Leonora Cutaj
Macomb,Michigan
Summary
Senior IT Project Manager with over 10 years of comprehensive experience in leading complex initiatives within dynamic, fast-paced environments. Proven ability to effectively manage AWS cloud migration, Salesforce, and CPQ implementations, while successfully delivering projects with multiple workstreams within tight timelines. Demonstrated expertise in Oracle systems and managing highly customer-centric projects, focusing on aligning business goals with technology solutions to drive process improvements, competitive advantage, and bottom-line gains. Skilled in analyzing and translating functional business requirements from stakeholders into detailed tasks for design and development teams. Experienced in managing technical programs with globally distributed remote teams in the domains of Software-as-a-Service and Cloud computing. Proficient in implementing projects using agile, waterfall, and hybrid methodologies, ensuring adaptability to evolving project needs and maximizing efficiency. Adept at working collaboratively in remote team environments, interfacing with internal and external stakeholders, and leveraging strong communication skills to effectively convey technical, business, and financial concepts to diverse audiences. Known for maintaining organized, clean, and safe work areas with meticulous attention to detail, while effectively managing time and resources to meet project objectives.
Overview
10
10
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Senior Project Manager
Experian
09.2020 - Current
- Directed extensive and intricated projects that involved collaboration with various divisions both domestically and internationally
- Managed multiple teams and facilitated integration with activities beyond the team's scope, ensuring effective problem resolution and overcoming roadblocks
- Actively planned and managed large-scale Waterfall and Agile projects holistically around scheduled program increments and milestones, scope, cost, resource health and risks while collaborating with stakeholders in key meetings resulting in successful project delivery
- I have implemented 10 projects for our FinOps (Financial Operations) team
- These applications that I have implemented for FinOps had as a scope automating the billing, invoicing, payment, reconciliation, and collection processes for our Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable teams
- Worked closely with the Business to understand and manage their requirements, as well as worked with Oracle and third-party vendors to ensure delivery
- Evaluated status updates including milestones, risks, issues, delivery dates, RAG status, and interdependencies based upon Systems Development Life Cycle for both agile and waterfall methodologies to ensure suitability and cohesion
- Coordinated physical migration of software and programs between local environments and Cloud platform
- Led and contributed to vendor selection and procurement activities under program manager guidance while identifying, producing and fulfilling resource and go-live operational plans to ensure project success
- Prepared key documents, presented business cases and produced other reports as needed while collaborating with stakeholders to bring projects through project funding conversations and initiation ceremonies
- Enforced PMO documentation standards while deepening cross-departmental relationships
- Built and maintained project artifacts such as project plans, documentation, communication templates, etc., with excellent attention to detail
- Anticipated risks and challenges related to assigned initiatives and kept Project Sponsors, Project Leads, and the IT Leadership informed of these risks and challenges
- Kept both technical and non-technical stakeholders updated regularly on project progress and any critical changes
- Regular meetings and written reports are methods I often use
- This keeps everyone on the same page and makes the non-technical stakeholders feel involved in the technical aspects of the project
- Ensured all changes to scope follow processes outlined in the Change Management Plan and are documented
- Created, reviewed, and obtained approval of the Communication Plan and Deliverables Matrix to ensure effective communication with all stakeholders and management
- Developed a detailed project charter to serve as a critical communication tool for key stakeholder buy in and set expectations
- Led a large team in acquiring structured and unstructured data from internal and external sources, consolidating Data Platforms, and certifying data assets utilizing cutting-edge technologies
- Acted as a liaison between business stakeholders, Data & Analytics teams, and other IT units, facilitating effective communication and negotiation
- Developed and executed Data Strategy, including building business cases and ROI analysis
- Implemented quality control processes and conducted quality reviews
- Maintained and managed a Project Budget Tracker/Burn Sheet to ensure the allocated budget is not exceeded
- Prioritized and tracked the progress of the Enterprise Technology team’s OKRs
- Created and managed project work Monday.com, Confluence,JIRA and MS project
- Worked across technology and business teams in the execution of roadmaps and initiatives enabling the scaling and transformation of company business processes
- Supported Technology leadership in the prioritization and resource planning processes, so that inputs are collected from all players and stakeholders
- Evolved the Agile delivery model for delivery teams to ensure consistency in the execution and consolidation of reporting metrics
- Created and updated documentation in Confluence/Monday (project charters, meeting notes, status updates, product requirements etc.) Led the implementation of ServiceNow's Project Portfolio Management module, including configuration, customization, and integration with other ServiceNow modules and third-party applications
- Collaborated with stakeholders to gather requirements, define project portfolio structures, and establish governance processes within the ServiceNow platform
- Configured ServiceNow PPM workflows, forms, dashboards, and reports to support project intake, prioritization, resource management, and portfolio analysis
- Conducted user acceptance testing (UAT) and provided training to ensure successful adoption of ServiceNow PPM solutions
- Successfully fulfilled the dual role of Project Manager and Scrum Master, demonstrating versatility in managing projects using both traditional and agile methodologies
- Acted as a Scrum Master, leading and facilitating sprint planning, daily stand-up meetings, sprint reviews, and retrospective meetings to drive iterative development and continuous improvement
- Facilitated retrospective meetings to gather feedback from the team, identify process improvements, and implement actionable strategies to enhance team performance and project delivery
- Leveraged Scrum principles and agile practices to enhance team productivity, mitigate risks, and deliver high-quality products within tight timelines and budget constraints
- Utilized agile project management tools such as Jira and Trello to track progress, manage backlogs, and monitor sprint velocity, fostering transparency and accountability across the project team
- Acted as a servant leader, empowering team members to self-organize, make decisions, and continuously improve their processes, contributing to a culture of innovation and agility within the organization
- Analyzed, ran, and reported project performance financial reporting, prioritization, task delegation and partner management along with generating insight on project performance
- Developed and drove an overall project timeline, including tasks, duration, dependencies, and resource assignments while providing weekly status reports including critical project metrics in order to ensure successful delivery
- Managed multiple medium sized projects at a time and single large sized projects while evaluating risks; assessing possible outcomes to determine solution in a timely manner
- Led large – scale projects with budgets ranging from $1 Million - $15 Million and 40 employees
- Collaborated with engineers, QA analysts, product developers, and project managers in a Scrum/Kanban team throughout the data product development cycle
- Managed the seamless migration of software and programs, orchestrating the transition between on-premise environments and Cloud platforms
- Accountable for the profit/loss of portfolios, overseeing business plans, financial management, cost proposal development and submission, scope management, legal compliance, and handling contract invoicing with third-party vendors
- Facilitated, supported, and took a leading role in orchestrating the execution of User Acceptance Testing
- Collaborated with Principal Investigators to supervise and manage the technical implementation of a sophisticated enterprise-level web-based software solution
- Facilitated and co-led with customer project manager regular status meetings with the project team, sponsors, and all stakeholders
- Engaged in the development of requirements, specifications, and Statements of Work (SOW) for vendors, contractors, and consultants involved in company projects.
Senior Project Manager
Cigna
03.2018 - 08.2020
- Coordinated the end-to-end process of designing, developing, and implementing intricate and multi-phased Salesforce CRM projects
- This involved establishing the JIRA structure and project boards, leading sprint planning sessions, validating user stories and task assignments in JIRA, conducting product backlog grooming sessions, developing roadmaps with size estimates and release plans, and creating client and team dashboards in JIRA
- Led daily stand-ups, demos, and retrospectives, actively addressing roadblocks, providing data for status reporting, and updating project management documentation, including MS Project Server, risk registers, and more
- Managed medium and large initiatives involving cross-functional teams of developers, programmers, analysts, and network specialists
- Established and maintained RAID logs, driving the resolution of risks and issues
- Led teams across diverse technical, financial, and business disciplines, ensuring a focused approach on business objectives and tracking progress to meet project milestones within designated timelines and budget constraints
- In the context of initiatives for the Claims team, spearheaded projects aimed at automating manual tasks within the claims review process
- This included implementing measures to hide sensitive patient information during the transmission of claim-related documents between departments or teams
- The software developed successfully concealed data fields such as Gender, Race, Ethnicity, age, and address of the patients
- Additionally, managed large-scale integration and migration initiatives involving the transition of programs to new platforms and the consolidation of disparate systems from acquired client companies.
Project Manager
State Farm
06.2016 - 02.2018
- Oversaw a team of IT professionals to successfully manage major technology releases
- Led all aspects of projects, including capacity planning, resource allocation, project documentation, client engagement, and change management
- Enhanced project-wide efficiencies by creating filters and dashboards in Jira to monitor the progress of bugs and enhancement tickets
- Addressed and resolved project risks, roadblocks, and obstacles while securing resources to efficiently complete deliverables
- Devised project plans and engagement activities to prepare for major technology and process changes and new product launches
- Created, executed, and updated procedures to ensure flawless implementation and adoption of new processes
- Defined technical requirements and documented plans for project lifecycle deployment including the scheduling of project deliverables, budgets, and timelines
- Managed all project deployments and job scheduling with oversight for vendor and consultant management
- Used Microsoft Project to plan project initiatives, communicate goals and provide continual updates on progress
- Analyzed, prepared and documented operational procedures and technical guidelines
- Planed, developed and deployed change management initiatives for technical implementation and release.
Business Analyst / Junior PM
Citi Group
01.2014 - 03.2016
- Met with business, end users and other stakeholders to gather requirements and finalize on BRD, FRD and mock-up documents
- Developed short-term goals and long-term strategic plans to improve risk control and mitigation
- Instituted contingency plans, ensuring business continuity through cross-training, documentation and data backups
- Identified process inefficiencies through gap analysis and outlined effective solutions
- Evaluated business requirements, leveraging information to forecast costs for hardware, software and consulting
- Derived conceptual designs from business objectives to deliver software and applications according to specifications for usability, performance and functionality
- Performed competitor bench-marking analysis to identify manufacturing savings opportunities and potential product enhancements
- Conducted interviews with key business users to collect information on business processes and user requirements
- Led cross-functional teams to analyze and understand enterprise-wide operational impacts and opportunities of technology changes.
Education
Bachelor's Degree - Professional Studies in Business Administration
DeVry College of New York
New York, NY05.2013
Skills
- Service Now
- Change Management
- Rally
- SharePoint
- Salesforce
- Quality Center
- Foundation Server
- Visio
- Microsoft Project
- Trello
- Plainview
- Microsoft Dynamics D365
- Confluence
- JIRA
- ALM
- Nessus
- Test Director
- Microsoft Test Manager (MTM)
- Asana
- Cisco ASA
- SAP ERP
- PowerBI
Certification
- PMP Certification, PMI Institute, New York, NY, 12/2020
- SIX SIGMA-YELLOW BELT, 03/2024
- SIX SIGMA-GREEN BELT, 03/2024
- SIX SIGMA-BLACK BELT, 03/2024
Timeline
Senior Project Manager
Experian
09.2020 - Current
Senior Project Manager
Cigna
03.2018 - 08.2020
Project Manager
State Farm
06.2016 - 02.2018
Business Analyst / Junior PM
Citi Group
01.2014 - 03.2016
Bachelor's Degree - Professional Studies in Business Administration
DeVry College of New York