DOUGLAS M. DEFRANCO
Scrum Master
Sedalia,MO
Summary
Senior Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and Delivery Leader with 12+ years of experience leading Agile transformations and enterprise technology delivery in highly regulated banking, financial services, and healthcare environments. Proven expertise driving predictable execution, AWS cloud migration, enterprise data modernization, and regulatory-compliant delivery. Strong servant leader skilled in Scrum, SAFe, Kanban, enterprise SDLC governance, risk mitigation, and executive stakeholder engagement.
Overview
14
14
years of professional experience
6
6
Certifications
Work History
Senior Delivery Scrum Master
First Citizens Bank
03.2025 - Current
- Lead Agile delivery for cross-functional banking technology teams in a regulated financial services environment.
- Ensure compliance with enterprise SDLC, audit controls, regulatory requirements, and risk governance frameworks.
- Facilitate Sprint Planning, Backlog Refinement, Daily Standups, Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives, and PI Planning events.
- Partner with Product Owners, Architecture, Security, Risk, and Compliance to maintain backlog readiness and delivery alignment.
- Manage cross-team dependencies, identify risks, and remove impediments impacting release timelines.
- Track delivery health using velocity, predictability, burn-up/burn-down, throughput, and capacity planning metrics.
- Improve time-to-market and delivery predictability through data-driven continuous improvement initiatives.
- Coach Scrum Masters and teams to increase Agile maturity and servant leadership capabilities.
Senior Scrum Master | Agile Coach | Senior Project Manager – Enterprise Data & Analytics
Elevance Health
02.2020 - 09.2024
- Led Agile transformation initiatives across multiple enterprise data and analytics teams.
- Directed migration of 500+ financial workloads from on-premise data centers to AWS cloud infrastructure.
- Managed cross-functional teams of 7–20 members delivering enterprise data warehouse and cloud-based EHR solutions.
- Facilitated Scrum ceremonies and SAFe-aligned program events to ensure incremental and predictable delivery.
- Ensured HIPAA compliance and regulatory alignment during healthcare system implementations.
- Reduced delivery risk through structured dependency management and proactive risk mitigation planning.
- Achieved 95% pre-production test case validation, reducing post-release defects.
- Provided executive-level reporting on financial tracking, program risks, and delivery performance indicators.
Senior Scrum Master Advisor | Senior Project Manager | Card & Small Business Technology
Capital One
07.2018 - 02.2020
- Led Agile delivery for underwriting technology teams supporting card and small business platforms.
- Drove MVP delivery through iterative sprint cycles and CI/CD enablement.
- Managed technical dependencies across architecture, engineering, and business stakeholders.
- Improved operational performance using cycle time, velocity, and defect density metrics.
- Increased Agile maturity through coaching and workflow optimization.
Scrum Master II | Senior Project Manager | U.S. Card Technology
Capital One
04.2017 - 07.2018
- Directed two Agile teams delivering enterprise card technology initiatives.
- Facilitated Scrum ceremonies and proactively removed delivery impediments.
- Standardized Agile processes to improve sprint predictability and execution consistency.
Scrum Master I | Project Manager | Global Finance & Retail Bank
Capital One
01.2016 - 04.2017
- Led three Agile teams supporting Finance, Accounting, and IT modernization initiatives.
- Implemented Agile best practices to improve milestone achievement and sprint execution.
- Escalated and resolved cross-functional technical and operational blockers.
Manager | Project Manager | National Direct & Online Banking
Capital One
10.2014 - 01.2016
- Managed 25–30 associates within banking operations.
- Improved operational efficiency through data-driven performance management.
- Developed high-performing team members into senior leadership roles.
Education
Coursework - Not Completed
University of South Florida
Skills
- Agile Methodologies (Scrum, SAFe, Kanban)
- Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
- Release Train Engineer (RTE) Practices
- Program & Project Management
- Enterprise SDLC & Governance
- Agile Transformation
- Cloud Migration (AWS)
- Data Warehousing & Enterprise Analytics
- Healthcare IT & HIPAA Compliance
- Banking & Financial Services Technology
- Jira & Agile Metrics Reporting
- Risk Management & Dependency Management
- PI Planning & Backlog Management
- Lean Process Improvement
- Cross-Functional Team Leadership
- Executive Reporting & Stakeholder Communication
Certification
- Certified Release Train Engineer (SAFe RTE)
- SAFe 6.0 and SAFe 4.5 Certified
- Project Management Professional (PMP), PMI
- Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Scrum Alliance
- ICAgile Certified Professional – Agile Coaching (ICP-ACC)
- ICAgile Certified Professional – Agile Team Facilitation (ICP-ATF)
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (AWS-CCP)
Timeline
Senior Delivery Scrum Master
First Citizens Bank
03.2025 - Current
Senior Scrum Master | Agile Coach | Senior Project Manager – Enterprise Data & Analytics
Elevance Health
02.2020 - 09.2024
Senior Scrum Master Advisor | Senior Project Manager | Card & Small Business Technology
Capital One
07.2018 - 02.2020
Scrum Master II | Senior Project Manager | U.S. Card Technology
Capital One
04.2017 - 07.2018
Scrum Master I | Project Manager | Global Finance & Retail Bank
Capital One
01.2016 - 04.2017
Manager | Project Manager | National Direct & Online Banking
Capital One
10.2014 - 01.2016
Coursework - Not Completed
University of South Florida