KARI ALVAREZ
815-***-**** **********@*****.*** https://www.linkedin.com/in/kari-alvarez-csm-cspo-kmp-safe SUMMARY
A driven and accomplished product owner/systems analyst with 10+ years of success in Agile methodologies, program management, project planning, product management, reporting, continuous improvement, system administration, and change management. Experienced in leading successful teams and projects, implementing innovative problem solving, coaching, and developing staff, and collaborating cross-functionally. Proven aptitude for providing strategies and solutions to drive efficiency, ensure quality, and achieve exceptional results.
SKILLS
Stakeholder Relationships IT Strategy Product Management Product Vision Road mapping QA Testing People Development Business Intelligence Budget Management Business Process System Administration Technical Solution Design PI Planning SQL Legal Technology Process Improvement Business Development TeraData JIRA JIRA Align JIRA Structure Confluence SSIS/DTS NextGen EMR Data Modeling Salesforce Field Service Lightning CMS Audit Readiness CMS Program/Validation Audit Health Reporting Analytics Medicare Medicaid Healthcare Claims FACETS QNXT AWS Service Now Clarity PPM Agile Methodologies SAFe Frameworks ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Led development of a new software application that provided scalability in data management for CMS reporting, resulting in 30% reduction in total cost of operations and increased technology simplification.
• Improved and streamlined product backlog for work deliverables with team, establishing regular delivery cadence on releases and working at 90% capacity.
• Collaborated with internal and external stakeholders on the transition of 2.2M members from internal systems to external systems.
• Held accountability for coaching twenty teams in Agile processes.
• Led team in the transition of 20 applications to new platform to support migration of Medicare business to new owner.
• Collaborated with multiple business teams to perform the transition and migration of Claims business to new technology. EXPERIENCE
CIGNA, Remote
Systems Analysis / Agile Product Owner Senior Advisor, 2021-2025 Collaborated with internal business and technology product owners / stakeholders to initiate new government business initiatives and support development of program specifications, including product vision and value statement. Provided technology financial requirements and estimates for CMS Universes. Managed and serviced product backlog to maximize value of products created by Scrum teams. Implementing SAFe framework for Compliance Technology team (12 week PIs).
• Led engagement from multiple stakeholders, ensuring prompt and quality deliverables.
• Translated business knowledge into goals, objectives, problems, and opportunities that facilitated the desired outcome.
• Collaborated with stakeholders to define product road maps, maintaining a backlog of prioritized features and ensuring alignment with business objectives and customer needs. CIGNA, Chicago, Illinois
Application Development Senior Manager, 2020-2021
Oversaw team that supported applications for medical records management and provider scheduling. Assisted in transition of IT and business under new area, transitioning and creating plan to migrate and integrate supported applications. Built and executed successful plan for transition.
• Led engagement from multiple stakeholders, ensuring prompt and quality deliverables.
• Bridged the gap between vision and execution by breaking down complex goals into strategic phases.
• Transformed vague business challenges into actionable strategic roadmaps. Kari Alvarez, Page 2
HCSC / BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD, Chicago, Illinois
Senior Manager, Resource Development and Agile Center of Excellence Lead, 2017-2020 Coordinated schedule of resources (employee and contractor) to ensure clarity around priorities and goals to meet business needs. Worked cross-functionally with peers and stakeholders to ensure collaboration for shared goals. Led Agile COE, providing team coaching, enterprise-level coaching, Kanban, and Scrum. Held primary responsibility for management of Agile COE product backlog, managed team of 90 (primarily offshore) Scrum Masters. Interacted with senior management for reporting, strategy development, and execution planning.
• Two Agile coaching clinics opened in Texas and Chicago.
• Participated in OCM workstream to initiate organizational change to embrace Lean / Six Sigma and CI framework.
• Collaborated with executive sponsor to create roadmap, prioritize backlog, and define release plans.
• Collaborated with team to remain focused on overall objective (vision) and release/sprint goals. HCSC / BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD, Chicago, Illinois
Scrum Master II, 2016-2017
Directed four Scrum teams in developing solutions using Agile practices while maintaining accountability for software build activities. Orchestrated Scrum events such as backlog creation / grooming, prioritization, standup meetings, estimation, showcase, and retrospectives. Collaborated with product manager to plan roadmap execution based on estimates and capacity and identified risks to plan. Conducted change management by participating in and leading Scrum adoption practices organization wide.
• Served as Scrum Master for large implementation of new retail application system for two retail services work streams.
• Led team that supported Retail Markets for health insurance.
• Collaborated with team to win Silver Award.
• Recognized with Five Star Silver Award for effort to support teams HCSC / BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD, Chicago, Illinois
Supervisor Application, 2015-2016
Directed multiple development projects / groups and application support functions for retail business segment. Led 13-member team of onshore / offshore developers responsible for collecting and disseminating new enrollment data originating from CMS (Center for Medicaid and Medicare).
• Negotiated and managed all release activities and tracked progress to ensure on-budget and on-time application releases.
• Communicated key project plans, commitments, and changes, including requirements, QA plans, schedule, and scope. ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE
NETSMART TECHNOLOGIES, Lisle, Illinois, Consulting Delivery Manager, 2006-2015. Hired to lead a multi-disciplined team and functioned as a primary customer-facing individual. Navigated challenging customer relationships and escalations to ensure satisfaction. Designed systems and documents and executed large-scale data migrations (3M records). Led the software application development team for the Total Integrated Electronic Record (TIER) throughout several project phases, ensuring execution of translation and development of business requirements with EMR software. Raised accuracy of development 50% by drafting a new technical design document template.
EDUCATION
DEPAUL UNIVERSITY, Chicago, Illinois
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science
CERTIFICATIONS
Certified Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Product Owner, Certified SAFe 6 Product Owner, Certified Paralegal