Scrum Master Project Manager

SANI SHRESTHA

*********@*****.*** Raleigh, NC 412-***-****

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

• Results-driven Project Manager and Certified Scrum Master with 6+ years of experience steering transformative IT initiatives in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.

• Adept at implementing Agile frameworks—including SAFe, Scrum, and Kanban—to drive cross-functional collaboration, optimize workflows, and deliver scalable solutions that align IT with clinical operations.

• Passionate about leveraging and streamline pharma and healthcare processes.

• Accomplished in orchestrating Agile Release Train ceremonies, such as PI Planning, System Demos, and Inspect & Adapt workshops, while expertly removing delivery impediments by aligning stakeholders, resolving dependencies, and ensuring open channels of communication across business and IT teams.

• Proven track record leading Scrum, Kanban, and hybrid teams in regulated environments handling sensitive PHI data, underpinned by deep expertise in healthcare data structures (EHR, claims, eligibility, formulary, and patient engagement analytics).

• Passionate about coaching Product Owners, Release Train Engineers, and stakeholders on effective backlog refinement, user story slicing, prioritization, and establishing clear Definitions of Ready/Done.

• A champion of Agile maturity, I drive incremental process improvements using tools such as JIRA, Azure DevOps, and SAFe Agile Health Radar, and employ metrics-driven coaching—leveraging velocity trends, cumulative flow diagrams, and defect leakage dashboards—to foster a culture of continuous improvement, psychological safety, and shared accountability.

• My strong facilitation and interpersonal communication skills enable seamless collaboration with program managers, compliance, security, and BI teams to ensure regulatory adherence and business value alignment.

Education:

• Master of Information systems La Roche University PA

• Bachelor of Information technology Minor Business Management La Roche University PA

Certification:

• Certified SAFe Scrum Master (SSM)

Technical Skills:

• Agile Frameworks: SAFe 6.0, Scrum, Kanban, Lean

• Agile Tools: Jira, Azure DevOps, Confluence, Miro

• Data & Analytics Platforms: Power BI, Snowflake, Azure Synapse, SQL Server, Informatica

• Project & Collaboration Tools: MS Project, SharePoint, MS Teams, Slack, Zoom

• Healthcare Standards: HIPAA, HEDIS, NCQA, HL7, 21 CFR Part 11

• Release Planning: PI Planning, Scrum of Scrums, System Demo, Inspect & Adapt

• Agile Metrics: Burnup, Velocity, Cycle Time, Cumulative Flow, Defect Leakage

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

UPMC Health Plan – Pittsburgh, PA Sept 2023 - Present

Senior System Analyst/ Project Manager - UPMC Health Plan/ Enterprise

Led multiple cross- functional Agile teams, within a data, modernization initiatives, transforming enterprise data platforms to enhance clinical decision support, population health analytics, and regulatory reporting. By facilitating Program Increment (PI) Planning events, I aligned 60+ stakeholders across clinical operations, BI, and compliance teams, ensuring strategic execution. I introduced Agile health assessments and velocity tracking, improving sprint delivery consistency by 30%. Additionally, I collaborated with security teams to ensure HIPAA and HITRUST compliance, refining backlogs prioritizing and dependency resolution access teams.

Responsibilities:

• Facilitated the transformation of three Scrum teams into high-performing Agile units through servant leadership and consistent reinforcement of SAFe principles.

• Orchestrated Program Increment (PI) Planning events every quarter, aligning 60+ stakeholders from clinical operations, data engineering, and compliance teams.

• Supported Product Owners in translating clinical requirements into well-defined, INVEST-compliant user stories and prioritized backlogs.

• Coached teams on Agile estimation practices, leading workshops on story slicing and user journey mapping to refine backlog readiness.

• Used Jira to track sprint progress, visualize bottlenecks, and manage team velocity trends, resulting in a 30% improvement in delivery consistency.

• Partnered with the enterprise data governance team to align team deliverables with clinical data dictionaries and integrity standards.

• Drove resolution of cross-team dependencies and facilitated escalation management in ART-level Scrum of Scrums.

• Supported the transition from legacy ETL processes to modern cloud-based data pipelines using Snowflake and Azure Synapse Analytics.

• Facilitated daily standups, sprint planning, sprint reviews, and retrospectives with a focus on transparency, accountability, and continuous feedback.

• Introduced Agile health assessments to measure team performance and psychological safety, iterating on action plans from retrospective feedback.

• Collaborated with security and compliance teams to ensure all deliverables involving PHI adhered to HIPAA and HITRUST controls.

• Coached teams through technical spikes for investigating data modelling strategies and performance tuning of analytics dashboards.

• Created training materials for onboarding new Scrum team members and conducted Agile workshops to foster team collaboration.

• Used metrics such as lead time, story cycle time, and blocked issue analysis to help teams identify improvement areas.

• Worked with leadership to present Agile maturity reports and delivery roadmaps to stakeholders across the health plan.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals – Boston, MA Dec 2021 – Aug 2023

Scrum Master/ Sr Technical Business Analyst - Drug Safety Analytics and Real-World Evidence (RWE) Platform

I directed Agile teams developing a Real- World Evidence (RWE) platform to monitor drug safety outcomes, integrating data from HER systems and claims sources. My leadership in backlog refinement and sprint execution improved analytical throughput by 25%, enabling better post- market surveillance. I partnered with compliance teams to incorporate FDA 21 CFR Part 11 requirements into Agile processes, ensuring regulatory compliance while accelerating delivery timelines. I also optimized Kanban workflows, for data science teams, enhancing efficiency in drug safety analytics.

Responsibilities:

• Directed two Agile teams building integrations between EHR systems, claims data sources, and Vertex’s internal analytics dashboards for drug safety monitoring.

• Facilitated story mapping sessions to align data analysts, clinical experts, and developers on pharmacovigilance use cases.

• Supported adoption of Kanban for RWE data science teams to enable continuous delivery and track analytical throughput.

• Partnered with compliance teams to integrate FDA 21 CFR Part 11 requirements into user stories and DoD/DoR frameworks.

• Conducted backlog refinement sessions weekly to ensure proper prioritization of real-world data ingestion and transformation tasks.

• Improved sprint velocity by 20% over six months by implementing WIP limits and enhanced sprint review rituals.

• Collaborated with QA engineers to define automated data validation scenarios for safety metrics and signals.

• Provided Agile coaching to business analysts and product managers new to SAFe practices, accelerating team maturity.

• Monitored team health using burndown charts, defect density trends, and release readiness dashboards.

• Ensured alignment of product increment goals with broader pharmacovigilance roadmap and data science experimentation cycles.

• Facilitated cross-functional dependency tracking using Azure DevOps delivery boards, ensuring team blockers were escalated and resolved promptly.

• Led Agile workshops to educate internal stakeholders on Agile value delivery, Lean metrics, and release planning.

• Created detailed RACI matrices to clarify roles during quarterly planning and sprint ceremonies.

• Supported technical spikes on API integrations with clinical trial management systems (CTMS) for external data sourcing.

• Helped teams implement Agile risk management practices including risk burndown and dependency heatmaps.

GSK Anthem Inc. – Atlanta, GA Jan 2019 - Nov 2021

Business Analyst/ Scrum Master - Enterprise Data Lake and Predictive Analytics Enablement

Worked with cross-functional Agile teams to develop a centralized enterprise data lake and predictive analytics capabilities, delivering real-time insights from provider, claims, and pharmacy data to drive population health management, enhance care coordination, support value-based care initiatives.

Responsibilities:

• Led daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and retrospectives for two Scrum teams responsible for ingesting and processing critical healthcare data into a secure, cloud-based data lake.

• Partnered with data scientists, product managers, and enterprise architects to align feature development with predictive modelling use cases such as readmission risk scoring and medication adherence analytics.

• Developed and maintained Agile dashboards in Azure DevOps to monitor team velocity, cycle time, and story aging, significantly improving delivery predictability and throughput.

• Streamlined backlog grooming and sprint planning by implementing INVEST-compliant story formatting and comprehensive acceptance criteria, ensuring clarity and alignment across teams.

• Fostered a culture of ongoing improvement by facilitating structured retrospectives, tracking action items to completion, and championing Agile best practices across the organization.

• Collaborated with information security and compliance teams to ensure the proper handling of PII and PHI in strict accordance with HIPAA and Anthem’s data governance standards.

• Coached team members on Agile methodologies and role clarity, effectively supporting their transition from waterfall to Agile processes and enhancing overall team performance.

• Facilitated dependency mapping sessions with external teams, aligning on key integration points for EHR data ingestion and downstream business intelligence dashboards.

• Managed project risks using proactive risk burndown techniques and prioritized regulatory and compliance-driven deliverables. Co-led quarterly PI Planning events, integrating business goals and delivery timelines within the ART framework.

• Directed sprint reviews that showcased progress in predictive analytics APIs and Tableau-integrated dashboards, while presenting regular delivery updates, risks, and impediments to program stakeholders.

• Mentored teams on adopting Kanban practices for ad-hoc and support tasks, successfully reducing unplanned work disruptions by 35%.

• Created and maintained a comprehensive team playbook that outlined working agreements, ceremony schedules, Definitions of Ready/Done, and core Agile values.

• Proficient in story mapping, planning poker, retrospective workshops, and dependency mapping to drive team alignment and deliver measurable results.

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