Sakthivel Kandavelu

• Led a team of engineers, ensuring 99.99% service availability uptime across Mastercard’s global network, to provide strategic and operational leadership for global network operations, supporting mission-critical payment infrastructure, meeting stringent regulatory and operational risk requirements.
• Reduced chronic incidents through structured problem management and analytics-driven preventive controls.
• Improved SLA compliance, customer satisfaction ratio, by standardizing ITIL incident, problem, and change processes.
• Led enterprise DR and BCP exercises by partnering with multiple internal teams across the globe.
• Collaborated with cross-functional training sessions for the team to improve efficiency, reduce dependencies, and eliminate single points of failure.
• Implemented process improvements that increased productivity across various operational areas.
• Monitored staff performance, addressed issues, and resolved conflicts between employees by providing guidance on company policies and procedures.
• Analyzed customer feedback data to develop action plans for improving services offered to achieve a good customer satisfaction ratio. Enforced customer service standards and resolved customer problems to uphold quality service.
• Created monthly reports for senior management summarizing operational performance metrics.

• Directed infrastructure modernization projects by crafting initiatives and solutions to deliver strategic objectives, including network upgrades, ISP migrations, and data center transitions.
• Owned end-to-end project deliverables from initiation to closure, governance, financial tracking, risk management, and executive reporting.
• Managed and partnered with the client, sales, business, and engineering teams, ensuring satisfaction and ongoing engagement throughout projects.
• Facilitated and mentored juniors to enhance their skills through workshops, to gather insights, and drive for better results.
• Conducted market research to identify trends and inform strategic recommendations by collaborating with stakeholders to ensure alignment on project objectives and deliverables. Accelerated delivery timelines by 20% using Agile and hybrid delivery models.
• Streamlined processes, improving operational efficiency across multiple projects by having regular connections with the Scrum Team and PMOs.
• Used client-recommended changes or improvements based on evaluation to fit specific needs, thereby reassessing the deliverables, timelines, and communicating accordingly.
• Assisted in developing marketing materials that effectively communicated the services offered by the organization.

Product Owner.

Defined product strategy and roadmaps aligned to business, technology, and regulatory priorities.

Translated organizational initiatives into Epics, Features, and User Stories, prioritizing the backlog to maximize ROI and business impact.

Acted as both the Voice of the Customer and a bridge between the business, end users, and technical teams.

Partnered with senior leadership to align product features with regulatory compliance.

Collaborated with Scrum Masters and Agile teams to deliver incremental releases every sprint.

Scrum Master.

Led Agile transformation initiatives aligned with ITIL governance.

Facilitated daily stand-ups, sprint planning, backlog refinement, reviews, and retrospectives, ensuring smooth delivery cycles across Agile teams.

Implemented metrics tracking using Jira and Confluence, and facilitated Scrum ceremonies, improving project predictability and transparency.

Facilitated retrospective reviews, leading to a reduction in recurring sprint impediments.

Acted as a bridge between developers, architects, QA, and business stakeholders.

NOC Lead and Problem Manager

Managed 24/7 global operations, achieving 98% SLA compliance.

Responsible for managing the NOC team, providing 24/7 monitoring and first-level troubleshooting for enterprise network infrastructure, achieving 98% SLA compliance.

Expertise in working with multiple vendors, service providers, and clients.

Experience in COB/BCP planning during critical tenure, and making sure it’s Business As Usual.

As a problem manager, identify root causes of recurring incidents, reducing repeat issues by 30% by performing trend analysis.

Ensured Problem Management activities aligned with the ITIL v3 framework.

Collaborated with cross-functional engineering and change teams to implement permanent fixes for high-impact network and infrastructure problems.

• Facilitated post-incident reviews, maintained KEDB, presented RCA reports, and deployed fixes in production during Green Zone time.

Designed and documented standard operating procedures (SOPs).

• L1 Network Analyst in Citi NOC.

• Network Field Engineer