Pinakin Rao

Technical Project Manager / Program Manager

E: [email protected] | P: 2098908247
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pinakinrao

Summary & Achievements:

 Seasoned technologist with 18+ years of diverse expertise, blending technical prowess with managerial
acumen:
 4+ years as a Senior Developer – Product Development, leading software engineering and data modelling
initiatives.
 2 years as a Business System Analyst.
 12+ years as a Technical Project Manager, delivering large-scale business applications using cutting-edge
technologies.

Main capabilities:

 Strategic PMO Leadership: Led PMO in implementing a data-driven framework, reducing project
turnaround times and enhancing organizational transparency.
 Project Excellence: Delivered multi-million-dollar projects across domains, exceeding client expectations
and ensuring core business objectives.
 Cross-functional leadership: Led cross-functional teams to define project objectives, plans, deliverables, and
milestones. Established baselines for scope, schedule, and budget. Sponsors and stakeholder alignment.
 SDLC and Process Optimization: Excelled in tailoring SDLC, release processes, and stop gates for high-quality,
consistent deliverables. Ensured continuous improvement, visibility, and early risk identification.
 Transparent Reporting: Provided concise leadership reports on portfolio health (status, budget, and
performance), fostering transparency and proactive issue resolution.
 Requirements Transformation: Transformed business needs into clear, testable technical specifications,
ensuring product quality and stakeholder alignment.
 Leadership development mentoring: Demonstrated exceptional servant leadership, adaptability, and
problem-solving skills. Cultivated a motivated team through ownership and celebrations.
 Conflict Resolution and Scrum Mastery: Leveraged active listening and collaborative negotiation to
constructively resolve conflicts. Orchestrated impactful Scrum ceremonies as a proactive Scrum Master.
 Client Relationship and Revenue Growth: Managed large accounts, resolved critical client issues, and
spearheaded revenue initiatives, contributing to organizational growth.
 Complex Migration and Skill Development: Seamlessly transitioned complex migrations, exceeding client
expectations. Continuously up-skilled in industry trends and emerging technologies.
 Innovative Problem Solving: Researched and developed feasible solutions to Intricate challenges.
 Process Standards and Compliance: Established and maintained process standards, ensuring alignment with
organizational culture and values.
 Vendor Management: Expertly guided vendor selection, contractual agreements, and communication
channel setup, fostering strategic partnerships.
 Employee Management: Oversaw Employee Skill Management, Performance Appraisal, and Time Sheet
Management.

Technology & Platform:

 Programming: Tableau, Power BI, Power Platform, Power Automate Flow, Python, SQL, ASP.NET, MVC,
 SOAP, Web & Window Services, WEB API, Rest API, Entity Framework, LINQ, VB Macros, JavaScript
 Cloud & DevOps: AWS EC2, Lambda, CI/CD Pipeline, Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
 Data: Snowflake, Microsoft Dataverse, MS SQL, Dynamo DB, My SQL, Oracle, Adabas, SSRS, Crystal Report,
ETL, Apache Airflow, Amazon Redshift
  Repository and Code: Git, Azure Dev Ops, SonarQube
 Project Tracking & Monitoring: Jira, Confluence, MS SharePoint, Rally, Microsoft Project, MS Office,
Microsoft Visio, Slack

Skills & Techniques:

 Project Mgmt. & Leadership Skill: Change Agent, Strategic Thinker, Collaborator, Communicator, Innovator,
Frontend Leadership, Servant Leader, situational leadership
 Project Management Techniques:
o Traditional: Waterfall, Work breakdown structure (WBS), Critical Path Method (CPM)
o Agile: Scrum, SAFe, Kanban, Scrum of Scrum (SoS)
 Estimation: Three-point estimates, Functional Point Method, Story Point, Parametric, Bottom-Up, Top-Down
– Estimating

Educational Qualifications:
 CIS George Fox University via Expert Opinion Evaluation of Work Experience. By Dr. Brent Wilson of,
Newberg OR
 MBA- from Ural Federal University,
 BBA from, National Academy of Planning & Business Management

Certifications and Training

 Project Management Professional (PMP)® from PMI (#1940526) since 2016
 ITIL Foundation Certification in IT Service Management from AXELOS in 2014
 Certified Scrum Master (CSM) from Scrum Alliance in 2016
 Getting Agile with Scrum’ Training by PMI, in Aug 2013 for PMI-ACP
 Program Management Foundation’ Training by PMI, in Oct 2013 for PgMP
 Braving peril, my unwavering resolve sustained life, earning SPEC India's first Courage & Determination
Award
Cadence / Meetings Spearhead:

Kickoff | Steering Committee | Planning Session | Gate Reviews | Sprint ceremonies | Release | Change Requests
Review | Impact Analysis meet | Change Approval Board meet | Risk Review & Assessment meet | Quality
Assessment | Go/No-Go meet | Rollback meet | Performance Review | Resource Evaluation | Vendor Evaluation |
Product Demo Session | Architecture Review | Security Reviews | Technical Design Review | Dependency Review

Core Management Competencies:

Project Management | Governance | Vendor Management | Planning | Scope| Budgeting & Cost | Scheduling |
Traceability | Risk | Quality | Procurement | Integration | Change | Configuration & Artifacts | Leadership | Team
Building | IT Strategy | Compliance | Continuous Improvement & learning | Agile - Scrum, SAFe, Kanban | Scaled
Agile | Resource optimization | PMO | Program | Portfolio | SWOT analysis | RACI Matrix | Feasibility Studies |
Communication & Collaboration | Software Development | SDLC | Test-Driven Development (TDD) | Testing | Test
Automation | Interfacing | Data Analytics & Visualization | Control Technical Debt

Business Domain Exposure

Market Research and Data Analytics | Finance Services | Investment | Loan | Billing | Manufacturing | Engineering |
Chemical | Metal Stamping | Metal Processing | EPC - Engineering Procurement and Construction | BPM - Business
Process - ERP / Business Change / Workflow | Information Technology (IT) | Digital Marketing - Content
Management | Customer Relationship (CRM) | Organized Retail | POS | E-Commerce | SCM - Supply Chain |
Inventory | WMS - Warehouse | OMS - Order Management | Transportation and Logistics | Aviation | Real Estate |
Construction and Building Material | Laundry and Linen Services | FMS - Fleet Management Services | Energy |
Automotive | Governmental Sector | SAP Integration | ERP implementation
Work Experience:

Client: Conn’s Home Plus (The Woodlands, Tx) November 23 – Till Date
Role: Technical Project Manager - Migration (Senior Program Manager)

Responsibilities:
 Spearheaded integration of Conns & Badcock's business & operational mergers, focusing on Credit (Finance),
Supply Chain, and Merchandise. Assess the impacts on POS, High jump WMS, AS400, STORIS, OMS, Boomi,
MuleSoft, EDI, E-Commerce (Big Commerce, no Commerce), and Yusen systems.
 Migrated data across cloud warehouses (AWS, Azure, GCP) vis ETL in a phased approach.
 Implementing supply chain and logistics technology, including reverse logistics, third-party warranty,
customer returns and refurbishment, delivery, and installation.
 Integrated technology and applications for forecasting, planning, scheduling, Demand planning,
replenishment, Inventory optimization, fulfilment, transfer/shipping, drop shipping, special orders, EDI, and
legal contracts using DocuSign.

Technology Stack: AWS, GCP, SQL, Mule ESB, AS/400 RPG, Oracle, Infor M3

Client: GFK – New York City, NY March-21 to October-23

Role: Senior Project Manager (Program Manager)

Responsibilities:
 Built complex, multi-source, continuously evolving data pipelines using Databricks to generate actionable
intelligence for MRI-Simmons & GFK NIQ. Empowered corporate clients with insightful data analyses,
enabling prescriptive and substantive decision-making using machine learning and AI.
 Deliver Data architecture services to define data models and landscapes to capture and maintain source data
that suit the entire research and survey industry using Snowflake Schema Management.
 Build data pipelines to suffice various short-term and long-term objectives and Data Analytics using ETL -
Apache Airflow, AWS Lambda, Python Pandas, and Python PySpark, orchestrated effectively within
Databricks.
 Define and create a data warehouse, Data Lake, and Data mart using Snowflake Views, Apache Spark, and
Azure SQL Database.
 Executed a strategic cloud migration from AWS and Mainframe to Azure, optimizing licensing costs and
enhancing synergy and interoperability with other applications. Successfully relocated the data pipeline,
ensuring seamless integration within the Azure cloud environment.
 Develop UI-based applications for data manipulation by various internal personnel using React, Microsoft
Power Platform (Dataverse), Power Automate and ServiceNow integration.
 Dashboard on Tableau, Power BI report, and High charts

Technology Stack: AWS, Azure, Python, Snowflake, Airflow, Lambda, Neptune Graph db., Power Platform, Dataverse,
Power BI

Client: Element Fleet - Chicago, Illinois: April-20 to October-23

Role: Senior Project Manager (Program Manager)

Responsibilities:
 Transform the Ordering platform from a legacy system to AWS - a cloud-based highly available platform
while interacting with dozens of other services for Element Fleet.
 Team size of 300+ engineers scattered across the world.
 Liaising with various cross-functional leads like QA Manager, Dev Ops Manager, Business Heads, Solution
Architect, Technical Architect, Technology evangelists, Operation Leads, Third-party vendors, etc.
  Led the seamless upgrade of the ordering platform, orchestrating the successful migration of on-premise
data and applications to a cloud environment, optimizing operational efficiency and scalability.
 This auto-scaling platform provides granular control, enabling individual components to scale horizontally
based on demand, akin to Microservices architectures. It integrates robust security protocols,
comprehensive logging infrastructure, efficient message queues, and a distributed audit log store for
thorough monitoring and traceability
 The integration of SCM with the US Big Three Automotive OEMs (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) -
Connected vehicle
 Conducted rigorous load testing of UI, Microservices architecture, and external integrations using JMeter,
guaranteeing service resilience and stability under heavy workloads.

Technology Stack: AWS, Java, Spring Boot, Maven, Docker, Kubernetes, Swagger, JMeter

Client: Cox Automotive - Austin, Texas: July-19 to March-21

Role: Senior Project Manager (Program Manager)

Responsibilities:
 Led development of a global API management platform on AWS, facilitating seamless exposure of internal
APIs to external networks for Cox Automotive Inc.
 Orchestrated AWS services (API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3) for scalability.
 Automation and Testing: Engineered robust automation test suite for API Gateway and customer portal,
ensuring nightly tests and proactive issue reporting to Broadcom Rally.
 Documentation and Collaboration: Integrated Confluence for public API documentation, fostering
collaboration and precise tracking of API specifics.
 Code quality: Enforced static code analysis using SonarQube, setting stringent pre-integration checks.
Defined unit test thresholds for robust code quality and security.
 Blue-Green Deployment: Orchestrated CI/CD pipeline with feature toggles for controlled rollouts and
seamless transitions, enabling auto-deployment to production after rigorous testing.
 Customer Portal Development: Created React and Redux - .Net RESTful APIs-based customer portal for
onboarding.

Technology Stack: AWS, .Net Core, Postman, API Gateway, DynamoDB, React and Redux, AWS Code Pipeline,
Selenium, NUnit, Lint

Client: Mahindra Finance – Mumbai, India December18 – July19

Role: Senior Program Manager

Responsibilities:
 Led the development of a financial instrument aggregator platform at Mahindra Finance, empowering
customers and financial institutions through a unified investment marketplace. Leveraging IBM API Connect,
PostgreSQL, OAuth2, and JWT
 Unified Investment Discovery: Seamlessly compare and purchase diverse investment portfolios (securities,
savings) online and offline across multiple financial service providers. Options for physical delivery.
 One-Stop Financial Product: Covering tracking, redemption (maturity/prematurely), interest monitoring,
secure payments, and KYC services. Including credit rating insights.
 Regulatory Compliance: Built-in KYC integration and secure data collection, ensuring compliance with
federal regulations.
 API Management including Throttling
 Develop and integrate customer call center applications, including chatbot functionality, using Node.js for
server-side logic and webhook workflows orchestrated by Zapier.

Technology Stack: .Net MVC, Postman, IBM API Connect, PostgreSQL, Angular, PayPal, Node.js
Client: Techblocks August’17 – November’18
Role: Software Development Manager

Responsibilities:
 Just Energy - Mississauga, Ontario: I strategically orchestrated the collaboration of 8 global Scrum teams for
Just Energy, a leading energy solutions provider.
 Innovatively spearheading the establishment of robust PMO and project management practices, I
successfully addressed process gaps, enhancing metadata efficiency.
 Leveraging technical expertise in Spark, Tableau, iOS, ETL, content management, Web API, Web, and
Windows Services, Serverless cloud platforms, and auto-scaling architecture, I efficiently managed the
technical resource activities.
 Overseeing 15 critical applications integral to the energy distribution process, I managed processes from
publishing rates via a CMS-based customer portal to finance system updates, consumption tracking, and
billing.
 My leadership ensured the successful delivery of a comprehensive system, showcasing proficiency in global
team coordination, project governance, and resource optimization.

Technology Stack: Spark, Tableau, Objective-C, Swift, SQL, .Net MVC, HTML5 and CSS

Client: SPEC- India April’10 - July’17

Role: Project Manager

Responsibilities:
 RE/MAX Lisbon, Portugal: Led the development of over 200 intricate wireframes and a mobile-optimized
property listing real estate listing and appointment scheduling application for a web-based CMS at RE/MAX
Portugal (2013).
 TouchBasePro Cape Town, South Africa: Led the design and development of a high-speed email marketing
platform for TouchBasePro.com (2011) using Dot Net, MVC, and MS SQL. This platform provided detailed
reports on audience demographics, campaign performance, and customer segmentation, enabling their
clients to achieve double-digit customer acquisition growth in new markets through targeted campaigns
based on precise audience insights.
 Change Healthcare Nashville, TN: (Healthcare & Medicaid) Delivering comprehensive IT solutions to
optimize workflows for a large multi-specialty hospital network. Achieved improved care coordination and
annual cost savings of $2 million through Point Click Care EHR and HL7 integrations, fostering a collaborative
environment for streamlined communication among healthcare providers and enhanced patient outcomes.
 Schneider Electric Boston, MA: Spearheaded the requirements gathering and analysis for a large-scale,
complex electrical component design application for Schneider Electric distributors in 2010. This innovative
platform, addresses stringent individual and overall component constraints, streamlined BOM generation,
automated pricing retrieval, and accelerated quotation building for customers and dealers.
 CGM, Myanmar: Spearheaded the concept-to-commissioning development of a mobile-based SCM and ERP
system for CGM (Consumer Goods Myanmar Limited), a leading FMCG manufacturer and distributor (2016-
2017).
 Powered H R Johnson Tile's mobile SFA (sales force automation) app, delivering real-time SAP BODS data and
streamlining purchase orders on tablets. Field staff now wield BTL marketing tools and handle grants with
ease, boosting efficiency and operations.
 Developed and deployed a versatile POS system at Jyothy Fabricare Services Ltd (2014), enabling efficient
management of over a million transactions across retail and corporate channels.
 Successfully architected and developed a production management system for Rajhans Metals Pvt. Ltd.
(manufacturing) in 2012, leveraging a low-code No-Code framework for accelerated development and cost
savings.
 Led the successful implementation of a permit system for the State of Gujarat and the Federal Government
of India, streamlining access to public properties for entities. Implemented a rule-based approval workflow
to enhance transparency and efficiency.
Client: Future Knowledge Services, Future Group July08 – April 10
Role: Senior Associate (Staff Engineer)

Responsibilities:
 Architected the design and implementation of a cross-chain Gift Voucher system, employee discount
programs, and tax-free food coupons at Future Group. Utilized distributed architecture with C#.net, MS
SQL/PostgreSQL, and POS system integration. Designed and developed ETL packages for efficient data
synchronization and financial posting in SAP ECC and SAP Hana.
 Additionally, designed and implemented physical stock-taking applications for inventory optimization using
Windows CE technology (embedded technology), interfacing seamlessly with SAP (HANA/ECC) and various
ERP/SCM/WMS systems. Proficiently managed off-hours stock scanning, variant report generation, and
efficient cycle counting during business hours.
 Implement SAP Master Data Governance (MDG) for customers across all brands and platforms.

Technology Stack: .NET Framework 3.5/4, SOAP, MS SQL, ASP.NET, IIS, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, .NET
Compact Framework, SOTI MobiControl, PostgreSQL, C#, ABAP, RFCs, BAPIs, ODBC, ADO.Net

Client: Systems Dynamics Software (ERP Product Development) March’04 - July’08

Role: Senior Software Engineer/Team Lead/Assistant Architect/Consultant

Responsibilities:
 I played a key role in developing a cutting-edge ERP system renowned for its unmatched abstractness.
Tailored for SMEs, it rivaled SAP Business One and Microsoft Dynamics in richness and flexibility.
 The ERP boasted a sophisticated data model accommodating diverse business domains and providing
record-level security. Modules covered Financial Accounting, Fixed Asset Maintenance, Manufacturing,
Order Management, Inventory optimization and Warehouse Management, Supply Chain Management,
Billing, Dispatch, Statutory Taxation, Human Resource Management, Timesheet Management, Business
Process Management, and more.
 Leveraging .NET-based rich UI client technology and SOAP web services, the ERP utilized a centralized MS
SQL database partitioned by the tenant for seamless SAAS offerings. I actively contributed to configuring the
ERP for
 clients across diverse industries, ensuring successful implementations. The adaptable pricing model included
on-premises, user-based, and SAAS licenses.
 This project underscores my expertise in collaborating with senior architects, focusing on the abstract nature
of data models, and successfully configuring and implementing comprehensive ERP systems.

Technology Stack: .NET Framework 2/3.5, SOAP, MS SQL, ASP.NET AJAX, IIS, VB.Net, ADO.net