KAREN MILLER

Denver, IA ***** 563-***-****

adhk7w@r.postjobfree.com linkedin.com/in/karenmiller269/

IT LEADER / PROGRAM MANAGER / LEAD PROJECT MANAGER

Focused, resourceful, and results-driven business and technology professional with exemplary qualifications to manage enterprise-wide Information Technology projects, programs, and initiatives. Self-motivated and eager to contribute diverse talents toward collaborating with a growth-oriented company to deliver technology improvements and to achieve targeted business and development goals. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills used to build productive working relationships with internal/external customers, peers, and all levels of management. Competencies include:

Program/Project Management Agile/Iterative/Waterfall/Scrum Create/Implement Project Methodologies

Budget/Financial Tracking Change Management/Change Advisory Board Leadership/Management

Risk Analysis/Issue Tracking Cross Functional Collaboration Relationship/Team Building

Multi-level Communications Critical & Analytical Thinking Resource Planning

Problem Solving Program/Project Tracking & Reporting Coaching, Mentoring, Leading

EXPERIENCE

TRANSAMERICA, Cedar Rapids, IA (Remote) 2016 – Present

Lead IT Project Manager

AMERICAN COMPUTER SERVICES, INC. Des Moines, IA (Remote)

Sr. Consulting Project Manager

Serve as a lead project manager at Transamerica in Cedar Rapids, IA, project managing a variety of strategic business initiatives ranging from business intelligence projects, tech-to-tech, business acquisition, data migrations, web-based/digital, process improvement, and fund restructure projects. All projects included working with and managing resources in various geographic locations and successfully meeting timelines, budget, quality, and resource commitments. A couple large-scale major projects were transitioned to me to take lead and drive them to success as they were falling behind schedule and over-budget.

Manage project team assembly, determine task to assignments, identify resource requirements, develop, and maintain project schedule, coordinate, and manage all project activities and adhere to project deadlines.

Oversee budget management, risk assessment, issue management, problem resolution, and decision making.

Define and promote formal communication methods, establish open and consistent communication within the team and management. Plan and direct the delivery of information on project schedule, risks, budgets, requirements, design, strategies, issues, actions items, tasks, decisions, and other project activity to project teams and management.

STEFANINI, INC., Davenport, IA 2013 – 2016

Program Manager II

Oversaw the Global Program Management Office (PMO) for the John Deere managed services program, leveraging excellent technical, problem solving, communication, and program management skills. Managed global resources and held responsibilities for technical delivery management, project management, change management, incident control, ITSM tool administration, and knowledge, training, quality, and reporting.

Implemented internal/external change and project management processes to efficiently track change and project activities to ensure that high quality and successful implementations were delivered on-time.

Maintained strong relationships and open communication with client leadership. Regularly communicated program status and key results and facilitated the creation of weekly, monthly, quarterly, and executive business reviews.

Identified opportunities for improvement and realigned the PMO organization resulting in a $60K annual cost savings and a more robust organization allowing for more strategic thought leadership and CSI/BPI initiatives.

Executed continuous service improvement initiatives that resulted in process improvements and efficiencies as well as participated in Achieving Excellence initiatives to help strengthen overall supplier performance rating.

Communicated effectively, coordinated, prioritized, and facilitated to complete projects effectively, and utilized excellent interpersonal skills to collaborate and interact with internal/external customers.

Met with project stakeholders regularly to review plans, analyze business needs, discuss scope of projects, anticipating any potential roadblocks, to determine project performance metrics, and to establish timelines/plans.

Recognized for outstanding performance/results, team collaboration and leadership, and for consistently meeting contractual SLA’s. Improved FTC by 5% and continually exceeded global customer satisfaction (CSAT) goal.

Karen Miller adhk7w@r.postjobfree.com Page Two

HNI CORPORATION, Muscatine, IA 2008 – 2013

Sr. Project Manager / Application Manager

Led the IT Finance and Corporate Services and Business Intelligence application development teams. Performed IT program/project management and relationship management functions, worked with leadership teams to manage IT initiatives, set priorities, and ensured strategic alignment, and major IT projects delivered on-time and on-budget. Managed projects included upgrade to Cognos 10, creation of real-time SLA dashboards, JDEdwards upgrade, upgrade to Microsoft 2010, Kronos upgrade, moved Maxon manufacturing to the Allsteel facility and business & financial systems, and numerous other financial, BI, and infrastructure projects.

implemented a standard Change Management process across IT, as Change Management process owner for Trained IT staff, to ensure smooth adoption and onboarded Managed Services team into the process.

Spearheaded cross-functional initiative to integrate a global managed services support model into the existing IT support model. Maintained ongoing responsibility for relationship for service delivery and program management.

Oversaw total technology project lifecycle from initiation to close including resource, project, and financial planning, execution and delivery, and management of deliverables, staff, resources, and customer feedback.

Developed and implemented a standard Incident Management process including SLA’s across all IT support teams and led the successful implementation of a structured IT project management methodology framework.

Led the implementation of HP Quality Center into the IT organization and the implementation of BI dashboards for the Allsteel and HON leadership teams allowing leaders to track real-time order life-cycle.

Maintained productive relationships and open communication with cross-functional team members throughout the project lifecycle to ensure obtainment of project deliverables, requirements, timelines, and objectives.

Implemented a Project Portfolio Management tool into the IT organization focusing on resource allocation and project prioritization. Created standard work documents and trained IT and Product Development on its use.

U.S. CELLULAR, Bensenville, IL 2005 – 2008

IT Infrastructure Manager

Oversaw execution of IT projects, programs, and initiatives in accordance with established objectives, schedules, and timelines. Coordinated and managed team, resources, and projects to ensure all deadlines and milestones were consistently met. Served as a member of the IT Change Control Board and acted as the point of contact to review all Enterprise Infrastructure Services (EIS) changes. Participated in project meetings for project tracking, analysis, and status reporting as well as coordinated and managed resource allocation to ensure project scope was delivered and timeframes were successfully achieved.

Increased employee satisfaction and morale through effective workload management, creating a positive team environment, providing coaching and feedback, setting objectives, and creating a team vision.

Demonstrated exemplary analytical, business, and critical thinking skills to develop, conduct, and coordinate high level analyses and to complete reports and presentations that facilitated critical project decision-making.

Assisted in implementing a new change management process which improved quality of changes entered into the environment by 65%. Mentored other leaders in the areas of people management/coaching as EIS leader.

Coordinated and managed project schedules and timelines and worked with team members to understand any issues, bringing them to resolution in order to meet project requirements and deadlines.

Conveyed technical issues in understandable terms to a wide range of audiences, served as a trusted liaison and facilitator of solutions, and influenced outcomes and decisions for a variety of project-related matters.

Supported on-going development and facilitated a collaborative and cohesive Information Technology function in cooperation with the entire organization as a value added, service oriented, and forward-thinking contributor.

ADDITIONAL RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

MCLEODUSA, INC., Cedar Rapids, IA

IT Project Manager/Sr. Solutions Mgr/Application Mgr

EDUCATION/TRAINING

Associate of Arts (AAS), Business Administration Management

Strayer University, Herndon, VA

ITILv3 Certified, Program and Project Management, Applications/Software/Systems, IT Management

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