Muru Bala
Summary
Strategic Data & Technology Executive with 20+ years of experience in leading large-scale data initiatives across diverse sectors including financial services, aviation, healthcare, and telecommunications. Expertise in data governance, quality assurance, and compliance, with proven success in enabling advanced analytics and managing comprehensive data lifecycles. Strong ability to drive strategic outcomes through data-driven innovation and agile methodologies, while effectively collaborating with cross-functional teams and senior stakeholders.
Overview
30
30
years of professional experience
Work History
Chief of Data, Analytics & AI
Frontier Airlines
Denver, CO
04.2024 - Current
- Leading over 40 professionals, including directors and senior managers, reporting directly to CIO/President.
- Achieved $1MM in annual DAI operating cost savings within first 100 days through system consolidation and data pipeline optimization.
- Established AI Center of Excellence to leverage AI for classification, summarization, and sentiment analysis of customer feedback.
- Revamped analytics structures from purely technical to business-centric, achieving near-zero controllable incidents and driving measurable ROI on new data initiatives.
Managing Director, Big Data + Cloud Platforms
Charles Schwab
Lone Tree, CO
08.2018 - 02.2024
- Oversaw organizations of ~80 members, comprising of directors, managers, and architects, reporting directly to the CTO.
- Spearheaded a cloud migration project for data warehouses and critical applications, delivering $10MM in cost savings through strategic tooling, agile methodologies, and stakeholder collaboration.
- Built the Customer Interaction Depot (CID) and Customer Journey Engine, leveraging big-data architectures to enhance personalized customer experiences.
- Collaborated with VPs, SVPs, and C-level executives to influence critical decisions through robust data insights and advanced analytics.
Healthcare Analytics Leader at IBM Watson Health
Virtusa Corporation
Raleigh, NC
06.2016 - 08.2018
- Led the Dynamic Health Insights (DHI) organization of ~100 team members, reporting to the Chief Data Officer.
- Delivered advanced claims and eligibility analytics for 200+ healthcare payer companies, including Fortune 100 clients such as Google, Boeing, and Pepsi.
- Designed predictive modeling solutions for patient risk stratification, cost optimization, and outcomes measurement, complying with HIPAA regulations and data privacy standards.
- Streamlined ETL frameworks and managed large data-lake deployments, ensuring real-time dashboards and rapid analytics for client reporting.
Sr. Director, Product Intelligence, Chief of DAI
Charter Communications
Greenwood Village, CO
08.2015 - 06.2016
- Managed a 70-person team spanning data scientists, engineers, and analysts to deliver enterprise-wide product intelligence.
- Built a big-data Lambda architecture for clickstream analytics, enabling real-time insights on user behavior across web, mobile, and network platforms.
- Optimized telemetry data to improve app reliability, reduce downtime, and guide product feature development.
- Collaborated with the CTO organization, receiving multiple commendations for thought leadership.
Director, Customer Strategy
Western Union
Denver, CO
06.2011 - 08.2015
- Reported to the CMO, leading a 40-person organization focused on customer segmentation, predictive analytics, and data-driven marketing.
- Architected and optimized the global Customer Database (CDB) of ~750MM customers, improving performance and stability.
- Migrated CDB from Oracle to Netezza in ~6 months, enhancing query performance and analytics capability.
- Partnered with cross-functional teams to align data strategy with corporate goals across 200+ countries.
Senior Architect/Enterprise Data Architect
DISH Network
Meridian, CO
10.2004 - 06.2011
- Served as the lead data architect for the Dish Viewer Measurement project, capturing second-by-second user viewing data and feeding it to Google’s AdSense analytics system.
- Engineered various enterprise data solutions for call center operations, product performance, and marketing analytics.
- Collaborated on database optimization, ensuring consistent and high-performing analytics pipelines.
Lead Data Architect, Mass Markets IT
MCI WorldCom
Colorado
05.2000 - 09.2004
- Managed database architecture, development, and administration for residential customer service systems.
- Migrated Transaction Server rules into Oracle databases to enhance real-time rule evaluation and performance.
- Implemented an XML interface for Java-based Contact Management Center (CMC) application using Oracle’s native XML features.
- Provided 24/7 support for all data-related issues, ensuring minimal downtime and rapid incident resolution.
Sr. DBA/Project Leader
Tata Consultancy Services
India
01.1997 - 04.2000
- Led database projects for multiple stock exchange systems (OLTP and data warehouse stacks), enabling cross-exchange trading and settlements.
- Oversaw the architecture, development, and maintenance of mission-critical databases with stringent uptime requirements.
- Provided expertise on query optimization, database tuning, and data integrity.
DBA/Developer
HCL Hewlett Packard Ltd
India
05.1995 - 01.1997
- Contributed to mid-level ERP systems covering payroll, attendance, HR, and purchasing for manufacturing clients.
- Developed UI components and optimized database code for high-volume transaction environments.
Education
Predictive Analytics and Predictive Modeling -
Northwestern University
Chicago, IL01.2015
Bachelor of Engineering - Electrical and Electronics Engineering
National Institute of Technology (Regional Engineering College)
Trichy, India01.1995
Skills
- Data Management & Governance: Data quality frameworks, metadata classification, privacy, and regulatory compliance (HIPAA/PCI)
- Data Strategy & Architecture: Defining enterprise data strategies, establishing data models, enabling advanced analytics
- Risk Mitigation & Compliance: Proactive data risk identification, lifecycle management, and cross-functional alignment
- Leadership & Execution: Oversight of 40–100 professionals; matrix management; collaboration with C-level executives
- Technical Proficiency: Big data platforms (Spark, Hadoop), cloud solutions (Azure, AWS), SQL, Python, ETL/ELT, CI/CD
- Project & Program Management: Agile methodologies, multi-workstream coordination, KPI tracking, stakeholder communication
- Business Enablement: Translating strategic business needs into data-driven solutions, ensuring measurable ROI
Career Accomplishments
- Saved ~$1MM in annual DAI operating costs for Frontier Airlines in the first 100 days of my leadership through optimization & cleanup
- Built an AI Center of Excellence for Frontier and delivered an Instructional AI architecture for Customer Care DOT complaints' categorization, summarization & sentimentalization
- Revamped the analytics organization from technology focused to business focused and improved time-to-market & quality to near zero controllable incidences
- Saved ~$10MM for Charles Schwab during Cloud data warehouse and applications migration by fast-tracking the project using innovative tools, team setup and project management processes
- Built a large high-performing engaged team of directors, managers & architects at Charles Schwab to ideate & execute the Cloud migration project end-end
- Partnered with VPs, SVPs & C-level executives to present answer-first ideas and solutions and influenced decision making with a broader span of control. Go to guy for anything Cloud
- Architected & built an omni-channel Customer Interaction Depot big-data lake and Journey Engine for Charles Schwab to improve customer experience
- Played a big-data tenant manager liaison role to seamlessly onboard multiple Charles Schwab departments to Big Data Environment and Big Data Hub applications
- Architected Dynamic Health Insights analytics product for IBM and deployed to over 200 healthcare payer companies
- Built a click-stream analytics data lake for Charter Communications using diverse technologies to monitor the health and adoption of their apps & systems
- Managed a ~70 member team of leaders & technocrats to execute the click-stream project and received multiple kudos for thought leadership
- Optimized Western Union's Customer Database (~750MM global customers) in ~3 months from frequent failures to consistently performing analytics asset
- Migrated Western Union's CDB from Oracle to Netezza in ~6 months using complex but slick SQL & ETL coding to improve analytics performance
- Played Enterprise Data Architect and designed and executed database projects touching middleware, customer, order entry, billing, digital, and data warehouse
- Played data engineer role for the Dish Viewer Measurement project from ground up to collect, stage, extract and feed second-by-second viewing information to Google's AdSense analytics system for advanced advertising. This project produced revenue of ~$3M soon after launch
- Database expert for MCI WorldCom covering architecture, development and administration of databases for their residential customer service system. Migrated Transaction Server (rules engine) rules into Oracle database for efficient parsing and evaluation. Engineered XML interface for next-generation Contact Management Center (CMC) application (Java based) using database XML features. I managed both database hardware and software and provided 24/7 support for all data issues
- Database administrator for two stock exchange software systems. First was a Multiple Exchange Trading System (MTS), an OLTP stack for member stock brokers to trade on BSE, NSE and BgSE stock exchanges. Second was Clearing and Settlement System (CSS), a data warehouse stack that enables final settlement to brokers per exchange settlement calendar
- Database developer and project lead for Voucher Level Computerization (VLC), a mid-level ERP system with 14000 function points developed for Accountant General's Office, Mumbai, India and other states to keep track of expenses incurred by treasury departments and compile reports under various payment/receipt heads with drill-down reporting feature
- Developed database code and UI for payroll, attendance recording, HR & purchase systems at HCL Technologies for manufacturing industries in India
Timeline
Chief of Data, Analytics & AI
Frontier Airlines
04.2024 - Current
Managing Director, Big Data + Cloud Platforms
Charles Schwab
08.2018 - 02.2024
Healthcare Analytics Leader at IBM Watson Health
Virtusa Corporation
06.2016 - 08.2018
Sr. Director, Product Intelligence, Chief of DAI
Charter Communications
08.2015 - 06.2016
Director, Customer Strategy
Western Union
06.2011 - 08.2015
Senior Architect/Enterprise Data Architect
DISH Network
10.2004 - 06.2011
Lead Data Architect, Mass Markets IT
MCI WorldCom
05.2000 - 09.2004
Sr. DBA/Project Leader
Tata Consultancy Services
01.1997 - 04.2000
DBA/Developer
HCL Hewlett Packard Ltd
05.1995 - 01.1997
Predictive Analytics and Predictive Modeling -
Northwestern University
Bachelor of Engineering - Electrical and Electronics Engineering
National Institute of Technology (Regional Engineering College)