Anna D. Lukasiak
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Jersey City, NJ, United States
Toptal member since April 3, 2019
Anna is a remote project manager experienced in coordinating ground-up planning, design, implementation, and deployment looking for opportunities to help companies realize their ideas. With expertise system analysis and application development, she is skilled in Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and C/C++. Anna is also fluent in English and Polish.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile
- Asana
- Blockchain
- Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
- Financial Services
- Jira
- Linux
- Microsoft Project
Work Experience
Remote Project Manager
Data Gallery
- Provided project management services ranging from business process automation, creating project plans and managing projects, estimating, budgeting, mobilizing resources, helping bring projects back on track, and implementing Agile.
- Assisted small businesses in managing their data, from collecting to analysis and visualization, and creating systems that support data-driven decisions.
- Organized a project management meetup in the NYC greater area to help project managers transition from Waterfall to Agile and to help them guide their organizations in times of disruption and digital transformation.
- Created an extensive library of templates for project management for small businesses looking to utilize freelance and small agencies to implement their ideas.
Agile Project Manager
Syngenta - Digital Product Engineering
- Joined the Cropwise Financials engineering team as an Agile Project Manager to oversee the completion and launch of the iOS and web application. The project was initially over budget and behind schedule.
- Worked closely with the product team to develop the MVP roadmap. Once the MVP Roadmap was accepted by all stakeholders, established processes for close collaboration and effective communication with stakeholders.
- Implemented Scrum framework with Jira and Confluence for the engineering team to manage the development, releases, and changes.
- Moved to a sprint deployment model by optimizing the DevOps pipelines and feature management with Launch Darkly.
- Created a data migration strategy that satisfied the business needs and minimized the amount of data that had to be uploaded from the old system to the new application.
Agile Project Manager | Scrum Master
Volvo Car USA - Data Management and Insights Team
- Worked closely with the product team and users to define a new MVP roadmap for customer data management. The project was behind schedule and over budget when I started.
- Led the design and implementation of the new strategic data lake architecture to create a single source of truth for all the Volvo Cars USA customer data.
- Enabled the new architecture to allow for quick decommissioning of the legacy system and provided a strong foundation for all future marketing strategies.
Certified Scrum Master
Anthem Insurance
- Joined as a Certified Scrum Master for three UI mobile and web engineering teams tasked with developing solutions for eight million members.
- Delivered five projects: a pharmacy mobile app (IngenioRx), procedures and facilities recommendations based on AI/ML models, a single dashboard consolidating all member info, a virtual avatar prototype, and a mobile-first rapid prototype framework.
- Onboarded three engineering teams in a short span of a few weeks. Implemented a technical client's infrastructure training program for the engineering teams to ensure their success.
- Developed the process and integrated tools for design, product, and engineering teams to be able to work simultaneously on developing rapid prototypes.
- Facilitated all Scrum ceremonies and practices, ensuring all team members remained engaged and committed.
Agile Coach | Scrum Master
- Led the Agile transformation of three engineering teams that support content management operations.
- Implemented all sprint Agile ceremonies and practices. Set up Jira as the project management tool for tracking and reporting to senior management.
- Facilitated all Agile ceremonies such as daily stand-up, sprint reviews and planning, backlog grooming, and retrospectives for three geographically distributed teams of a roughly equal mix of full-time engineers and remote contractors.
- Assisted in removing team impediments and ambiguity to keep sprint commitments on track.
- Ensured all team members remained committed, engaged, involved, and informed.
Business Development Director
Modev
- Developed the scholarship program for the Alexa Voice Conference by working closely with sponsors and matching them with potential candidates.
- Worked with an AI lead generation company as a proof of concept for the conference.
- Created ticket sales campaigns for software developers.
- Built a sales team with freelancers worldwide and created a structure for reporting leads and the status of sponsorship contracts.
- Developed sequences, templates, and reports in HubSpot for the sponsorships sales team.
Technical Program Manager
Audible
- Assisted the organization with an Agile transformation. Helped transition the content processing technology team to SCRUM (Agile methodology), helping define the cadence, sprint grooming, and planning guidelines and creating Agile project metrics.
- Managed projects and processes that intersect multiple teams, collaborating with engineering, operations, and business stakeholders to implement core business objectives.
- Utilized Jira for managing user stories and wiki pages for reporting.
- Identified and communicated risks, progress, launches, and retrospectives across all stakeholders and teams.
- Worked closely with the product manager, the development team, the Scrum Master, and all business stakeholders.
Business Development Director
Open Data Science
- Developed and set up processes for lead generation, onboarding, and management of sponsors for the conferences.
- Collaborated with content managers and developers to help drive sponsorship and ticket sales through the website and social media campaign promotions.
- Managed conference sponsors from outreach and onboarding to ensure they received the most value from marketing their brands at ODSC.
- Built data science communities around the world by organizing hackathons and meetups.
- Developed products for ODSC, like training and recruiting sessions, to increase value for the ODSC members.
Technology Manager
Goldman Sachs
- Recruited and managed global software development teams. Managed their day-to-day activities and career development.
- Interfaced with internal business users, like traders, operations, legal, compliance, controllers, etc., to create requirements.
- Created a software development project plan schedules and budgets.
- Created and managed annual technology budgets for derivative trading compliance.
- Created a program-level reporting framework for projects and for monitoring production metrics.
Project History
Mortgage Derivatives System
Led buildout of a straight-through-processing system for mortage derivatives trading desk at Goldman Sachs.
I collaborated with external data providers and other dealers to create the industry standard for processing credit events. I then built the technology team in New York and Bangalore from the ground up.
I managed the personnel through the 2008 financial crisis. In 2009, I completed a federal audit of all mortgage derivative transactions executed before the financial crisis.
Price Verification System
Led a 20-person development team that implemented a global price verification platform for Goldman Sachs.
Content Acquisition Platform
Managed programs for new the content acquisition platform at Audible.
I also managed projects and processes that intersect multiple teams, collaborating with engineering, operations, and business stakeholders to implement core business objectives. To help the content processing technology team transition to SCRUM (an agile methodology), I defined the cadence, sprint grooming, and planned guidelines and created Agile project metrics. I utilized Jira for managing user stories and wiki pages for reporting. I then identified and communicated risks, progress, launches, and retrospectives across all stakeholders and teams and worked closely with the product manager and Scrum Master.
Mobile and Web Applications for the Healthcare Industry
Onboarded three UI engineering teams and delivered five major projects for a major health insurance company (Anthem Insurance).
Content Management Operations Platform for a Social Media Company
Implemented GDPR and other critical tools for content management operations for a major social media platform (Reddit).
I managed Agile ceremonies for three geographically distributed teams of a roughly equal mix of full-time engineers and contractors.
As a scrum master, I facilitated all sprint ceremonies, such as daily standup, sprint reviews and planning, backlog grooming, and retrospectives. I also assisted in removing team impediments and ambiguity to keep sprint commitments on track. At last, I ensured that all team members remained committed, engaged, involved, and informed.
Latin American Trading System
Built a processing platform for the Latin American Trading Desk at Goldman Sachs.
Education
Master's Degree in Information Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA
Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA
Certifications
Certified SAFe 6 Practice Consultant
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM)
Scrum Alliance
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Project+
Comp TIA
Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)
Scrum Alliance
Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
Scrum Alliance
Skills
Tools
Microsoft Project, Eventbrite, Jira, Asana, Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, Confluence, Slack, Zapier, SQL, Financial Data
Paradigms
Agile Project Management, Agile Software Development, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Agile Leadership, Implementation Project Management, Desktop Web Design, DevOps, Lean Project Management, Azure DevOps
Industry Expertise
Financial Services, Healthcare, Health & Wellness
Platforms
Linux, Blockchain, iOS
Other
Project Management, Technical Project Management, Project Leadership, Project Planning, Planning, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Scrum Master, Event Planning, Event Management, Google, Microsoft, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), Program Management, Technical Program Management, Reporting, Project Tracking, Project Management Operations, Waterfall Methodology, Web Project Management, GAP Analysis, Functional Requirements, Sprint Planning, Project Reporting, Fintech, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Stakeholder Management, Large-scale Projects, Business Analysis, Project Coordination, Dashboards, Stakeholder Engagement, Web Applications, Finance, Project Scheduling, Project Estimation, Risk, Microsoft Teams, Mobile, Mobile Web, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, Python, Project Management Professional (PMP), Budgeting, Cost Estimation, Software Development Management, Project Budget Management, Business Development, Jira Align, Sales, Marketing, Software Project Management, IT Program Management, Derivatives, IT Project Management, Agile DevOps, C++, Earned Value Management (EVM), Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), Data Lakes, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Scrum Coaching
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