Pooya Pakzad
San Jose,CA
Summary
Team-based servant leader effective Scrum master and Agile evangelist, with almost a decade of experience exhibiting Lean-Agile leadership and supporting SAFe and Scrum adoption. With background and education in software engineering and computer science, committed to relentless improvement and to facilitating the team’s progress towards goal by leading by example.
Overview
21
21
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Senior Agile Coach
US Bank
05.2023 - Current
- Developed and executed performance management programs to increase employee engagement and productivity.
- Analyzed and evaluated training effectiveness and program outcomes.
- Designed and delivered web-based, self-directed learning materials.
- Facilitated virtual, in-person and blended learning sessions.
- Mentored Business Banking agile community, resulting in stronger staff development and increased productivity.
- Developed lesson plans, workshops, agile surveys, instructional materials within various agile frameworks.
- Developed and established annual and quarterly roadmaps and conducted quarterly Program Increment Planning sessions across the organization.
Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Program manager, Team Lead
Credit Suisse
12.2020 - Current
- Laying the groundwork for teams within a Value Stream to adapt agile framework, as part of the bank’s Agile Transformation initiative called AURORA. Introducing agile concepts with regular workshops and adaption of ceremonies and concepts. Forming teams through the stages of team building. Empowering and engaging teams in making decisions and creating transparency between scrum teams and business stakeholders. Coaching management, product owners, and business stakeholders while ensuring continuous delivery.
- Collaborate with senior partners to lead value stream goals and establish a sustainable network within the bank.
- Aligning the release train and facilitate ceremonies across non-collocated scrum teams and manage dependencies between scrum teams and teams which did not utilize an agile framework.
- Industry: Finance
- Technologies: Scrum, Requirements engineering, XP, Java, Jira, Confluence.
Agile Coach / Project Management
Cure-IT AG
09.2012 - 07.2020
- Supporting Product Owner in refining a product-driven backlog with vertical and mature user stories. Handling and planning technical debt and coordinating innovation and planning iterations.
- Facilitating large group discussions and events (sessions such as Open Space and World Café), organizing PI Planning and facilitating planning breakouts.
- Industry: Software Development / Consulting
- Technologies: SAFe 5, Scrum, Extended Scrum, Agile Development, Microsoft .Net C#, Scruman, XP, Nexus, Product Coordination, Team Foundation Server, Jira, Trello.
Agile Coach / Project Coordinator / Software Development
Trumpf Laser Marking
06.2014 - 04.2020
- Evangelizing lean agile culture and mindset in the organization. Coordinate, facilitate and manage the communications and dependencies between the internal Trumpf Agile Release Train (ART) based in Switzerland and Germany, with a 3rd party partner project, Ansys SpaceClaim (Based in Concord Massachusetts and Boulder Colorado).
- Identify dependencies at a technical level on an ongoing basis, create and prioritize backlog. Communicate and report user-oriented feature dependencies on the technical work items with Product Owner and Project Management team to facilitate setting timelines and to prioritize the ART backlog based on the vendor’s technical dependencies.
- Create “Statement of Work” (SOW) documents with technical details of work items, as well as specifying acceptance criteria and a definition of done per issue.
- Tracking progress and reporting to management, as well as Facilitating meetings between Trumpf top management and Ansys project management to address progress and partnership status.
- Client of Cure-IT AG
- Industry: Laser Technology
- Technologies: Scrum, Nexus, SAFe, Microsoft .Net C#, XAML, ATDD/BDD, C# - C++ compatibility issues, Windows Presentation Forms, Parallel Extensions TPL, Jira, Confluence, TFS.
Software Engineer / Consultant
REFUSION GmbH
06.2011 - 08.2012
- Developing cross platform apps in agile setting. Create solutions for digital transformation of various companies, such as Mountain Partners financial institution of St Galen and Flatfox, AG in Zurich.
- Implement DevOps engineering practices.
- Industry: Software Development / IT Consulting
- Technologies: JavaScript, JQuery, PostgreSQL, LESS, AJAX, Azure, Cloud Hosted Solutions
Software Engineer / Software Architect / Application Life Cycle Manager
routeRANK AG
03.2010 - 05.2011
- DevOps engineering and software development of an award-winning innovative solution.
- Industry: Multi-mode Transportation / Logistics / Green industry
- Technologies: MVC, Ruby, Java, PHP, JavaScript, JQuery
EPFL- ALGO: Laboratoire de Mathematiques Algorithmiques
08.2007 - 02.2010
- Industry: Wireless Communication / Research
- Role: Researcher / developing demos and prototypes
- Technologies: C++, QT, Number Theory, TCP/IP, Compression Algorithms, Redundancy
- Software development and research assistant in creating prototypes for lossy communication algorithms using number theory and redundancy parity.
- Developed an encryption and compress algorithm for Logitech S.A. (Canada).
Software R&D / Product Owner / Architect
Epic Systems Corporations
07.2005 - 08.2007
- Software development for the largest health care software used in the United States.
- Industry: Healthcare / HIPAA Compliance
- Technologies: Microsoft .Net C#, VB, Cache, MUMPS, Hyperspace
Software Engineer / Automated unit and regression testing
Adaptive Planning Inc.
03.2005 - 07.2005
- Test engineering and automation, creating and implementing variety of testing techniques for ensuring quality improvement and a continuous deployment. Coaching the teams on DevOps culture.
- Industry: Finance
- Technologies: Microsoft .Net C#, VB, JavaScript, Mercury QuickTest Professional tool
Education
M.Sc. - Master of Science in Computer Science, Specialization in Distributed Internet Computing
EPFL
Switzerland06.2009
B.Sc. - Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
UC Berkeley
Berkeley, CA06.2004
Skills
- Certifications
- Certified SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE) (In Progress 2022)
- Certified Professional Agile Leadership (PAL I) 2022
- Certified SAFe 5 Scrum Master (SSM), 2020
- Requirements Engineering, University of Zurich, 2019
- Professional Scrum Master (PSM), ScrumOrg 2013
- Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD), C# Specialist, 2013
- Certified Specialist Developing Windows Store Apps using C#, 2013
- Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), 2007
- Functional and Technical Skills
- Management and Technical Coordinator, Requirements Engineering, Product Owner Support
- Behavioral/Acceptance Test Driven Development BDD, TDD, ATDD
- C#, NET (Core), WPF, XAML, UWP, WF, XML, XSD, XSLT, XPath, Parallel Extensions: PLINQ, TPL
- Distributed Systems, Web Services, n-tier Architectures: MVVM, MVC
- Visual Studio, Team Foundation Server (TFS), Jira, Git
- Project Management, OnePPM Clarity
- Contract Management, Ivalua
- Team facilitation
- Organizational agility
- Release management
- Value stream mapping
- Program and Portfolio management
Accomplishments
- Supported the organization by implementing use of strategic tools for transparency and efficiency. Trained teams and managers to utilize more lean and transparent methods and move away from traditional tools.
Certification
- Certified [Job Title], [Company Name] - [Timeframe]
- [Area of certification], [Company Name] - [Timeframe]
Languages
Fluent in English, German, French and Persian
Interests
- Stand-up Paddleboarding (SUP)
- Team Sports
- Homelessness Outreach
- D&I
Timeline
Senior Agile Coach
US Bank
05.2023 - Current
Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Program manager, Team Lead
Credit Suisse
12.2020 - Current
Agile Coach / Project Coordinator / Software Development
Trumpf Laser Marking
06.2014 - 04.2020
Agile Coach / Project Management
Cure-IT AG
09.2012 - 07.2020
Software Engineer / Consultant
REFUSION GmbH
06.2011 - 08.2012
Software Engineer / Software Architect / Application Life Cycle Manager
routeRANK AG
03.2010 - 05.2011
EPFL- ALGO: Laboratoire de Mathematiques Algorithmiques
08.2007 - 02.2010
Software R&D / Product Owner / Architect
Epic Systems Corporations
07.2005 - 08.2007
Software Engineer / Automated unit and regression testing
Adaptive Planning Inc.
03.2005 - 07.2005
M.Sc. - Master of Science in Computer Science, Specialization in Distributed Internet Computing
EPFL
B.Sc. - Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
UC Berkeley
Interests
Rowing (member of Rowing Club Zürich, Cofounder of LGBT Rowing Team Penguins), D&I Champion at Credit Suisse Corporate Banking Cluster, organizing events, moderating firesides and workshop sessions of approximately 100 participants from 3 different locations., Member of Gay Business Leadership Network, Switzerland (www.network.ch), Mountaineering (member of the Alpine Club SAC/CAS), Agile and lean practices (member of Trumpf Agile Network and Agile Breakfast), Skiing (alpine and cross country), Cycling, Speleology