Austin Churchill
Los Angeles,CA
Summary
Dynamic IT program leader and MBA graduate with over a decade of proven success in project, program, and product management. Specializing in agile strategy, program delivery, and organizational change management. Expertise in driving process enhancements and boosting team effectiveness through analysis and strategic guidance. Passionate about leveraging skills in barrier removal and data-driven decision-making to propel engineering organizations towards exceptional performance.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Senior Technical Program Manager
NerdWallet
Los Angeles, CA
09.2022 - 08.2024
- Oversaw a team of 50+ members, managing cross-company programs, improving key performance metrics, and implementing impactful processes. Acted as chief of staff for a cross-functional organization overseeing the logged-in experience. Collaborated with executives and senior managers across disciplines, taking on additional responsibilities to drive team success and growth.
- Implemented OKRs across all product teams and streamlined product roadmaps using Jira Advanced Roadmaps. Developed processes for setting, tracking, and reporting quarterly OKRs, enhancing accountability, and improving team outcomes.
- Increased engineering efficiency by 33% by introducing metrics such as lead time for changes and cycle time. Created an automated reporting dashboard to identify SDLC bottlenecks and enhance team velocity.
- Led the deployment of NerdWallet's membership program, NerdWallet+, meeting an aggressive three-month timeline. After go-live, I led an effort to improve time to resolution by 30% and reduce user support tickets by 20% for NerdWallet+, enhancing overall customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
- Managed the product lifecycle for a high-yield savings account tool and a shopping rewards extension. Coordinated the discovery and vendor selection process for 1099 tax document distribution.
- Reduced the time required for the software capitalization accounting process by over 50%, and increased accuracy by 25% by leveraging Jira data and sophisticated reporting in Google Sheets.
- Managed the consolidation of two Jira instances, improving organizational synergies and communication.
- Managed seven vendor relationships, ensuring seamless contract renewals, support issue resolution, and enhancement coordination. Showcased adaptability and proactive problem-solving beyond the defined role.
Technical Program Manager
NerdWallet
07.2021 - 09.2022
- Streamlined the work management software ecosystem by evaluating its current state, devising a simplification strategy, and migrating all data to a centralized Jira Premium platform. Established a foundation for creating product roadmaps in Jira Premium, enhancing visibility into team resource allocation.
- Led the pilot program introducing Single Threaded Teams (STTs) at NerdWallet, gathering insights on effective practices and challenges. Provided valuable feedback that informed the successful, company-wide launch of STTs.
- Served as the company-wide Jira administrator and resident expert, supporting over 20 scrum teams. Enabled teams with automation rules, workflow updates, and structures for reliable metric calculations, aiding leadership in identifying bottlenecks.
- Served as the Agile methodology expert for internal projects, promoting best practices in Lean, Scrum, and Kanban.
Technical Program Manager/Project Manager
Consumer Track, Inc. (now GoBankingRates)
02.2020 - 07.2021
- Saved $12,000 annually by migrating the team from Airtable to Jira Premium, eliminating manual status updates and copy-pasting, and boosting team efficiency.
- Delivered an ML-powered ad platform as an interim product manager that increased the ad placement team efficiency by over 25% and produced increases in CTR.
- Increased throughput by over 20% through improved agile practices, using metric insights across engineering and product teams, increasing team focus and efficiency.
- Led technical design, architecture, and scoping discussions for cross-functional projects.
- Managed engineering delivery timelines, optimized team resources, and enhanced project execution efficiency.
- Implemented technologies and processes to advance Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment, and a DevOps model.
- Tracked projects, defined scopes, managed risks, handled escalations, and prioritized tasks.
- Ensured project progress through consistent stakeholder engagement, including demonstrations and updates.
- Oversaw roadmap planning and monitored projects across all technical teams.
- Drove company-wide process improvements and automation initiatives.
- Mitigated risks by collaborating with internal and external teams to enhance efficiency.
Technical Project Manager
Currency
08.2019 - 02.2020
- Managed the integration of a new premier lender into the onboarding process, offering users highly competitive loan options, and coordinated with internal and external development teams to ensure a timely launch.
- Allocated resources, scheduled tasks, and developed detailed timelines to optimize project efficiency.
- Served as Scrum Master for two engineering teams, providing coaching, facilitation, and support to enhance team performance.
- Identified and mitigated risks by regularly communicating with and coaching teams to ensure successful project delivery.
- Utilized agile methodologies to identify and implement process improvements, enhancing team efficiency and team cohesiveness.
ERP Org Capability & Agile Lead
Chevron
11.2018 - 07.2019
- Spearheaded the development, planning, and execution of the Organizational Capability program for global ERP operations and project teams (approximately 400 members), facilitating a successful digital transformation transition.
- Directed change management initiatives for the Organizational Capability program, ensuring effective adoption across ERP teams.
- Collaborated with IT departments throughout Chevron to enhance IT function organizational capability.
- Led the curation of technical and functional skill-building activities, enhancing competencies within ERP teams.
- Oversaw the implementation of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and advanced agile maturity across all ERP teams.
IT Project Manager & Business Analyst
Chevron
06.2013 - 11.2018
- Championed Agile adoption for the global SAP Support team, achieving a 90% adoption rate, and driving a significant mindset shift towards Agile practices.
- Delivered SAP projects using lean-agile methodologies, managing scope, budget, scrum ceremonies, resources, schedule, risk management, and change management, resulting in a 20% increase in project efficiency.
- Designed and implemented SAP programs for Chevron's Materials Management (MM) module, leading system requirements analysis, program design, implementation, and training.
- Managed multiple projects to replace legacy manufacturing technology, including transitioning the change and asset management system to a .NET solution, reducing maintenance costs by 25%.
- Oversaw the replacement of the manufacturing turnaround management system with a Salesforce solution, coordinating with a third-party contractor for successful implementation, improving process efficiency by 30%.
- Implemented projects through effective change management, scheduling, task assignment, and project health monitoring.
- Maintained the integrity and reliability of several applications supporting Chevron's global refinery operations, ensuring 99.9% uptime.
- Led support for Aviation invoicing systems, managing SAP invoice processing and customer delivery through an external portal. Coordinated and managed relationships with over 20 different airlines.
- Planned and executed impact analysis, training, release schedule, and testing for all Aviation applications.
- Coordinated work requests and incident management for four Aviation invoicing applications interfacing with SAP, resolving 98% of incidents within SLA.
- Led the implementation of electronic invoicing for 20+ global Airlines, eliminating paper invoices and manual processing, cutting processing time by over 50%.
- Coordinated the migration of aviation applications to new data centers, completing the project 10% ahead of schedule.
- Acted as a cross-functional compliance coordinator, ensuring 100% adherence to yearly IT compliance standards.
Education
MBA - Business Administration
University of California, Davis - Graduate School of Management
San Ramon, CA03.2019
Bachelor of Science - Management Information Systems
California State University - Chico
Chico, CA05.2013
Skills
- Agile Methodologies (Scrum, SAFe)
- Program Delivery & Strategy
- Cross-functional Team Leadership
- Stakeholder Management
- KPI Tracking
- Technical Architecture Guidance
- OKR Management
- Process Improvement
- Change Management
- Data Driven Analysis
- Organizational Communication
- Vendor Management
- Jira System Administration
- Tools: Jira, Confluence, Smartsheet, MS Project, Google Suite, SharePoint, Power BI, SAP
Certification
- Certified Scrum Master, 2026-02-01
- Atlassian Certified in Managing Jira Projects, 2026-01-03
- SAFe Agilist Certification, 2020-02-01
Timeline
Senior Technical Program Manager
NerdWallet
09.2022 - 08.2024
Technical Program Manager
NerdWallet
07.2021 - 09.2022
Technical Program Manager/Project Manager
Consumer Track, Inc. (now GoBankingRates)
02.2020 - 07.2021
Technical Project Manager
Currency
08.2019 - 02.2020
ERP Org Capability & Agile Lead
Chevron
11.2018 - 07.2019
IT Project Manager & Business Analyst
Chevron
06.2013 - 11.2018
MBA - Business Administration
University of California, Davis - Graduate School of Management
Bachelor of Science - Management Information Systems
California State University - Chico