Santosh Nimal

Dublin, CA *****

972-***-**** ad3nwk@r.postjobfree.com

linkedin.com/in/santosh-nimal-69b59355

Principal Program Manager

Lead Technical Program Manager with a track record of overseeing hardware and software initiatives for new product launches. Led multiple organizational shifts in launching new products and influenced decisions that shape product quality, release management, and the technical roadmap. Proficient in steering cross-functional collaboration to ensure program readiness for impactful product and feature launches. Skilled at addressing process and technical challenges inherent in building products from scratch.

Core Skills

Embedded Systems SOC, ASIC, Sensor Integration Schematics, Routing & Placement SMT & FATP Test Flow Firmware release management Failure Analysis Hardware /Software Experience

Block Inc, Oakland – CA April 2019 – Present

Engineering Program Manager

Directly overseeing initiatives spanning Square's mobile app store, payment terminal, and infrastructure groups, successfully delivering payment solutions to end-users. Accountable for three business units encompassing six subsystems, and coordinating multiple infrastructure teams to integrate hardware and software components of a new ASIC chip and Qualcom SOC.

• Led the development and test effort for two new second generation hardware payment products from a prototype phase to ramp/launch phase resulting in revenue of $10+ million for both 2022 & 2023, surpassing projections.

• Owned a struggling new NPI (new product introduction) program and revamped program management framework by building feature readiness metrics, alignment on schedule across cross- functional teams and a built a dashboard that tracks day to day plan.

• Scaled release management process for multiple products and accelerated frequency of deployments to Beta & GA audience from a monthly cadence to a bi-weekly cadence.

• Built a process for handling factory failure analysis by spearheading a process that involved documenting challenges involved in collaboration, logging process and writing clear bugs before passing it to engineering teams.

• Managed executive program updates with a focus on documenting program developments in clear, easily understandable language for both business and program stakeholders, particularly highlighting technical issues and risks.

• Drove Implementation effort for Android emulator that can run automated tests for PR, Nightly tests on Master and release builds.

• Built new collaborations with developer platform, Android mobile software teams to build a process form scratch for managing the deployment of feature flags across teams. Fitbit, San Francisco – CA April 2016 – March 2019 Sr Engineering Program Manager

Managed a software platform and launch of new wearables and an infrastructure that supports launch of new products. Accountable for Firmware/App store and automation teams that work on integrating MCU, RTOS, Sensors (Hear Rate, Accelerometer) and connectivity chips (WIFI+ BLE).

• Launched the award-winning 2nd generation smartwatch, Fitbit Versa, and achieved a significant milestone by doubling the units sold in its first year compared to the previously launched 1st generation smartwatch, Fitbit Ionic.

• Streamlined the intricate collaboration among Algorithms, Fitbit OS, and App Store teams, optimizing end-to-end integration. Spearheaded the identification of specialized teams dedicated to algorithm processing, API library development for seamless OS integration, and UX enhancement for delivering data output on both the watch and app store platforms.

• Identified opportunity for building platforming scrum teams and pitched to leadership on investing in platform engineering teams that can support launch initiatives for new products, post-ramp qualification and test automation. Platform scrum teams scaled from 5 engineers in the year 2017 to 40 engineers in the year 2018.

• Led the cross-functional bug triage effort across hardware/firmware/software teams and laid out the process from scratch for defining priorities, coached test engineers to capture bug quality and the content in the bug that can help engineers perform faster debugging.

• Improved the acceptance criteria for hardware milestones (EVT, DVT, PVT) and navigating the intricate landscape of product lifecycle phases (Design, Launch, Post-launch, End-of-life). A trailblazer in refining the very essence of progress.

• Championed the pilot process for implementing PagerDuty workflows to handle customer escalations, successfully scaling the tool to become an enterprise-wide solution for incident management.

• Identified an opportunity for building platform scrum teams and pitched to leadership on investing in platform engineering teams that build API libraries, reusable software modules, and automate deployments.

• Optimized collaboration across business units by conducting cross-functional retrospectives, resulting in enhanced management of product and feature releases, streamlined test coverage ownership, and identified opportunities for automation. Netapp, Sunnyvale – CA January 2013 – March 2016

Program Manager/Scrum Master Consulting

Took ownership of product and system architectures for multiple significant projects, ensuring a strategic and cohesive approach to development. Provided decisive technical leadership in resolving complex dependencies and optimizing resource allocation.

• Led the development of compliant, secure, and compute-intensive data services, contributing to the creation of robust and reliable solutions. Strategically managed risks and dependencies associated with the implementation of advanced data services..

• Spearheaded a transformative shift, transitioning engineering teams from traditional waterfall to a two- week sprint model. Resulted in the delivery of smaller software increments, enabling thorough testing and enhancing product manager validation.

American Airlines, Dallas - TX

Business Analyst, CRM Systems March 2011 – December 2013 Led business transformation initiatives to transform Advantage program, migrating mainframe application database to Siebel CRM. Helped document process flows for accrual and redemption of loyalty points.

Prior Role: Sales & Account Management Global Experience Education

MBA IT Graduate 2023 Western Governor’s University (Utah - CA) Bachelor’s in commerce Osmania University (Hyderabad – India)

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