Program Manager, AI-Driven Initiatives in multiple industries

KHAN GHAZANFAR

Houston, TX 832-***-****

*********.****@*****.***

PROGRAM MANAGER

Program Management Engineering Operations Executive Operations AI & Process Automation Cross-Functional Delivery

Professional Summary

Seasoned Program Manager with expertise driving operational rigor and cross-functional execution across Engineering, Product, and Business Operations teams in Technology, Utilities, Healthcare, and Telecommunications. Proven track record building operational cadences and business rhythms, from quarterly executive program reviews and weekly cross-workstream KPI reporting to recurring stakeholder forums, that keep leadership aligned on priorities, risks, and outcomes. Skilled at translating executive priorities into actionable plans and building strong partnerships across Engineering, Product, Sales, and external vendors. Drives process improvement through Lean Six Sigma and AI-enabled automation (ClickUp AI/Brain, RPA, chatbots) that reduces administrative overhead and increases organizational visibility. Certified Scrum Master and Product Owner, comfortable operating independently across ambiguous, fast-moving, multi-stakeholder environments.

Proven people leader building teams from the ground up, coaching Scrum Masters and Project Managers, setting expectations, balancing workloads, and developing talent while holding teams accountable for execution.

Core Competencies

Leadership & Governance: People Management & Coaching • Executive Operations & Cadence Management • Budget & Resource Planning • Risk, Dependency & Change Management • Vendor & SLA Management • Stakeholder & Executive Relationship Management • Cross-Functional Program Leadership

Delivery & Operations: KPI Reporting & Executive Dashboards • Executive Materials & Presentation Development • Process Improvement (Lean Six Sigma) • AI & Automation for Operational Efficiency • Requirements Gathering & Prioritization • Release & Backlog Management

Tools & Platforms: Azure DevOps • Jira • Confluence • Asana • Monday.com • Salesforce • Microsoft Dynamics 365 • SAP CRM • ClickUp AI/Brain • Microsoft Power BI • SQL • REST APIs • Microsoft Project • Primavera • Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT, Codex

Certifications & Education

Certified Scrum Master (CSM) • Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) • Lean Six Sigma Black Belt

Bachelor of Business Administration

Experience

Program Manager, GZ Consulting

Jan 2025 – August 2026

●Spearheaded an initial end-to-end process review as an embedded consultant, identifying operational gaps and automation opportunities across current workflows.

●Pioneered AI-enabled reporting and workflow automation (ClickUp Brain/ClickUp AI) across sprint planning, stand-up summarization, and retrospective analysis - cutting administrative overhead by ~25% and increasing delivery transparency for stakeholders at every level.

●Identified, evaluated, and implemented AI-driven process improvements across Agile, Product, and Engineering teams, prioritizing high-impact solutions by business value, feasibility, and risk.

●Founded a Center of Excellence and launched two Agile teams, establishing standardized delivery frameworks, coaching junior Scrum Masters, and facilitating core ceremonies across Product and Engineering.

●Partnered with senior executive stakeholders and Sales Engineering to align delivery communications and help teams articulate platform capabilities and business value to prospective clients.

●Managed a $2M–$3M delivery budget, optimizing capacity planning and resource allocation to align team output with strategic business commitments.

●Introduced Kanban workflows and optimized backlog management in Azure DevOps to support continuous integration and delivery flow.

Sr. Consultant, RTS

Apr 2024 – Dec 2024

●Led enterprise software implementation initiatives supporting the migration of 38 acquired organizations into Microsoft Dynamics 365.

●Partnered with executive stakeholders to gather business requirements, prioritize implementation objectives, and coordinate enterprise software releases.

●Managed cross-functional delivery teams across multiple business units during critical acquisition integrations, ensuring milestones, change management, and production deployments were completed successfully.

Sr. Consultant, Entergy

Oct 2023 – Apr 2024

●Led Agile delivery across three enterprise product initiatives supporting Continuous Improvement, Carbon Emissions, and MyEbusiness Portal modernization.

●Built a capacity planning tool supporting resource-allocation decisions for 20 - 30 people across 5 workstreams, and delivered weekly cross-workstream KPI reporting to leadership.

●Mentored junior Project Managers on quantitative delivery analysis and drove team-level transition towards Agile.

Director Product & Delivery, Tachus

Mar 2022 – May 2023

●Built and led multiple delivery teams transitioning Salesforce development from Waterfall to Agile. Built multiple SCRUM teams and led to companywide adoption of SAFe.

●Owned department budget planning ($25M) and managed technology tooling decisions, including a full Asana implementation to replace legacy platforms.

●Directed product delivery, release planning, and feature delivery for Salesforce Field Service and Salesforce Cloud (CRM), aligning development priorities with customer and business needs.

●Selected and managed onshore/offshore vendor teams across infrastructure and software development initiatives, enforcing SLAs and tracking weekly delivery metrics.

●Presented quarterly Program Increment demos to leadership and demonstrated quantitatively the difference between “Doing Agile” and “Being Agile”.

IT Project Manager /RTE, TISTA

Jul 2020 – Mar 2022

●Managed enterprise software delivery across multiple federal technology programs utilizing SCRUM and SAFe methodologies.

●Partnered with Product Owners, Engineering, QA, and Release Management to prioritize features, coordinate releases, and ensure successful deployments.

●Developed executive dashboards and delivery metrics supporting release readiness, portfolio visibility, and data-driven decision making.

●Acted as RTE for VHA in major functional role outs.

Sr. Project Manager/Scrum Master, Waste Management

Apr 2019 - May 2020

●Led transition of a software development team from Waterfall to Agile/Scrum, velocity, budget-vs-actual, and planned-vs-actual delivery. Improved Team Velocity by 18%.

●Facilitated PI planning and Scrum-of-Scrums; partnered with Product Owners to prioritize product backlogs, define release scope, and improve Agile delivery execution.

●Digitalized all landfills from Legacy to Fastlane in AWS.

Sr. Scrum Master/Business Process Manager, Frontier Utilities

Feb 2018 – Feb 2019

●Coached teams transitioning from Waterfall to Agile to shorten software release cycles, owning KPI metrics and reporting across leadership dashboards.

●Led modernization of the enterprise IVR platform to improve customer experience while implementing Blue Prism RPA and Meya AI chatbot solutions to automate business processes.

Project Manager, Direct Energy

Apr 2014 – Oct 2017

●Led enterprise software initiatives across SAP CRM, IVR, customer portals, and reporting platforms while translating business requirements into scalable technology solutions.

●Directed process-improvement initiatives for Direct Energy's Alberta (Canada) market, negotiating SLAs and delivery timelines with outsourced vendor teams using Lean Six Sigma.

●Ensuring that clients' pain points and critical delivery features were translated to the development team, time boxed and delivered in a manner to meet all deadline dates.

Regional Account Manager, CSI Software

Oct 2006 – Apr 2014

●Led end-to-end implementations of enterprise club management software across North America, managing the full lifecycle from customer discovery and requirements gathering through configuration, data migration, UAT, go-live, and ongoing optimization.

●Configured core enterprise modules including billing, scheduling, POS, CRM, financial operations, and payment solutions (ACH, credit card integrations, banking interfaces, and APIs) across multiple concurrent projects.

●Partnered with Sales, Development, QA, and Support to advocate for the Voice of the Customer (VOC), prioritize enhancement requests, conduct pre-sales demos, and drive account expansion.

●Served as the primary product expert and trusted advisor, delivering discovery workshops, customer training, and executive presentations at industry summits to maximize adoption and long-term retention.

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