Program / Project Director

[COMBAT VETERAN: SERGEANT, US ARMY AIRBORNE RANGER (Special Operations) ’92-‘98]

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-aaron-bryant-phd-706b147

Experienced in leadership, management, interpersonal communication; High performance in staff management, gap analysis and process management.

Background includes the successful performance of managing/leading large, complex programs & projects related to hardware/software that have a direct and visible impact on stakeholders.

Expert in facilitation / collaborating with various development, international and cross-functional teams to scope, design/architect multi-tiered highly scalable and enterprise applications and systems in a large-scale, complex distributed environment.

CERTIFIED / SPECIALIZED TRAINING & SKILLS

EA Zachman Framework 3.0 / MITA / CEAF / TOGAF

Six Sigma: (Black Belt) / DMAIC / TQM

Business Process Management (BPM)

Automated Bus & DB Mgmt Systems

Project Mgmt Professional (PMP)

Info Tech Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v.3

Epic – Billing

IT Project Management

Interpersonal Communication

Kanban/Waterfall/Agile/Scrum Methods (Master Level)

Financial Analysis for Managers

Labor Relations & Grievance

Management: Theory, Practice & Application

Service Oriented Arch (SOA) / Id Access Mgmt

IAAS / SAAS / PAAS (cloud) capabilities

FEMA – Floodplain Mgmt Certification

Business Analysis

Compatibility Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)

Enterprise Risk Management

Mixed/Quantitative/Qualitative - Statistical Reasoning

Microsoft Suite: Visio, Word, PP, Project Mgmt ‘10…etc.

SUMMARY

Excellent communicator (to all levels) as an executive or SME; has the ability to build, coach and lead a team, strong collaboration style to ensure services quality and engagement with other IT teams;

Expert in business process/gap analysis/policy development;

Very solid functional w/ technical understanding; Passion for seeking and learning new technologies and can lead or participate in varied projects and teams;

Demonstrated experience collaborating on design, implementing and troubleshooting technologies including networking, mobile, platforms, cloud or hosted services and data centers;

Excellent in internal team building / mentoring / guidance / training and advisory capabilities;

Strong 3rd party / vendor management;

Capable of developing, interpreting policies, define and implementing procedures and controls supporting policies;

Able to analyze, recommend and drive process and program improvements across the operational environments;

HIGHLIGHTS

Two-time Employee of the Year for achievements and performance in improving IT frameworks and client interfacing performances;

17+ years of management & leadership – Solution ROI, budget management, strength management, executive interaction, hardware/software licensing, procurement management, etc.

Knowledge and experience in IT business operations, client-facing business development, engagement delivery, management and leadership;

Strong data analytics and design for competitive analysis (current university professor of statistics);

Strength and performance in IT strategy, service delivery and operations, IdAM, third party mgmt (e.g. vendors), data mgmt, application mgmt, enterprise security risk mgmt;

Authored multiple articles regarding technology practices: Enterprise Architecture (TechWire Magazine - June 2013); Improving Project Management for Agile Practitioners (Apollo Group Magazine - Dec 2011); You, Technology and the User: The New PM Triangle – Jan 2012);

Advanced in areas of:

Gap Analysis Release Management

Governance of managed services IS Security Continuous Monitoring

Information Systems of PMI methodologies Team Leadership/Building

Project & Software Lifecycle Development Methodologies IS Needs Assessment & Planning

Program Management Cost Containment Budget Mgmt

Productivity Enhancements Disaster Recovery Planning

Multi-site (& International) Team Management Vendor & Procurement Management

Security Lifecycle/Compliance & Contingency Mgmt Presentation / Executive Delivery

Executive Leadership & Management Business Process Improvement/Management

EXPERIENCE

International Game Technology (IGT) Aug 2015 - Present

Sr. Technical Program Manager (Engineering)

Successfully leading international global programs, multiple product lines that impact multiple global data centers;

Managing multiple platform initiatives consist of: Remote Game Server (RGS), Casino Game Analytics (CGA), Jackpot Server(JPS), mProxy (mobile Platform) along with possible game (online/mobile) updates;

Indirect management of managers, engineers, SMEs, developers…etc.

Experience in reviewing technical solution design and evaluation to ensure it meets business requirements and long term product goals;

Responsible of interfacing the most efficient and current software licenses and practices to ensure the maximum capabilities;

Management of product development teams (local and international) and act as an change agent to introduce and expand the use of the practices throughout the organization (i.e. business efficiency);

Domain expertise in end-to-end management and support of large scale product development efforts; overseeing multiple products/work streams in various stages of product lifecycle; tracking, alignment and staging of work around numerous dependencies;

High degree of business acumen and technical competency; ability to balance and bridge technology and business needs;

Ability to lead through organizational change and ambiguity; Strong business analytical skills to develop technical and functional requirements, use cases, user story maps and other related artifacts;

Facilitate and coach scrum ceremonies such as integration, release planning, retrospectives and demos;

Facilitate decision making and conflict resolution and shield team from external influences;

Works closely with cross-functional teams to manage resource pools comprised of multiple departments;

Assist with internal and external communication, improving transparency, and radiating information, which includes agile planning and tracking metrics;

Drive status meetings, capture minutes, report weekly status progress;

System Administrator for software tools: JIRA, Microsoft Project, Confluence, etc.);

Interact regularly with key management stakeholders to discuss status updates;

ADVOCO SERVICES, INC. (IT Consulting Firm) Sept 2011 – Aug 2015

Director – Global Solutions (Tech & Products)

[Daily Tasks]

Management of annual $22.7M equipment budget (licensing & brokering products)

Management and forecast of $8.1M IT staffing budget

Recruit / Hire / Train / Evaluate / Mentor / Terminate staff & subject matter experts (SMEs)

Maintain collaboration + consistent interaction w/ Business, Sales, Procurement & 3rd party technical partners / clientele

Maintain constant review & reporting of all pending products & projects

Responsible for projects and application lifecycle & integration techniques and releases

Available to perform ‘hands on’ duties for any client and/or task(s) requirement when applicable

Responsible for multiple ($500k - $73M) complex PROJECTS (e.g. ERPs, financial services, e-commerce, gaming, GIS, data centers, IdAM, data warehouse (EDW)/conversion, ICD-9 (e.g. HIPPA compliance), BI (e.g. ETL, OLAP…), gap analysis, DBA platforms (e.g. SQL, Oracle, PHP, etc etc.); PRODUCTS (e.g. Microsoft, Windows, Linux, Oracle, SAP, Peoplsoft, Unix…software customization, IGT, JDE, mobile security, statistical/predictive analytics tools (e.g. Stata, R,…etc.); TEAMS (e.g. agile, software, release, risk, change management,…etc.) to support clients, customers, business users and/or partners; ongoing implementations / system and/or data integration / analytics; Assure proper planning, governance, engineering, documentation, installation and testing of various projects using best practice methodologies;

Direct management of senior level managers across the company to ensure productivity + development;

Responsible for product development and the deployment of SaaS solutions relating to client and B2Bs;

Responsible for strategic planning, budget forecasting, licensing requirements, procurement/contracting agreements;

Developed organizational tracking / statistical data (metrics) / strategic development of goals and project tracking and assessment;

Maintain expertise in all aspects lifecycle management in order to manage the staff who analyze, assist PMOs and business in design, support inbound interfaces, validate business requirements, implement, and provide ongoing maintenance for hardware/software applications and system functionality;

State of California Franchise Tax Board – Sacramento Sept 2010 - Sept 2011

Technology Services Div / Enterprise Architecture Council

Role: Program Director / Classification: Data Solutions Architect

Drives organizational change through high-impact enterprise strategies and practices:

Improves enterprise IT strategies and practices for client engagement, project methodology, architectural governance, enterprise documentation, infrastructure migration, development team evolution, and IT support.

Aligns IT with business strategies through agile methodologies that leverage business and technical architectures, information workflow, use case analysis, and risk assessment to verify fitness-for-purpose.

Stabilizes ad hoc support operations by clearly defining the boundaries and responsibilities of project and operational teams, while progressively injecting fitness checks earlier into the project lifecycle.

Leads the turnaround of failed and blocked projects through progressive management techniques:

Facilitates realistic project planning based upon time-boxed delivery of incremental functionality, centered on use cases, prioritized by business criticality, and driven by technical and organizational risk.

Revitalizes software engineering teams through the introduction of agile best practices, including team programming, test-driven development (JUnit), repeatable build), standardized environments, automated integration (CruiseControl), team testing, and continuous customer collaboration.

(Daily Tasks)

Provided enterprise infrastructure guidance to staff, directors and executive concerning long-term strategic IT initiatives, providing best possible service and support state-wide regarding our financial systems;

Responsible for the tasks, performance and documentation from multiple engineers, DBAs, telecommunication, security, software developers, procurement, etc.

Created Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), policies, and implemented new technologies with Operation Level Agreements (OLA) and detail-oriented Service Level Agreements (SLA);

Established and maintained cross-business relationships and provided critical communication to key leaders and stakeholders for IT infrastructure projects via presentations and management of SharePoint software;

Coordinated multiple project releases, road map & implementations (e.g. VMware requirements, IdAM, virtualization of desktops, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) products; utilizing tools from CISCO, MICROSOFT, ORACLE...etc.;

Planned extensive subset of technologies and infrastructures: SAN/LAN/WAN, Internet Protocol Networking, Sys Admin, DB Admin, Server Virtualization, Disaster Recovery, Backup and Recovery, VoIP & Enterprise Network Systems, Data Center Mgmt, Total Quality Management (TQM) and ITIL methodologies - to include the capabilities of z/OS, iSeries, PERL, HTML, UNIX, Windows (& Server), Linux, networks, Image processing, DB2, MS SQL, Java/J2EE, Oracle PL/SQL;

Successfully managed multiple project plans to ensure success of multi-level performances that directly impacted a multi-million dollar implementation project w/ four (4) platforms, multiple conversions and an outdated infrastructure;

Responsible for SOWs > Procurement > Solicitation > Selection > Award/Appeal > Vendor management

State of CA - Gold Superior Award Winner (2011)

US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) – Sacramento June 2009 – Sep 2010

Programs/Project Management Division (PPMD) – Civil Works

Project Director (GS 12) - Federal

Responsible to lead and facilitate a legislatively approved $800M project supported by a Congressional sponsor;

Managed the procurement & coordination of multiple multi-million dollar local and national contracts (12 < +), their contractors (30 < +) and budgeting the deliverables to include the internal team members (approx. 41 direct reports); to include partnership and collaboration with the State of CA, Dept of Water Resources and multiple stakeholders;

Developed an extensive project charter, project plan and multiple supporting schedules;

Responsible for the detailed budget accountability of tasks vs. costs of staff and contract delivery costs;

Responsible for reporting an executive presentation to senior staff regarding project delivery on the approved Project Management Plan (PMP);

Performed on-site evaluations and maintained consistent accountability of vendors to monitor project performance;

Coordinated & facilitated multiple project team meetings to monitor the accountability of the different schedule and obligations.

State of California: DMV – Sacramento June 2007 – May 2009

Information Services Division / Client Server Support Section / e-COTS & DBA

Enterprise Portfolio Manager

Improved enterprise support as solution architect & project manager, drove departmental strategic planning and successful migration of the following:

J2EE enterprise computing strategy and IT Services framework;

Product lines built upon service-oriented enterprise architecture and open source frameworks that are securer, scalable, extensible (component-oriented), interoperable, manageable and serviceable;

Created a common project methodology adopted division-wide (use case centric, risk-driven);

Designed, planned, procured, installed, configured, deployed, tested and managed a modern and flexible SOA platform (Apache, WEbLogic Server / Portal, Hyperion IS/SQR, Oracle, Solaris, Linux).

(Daily Tasks)

Plan, organize and direct the activities of the Data Administration (DA) section responsible for modeling enterprise data for enterprise business applications; ensuring data integrity and maintaining the department’s metadata repository;

Lead employee within the Database Technical (DBAT) team responsible for the administration of the production and test database environments;

Oversees large scale projects with multiple teams that may have little or no direct supervision;

Responsible for the Business Systems Support (BSS) team in providing technical assistance to application developers and end users;

Collaborated with business partners to successfully convert core production environment to new platforms moving the department towards the technological forefront of the industry;

Responsible for creating and managing a highly technical engineering team as a technical lead within a fast-paced, constantly changing environment. Responsible to conceptualize, analyze and explain complex/abstract problems to diverse audiences;

Successfully maintained and managed core production systems that serviced more than 20,000 + users;

Responsible for vendor accountability through Deliverable Accountable Documents (DAD) and Deliverable Expectations Documents (DED) to ensure maximum results of contracted performance;

Innovative Government Solutions, LLC August 2004 - Jun 2007

Chief Information Officer (CIO)

(PPMO Director ’04 – ’05)

Previous Director of PPMO office: 40+ FTE & 200+ contracted and/or ‘corp-to-corp’ staff ;

Responsible for all Portfolio / Project tasks that include vendor relationships, technical support, application development, financial monitoring and disaster recovery planning, etc. Managed operating budget and direct activities of;

Managed an effective data analysis plan / developed complex queries and analytical models based on large volumes of customer and financial data;

Managed professional staff (software developers, line managers, project managers) in delivering solutions;

Managed development to delivery within timelines and quality objectives. Collaborated with senior management to assess requirements and implement processes for continued support. Participated in the development and implementation of strategic annual project plans and delivery;

Managed teams responsible for deploying, operating and supporting a range of business enabling technology (end user computing platforms including mobile technologies);

Managed licensing, products and services for areas of responsibilities, effective in vendor and contract service management;

Lead enterprise IT initiatives; budget track and forecast spend; evaluate new technologies;

Planned and communicated site requirements for scalability, schedules, resources and provide leadership in changes;

EDUCATION

University of Phoenix: Doctorate (PhD), Information Systems in Technology (IS/T)

St. Mary's / Phoenix Univ: Executive-Master of Business Administration (MBA) / Concentration: Tech Management

University of Phoenix: Baccalaureate of Science (BS), Business Management

Sacramento City College: Associates of Arts Degree – Admin of Justice, Police Service

Sacramento City College: Associates of Science Degree – Behavioral Science

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