Assistant Product Owner, Business Analyst with 10+ years IT expertise

Meraj Alam

630-***-**** ️ *************@*****.***

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS

Strategic and delivery-focused Product Owner and Senior Business Analyst with over 10 years of experience supporting digital, eCommerce, and DevOps teams across large-scale retail organizations. Skilled at translating complex operational needs into actionable user stories, managing backlogs, and driving cross-functional alignment between product, engineering, QA, and business stakeholders. Adept at production monitoring, CI/CD coordination, defect triage, and agile product delivery, ensuring seamless operations and continuous improvement. Recognized for leadership, clear communication, and the ability to balance urgent incident management with long-term strategic enhancements.

Core Strengths: Agile Product Ownership Backlog Prioritization CI/CD Support eCommerce Operations Incident Management DevOps Collaboration Sprint Planning Release Coordination API Integration Stakeholder Communication Analytics & Monitoring

EXPERIENCE

Walgreens – Senior Business Analyst / Associate Product Manager – Mobile App Product Team

March 2022 – Present

Acted as Product Owner for multiple retail mobile initiatives across Pharmacy, Find Care, Coupons, and Home screen experiences.

Owned backlog creation, grooming, and prioritization in Azure DevOps; ensured epics and user stories reflected business goals and DevOps readiness.

Collaborated with engineering and release teams to support CI/CD deployment pipelines for app builds, feature flags, and backend API integrations.

Led incident triage and production monitoring efforts, tracking KPIs and defects across environments (QA2, SIT, Production).

Partnered with DevOps and QA teams to improve release stability, implement root cause analysis, and coordinate hotfix schedules.

Created detailed acceptance criteria, process maps, and journey documentation for eCommerce and digital coupon capabilities.

Owned analytics dashboards and app performance reporting using Adobe Analytics, Quantum Metric, and Firebase to guide prioritization.

Managed cross-functional communication between Product Managers, Developers, and Business Stakeholders; led weekly backlog grooming, sprint planning, and release readiness sessions.

Coordinated integrations with third-party vendors (PureRED, Kochava, InMoment, BazaarVoice) to enhance digital experience and operational reliability.

Delivered operational improvements in mobile stability, coupon redemption, and feature uptime, contributing to higher NPS and reduced incident recurrence.

Environment: Azure DevOps, JIRA, Figma, Slack, MS Office 365, SQL, Adobe Target, Adobe Analytics, Firebase, Quantum Metric, SharePoint, AppBot, Apple/Google Play Console

Gate39 Media – Business Analyst / QA Lead (Contract)

Dec 2021 – Mar 2022

Supported DevOps and QA pipelines for client-facing web and CRM products.

Translated business requests into stories, test cases, and acceptance criteria in JIRA.

Led sprint ceremonies, backlog grooming, and daily scrums when product owners were unavailable.

Coordinated closely with developers, UX designers, and QA for cross-environment release validation.

Managed defect triage, regression cycles, and QA capacity forecasting for agile delivery.

Introduced improvements in UAT flow and deployment quality by aligning QA checkpoints with DevOps releases.

Shift7 Digital – Business Analyst / QA Manager (Full Time)

Aug 2015 – Sep 2020

Owned and managed product backlogs for eCommerce platform builds (Hybris, Salesforce, Adobe AEM).

Conducted requirement workshops with stakeholders, translating outputs into actionable epics, stories, and technical acceptance criteria.

Supported DevOps pipelines (Bamboo, Jenkins, GitHub) and coordinated across QA, development, and operations to ensure smooth CI/CD handoffs.

Managed offshore QA and DevOps coordination to validate post-deployment performance and production readiness.

Led release planning, triage, and UAT sessions ensuring on-time, quality deliverables.

Partnered with business and technical leads to balance defect remediation and feature enhancement priorities.

Implemented standardized QA/PO practices for eCommerce deployments—reducing regression cycle times and increasing test coverage reliability.

Environment: Confluence, Jira, Bamboo, Jenkins, GitHub, Hybris, Adobe CQ5, SAP Cloud, Salesforce, iOS/Android

Isobar – Web/Mobile BA/QA (Contract)

Jun 2015 – Aug 2015

Led QA efforts and defect remediation triage for web and mobile applications. Collaborated with client QA and DevOps teams to ensure validated fixes were deployed to production environments seamlessly.

Chicago Tribune – Mobile QA Lead (Contract)

Nov 2014 – Jun 2015

Acted as the primary contact for mobile app production support across iOS and Android. Supported sprint planning, incident triage, and deployment coordination with development and operations teams. Managed production release cycles and ensured QA sign-off for go/no-go meetings.

Humana Inc. – UAT Mobile QA Lead (Contract)

Oct 2014 – Nov 2014

Oversaw automated and manual testing pipelines for mobile healthcare apps. Collaborated with DevOps to validate successful deployment execution and maintain production integrity.

EDUCATION

North Central College – Naperville, IL

Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing & Management – December 2008

COMMUNITY & LEADERSHIP

Board of Directors, Chi-Care (Nonprofit)

Board of Trustees, Bolingbrook Fountaindale Public Library

Managing Partner, Light Up Photo Booth

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