LuAnn Burton
Clayton,NC
Summary
Results driven IT professional with extensive experience in delivery, services and support in the private sector, government, and healthcare industries. A proven leader known for driving teams to successful delivery while providing outstanding customer service. Consistently a top performer and leader in infrastructure and application delivery, cloud offerings, change management, data center operations, project and program management and people management.
Overview
18
18
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Complex Project Manager/Technical Program Manager
IBM Corporation
12.2006 - Current
- Project managed development of IBM Cloud Spoke platform, enabling SaaS products to onboard hyperscalers (AWS, IBM Cloud) through common multi-cloud methods and processes
- Managed efforts across technical pillars (service framework, service broker, network, access management, security) to ensure on time delivery for the first customer launch on EU Cloud
- Implemented daily checks with team members, Git issue management, facilitation of weekly checkpoints with leads and managers to track progress and report to uplines
- Led product onboardings to IBM Cloud over IBM Cloud Spoke, overseeing requirements gathering, execution and progress reporting to stakeholders for multiple Watson AI, Automation, and Data projects
- Identified gaps in public cloud onboarding processes/scripts and made recommendations to development team for resolution
- Onboarded SaaS products to AWS Cloud, including Netezza, Planning Analytics, Lakehouse, and Open Pages.
Cloud Pak for Data (CPD) Project Manager
IBM Corporation
12.2006 - Current
- Led service adoption for key Cloud Pak for Data requirements across a portfolio of over 50 products and services
- Managed project resources, release schedules, critical deliverables, and key milestones to ensure successful, on time delivery, while providing executive updates on regular cadence
- Managed development and delivery of key platform deliverables and service adoption to Cloud Pak for Data releases
- Managed Software test-only projects for multi-cloud testing and enablement on Azure, IBM Cloud and AWS
- Supported Quality Improvement by reviewing/triaging software defects and ensuring resolution in a timely manner by promoting them to the proper pipeline and product team
- Collaborated with the Cloud Pak Certification team to streamline certification status on a dashboard, enhancing reporting efficiency.
Program Manager – IBM Cloud MZR Expansion
IBM Corporation
06.2019 - 06.2021
- Managed expansion of IBM cloud into new regions, including Sao Paulo, Toronto, and Osaka, by working across various tribes and organizations by coordinating commitments and expectations across organizations.
- Identified and resolved issues, understood technical dependencies and adjusted plans/priorities to ensure successful deployments
- Interlocked with country executive teams and delivered according to plan/schedule.
- Collaborated with other Program Managers leading Public Cloud priorities to share information and ensure balanced and coordinated efforts across Public Cloud’s key priorities.
- Interlocked with country executive teams to deliver expansions according to plan and schedule, ensuring functionality and expansion for external customers.
Program Manager – IBM Cloud Service Framework Program
IBM Corporation
06.2019 - 06.2021
- Managed IBM Cloud Service Framework Badging program, guiding services in the IBM Cloud Catalog to achieve IBM One Cloud Badge certification.
- Worked across tribes and various organizations to guide services on the badging process and advise on requirements completion, submission, and final approval.
- Prepared tracking reports and provided executive briefings on progress across the IBM Cloud organization.
- Proactively engaged with services to resolve challenges in onboarding in onboarding and badging journey.
- Negotiated among various stakeholders (SMEs, service leads, offering managers, executives) to resolve blockers and drive issues to closure.
- Supported business commitments by engaging with services to deploy Service Framework Currency requirements, ensuring that services maintained security posture, functionality, and minimum compliance.
- Led bi-annual Service Framework updates, working across organizations with content owners to ensure content was aligned with requirements in the publication.
- Facilitated ‘kick-off’ education sessions to share updates with services, managers, and executives.
Program Director, Watson Health
IBM Corporation
01.2018 - 05.2019
- Managed and directed a global team of 48 employees and contractors in the delivery and support of GxP cloud instances for Life Sciences customers, ensuring compliance with customer contracts and GxP SOPs
- Partnered with cross-functional IBM teams (Platform Development, Security, Compliance) to successfully deliver and support GxP Cloud instances for internal and external customers
- Provided organizational planning, career coaching, employee engagement, performance reviews, compensation, recruitment, workforce adjustments, and HR activities as required
- Oversaw vendor and contract management to support program objectives
- Led initiatives in process improvement, error reduction, and documentation enhancements, resulting in a 25% in cloud instance build and delivery time
- Managed $32 million budget
- Achieved a $6 million cost savings by decommissioning unused infrastructure.
Delivery Project Executive, Watson Health
IBM Corporation
12.2016 - 12.2017
- Created, implemented, and managed business processes to streamline delivery of cloud instances for internal and external customers; included scheduling tools, cross-organization communication, up-line reporting to management, as well as dissemination of information to team members
- Provided regular updates to the Life Sciences Cloud (LSC) wiki page, publishing of status charts, and participated in daily executive, team, and cross-organization calls
- Tracked LSC Delivery expenditures for SoftLayer hardware, software, and maintenance for input into IBM Fall Plan
- Negotiated and resolved schedule conflicts for various customer builds, gathering instance requirements and compiling them into actionable work schedules for LSC teams
- Acted as liaison between the LSC Infrastructure team and SoftLayer Technical Account Managers, expediting issue resolution and reducing escalations by streamlining the ordering and delivery processes
- Managed cloud hardware procurement, ensuring a pipeline of infrastructure availability for LSC build teams’ project kick-offs
- Expanded the LSC footprint to multiple new data centers to meet customer hosting requirements.
Complex Project Manager, Software Group
IBM Corporation
03.2013 - 12.2016
- Managed deployment, maintenance, and continuous operations of Watson Delivery Cloud environments for hosting new customers and offerings
- Successfully deployed Watson AI applications for internal and external customers, providing technical information and support to project managers
- Developed and refined repeatable build processes for deployments for each request from end to end.
- Enabled and expanded the Watson Cloud Delivery Infrastructure capacity and provisioning model, including a major capacity expansion for Watson Flexible Cloud Architecture in 2015Partnered with the Security Team to remediate outstanding vulnerabilities.
- Created and documented operational processes, like ‘Server Commission and Decommission’, contributing to IBM’s achievement of ISO Certification for Watson in 2015.
Program Manager, Analytics & Reporting-Cognos CoC
IBM Corporation
05.2011 - 02.2013
- Led the technical delivery of multiple Business Intelligence Reporting and Analytics projects, ensuring alignment with financial requirements, deliverables project schedules
- Managed project teams in requirements gathering, data analysis, and design, accommodating varying client needs including data warehouse design and legacy data structures
- Developed business intelligence reports & dashboards using Cognos reporting and analytics tools, DataStage for ETL coding, and DB2 for database component
- Managed the Cognos Smart Analytics Cloud pilot, reduced configuration and build time from several weeks to three days, expediting development/hosting environment availability for external customers.
Service Area Manager, GBS AIS Practice
IBM Corporation
04.2011 - 02.2013
- Human Resources manager for fourteen Public Sector employees in Global Business Services, managing HR needs such has career development and promotions, professional growth, performance reviews, compensation, personal business commitments and other HR related items
- Co-led training program for AIS employees, organizing technical training sessions on topics such as normalizing data, db2 database structures, modeling, and others.
Solution Project Manager, GBS AIS Practice
IBM Corporation
04.2008 - 04.2011
- Project managed the Market Alignment Program (MAP) initiative, aimed at driving IBM revenue growth by aligning sales resources with future opportunity through a CIO secure web application; approximately 2000 customers in 50 countries
- Using the Agile Methodology, led the development team of sixteen members including DBA, Data Analysts, ETL Developer, Data Modeler, UI Developers, Architect and an Operations Team
- Ran daily scrums, retrospectives, etc
- Ensured that deliverables were met consistently, accurately, and according to customer satisfaction
- Managed $3.5 million budget, maintaining and reporting on monthly financials, ensuring project completion within a 3% budget target, usually within 1% variance.
Project Manager, GBS Public Sector, AIS Practice
Hyperion Center Of Competency, IBM Corporation
12.2006 - 03.2007
- Provided leadership, planning, and coordination for business analytics and reporting projects in the Hyperion Center of Competency (CoC), supporting internal and external customers
- Authored and maintained Statements of Work, re-defined and documented Hyperion CoC Help Desk playbook and streamlined processes for global support team
- Remediated coverage issues when Service Level Agreements were not being met; implemented a cross-training plan to ensure all support personnel received proper documentation and knowledge transfer to support the Hyperion production environment.
Senior IT Analyst / IT Project Manager
Novo Nordisk Pharmaceutical Industries Inc
04.2006 - 12.2006
- Served as Senior Oracle DBA, overseeing database and application server activities, including installations, upgrades, performance tuning, security, and disaster recovery.
- Acted as an internal IT technical advisor at NNPII, participating in planning, scheduling, and problem resolution.
- Proposed technological and business strategies to meet future business process needs in alignment with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).
Education
B.S., Computer Science with minor in Business -
University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Skills
- Results Driven Leader
- Program & Project Management
- Data Center Management
- Application and Infrastructure Delivery
- People Management
- Budget and Asset Management
- Contract Negotiation
- Vendor Management
- Staffing Service Framework
- Cloud Infrastructure & Cloud Services (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)
- Analytics & Reporting
- Agile Methodology
- Configuration and Change Management
- Security
- Customer Support
- IT Systems Support
- Operations Management
- Software Development
- Quality Assurance
- Federal Regulation & Compliance (HIPAA, GxP, ISO)
Certification
- PMP Certification
- PMI Agile Certified Professional Certification
- Oracle 9i Certified Professional
Awards
- Multiple IBM Service Excellence and Bravo Awards
- RTP Management Excellence Award
- IBM “Women of Watson Health’ Award
- Catalyst for Change Award
- Multiple Blue Points Awards
Timeline
Program Manager – IBM Cloud MZR Expansion
IBM Corporation
06.2019 - 06.2021
Program Manager – IBM Cloud Service Framework Program
IBM Corporation
06.2019 - 06.2021
Program Director, Watson Health
IBM Corporation
01.2018 - 05.2019
Delivery Project Executive, Watson Health
IBM Corporation
12.2016 - 12.2017
Complex Project Manager, Software Group
IBM Corporation
03.2013 - 12.2016
Program Manager, Analytics & Reporting-Cognos CoC
IBM Corporation
05.2011 - 02.2013
Service Area Manager, GBS AIS Practice
IBM Corporation
04.2011 - 02.2013
Solution Project Manager, GBS AIS Practice
IBM Corporation
04.2008 - 04.2011
Complex Project Manager/Technical Program Manager
IBM Corporation
12.2006 - Current
Cloud Pak for Data (CPD) Project Manager
IBM Corporation
12.2006 - Current
Project Manager, GBS Public Sector, AIS Practice
Hyperion Center Of Competency, IBM Corporation
12.2006 - 03.2007
Senior IT Analyst / IT Project Manager
Novo Nordisk Pharmaceutical Industries Inc
04.2006 - 12.2006
B.S., Computer Science with minor in Business -
University of North Carolina at Wilmington