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Sunil Kumar
Buffalo Grove,IL
About Me
Results-driven Agile Delivery and Transformation Leader with extensive experience driving Product and Program Management excellence. Proven track record of leading large scale, business critical initiatives that enhance organizational agility, optimize delivery performance, and accelerate business outcomes. Recognized for strategic leadership, stakeholder engagement, and successful execution of high-impact programs aligned with enterprise objectives.
Overview
14
14
Certification
26
26
years of professional experience
Executive Summary
· Accomplished IT professional with 25 years of experienceacross Banking & Financial Services, Information Technology, Retail, and Telecommunications domains.
· Over 15 years of experience in Agile software delivery, Program Management, and Project Management, successfully leading large-scale, business-critical initiatives using Scrum, Lean, XP, and SAFe frameworks.
· More than 12 years of Agile Coaching and Transformation leadership, driving Agile adoption, Business Agility, Digital Transformation, and enterprise-scale Agile implementations.
· Extensive experience in Program Increment (PI) Planning, Agile Release Management, Program Roadmaps, Dependency Management, Scrum of Scrums (SoS), and executive stakeholder engagement.
· Proven track record of coaching and mentoring leaders, Agile teams, Scrum Masters, and Program Managers to improve organizational effectiveness and delivery outcomes.
· Strong expertise in Agile and DevOps maturity assessments, Continuous Delivery practices, and process optimization to accelerate business value delivery.
· Certified Product Manager (eCornell) with industry-recognized credentials including PMP®, PMI-ACP®, SAFe Program Consultant (SPC), SAFe DevOps Practitioner (SDP), SAFe Agilist, CSM®, AgilityHealth Facilitator, and AgilityHealth DevOps Facilitator.
· Hands-on experience with Agile management tools including Jira, Rally, VersionOne, and RTC, supported by a technical background in Java, JSP, Servlets, and MVC-based application development.
· Recognized as a consistent top performer, receiving multiple awards, including the 2023 Stock Excellence Award (Discover), 2025 Gold Medal (CapitalOne), Service Excellence Award (IBM), and several client and organizational recognition awards.
· Known for strong leadership, stakeholder management, communication, and team-building skills, with a focus on delivering measurable business outcomes and building high-performing teams
Work History
Senior Manager Agile Delivery
Capital One
Riverwoods, USA
02.2024 - Current
- Led delivery of enterprise-critical programs across 6+ Product Areas and 15+ Product Families, including Well Managed, Platform Convergence, Run the Business, Run the Engine, Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act (IFPA), Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), and PCI Compliance initiatives.
- Managed end-to-end execution of strategic programs spanning multiple product and technology teams, ensuring alignment with business objectives and regulatory requirements.
- Drove significant delivery improvements, increasing PI Objective and Release of Value (RoV) achievement from 50% to 90%, Sprint Completion from 60% to 95%, and reducing EPIC cycle time from over 150 days to under 40 days.
- Led Program Increment (PI) Planning and Execution, facilitating objective setting, dependency management, risk mitigation, and value delivery across complex programs.
- Partnered with senior business and technology leaders (SVP/VP level) to evaluate strategic initiatives and support solution and content review processes during intake and planning.
- Established and led a cross-functional technical governance forum to improve milestone tracking, risk management, dependency resolution, and executive escalation.
- Collaborated with PMO, Product, and Delivery teams to optimize end-to-end product lifecycle processes, strengthen accountability, and improve organizational effectiveness.
- Conducted portfolio capacity and roadmap reviews to prioritize high-value initiatives and maximize resource utilization.
- Mentored Agile Program Managers and promoted delivery best practices across the Agile Delivery organization.
- Awarded the 2025 Gold Medal by the VP of Core Products for exceptional leadership and contribution to the successful delivery of critical business initiatives
Senior Product Agility Coach
Discover Financial Services
Riverwoods, USA
04.2021 - 02.2024
- Led a 3-year enterprise Agile Way of Working (AWOW) transformation, transitioning from SAFe to a product-centric operating model emphasizing continuous planning and end-to-end product ownership.
- Partnered with senior business, product, technology, and PMO leaders to drive Product Centricity and organizational transformation across the Payments Business Unit.
- Served as Lead Designer for 6 of 10 AWOW design waves in Payments and 1 in Cards, defining product-aligned organizational structures, Product Areas, Families, and Teams.
- Implemented key product management practices, including Vision & Strategy, OKRs, Product Reviews, and Product Operating Model (POM) capabilities.
- Conducted maturity assessments, developed transformation roadmaps, and coached leaders, Agile Coaches, Program Managers, and Scrum Masters.
- Advanced Agile adoption through contributions to the Agile Center of Excellence (CoE) and Communities of Practice (CoP).
- Recognized as a Top Performer and recipient of the 2023 Stock Excellence Award for driving significant business and organizational impact.
Associate Director
Cognizant Technology Solutions
Chicago, USA
07.2016 - 04.2021
- Served as Agile Coach and Program Manager for Northern Trust’s 4-year Target Digital Architecture (TDA) transformation, modernizing legacy applications into a cloud-native digital platform using Spring Cloud microservices and modern web technologies.
- Led Agile transformation across multiple teams by implementing Scrum, Kanban, and XP, improving delivery effectiveness, collaboration, and organizational agility.
- Facilitated PI Planning, Scrum of Scrums (SoS), roadmap planning, and dependency management to support successful delivery of strategic initiatives.
Partnered with Product Owners, Program Managers, and engineering teams to prioritize backlogs, align delivery with business objectives, and drive platform modernization. - Collaborated with shared services teams to develop reusable microservices, frameworks, and proof-of-concepts leveraging Kafka, ELK, Splunk, APM, and MarkLogic.
- Conducted Agile maturity assessments, established improvement roadmaps, and coached Agile teams, Scrum Masters, and Project Managers.
- Led Agile Communities of Practice (CoP) and promoted best practices, continuous improvement, and knowledge sharing across the organization.
- Managed program governance, release planning, resource management, budgeting, stakeholder communications, and executive reporting.
- Mentored delivery professionals, supported talent acquisition, and contributed to business development and client relationship management.
Senior Manager
Cognizant Technology Solutions
Pune, India
12.2014 - 06.2016
- Led the Next Generation Portal (NGP) transformation program, delivering a unified B2B/B2C digital platform to enhance customer experience, improve CSAT, enable revenue growth (cross-sell/upsell), and reduce operational costs.
- Served as Program Manager, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach, owning end-to-end delivery, governance, financial management, and stakeholder engagement for large-scale enterprise initiatives.
- Directed Agile execution across multiple distributed teams, ensuring predictable delivery through Scrum-based planning, continuous release cycles, and milestone governance.
- Established and scaled Agile ways of working by coaching teams, Scrum Masters, and leaders, significantly improving Agile maturity and delivery discipline.
- Led program governance, including executive reporting, risk and dependency management, escalation handling, and quality assurance across all delivery streams.
- Managed full program lifecycle operations, including resource planning, offshore delivery setup, budgeting, invoicing, SOW approvals, and compliance audits.
- Partnered with senior client leadership to drive business development initiatives, RFP responses, solutioning, and strategic growth opportunities, while ensuring strong delivery governance.
Project Manager
Infosys Limited
Pune, India
04.2014 - 11.2014
- Led end-to-end CI/CD transformation and automation program for 50+ developers, eliminating manual build and deployment processes and significantly improving release efficiency and reliability.
- Designed and implemented enterprise build, test (BVT/EVT/FVT), and deployment automation pipelines using TFS, Visual Studio, PowerShell, and Azure, reducing release cycle time and operational effort.
- Directed migration and automation of deployments across on-premise and Azure cloud environments for web, backend, and database platforms.
- Managed large-scale Agile delivery across multiple teams, ensuring predictable execution through Scrum-based planning, governance, and continuous release management.
- Led enterprise program governance, including resource management, financial oversight, portfolio tracking (20+ project codes, 50+ resources), and stakeholder reporting.
- Oversaw Run the Business (RTB) operations for 8 applications, ensuring SLA adherence, zero escalation performance, and stable production support.
- Led Clarity PPM implementation and management, covering demand, resource, financial, and timesheet governance, along with platform upgrades and enhancements.
- Drove Agile transformation, coaching, and organizational enablement, including mentoring Scrum Masters, Agile teams, and conducting enterprise Agile training programs.
Project Manager
IBM
Armonk, New York
02.2004 - 02.2010
- Managed delivery of Global Credit Solution (GCS), an enterprise web-based credit processing platform deployed across 54 countries, standardizing global credit request workflows and improving processing efficiency.
- Led a 24-member distributed team (15 offshore, 9 onsite) delivering end-to-end application development, testing, deployment, and support.
- Applied Agile methodologies (Scrum, DSDM, Lean) to manage requirements validation, design, development, configuration, and enhancements.
- Oversaw full delivery lifecycle including data migration, system integration testing, UAT support, deployment, and production maintenance.
- Facilitated Agile ceremonies including Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-ups, Reviews, and Retrospectives to ensure predictable delivery.
- Managed project governance, including scope definition, SOW/PDD preparation, OPAL process compliance, and control implementation.
- Ensured accurate labor and non-labor billing, resource allocation, and phase-wise project execution across geographies.
- Coordinated transition activities and reporting for application migration to Global Delivery Centers (GDC).
- Delivered structured reporting, including weekly status updates and monthly executive governance reviews (7-key reporting).
- Ensured adherence to quality standards, timely delivery of milestones, and successful project closure activities.
Senior Software Engineer
Larsen & Toubro Infotech
Pune, Maharashtra
01.2001 - 01.2004
- Contributed to the FLOS Re-engineering project (Phase I & II), modernizing a legacy client-server payroll system into a web-based J2EE application using IBM WebSphere and DB2 on S/390 mainframes.
- Developed and enhanced critical payroll modules, including fast data-entry screens for salary components, ensuring functional parity with the legacy system.
- Implemented server-side customizations and supported application deployment activities.
- Designed and developed database-tier logic using stored procedures across multiple payroll modules.
- Performed code reviews, test case design, and test execution to ensure application quality and reliability.
- Supported end-to-end development and production enhancement activities for payroll processing functionality.
Young Software Manager
Techno Campus
Kolkata, West Bengal
09.2000 - 03.2001
- Completed training in core software technologies including C/C++, Java, ASP, HTML, and Oracle databases.
- Received training in foundational management and professional development modules.
Education
B.E. - Power Electronics Engineering
Bapurao Deshmukh College of Engineering
Wardha, Nagpur, India01-2000
H.S.C. -
CBSE Board
Jamshedpur, India01-1995
S.S.C. -
CBSE Board
Jamshedpur, India01-1993
Skills
- Agile Program Management
- SAFe Program Consultant
- Agile Coach
- Scrum Master
- Delivery Manager
- Project Management
- Continuous Development
- Release Management
- Agile Methodologies - SCRUM, XP, Kanban, LEAN, SAFe, Daikibo, Scrum@Scale
- Micro Services
- Cloud Migration - PCF, AWS
- Spring Cloud Micro Services Framework
- Java/J2EE
- Java Frameworks
- CICD and DevOps - Jenkins, Nexus, Bamboo, MS TFS, Sonar Cube, Gradle, RTC, Ant, CVS Github, Maven, Gradle
- Testing tools - XDE Tester, HP Quality Center, DTS, Selenium, SOAPUI, JUnit, Rational Robot
- SDLC tools - Rally, JIRA, VersionOne
- Agile Frameworks
- Problem solving
- Coaching and mentoring
- Team Performance
- Trainer
- DevOps Practitioner
Status
US Citizen
Certification
- Product Management Certification from eCornell
- Certified AWS Practitioner
- AWS AI Practitioner
- SAFe 5.0 Program Consultant (SPC)
- SAFe 5.0 DevOps Practitioner (SDP)
- SAFe Enablement on Leading SAFe
- SAFe for Teams
- SAFe Scrum Master
- SAFe DevOps
- PMI-Project Management Professional (PMP)
- MI-Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP)
- Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
- AgilityHealth Facilitator
- AgilityHealth DevOps Facilitator
Languages
Hindi
Native language
English
Proficient (C2)
C2
Personal Information
- Age: 48
- Gender: Male
- Nationality: United States
- Marital Status: Married
Timeline
Senior Manager Agile Delivery
Capital One
02.2024 - Current
Senior Product Agility Coach
Discover Financial Services
04.2021 - 02.2024
Associate Director
Cognizant Technology Solutions
07.2016 - 04.2021
Senior Manager
Cognizant Technology Solutions
12.2014 - 06.2016
Project Manager
Infosys Limited
04.2014 - 11.2014
Project Manager
IBM
02.2004 - 02.2010
Senior Software Engineer
Larsen & Toubro Infotech
01.2001 - 01.2004
Young Software Manager
Techno Campus
09.2000 - 03.2001
B.E. - Power Electronics Engineering
Bapurao Deshmukh College of Engineering
H.S.C. -
CBSE Board
S.S.C. -
CBSE Board