JEFF TERRELL
Austin
Summary
Results driven leader in technical program management, portfolio management, and software operations with 25+ years of experience leading organizations through change. Energized by influencing executive stakeholders and employees to embrace change through growth and scale. Innate ability to align global stakeholders around projects that impact bottom line growth. Promotes Agile methodologies, a continuous improvement mindset, and an iterative approach to delivery. Leads with empathy, a “one team” mindset, and an inclusive communication style.
Overview
29
29
years of professional experience
Work History
Director - Program Management
ZenBusiness
01.2024 - Current
- Optimize the program management team via operational efficiency and cross-functional alignment.
- Champion continuous improvement and agile adoption across all departments to enhance delivery speed and discipline.
- Partner with stakeholders to manage the enterprise portfolio, proactively identifying and resolving program-level impediments.
- Leadership role in the company’s agile transformation, providing strategic guidance with agile consultancy
Career Break
Health and Well-Being
01.2022 - 01.2023
- After 16 years of dedicated service with HomeAway, Vrbo, and Expedia, I prioritized a sabbatical to focus on family time, pursue personal interests, travel, and recharge my batteries. The opportunity helped me rediscover my career passions, explore new horizons, and return to work refreshed and inspired.
Senior Director - Technical Program Management
Expedia Group
01.2014 - 01.2022
- Led the 55- member Delivery Enablers portfolio group, composed of Portfolio Management, Program Management, Platform Engineering, and Operational Excellence teams.
- Company creation and rollout for defining, alignment, and measurement of group-wide OKRs for the quarterly planning process of large cross-functional business critical initiatives.
- Selected as Program Sponsor for two-year Waterfall to Agile Transformation after Expedia’s acquisition of HomeAway. Partnered with an external Agile coach to design strategy and implementation plans. Collaborated with global and functional leaders to drive change in communication and integration.
- Successfully completed the transformation which included a mandatory Agile training rollout to 1000+ employees. Created an AgileX team of TPMs who helped coach employees through transformation and identify themes for continuous improvement.
- Introduced the new Technical Program Manager (TPM) role across the global organization. Led the design, recruiting and scaling of 50+ cross-functional TPMs and presented the new role definition and associated expectations during a global roadshow.
- Nominated as lead Program Manager representative to the Expedia Group’s CTO Council, composed of CTO/President/SVPs of legacy organizations. Created a framework for organizing and delivering the council priorities with 5000+ engineers across Expedia Group. Successfully facilitated “deep dive” presentation topics to the council based on a RFC (request for comment) concept. Hired a Director level employee to manage sharing and learning content across global engineering teams.
- Oversaw Operational Excellence team focused on system reliability, performance, QA, and continuous improvement through SLAs, SLOs, SLIs, Root Cause Analysis, and Post Incident Reviews.
- Managed the prioritization of platform enhancements for accelerating value delivery to customer facing teams.
- Enabling teams to be more efficient, effective, collaborative, and confident.
Director and Senior Manager, Program Management
HomeAway
01.2009 - 01.2014
- Led HomeAway’s annual product planning process, partnering with global leads in the North America, EMEA, and APAC markets to manage project prioritization and manage product roadmaps.
- Facilitated strategic initiatives and individual custom efforts with global and regional business leaders using a Waterfall methodology. Involved traveling worldwide to gather unique requirements, collaborate with disparate parties, and create a final roadmap with milestones and capacity planning for all stakeholders. Implemented continuous annual improvement process.
- Created a Program Management Community of Practice establishing best practices across the organization.
- Established original program management team, hiring, coaching, and developing 11 employees.
- Implemented recurring customer feedback cycle with the goal of continuously improving value delivery.
Program and Product Manager
HomeAway
01.2006 - 01.2009
- Recruited as HomeAway’s first technical program manager overseeing the search service application and external client integration system features.
- Engaged with leadership and cross-functional stakeholders to prioritize backlog and roadmap delivery.
- Served as Scrum Master facilitating planning, daily standup meetings, sprint retrospectives for engineering teams.
Principal Project Manager
Oracle Retail
01.2005 - 01.2006
- Managed retail point-of-sale (POS) product implementations for Oracle’s clients, including Lowe’s and HobbyLobby. Oversaw project teams of software engineers and functional analysts.
- Developed resource strategies, budgets, tools, and custom support necessary for cost effective deployment.
- Aligned Oracle functional leaders, client contacts, and third party vendors to ensure successful implementations.
Technical Project Manager
Wells Fargo
01.2002 - 01.2005
- Managed full life cycle development projects for internal employee systems.
- Drove quarterly development & release cycle for internal user platform, including design, development, testing and production support activities.
- Served as the main point of contact with the business, leading the communication around issue management, escalation and resolution, system impact analyses, and development status.
- Designed and implemented an internal workflow system for the customer service department.
Project Manager
Viant
01.1997 - 01.2001
- Recruited as a full life cycle application developer using Java and Microsoft technologies. Quickly moved into functional analyst and finally Project Manager roles, serving as the liaison between the client and Viant’s creative and development teams.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Business Administration - Management Information Systems
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, CA01.1997
Skills
- 16-year track record of promotion at Expedia Group, Vrbo, and HomeAway driving global transformation initiatives
- Selected by HomeAway’s CTO as Program Sponsor for Expedia’s two-year Waterfall to Agile transformation
- Introduced the first formal TPM role at HomeAway and scaled the team to 50 hires across all functions
- Exceptional relationship building skills with a track record of cultivating strong working relationships with leadership, stakeholders and teams
- Technical Program Management - Product & Engineering Operations - Team Leadership - Business Transformation
- Product & Engineering Operations - Agile Software Delivery - Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) - Strategic Roadmap Planning
- Global Project Prioritization - Change Management - Agile Transformation - Growth Strategy - Portfolio Management
- Decision Making - Operations management - Team and people management - Strategic planning
Timeline
Director - Program Management
ZenBusiness
01.2024 - Current
Career Break
Health and Well-Being
01.2022 - 01.2023
Senior Director - Technical Program Management
Expedia Group
01.2014 - 01.2022
Director and Senior Manager, Program Management
HomeAway
01.2009 - 01.2014
Program and Product Manager
HomeAway
01.2006 - 01.2009
Principal Project Manager
Oracle Retail
01.2005 - 01.2006
Technical Project Manager
Wells Fargo
01.2002 - 01.2005
Project Manager
Viant
01.1997 - 01.2001
Bachelor of Science - Business Administration - Management Information Systems
California Polytechnic State University