Strategic Program Manager for Partner Initiatives

DEEPA KARUNAKARAN

*****.***********@*****.*** 669-***-**** http://www.linkedin.com/in/kdeepa San Jose, CA 95129 Personal Summary

Strategic Program Manager with 10+ years of experience leading large-scale, high-risk transformation initiatives and complex programs across multiple regions and business functions. Demonstrated success managing enterprise-level budgets, comprehensive risk portfolios, and high-performing global teams. Skilled in developing program strategies aligned with executive vision, implementing robust risk management frameworks, and delivering measurable business impact. Brings cross-industry experience spanning retail, banking, insurance, logistics, and cloud services, with a track record of managing multi-functional, geographically distributed teams (20+ members) and senior executive stakeholders. Current Projects

TPM Assist – Agentic AI application prototype for Technical Program Managers

• Architected and built "TPM Assist," an agentic AI prototype that ingests project artifacts (JIRA, status docs, meeting notes, runbooks) and automatically generates program status summaries, risk registers, and recommended next steps, reducing manual coordination overhead by ~40% for TPMs.

• Designed underlying knowledge graph and semantic retrieval flows so the agent continuously learns from historical projects, improving answer quality and knowledge reuse over time. Experience

Amazon Inc. (Amazon Web Services) – Customer Solutions Manager (Customer facing Program Manager) Cupertino, CA 03/2022 – 04/2025

Program Overview: Led a high-risk, multi-year transformation initiative for one of the world’s largest technology companies, with a budget exceeding $50M+, spanning global operations and impacting multiple business units and regions.

• Led High-Risk Enterprise Programs: Managed a portfolio of high-visibility, high-risk transformation workstreams involving organizational restructuring, process redesign, and technology-enabled change. Established risk frameworks to identify, assess, and mitigate strategic, operational, and delivery risks across regions and functions.

• Drove Program Governance & Executive Leadership: Designed and led a strategic governance model including weekly operational syncs, monthly Steering Committees with Directors, and quarterly Executive Business Reviews. Managed escalations on critical risks and issues with C-suite visibility, ensuring timely decisions and alignment with enterprise strategic objectives.

• Customize Dashboards for Program Management: Designed custom dashboards using Smartsheet for various roles in AWS & customers to understand the status, next steps of the project tasks, highlight risks and coordinate planning meetings.

• Executive Briefing: Arranged Executive Briefing sessions with AWS leaders for cutomer team during the re:Invent conferences in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

• Roadmap Transparency Session: Led the Roadmap Transparency Meeting in Seattle, attended by seven Amazon VPs and 12 senior Architects and leaders from the customer teams. This session unlocked a strategic workload migration, yielding an additional $20M ARR in revenue and enabling future business growth.

• Managed Complex Multi-Functional Teams: Built and led a 7-member cross-functional program office (Program Managers, Solution Architects, Prodct, Sales). Coordinated work across 20+ stakeholder teams in Sales, Operations, Finance, and Product, ensuring clarity on ownership, risk mitigation actions, and delivery milestones.

• Managed Multi-Regional & Complex Operations: Oversaw program execution across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific with teams in 5+ countries. Implemented consistent risk and issue management standards across regions, improving predictability, reducing schedule slippage, and increasing transparency across time zones.

• Delivered Measurable Business Impact: Achieved program outcomes driving $60M+ in annual recurring revenue and $15M in organizational cost savings through process optimization and elimination of inefficiencies. Improved team productivity by 25% by redesigning workflows and standardizing delivery practices.

• Established Performance Metrics, Dashboards & Risk Visibility: Developed executive dashboards to track delivery progress, financial performance, risk exposure, and team productivity. Provided real-time visibility to executive leadership and board committees on program health, key risks, and mitigation status. IBM Inc. – Service Delivery Manager

Cupertino, CA 11/2016 – 12/2019

Program Overview: Led operational program management and service delivery for large-scale technology and operations initiatives across multiple customers in retail, logistics, and cloud services, managing budgets, global resource teams, and complex stakeholder relationships across three continents.

• Led Large-Scale, High-Risk Programs: Directed end-to-end delivery of enterprise transformation programs with budgets exceeding $20M, operating in environments with stringent availability, performance, and compliance requirements. Defined risk management frameworks, escalation paths, and decision mechanisms across programs.

• Established Operational Excellence & Standardization: Designed and implemented standardized delivery and governance processes used across multiple customer engagements. Introduced structured change management and maintenance practices that reduced operational downtime by 8 hours per quarter across 200+ systems.

• Managed High-Performing Global Teams: Built and led service delivery teams across US, India, and the Philippines with 30+ technical resources. Drove performance management, coaching, and succession planning while ensuring coverage and continuity via a follow-the-sun operations model.

• Delivered Business Impact & Compliance: Achieved 95%+ SLA performance across engagements and implemented operational frameworks that supported customers’ regulatory, security, and uptime requirements. Ensured alignment of risk and compliance efforts with customer business objectives. IBM Inc. – Technical Product Delivery Lead

Cupertino, CA 11/2012 – 12/2019

Program Overview: Managed operational program delivery for multiple enterprise implementations across banking, insurance, media, and retail clients including AIG Chartis, Avis Budget Car Rental, The Children’s Place, and The New York Times.

• Managed Multiple Concurrent High-Risk Programs: Led 4+ concurrent transformation and service delivery programs with significant operational and reputational risk. Defined program charters, business cases, and risk profiles for each engagement, aligning with customer executives on success criteria and risk appetite.

• Established Program Governance & Risk Frameworks: Designed governance structures with steering committees, executive reviews, and formal risk management rituals. Implemented systematic risk identification, tracking, and mitigation processes, including executive-level risk reporting.

• Led Cross-Functional & Global Teams: Coordinated 20+ cross-functional resources across architecture, engineering, QA, and deployment functions, including offshore teams. Drove accountability, development planning, and performance management.

• Managed Complex Stakeholder Relationships: Owned relationships with senior stakeholders in banking, insurance, and retail verticals. Balanced competing stakeholder priorities, negotiated trade-offs, and maintained alignment through structured communications.

• Delivered Transformational & Compliance Programs: Led implementation of security and compliance initiatives

(e.g., encryption and data protection) to address regulatory requirements in financial services and other regulated industries. Defined post-implementation support models to ensure stable operations and risk-controlled transitions. Additional Experience

• MQ Consultant & Team Lead, IBM India 2010 – 2012

• Principal Technical Analyst, Staples, Framingham, MA 2003 – 2009 Skills

Program & Project Management

• Strategic program planning and execution

• Enterprise transformation initiatives

• Multi-functional program governance

• Complex stakeholder relationship management

• Business case development and ROI analysis

• High/very high risk program leadership

Risk & Compliance Management

• Enterprise risk identification and assessment

• Risk mitigation planning and execution

• Issue and dependency management

• Regulatory and compliance alignment

• Executive risk reporting and escalation

• Business continuity and resilience planning

Stakeholder & Executive Management

• C-suite and executive-level relationship management

• Board-level communication and reporting

• Global and distributed team leadership (20+ members)

• Cross-functional program governance committees

• Strategic alignment with organizational leadership Organizational Leadership

• Team building and high-performing team development

• Mentorship and individual contributor development

• Change management and organizational alignment

• Process standardization and operational excellence Program Planning & Execution Tools

• Smartsheet, Jira, Confluence

• Financial forecasting and analytics platforms

• Executive dashboard development and reporting

• Program governance frameworks

Education

Master's: Operations and Information Technology (MSOIT) Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA

STEM-designated program integrating information technology, analytics, and business management, focused on developing strategic program leaders skilled in aligning technology initiatives with business goals. Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com)

University of Madras, Madras, India

A three-year undergraduate program in commerce covering core domains like accounting, finance, taxation, business law, and economics, and Strategic Management.

Coursework

Big Data, Business Management, and Entrepreneurship Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

Certifications

• AWS Migrations Foundations (Internal): 2024

• AWS Data Analytics Specialty Certification: 2023

• AWS Solutions Architect Associate: 2022

• ITIL V3 Foundation: 2012

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