Avalon Swain
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Charlotte, NC, United States
Toptal member since May 23, 2017
Avalon is recognized for his successful business, digital, agile, and AI transformations, leveraging his considerable product, program, and project management experience. He is a certified MIT Artificial Intelligence Strategist, PMI Project Management Professional (PMP), Disciplined Agile Value Stream Consultant (DAVSC), Disciplined Agile Coach (DAC), and Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM). He has outstanding power skills and the ability to align with all levels of an organization.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Coaching
- Agile Project Management
- Agile Transformation
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Business Transformation
- Digital Transformation
- Program Management
- Technical Project Management
Work Experience
Business Transformation Director | Financial Systems Product Owner | Google Consultant
Progressus
- Partnered with the client CEO to analyze the current state of customer relationship management and revenue growth strategies, processes, and technology environments. Evaluated current state growth impediments, challenges, and pain points.
- Designed future state environments and identified current and future state gaps, resulting in a backlog and implementation of several financial reporting and invoicing improvements.
- Consulted and implemented automation to support Google Workspace implementation.
- Monitored the project's progress, identified risks and issues, and implemented mitigation strategies and continuous improvements to ensure project milestones were achieved.
Business Transformation Director and Gen AI Program Manager (via Toptal)
Hearst
- Managed a team of AI engineers, providing guidance, support, and mentorship to drive project success across several business units.
- Developed and implemented Gen AI program management processes and methodologies to streamline Gen AI project execution and delivery.
- Monitored project progress, identified risks and issues, and implemented mitigation strategies and continuous improvements to ensure project milestones were achieved.
- Collaborated with executives and business leadership to provide regular updates on Gen AI project status, key milestones, and potential risks via the demonstration of real-time Jira Product Discovery and Jira Project Delivery boards and views.
Digital Transformation Director and Salesforce Consultant (via Toptal)
Class Composer Inc
- Partnered with the client CEO to analyze the current state of customer relationship management and revenue growth recognition strategies, processes, and technology environments. Evaluated current state growth impediments, challenges, and pain points.
- Designed future state customer relationship management and revenue growth recognition strategies, processes, and technology environments. Also identified current and future state gaps and built a backlog of process improvements.
- Consulted, administered, developed, and implemented a Salesforce custom object, field, Visualforce page, Lightning page, and Salesforce Flow components to support Salesforce Sales Cloud implementation.
- Provided Chargebee subscription billing, revenue recognition, reporting analytics, and Salesforce integration improvements, as well as QuickBooks migration.
Senior Program Director | Transformation Coach | Monday.com Administrator (via Toptal)
Kooth PLC
- Planned and deployed the beta release of a digital mental health mobile app for young people, offering curated content, self-help tools, peer-to-peer support, on-demand behavior health coaching, and navigation to off-platform help.
- Collaborated with strategy, product, engineering, clinical, and service delivery teams to ensure cross-functional delivery of a transformational combined technology and service program soft launch.
- Assessed and implemented business agility transformation by leveraging PMI's Disciplined Agile and Guided Continuous Improvement processes.
- Integrated monday.com boards, views, automation, and dashboards to support weekly program management Team of Teams RAID Sync ceremonies.
Business Transformation Coach | Business Intelligence Consultant | Tableau Developer (via Toptal)
DirectMed Parts & Service
- Aligned with company leadership, assessed digital capabilities, recommended a data-driven culture, and developed balanced scorecard dashboards highlighting customer, operational, and financial OKRs.
- Recommended and led several marketing, sales, purchasing, engineering, inventory, distribution, logistics, and financial reporting value stream process improvements.
- Assessed and planned the business transformation roadmap, including streamlined HubSpot, Salesforce, Rootstock Manufacturing, and Rootstock Financial desktop and mobile technology stacks.
M&A Coach | Business Intelligence Consultant (via Toptal)
PSC
- Led the successful integration of four newly acquired company's products and services into the existing systems, enhancing the overall product and service portfolio.
- Integrated new talent from the acquisitions into the existing teams, fostering a collaborative and productive work environment.
- Managed multiple business intelligence and consolidated financial reporting projects simultaneously, ensuring alignment with business strategy and timely execution of deliverables.
Agile Coach | Scrum Master | Salesforce Administrator (via Toptal)
ContractPodAi
- Joined the team as a senior Salesforce administrator to support client-facing contract lifecycle management transformations. Quickly realigned to also provide internal product management, agile coaching, and scrum master responsibilities.
- Led introduction of development team sprint ceremonies, including backlog grooming, sprint planning, daily stand-up, sprint demo, and retrospective continuous improvement sessions. Oversaw Jira and Confluence administration.
- Led engagements with external stakeholders at GE, Cue Health, and AGC Biologics to capture AI and ML risk management needs, leading to a 10% increase in on-time delivery of customizations for contract lifecycle management solution timelines.
- Aligned with internal executive stakeholders to gather strategy and finance business requirements and provide an agile delivery of Salesforce customizations and solutions.
Digital Transformation Manager | Agile Coach | Scrum Master (via Toptal)
Signs365.com
- Owned the product, program, and project management responsibilities of aligning with business executives and assessing emerging business transformation opportunities in the manufacturing domain for the client's customer and employee digital channels.
- Performed product owner and product management responsibilities of collaborating with various business stakeholders to reach a consensus on transformation, project epic justification, user story development, and feature prioritization.
- Led a team of eight developers and provided Agile coaching and scrum master leadership of Agile sprint ceremony facilitation, including grooming, planning, standup, demo, and retrospective activities. Also led Jira and Confluence administration.
- Owned program management responsibilities of scope, time, and budget reporting. Led IT development and operations teams from inception, construction, and transition phases to ongoing support activities for several corporate strategy implementations.
- Provided Agile coaching across several operational teams by implementing Scrum and Kanban best practices and process improvements in the purchasing, receiving, inventory, warehousing, engineering, shipping, and financial teams.
- Managed the disaster recovery response to a Net Walker zero-day cybersecurity attack and led an ISO 27001 security audit and gap analysis.
- Implemented more robust email security protection due to the ISO27001 audit and gap analysis. Leveraged Barracuda and Mimecast, as well as an offsite. Backup as a solution was implemented leveraging Veeam Backup and Recovery.
Senior Project Manager | Product Manager | Scrum Master (via Toptal)
NKR Insurance Services
- Managed a designer and two developers in the planning, analysis, design, and development of a fintech startup mobile application POC and MVP.
- Partnered with the client to document company and product vision, goals, milestones, and roadmap for periodic board presentation.
- Established the agile project initiation, development and delivery environment for product personas, epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, and product backlog.
- Implemented project sprint ceremonies including backlog grooming sessions, sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint demos and reviews, and sprint retrospective meetings. Also responsible for Jira and Confluence administration.
Salesforce Program Architect
Intentional Signs
- Managed several consultants, administrators, developers, and the technology investment and delivery operations of a marketing and sales technology consultancy for several manufacturing, distribution, and transportation industry clients.
- Aligned and partnered with client stakeholders to lead several agile, waterfall, and hybrid projects in delivering personalized marketing automation, customer relationship management, and business intelligence digital solutions.
- Improved the sales conversion rates by integrating optimized customer relationship management via Salesforce Sales Cloud and Salesforce Service Cloud. Successfully led five Sales Cloud and two Service Cloud client implementations.
- Managed customer relationships and provided business requirements management, process improvement, and technology business case justification for several manufacturing and logistics organizations.
- Conducted program management for CRM, EPM, and financial reporting project teams and delivered executive scorecard business intelligence and predictive analytics solutions.
- Supported several key clients, including Coca-Cola Bottling, Hertz Corporation, TIAA, Discovery Education, VF Corporation, and Pacific Pond.
CRM Program Manager
TCA
- Established the technical vision and direction of a B2C residential services franchise.
- Led a team of 25+ service engineers to meet customer service levels.
- Managed all the technical hardware solution implementation projects, including servers, storage, network, data/voice, VoIP, Wi-Fi, and mobility.
- Handled all the software solution implementation and defect resolution projects, including infrastructures, customer relationship management, service case management, project management, and financial reporting application systems.
- Headed enterprise productivity and business intelligence deployment using MS Windows Server and MS SQL Server.
- Oversaw office productivity and the project management system implementation using MS Office, MS Visio, and MS Project.
- Managed customer relationships, financials, and collaboration productivity using MS Dynamics CRM and MS SharePoint.
Customer Relationship Management Technology Manager
IBM
- Managed $15 million in global services customer relationship management consulting practice revenue and 20 functional and technical consultants in support of Oracle/PeopleSoft CRM system implementations.
- Provided career development support for consultants and project managers and increased team productivity billable hours, driving revenue increase across the consulting practice.
- Developed CRM operations maturity, knowledge capital, best practices and SDLC, and waterfall and agile project and risk management plans customized for the energy and financial services industries.
- Partnered with strategy consultants to architect, build, and implement PPM and PMO knowledge capital and best practices for financial services and investment banking clients.
- Managed customer service, contact center, and call center deployments using PeopleSoft CRM.
- Integrated PeopleSoft CRM with SAP ERP and Oracle financial systems.
- Delivered a CRM consulting practice marketing campaign and project plans using Microsoft Project and Microsoft Office.
- Supported several key clients, including JP Morgan, Sprint, CBS, NewPower, and Philadelphia Housing Authority.
Financial Services Technology Manager
Accenture
- Aligned with the strategy and process consulting practice management to plan and deliver enterprise architecture, customer relationship management, eCommerce, and enterprise performance management consulting engagements at Fortune 100 clients.
- Planned and managed several large, complex application and infrastructure projects simultaneously and led the global implementation project teams of 12 to 18 technical consulting and client architects.
- Spearheaded partnership with executive-level stakeholders to ensure all the project charter, scope, quality, risk, cost, resource, and time constraints were managed and the communication plans were accurately and efficiently executed.
- Supported the application development best practice and knowledge capital delivery at investment banking, capital markets, lending and insurance clients.
- Contributed to enterprise architecture, BI, IT operations maturity model, and IT service delivery assessment using KX.
- Delivered project plans, ROI, and TCO metric reporting using Microsoft Office and Microsoft Project.
- Supported several key clients, including USAA, Aetna, Empire, Bank of America, and Atrium Healthcare (formerly Carolinas Healthcare System).
Project History
Global Customer Master Data Implementation
Managed the design and delivery of customer acquisition and onboarding strategies, processes, and technologies.
Aligned with business partners to implement customer data governance policies and processes.
Implemented technology to effectively acquire, cleanse, consolidate and safeguard the accuracy of customer information in a global enterprise consumer goods environment.
Executive Scorecard Dashboard Implementation
Led the delivery of a balanced scorecard dashboard for senior executive leadership team.
Aligned with senior company executives and managed the planning, analysis, design, build, and deployment phases in an agile hybrid project environment for a customer, sales, operations, and financial metrics executive scorecard dashboard via Tableau, Salesforce, and AWS cloud-based solutions.
Global Salesforce Implementation
Successfully migrated several global business units from disparate automated marketing, customer relationship, and customer service systems to Salesforce.
Aligned with executive stakeholders from program inception and led the planning and inception of sales cloud and service cloud SaaS solutions for several global business units. Initial deliverables included business case justification, project charter, and epic/user story backlog of a standardized sales process. Avalon also led backlog grooming, sprint planning, daily standups, sprint review, and sprint retrospective sessions. During the rollout, Avalon led cross-functional teams in configuring the solution for seventeen countries globally.
Education
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) in Management Information Systems
East Carolina University - Greenville, NC, USA
Certifications
Glide AI Certification
Glide
Glide Certification Level 3
Glide
Glide Certification Level 2
Glide
Artificial Intelligence
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Glide Certification Level 1
Glide
Generative AI Overview for Project Managers
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Disciplined Agile Value Stream Consultant (DAVSC)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Disciplined Agile Coach (DAC)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Salesforce Sales Cloud Consultant Certification
Salesforce
Salesforce Administrator Certification
Salesforce
Salesforce App Builder Certification
Salesforce
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Skills
Tools
Jira, Trello, Tableau, Confluence, Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, Salesforce, Atlassian, Google Workspace, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Sheets, Office 365, Excel 365, Claude, Asana, Microsoft Project, Slack, SQL, Atlassian Suite, HubSpot, QuickBooks Online, Carrd, Salesforce Dataloader, Intuit QuickBooks, Git, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Miro, Google Data Studio, Looker, Make (formerly Integromat), Zapier, Figma, Microsoft Dynamics
Paradigms
Kanban, Agile Project Management, Agile Product Management, Agile, Agile Delivery, Scrum, Requirements Analysis, Implementation Project Management, Agile Leadership, B2B, Key Performance Metrics, Change Management, Agile Workflow, Waterfall Delivery, Agile Software Development, Acceptance Testing, Management, Application Architecture, AI Project Management, Lean, Rapid Prototyping, Testing, DevOps, Design Thinking, Microservices
Platforms
Monday.com, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Dynamics 365, Zendesk, SharePoint
Industry Expertise
Financial Services, Healthcare, Insurance, Technology, Industrial & Manufacturing, Shipping, Professional Services, Banking & Finance, Software, Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SME), Business Technology, Sales & Marketing, Transportation & Shipping, Logistics, Government, State Government, Consumer Products, Digital Agencies, Real Estate, Education Technology (Edtech), Architecture, Digital Marketing, Telecommunications, Higher Education, Telematics, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Supply Chain Management (SCM)
Other
Technical Project Management, Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Planning, Project Delivery, Agile Coaching, Technical Program Management, Scrum Coaching, Agile Program Management, Project Management Office (PMO), Manufacturing Project Management, Program Management, Consulting, Digital Transformation, Cloud Platforms, Project Management, Scrum Master, Management Consulting, Product Management, Product Owner, Portfolio Management, Agile Product Delivery, Technical Product Management, Business Transformation, Enterprise, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Hiring, Retrospective Techniques, Team Leadership, Software as a Service (SaaS), SaaS, eCommerce, SaaS Design, SaaS Product Management, Stakeholder Management, Digital Project Management, Vendor Management, Integration, Planning, IT Projects, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Issue Tracking, Cloud, Project Scoping, Leadership, Sprint Planning, Roadmaps, Web & Mobile Applications, Project Scheduling, Agile Sprints, Sprint Retrospectives, Resource Management, Project Consultancy, PMO, Backlog Management, Business Process Optimization, Waterfall Methodology, Estimation & Planning, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), IT Project Management, Process Improvement, People Management, Strategic Planning, Organizational Design, Sprint Ceremonies, Mobile App Development, Project Timelines, Google Drive, Mobile Applications, User Stories, Staffing, Business Cases, Project Budget Management, Migration, Milestones, Multi-functional Teams, Product Development, Project Reporting, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Agile Transformation, Mobile Apps, Finance, Analytics, Business Analysis, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Process Optimization, Business Processes, Process Management, Business Process Analysis, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Continuous Improvement, Accountability, Data Analysis, Software Project Management, Data Integration, Data Migration, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Time Management, Large-scale Projects, Complex Problem Solving, Organization, Communication, Backlog Grooming, CIO, Cloud Architecture, Discovery Workshops, Estimations, Software Development, Data Management, Agile Scaling Frameworks, Agile Practices, PMI, Project Portfolio Management Platforms, Dashboard Design, Task Management, Offshore Team Management, Scope Management, Scope of Work (SOW), Project Estimation, Technical Project Monitoring, Jira Administration, Process Improvement Project Management, GAP Analysis, Team Management, Product Roadmaps, Salesforce Service Cloud, Workflow, Implementation, Software Implementation, System Implementation, Workflow Tools, Web Project Management, Stakeholder Engagement, Freelancing, Digital Transformation Program Management, Reporting, Business Operations, Opportunity Assessments, Process Flows, Complex Program Management, Project Discovery, Business Process Management (BPM), Business Transformation Project Management, Process Mapping, Web Applications, Feature Prioritization, Project Management Operations, Strategy, Growth, Budgeting, Coaching, Remote Team Leadership, Process Documentation, Executive Presentations, Applications, Team Mentoring, PMO Development, Project Coordination, Project Tracking, Dashboards, Business Process Automation, Business Process Improvement (BPI), No-code Development, Automation Tools, Notion, Business Intelligence (BI), Automation, Knowledge Transfer, Mentorship, Progress Reporting, Hybrid Project Management, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Business to Business (B2B), Business to Consumer (B2C), Business & Digital Transformation, Executive Consulting, Data Analytics, Strategic Planning & Execution, System Integration, Forecasting, CRM Systems, Requirements, Digital Strategy, Facilitation, Vendors & Suppliers, Accounting, Client Management, Iteration Management, APIs, PMI Disciplined Agile, Salesforce.com Administration, Jira Administrator, Operational Assessments, Mentorship & Coaching, Business Requirements, User Requirements, Technical Business Analysis, Technical Requirements, Certified Project Manager, Web Platforms, Supply Chain, Requirements & Specifications, Governance, Software System Architecture Development, Software Architecture, Statement of Work, Business Process Flow Diagrams, Legal, Billing, Invoicing, Software Integration, ChatGPT, ClickUp, Microsoft Office, Freight, Operations Management, Operational Workflow, Task Automation, Process Automation, App Product Management, Solution Architecture, Glide, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Risk Analysis, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), Legacy Software, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Email, Financial Systems, Financial Reporting, IT Program Management, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Engineering Management, ERP Implementation, System Improvements, Operations, Project Portfolio Management (PPM), Best Practices, Tracking, Critical Path Analysis, Business Consulting, Sprints, Creative Problem Solving, Microsoft 365, Enterprise Project Management, Value Stream Mapping, Workflow Automation & System Integration, Legal Technology (Legaltech), Issue Management, AI Chatbots, IT Strategy, Client Presentations, Project Finance, Big Four, Microsoft, Sales, Sales Effectiveness, Lead Generation, Sales Funnel, Sales Process Management, Sales Training, Sales Operations, Regulatory Compliance, Product Ownership, Customer Experience, Client Delivery Management, Cloud Migration, Customer Success, Customer Service Support, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, No Code, Acceptance Criteria, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Waterfall, Contract Management, AI Automation, Workflow Management, PMO Processes, Project Leadership, Enterprise SaaS, Executive Reporting, Data, Post-merger Integration, Budget Planning, Project Design, Project Planning & Execution, Revenue Operations (RevOps), Sales Process Optimization, B2C, Agentic AI, Workflow Optimization, CRM, Customer Data Platform (CDP), Planview, Gantt Chart, Status Updates, Stakeholder Alignment, Data Privacy, Digital Health, HIPAA, Managed Services, AI Prompts, Product Discovery, Workflows, Process Transformation, Cross-functional Collaboration, Regulated Industries, Complex Operations, Scheduling, Salesforce Agentforce, RAID, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Data Reporting, Delivery Management, Manufacturing, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Commercial Lending, Decision Support Systems (DSS), Management Information Systems (MIS), Certified Salesforce Administrator, Salesforce Lightning, Healthcare Services, Health IT, Web, JSON, Fintech, Vendor Selection, Edtech Design, Internet of Things (IoT), Healthcare IT, Startups, IT Infrastructure, Product Strategy, Apps, Websites, Wireframing, Lean Startups, Relational Databases, Data Visualization, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), System Migration, Product Planning, Proof of Concept (POC), Medical Devices, Medical Software, Data Science, Cloud Infrastructure, Scaling, Startup Consulting, Communication Management, Budget Controls, Process Design, Enterprise Architecture, Risk Assessment, Enterprise Application Architecture, Discovery Management, Microsoft SQL Server, Product Operations, Education, K-12 Education, Website Redesign, Infrastructure, Pitch Decks, HubSpot CRM, Medtech, QA Testing, Quality Assurance (QA), Lean IT, Marketing, Web Development, Airtable, Investments, Machine Learning, CTO, Ticketing, MySQL, Databases, Discovery, Warehouse Management, Detail-oriented, Digital Payments, Security, COO, Financial Modeling, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Microsoft Teams, Email Systems, Lean Portfolio Management, Enterprise Product Portfolios, Mobile Payments, Deployment, Learning Management Systems (LMS), Trucking, Atlassian Plugins, Prototyping, Marketplaces, IT Governance, Risk Management, Database Migration, Release Management, Stripe, CPQ, IT Product Management, Delivery, Workshop Facilitation, API Integration, Internal Communications, Workshops, Microsoft Planner, Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Content Creation, Cybersecurity, Social Media, GitHub, Technical Support, Payroll & Benefits, Compliance, Large Language Models (LLMs), Data Engineering, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Documentation, ITIL, Inventory Management, Digital Marketing Strategy, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Development, Software Engineering, Employee Experience, Marketing Management, Agency, Microsoft Project Online, Technical Writing, Case Management, Data Encryption, Data Entry, Encryption, Private Banking, Jira Align, Digital Product Development, Engineering Design, User Workflows, Investment Banking, Launch Strategy, Product Launch, Zoho, Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), AI Integration, Microsoft Power BI, Revenue Strategy, Google Cloud, Jira Service Management, Product Ideation, Enterprise Change Management (ECM), Change Leadership, Jira Query Language (JQL), Training, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Rootstock Cloud ERP, Chargebee, Shopline, 3D, Code Review, Twilio, MongoDB, Web Scraping, Publishing, Private Equity, Robotics, Square, Online Payments, Warehouses, Fathom, Reach Reporting, Psychology & Mental Health, Coding, International Logistics, Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), EOS
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