignment and tracking, career development, coaching and mentoring while also supplementing staff in that role as needed
  • Serve in the role of "Agile Coach" through championing, training, and mentoring across the organization and in the community bringing the leaders along in the organization
  • Establish a mature and healthy agile software development working environment, within the context of our organizational values
  • Provide continuous improvements in operational capabilities to optimize efficiency

Senior Manager |Agile Transformation & Program Mgt

Akamai Technologies
Bangalore
09.2017 - 06.2022
  • Transformative leader who fundamentally evolved Akamai's Platform Engineering organization to be a more transparent, disciplined, and performant group with the strategic implementation of agile practices, a rationalized product and services portfolio, refined process improvements ,budget management, and global cross-organizational relationship building and communications by execution of global Transformation initiatives
  • Leading a team of 30 Program managers , 8 Agile coaches , 15 scrum masters and 4 RTE's across supporting 5 different Akamai locations
  • Business Agility ,Enterprise Agile & Portfolio Coach and a Technical Program Manager who takes a pragmatic approach to working with organizations in creating a culture that is aligned to their business objectives
  • • Hands-on results-driven strategic Agile Transformation leader and technologist with more than 16 years of highly enriching work experience and extensive track record of successfully leading ,training technical product management, scaling product-based organizations, and creating relentless improvement culture in globally renowned firms and entrepreneurial ventures • Experience in developing and executing Project Governance Methodologies. Demonstrated success engaging at CxO level and representing on Project Steering Committee Executive Boards
  • Modernized Engineering processes with the execution of the ADAPT (Agile Development and Process Transformation) Program through the implementation of agile/SAFe across 600+ employees to improve quality (>40% improvement) and predictability (>30% improvement) in less than a year • Developed knowledge of emerging techniques for agile transformation adoption to drive a culture based on flexibility and innovation in a global business environment. • Build the agile coaching capability throughout the organization including the development of a global community of practice and agile coaching standards, ensuring that leaders, programs, and teams can secure the support they need from agile coaches
  • Responsible for developing and managing cross functional, technology led, or product focused programs. Manages budgets and interfaces with contractors, suppliers, customers and internal functions. Manages program resource and budget allocation/integration.
  • Ensures successful, end-to-end delivery of a project or a program through ongoing client engagement, partnering with technical teams internal and external to the initiative, and coordination of all required activities and milestones. • Leading a team of 30 Program managers and change agents across supporting 5 different Akamai locations
  • Responsible for Technology India Strategic themes for Edge technology
  • Budget, Mentoring Agile Transformation & Scaled Agilist Senior management , Resource management Client management & Vendor Contracts
  • Process improvement initiatives Vendor contracts and relationships
  • Compliance and regulations • Conflict mediation • Project & portfolio leadership Contract development and management
  • Team building • Influencing and negotiating Data-driven decision-making • Operations planning • Cross-functional communication

Technical Program Manager /Agile Coach

TESCO HSC
Bangalore
08.2013 - 08.2017
  • Tesco Clubcard – Loyalty Program .
  • Responsible for Agile transformation and change management
  • Managing End to End Release delivery Role for Retail Business and Rewards section of Tesco products along with SAFe & VFQ Best Practices.
  • Manage and report on complete portfolio of technology projects across multiple lines of business.
  • Interacting with business unit leadership to ensure business objectives are met and initiatives are prioritized appropriately.
  • Responsible for managing pipeline of small to large project requests and assigning proper resources.
  • Facilitating scrum ceremonies, Better refinement sessions in order to plan future sprints.
  • As a Agile coach, engage with organizations for Agile Transformation at various stages, and work towards setting up of Centers of Excellence.
  • Provide general guidance on Agile Engineering practices and specialize in Agile product management.
  • As an Agile Coach/Expert – Trained number of Tesco Employees right from an Employee to Product Owner Key Activities included bringing in the cultural mindset change.
  • Manage complex communication, build collaborative trust and focus people on the results.
  • Continuous process management improvement and innovation.

Sr Principal QA Engineer /Release Manager/Agile Coach

INVENSYS SKELTA, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC
Bangalore
01.2012 - 08.2013
  • Was responsible for leading the Agile teams and day to day delivery and release activities.
  • Managing a team of 16 members.
  • Analysis of Business Requirements and Test Scenarios, Test Cases, Test Execution, Status reporting and Defect Management.
  • Generation of the weekly and monthly stats for the stakeholders.
  • Creating a strong work environment by deploying Agile Metrics and Tracking implementation of Quality-check tools for creating a Test-Driven Development process.
  • Defining & implementing Agile Process Frameworks such as Scrum Process and implementing the same in projects.
  • On-job coaching the team on scrum Practices.
  • Coaching on writing effective user stories, arriving at precise estimations, tracking velocity and planning releases.
  • Conduct Team Agility assessments & review results.
  • Be on top of the account with respect to schedules, delays, field issues, priorities, resources.
  • Conduct periodic project reviews (detailed as well as high level) and keep tabs on delays, upcoming milestones, issues, risks & mitigation plan.
  • As an Agile coach, I was engaged with different departments in the organizations (Engineering , Support and Marketing) for Agile Transformation at various stages, and work towards setting up of Centers of Excellence.
  • Provided general guidance on Agile Engineering practices and specialize in Agile product management.

Senior QA Engineer

CDC SOFTWARE, APTEAN
Bangalore
07.2007 - 01.2012
  • Project SmartClient for Pivotal CRM built on a .net Framework that provides end users to access CRM systems
  • Responsibilities included testing E2E functionality along with Automation of scenarios
  • Identified 99% of bugs in Pre prod environments and delivered through 100 % quality
  • Defining & implementing Agile Process Frameworks such as Scrum
  • Execution of test cases and bug reporting in Quality center.
  • Coordinated with developers to get the bugs reproduced and resolved using Rally Software.
  • SME/ Primary point of contact for the engineering team regarding all project functional requirements

Junior Associate

Zensar Technologies
Pune
04.2006 - 05.2007
  • Designed and Executed Test Cases, black box testing, Functional testing, Localization Testing, Release Candidate testing, Defect Tracking and Management.

Education

B.E - Electronic & Telecommunications

Pune University

Skills

  • Leadership and Stakeholder management
  • Program Management
  • Budget, Mentoring
  • Agile Transformation & Scaled Agilist
  • Senior management
  • Resource management
  • Client management & Vendor Contracts
  • Process improvement initiatives
  • Vendor contracts and relationships
  • Compliance and regulations
  • Conflict mediation
  • Project & portfolio leadership
  • Contract development and management
  • Team building
  • Influencing and negotiating
  • Data-driven decision-making
  • Operations planning
  • Cross-functional communication

Websites

Certification

  • SAFe SPC 5.0
  • ICP ACC (Agile Coaching)
  • ICP ATF (Agile team Foundation)
  • PSM1 (Professional Scrum Master)
  • Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)
  • Certified SAFe 5.0 Lean Portfolio Manager
  • Agile BCS Expert from Emergn (UK) – VFQ Certified
  • PMP
  • ISTQB from Indian Testing Board
  • Microsoft Effective Presentations

Languages

English
First Language
Hindi
Proficient
C2
Malayalam
Advanced
C1
Marathi
Proficient
C2
German
Intermediate
B1

Tools

Jira | Jira Align and Portfolio Management

Agile Tools - Miro ,Mural and Temp

Rally ,TFS

Confluence

Affiliations

Best Valuable Manager AWARD

Above & Beyond Award

One Akamai for Partnership and Support

Program Management Excellence award

Timeline

Director|Transformations,Strategy & Innovations

Cargill
06.2022 - Current

Senior Manager |Agile Transformation & Program Mgt

Akamai Technologies
09.2017 - 06.2022

Technical Program Manager /Agile Coach

TESCO HSC
08.2013 - 08.2017

Sr Principal QA Engineer /Release Manager/Agile Coach

INVENSYS SKELTA, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC
01.2012 - 08.2013

Senior QA Engineer

CDC SOFTWARE, APTEAN
07.2007 - 01.2012

Junior Associate

Zensar Technologies
04.2006 - 05.2007

B.E - Electronic & Telecommunications

Pune University

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KAVITHA PODUVAL