Sahana Govindaraju
Chennai
Summary
Certified Scrum Master & Agile Delivery Leader with 4+ years of experience enabling high-performing, cross-functional teams across SaaS, AI/ML, BFSI, Healthcare, Cloud, and Enterprise product environments. Proven success in facilitating Scrum/Kanban events, driving Agile maturity, optimizing flow, and delivering customer-centric outcomes in scaled environments (Scrum@Scale, SAFe). Adept at coaching teams using Lean, Kaizen, ADKAR, CI/CD, TDD/BDD and Agile best practices to improve predictability, quality, and cycle time. Skilled in backlog refinement, dependency management, risk mitigation, and stakeholder communication across distributed teams. Experienced in leveraging Generative AI tools (ChatGPT, Copilot, Jira AI) to automate reporting, enhance planning, accelerate decision-making, and drive continuous improvement. Recognized for servant leadership, conflict resolution, and fostering psychological safety to build self-organizing, accountable teams that deliver value consistently.
Overview
9
9
years of professional experience
Work History
Scrum Master | Executive Assistant
IIT Madras
Chennai
08.2024 - Current
- Facilitated end-to-end Scrum delivery for a banking technology modernization project, enabling cross-functional teams (API, Data, QA, Security) to build secure, compliant financial workflows and digital banking features.
- Partnered with Product Owners, Business Analysts and SMEs to refine user stories, ensure regulatory clarity (KYC, AML, Compliance), and maintain a prioritized, audit-ready backlog.
- Drove SAFe ceremonies including PI Planning, Scrum of Scrums, and ART syncs to align release timelines, manage dependencies, and maintain transparency across multiple banking product streams.
- Implemented Kanban practices for high-priority support items, production defects, and UAT readiness, optimizing WIP and improving flow efficiency across technical and business teams.
- Used Agile engineering metrics (Velocity, Lead/Cycle Time, CFD, Defect Ratios, Predictability) to enable data-driven decision-making and improve sprint stability for financial product delivery.
- Collaborated with InfoSec, Architecture, DevOps, and Data teams to manage technical debt, security vulnerabilities, and compliance risks ensuring each increment met banking security standards.
- Leveraged GenAI tools (ChatGPT, Jira AI, Copilot) to streamline reporting, generate requirement summaries, automate documentation, and support impact analysis for banking features.
- Proactively identified and resolved impediments related to integrations, test environments, data masking, API dependencies, and vendor timelines, ensuring minimal disruption to sprint goals.
- Maintained RAID logs to track regulatory impacts, system dependencies, data-flow risks, and stakeholder commitments across the banking program.
- Fostered a culture of continuous improvement through structured retrospectives, compliance reviews, and optimization workshops tailored to BFSI technology workflows.
Scrum Master | Executive Content Writer
The Akshaya Patra Foundation
Bangalore
01.2019 - 02.2021
- Led multiple Agile teams delivering digital platforms, CSR technology solutions, and operational systems using Scrum and Kanban frameworks.
- Facilitated all Scrum events with focus on transparency, collaboration, and timeboxing compliance.
- Partnered with Product Owners to groom backlogs, clarify acceptance criteria, and break down requirements into actionable user stories.
- Enabled continuous improvement through retrospectives, Kaizen mindset, and Agile coaching across Product, Tech, and Operations teams.
- Identified, tracked, and resolved impediments; escalated cross-team dependencies and risks using structured RAID management.
- Improved workflow efficiency by driving adoption of Agile best practices, visualizing work through Kanban boards, and optimizing WIP limits.
- Coordinated with design, engineering, QA, and external vendors to ensure end-to-end delivery readiness and stakeholder alignment.
- Maintained delivery governance by publishing sprint reports, dashboards, burndown charts, and release readiness updates.
- Built strong stakeholder relationships with leadership, ensuring smooth communication of timelines, risks, and sprint goals.
Program Manager
LXL Ideas
Bangalore
09.2018 - 03.2019
- Coordinated cross-functional teams (content, design, video, and tech) to ensure timely delivery of educational content and campaigns.
- Managed task workflows using Trello/Jira-like tools, tracked progress, removed blockers, and ensured smooth collaboration between teams.
- Facilitated review discussions, streamlined feedback loops, and maintained clear communication between stakeholders for on-time delivery.
- Improved team efficiency by introducing simple process checklists, documentation templates, and structured planning practices.
Program Manager | Senior Content Writer
Shilpa Ahuja Media
Chennai
12.2016 - 07.2018
- Coordinated article pipelines, scheduled tasks, and supported editors/designers to maintain consistent publishing timelines.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to refine requirements, clarify content expectations, and ensure alignment with project goals.
- Organized weekly sync-ups, maintained content calendars, and tracked deliverables to reduce delays and improve workflow transparency.
- Standardized content processes and documentation, contributing to smoother collaboration and more predictable delivery cycles.
Education
Bachelor of Engineering -
Atria Institute of Technology
Bangalore01-2013
Skills
- Jira, Jira Align,
- Azure DevOps (ADO)
- Trello, Asana
- MS Project
- Rally, Smartsheet, ClickUp
- Confluence, Miro, Mural, Lucidchart
- Slack, MS Teams, Google Workspace, Zoom
- SharePoint
- ChatGPT Microsoft Copilot Jira AI Plugins
- Otterai AI-based reporting dashboards
- CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins/GitHub Actions basics)
- Git, GitHub, Bitbucket
- DevSecOps concepts
- TDD, BDD (Cucumber), automation awareness
Core Competencies
- Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, PI Planning, Sprint Events, Backlog Refinement, Agile Coaching, Continuous Improvement, Cross-Functional Collaboration, RAID & Flow Optimization.
Certifications
l Certified Scrum Master (CSM) - Scrum Alliance
l Scrum Master Accelarator - HelloSM
l Agile Scrum + Scrum Master - Udemy
l Kanban Professional - HelloSM
l Safe 6.0 Scrum Master SSM - Scaled Agile
Project #1
- AI-Powered Risk & Learning + Conversational Banking Platform: Led Agile delivery for two enterprise banking AI platforms—a unified Risk, Compliance & Learning system and a multilingual Conversational Banking Chatbot—improving training completion by 45%, audit readiness by 60%, and reducing human-assisted calls by 40%. Managed 18 sprints, improved velocity by 128%, and facilitated collaboration across AI, Data Science, Security, and Engineering teams. Delivered secure, compliant (PCI-DSS/GDPR) banking workflows including fraud analytics, AI assessments, and core banking self-service features. Ensured end-to-end delivery through SAFe, Scrum, Kanban, story standardization, shift-left QA, and cross-team dependency management.
Project #2
- Healthcare Access Management Platform (HAMP) – UnitedHealth Group (UHG), USA: Led Agile Scrum delivery across two cross-functional teams to build a secure patient onboarding, provider verification, and insurance eligibility platform integrated with Epic, Cerner, and Okta. Facilitated sprint ceremonies, removed impediments, aligned product, dev, QA, and DevOps teams, and improved delivery efficiency through CI/CD and structured backlog refinement. Enabled HIPAA-compliant identity verification, API-based insurance checks, and RBAC-driven access controls across microservices (ReactJS, NodeJS, Spring Boot, AWS). Delivered a 40% reduction in appointment scheduling time and a 30% improvement in patient onboarding accuracy.
Timeline
Scrum Master | Executive Assistant
IIT Madras
08.2024 - Current
Scrum Master | Executive Content Writer
The Akshaya Patra Foundation
01.2019 - 02.2021
Program Manager
LXL Ideas
09.2018 - 03.2019
Program Manager | Senior Content Writer
Shilpa Ahuja Media
12.2016 - 07.2018
Bachelor of Engineering -
Atria Institute of Technology