SYED ZAIDI
IT Project Manager & Certified Scrum Master
Chicago,IL
Summary
Certified Scrum Master and IT Project Manager with 10+ years delivering enterprise-scale Agile programs at Fortune 500 organizations across financial services, CPG, and technology. Consistent track record of shipping on time, coaching teams to higher velocity, and translating ambiguous business requirements into structured sprint execution. Hands-on expertise in SAFe, PI planning, roadmap development, change management, and AI-driven process automation. Experienced supporting data-driven initiatives including data pipelines, governance frameworks, and analytics workstreams. Known for bridging business stakeholders and engineering teams and driving measurable cost and revenue impact.
Overview
10
10
years of professional experience
Work History
Scrum Master / Project Manager
Kraft Heinz Company
Chicago, IL
09.2023 - 06.2025
- Led end-to-end Agile delivery for a global AI and automation initiative modernizing HR operations across Kraft Heinz worldwide - on time and within scope.
- Architected an AI-powered document assistant with intelligent routing logic that auto-delivers region-specific HR forms, saving $500K annually in administrative overhead.
- Managed cross-functional teams, external consulting partners, and senior stakeholders; maintained strategic alignment across program milestones and executive reporting.
- Facilitated all Scrum ceremonies - sprint planning, daily stand-ups, backlog refinement, sprint reviews, and retrospectives - sustaining team velocity through the full project lifecycle.
- Collaborated with data and analytics teams to track program KPIs and HR utilization metrics; translated pipeline outputs and reporting dashboards into actionable insights for senior leadership, enabling data-driven decisions on adoption and rollout strategy.
Scrum Master / Project Manager
Kraft Heinz Company
Chicago, IL
09.2023 - 06.2025
- Served as Scrum Master for 2 Agile teams delivering a ServiceNow-based intranet replacing legacy employee-facing systems for tools, documents, and internal communications.
- Facilitated all Agile ceremonies and owned PI planning activities - building and maintaining the program roadmap, sequencing features across sprints, and managing cross-team dependencies.
- Led change management for features in the pipeline: created stakeholder communication plans, managed resistance, and ensured adoption milestones were met ahead of each release.
- Scheduled and led vendor and SME consultation sessions to gather requirements, clarify technical constraints, and validate solution design at key delivery checkpoints.
- Built Confluence-based onboarding wiki reducing new hire ramp-up time by 30%; designed custom ServiceNow dashboards for real-time incident tracking and resolution metrics.
- Initiated discovery and early planning for an AI-powered HR chatbot - defined scope, aligned stakeholders, and delivered a prioritized backlog ready for sprint 1.
- Partnered with product and marketing stakeholders to define audience segmentation requirements and personalization features within the intranet platform, strengthening employee engagement and improving content targeting to drive higher adoption and retention across 10,000+ users globally.
Agile Delivery Lead (Scrum Master)
Capital One
Chicago, IL
09.2021 - 05.2023
- Served as Scrum Master and ADL for 3 concurrent Scrum teams in a high-stakes financial services environment; owned ceremonies, impediment removal, and team health.
- Led delivery of a major product launch that generated $30M+ in revenue in 2022 - achieved through disciplined sprint execution, proactive dependency management, and tight stakeholder alignment.
- Drove 25%+ velocity improvement across all 3 teams through capacity modeling, story sizing calibration, and targeted Agile coaching at the individual and team level.
- Developed quarterly and annual product roadmaps with engineering leads and product owners; used burndown, velocity trend, and cycle time data to continuously optimize delivery cadence.
- Leveraged Jira Align for cross-ART feature tracking, epic-to-story traceability, and program-level dependency visibility across the portfolio.
- Coordinating with data engineering teams on pipeline delivery timelines, governance checkpoints, and data quality standards.
Scrum Master / Project Manager
PayNet / Equifax
Skokie, IL
05.2018 - 09.2021
- Scrum Master for 2 cross-functional product teams in a regulated financial data environment; coached teams on Scrum values, continuous improvement, and accountable self-organization.
- Collaborated with executive leadership, product owners, and marketing to translate customer feedback and market signals into a prioritized, sprint-ready product backlog.
- Delivered product features contributing to $4.3M in recognized revenue in 2019.
- Championed CI/CD pipeline adoption, reducing release risk and improving deployment frequency; provided 1-on-1 Agile coaching to new team members, cutting onboarding time significantly.
Scrum Master / Project Manager
SP Plus
Chicago, IL
01.2015 - 03.2018
- Built and matured the Scrum practice from scratch for a 5-person development team building DataPark, an internal revenue and usage tracking platform.
- Owned all ceremonies - sprint planning, daily scrums, reviews, and retrospectives - while managing the product backlog in partnership with the product owner.
- Tracked and reported sprint velocity in Microsoft VSTS; recognized by management with a formal award for measurable and sustained velocity improvements.
Education
Certified Scrum Master - undefined
Scrum Alliance
Skills
- Scrum
- Kanban
- SAFe
- PI Planning
- ART Facilitation
- CI/CD
- Lean
- Jira
- Jira Align
- Azure DevOps
- ServiceNow
- Mondaycom
- Microsoft Project
- Confluence
- Miro
- Figma
- Canva
- Microsoft Dynamics 365
- Workday
- Power BI
- Excel
- ServiceNow Dashboards
- HR Technology
- Financial Services
- Retail / CPG
- AI & Automation
- Enterprise Software
Certification
Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Scrum Alliance
Timeline
Scrum Master / Project Manager
Kraft Heinz Company
09.2023 - 06.2025
Scrum Master / Project Manager
Kraft Heinz Company
09.2023 - 06.2025
Agile Delivery Lead (Scrum Master)
Capital One
09.2021 - 05.2023
Scrum Master / Project Manager
PayNet / Equifax
05.2018 - 09.2021
Scrum Master / Project Manager
SP Plus
01.2015 - 03.2018
Certified Scrum Master - undefined
Scrum Alliance