Lakshmana Dara
Hyderabad,India
Summary
Senior leader with over 27 years of experience in BFSI, specializing in credit cards and credit risk. Proven track record of delivering large-scale programs, including platform conversions, credit card migrations, and new product launches. Expertise in system upgrades and regulatory compliance, driving future state transformations effectively.
Overview
26
26
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Technical Project Manager
Finsol Consultancy Pvt Ltd working for Arab Financial Services
Manama, Bahrain
04.2024 - Current
- Managed end-to-end delivery of portfolio, encompassing requirements analysis, program planning, execution, and stakeholder management.
- Delivered major product launches and enhancements for digital wallet programs, including Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay across multiple banks in the Middle East.
- Developed a new product for Apple Soft POS / Tap to pay and played a key role in the launch of this product in UAE and Bahrain markets.
- Worked with Apple team to finalize the wireframes, product certification, testing, branding, product assets and marketing materials
- Tracked and managed portfolio budgets, delivering weekly status reports and dashboards for senior management oversight.
- Maintained risk register and RAID logs to proactively mitigate project risks, ensuring on-time delivery within scope and budget.
- Led agile ceremonies, including sprint planning and retrospectives, achieving 100% on-time delivery.
- Facilitated requirement gathering workshops with stakeholders to translate business needs into actionable user stories.
- Implemented project management best practices that reduced delays and increased efficiency by 30%.
- Created program-level dashboards and status reports for senior management, facilitating informed decision-making during weekly and monthly reviews.
Delivery Head / Project delivery and management
Finsol Consultancy Pvt Ltd
Hyderabad, India
12.2022 - 03.2024
- Led a cross-functional team of 40+, delivering over 200 projects effectively.
- Accountable for end-to-end delivery including requirements analysis, project planning, and execution.
- Cultivated client relationships and engaged stakeholders throughout project lifecycle to ensure alignment and satisfaction.
- Led delivery operations to ensure timely project completion and client satisfaction.
- Delivered major credit card migrations and product launches for multiple banks in Middle East.
- Implemented enhancements in authorization controls, tokenization, and digital wallet integration to improve security and user experience.
- Supported compliance releases for various Visa and MasterCard initiatives.
- Developed program dashboards and status reports for senior management review meetings to provide clear project visibility and status updates.
- Coached team to exceed client expectations while providing functional guidance.
Senior Program Manager
HSBC
Hyderabad, India
01.2017 - 11.2022
- Delivered major future state transformation program with a budget of $20mn to migrate the legacy decision system to future state SAS ID system which enabled additional $50m revenue to business. Migrated around 200+ business strategies from legacy decision system to the future state SAS ID system
- Managed programs with budgets ranging from $20 million to $40 million, focusing on future state transformation and cloud migration.
- Delivered 175+ user stories for Collections offer management project, enhancing back office and operations efficiency by 50% through new product deployment.
- Led engineering transformation initiatives for department, implementing engineering automation, test automation, and CI/CD DevOps pipeline.
- Built a DDS ( Decision Data Store ) on Google Cloud Platform which enables additional business growth for Credit cards and loans portfolio. Also reduces the losses by identifying early risk indicators for Collections portfolio
- Implemented the new ICOC (Improving Customer Outcomes) 60 day contact strategy and Default & Demand regulatory policy for UK Collections
- Led a team of 60 cross-functional engineers across India, China, HK, and UK. Conducted PI planning events and daily scrum meetings.
- Prepared program level dashboards and status reports for the senior management and business stakeholders. Presented the same in Steerco and Manco meetings. Also represented IT in the business review meetings.
- CCS Decision system is responsible for management and operation of automated credit decision process. Over 4 billion lending assessments are done annually across credit cards, loans, mortgages and current accounts.
Technical Delivery Manager
HSBC
Pune, India
06.2012 - 12.2016
- Designed and developed a Collections Next Generation system enabling operations with a sustainable savings of ~ 50 FTE per annum
- Deployed core features for Cards & Collections portfolio across markets, enhancing customer level processing, collections next generation, offer management, and global contact exclusion capabilities.
- Collections Next Generation is a major transformational program for Collections which is aimed at Instance consolidation, reducing cost of collection and improving collector efficiency. Reduced the instances from 13 to 3
- Implemented global contact exclusion project, streamlining customer communications and enhancing cost effectiveness.
- Migrated from local ACP system to Group Collections system for US as part of Greenfield project and converted around 3.2m data in this migration
- Deployed Project Darwin, converting from old Visionplus cards system to latest VisionPlus product for all MENA countries and consolidating MENA instance with UK Cards system.
Technical lead
HSBC USA
Orlando, FL
03.2010 - 06.2012
- Led HSBC Mexico Cards and Collections implementation, migrating from Visionplus system to new system in collaboration with local team
- Deployed new features for UK and ASP Cards and Collections portfolio, enhancing service offerings
- Implemented Cyber agency product for HSBC Malaysia, facilitating bank recovery efforts
Associate Project Manager
HSBC
Hyderabad, India
08.2008 - 03.2010
- Executed flagship projects, performance improvements, and compliance releases, ensuring adherence to industry standards
- Coordinated project timelines and deliverables with cross-functional teams.
- Managed communication between stakeholders and project team members.
- Assisted in developing project plans and tracking progress against objectives.
- Delivered multiple GRV releases for core Cards and Collections product, enhancing product functionality
Technical Project Manager
Satyam Computer Services Limited
Hyderabad, India
08.2000 - 08.2008
- Led development of CMS, CTA, and FAS modules for VisionPlus, enhancing overall product functionality.
- Designed and developed features for interest calculations, loan processing, and amortization modules, improving user experience.
- Conducted requirement analysis and crafted business proposals to address stakeholder needs.
- Contributed to the launch of new products, migration projects, and platform consolidation.
- Collaborated with teams in First Data International's Orlando office for 7 years, focusing on core product development for VisionPlus.
- In addition to this, supported multiple GE GCF markets across the globe including Japan, UK, Mexico and ASP countries
Education
Bachelor of Technology - Mechanical Engineering
Acharya Nagarjuna University / SVHCE
India06-1997
Skills
- Project management
- Project delivery
- Team leadership
- Certified Scrum Master
- Certified SAFe Agilist
- Project execution
- Product strategy and roadmap
- Payment systems management
- Digital payment migrations
- Cloud migration
- Multi-cloud strategy
- Solution architecture
- API integration strategies
- Azure cloud services
- Azure DevOps practices
- Mainframe technologies: COBOL and CICS
Timeline
Senior Technical Project Manager
Finsol Consultancy Pvt Ltd working for Arab Financial Services
04.2024 - Current
Delivery Head / Project delivery and management
Finsol Consultancy Pvt Ltd
12.2022 - 03.2024
Senior Program Manager
HSBC
01.2017 - 11.2022
Technical Delivery Manager
HSBC
06.2012 - 12.2016
Technical lead
HSBC USA
03.2010 - 06.2012
Associate Project Manager
HSBC
08.2008 - 03.2010
Technical Project Manager
Satyam Computer Services Limited
08.2000 - 08.2008
Bachelor of Technology - Mechanical Engineering
Acharya Nagarjuna University / SVHCE