Divij is available for hire
Hire DivijDivij Babbar
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Location
Montreal, QC, Canada
Toptal Member Since
May 2, 2019
Divij is a seasoned project manager who takes evidence and data-based decisions to ensure the implementation of optimal solutions. He manages complex and multi-country portfolios and programs with various stakeholder interests. His specialties include operational excellence, agile coaching, digital transformation, ERP, mentorship of junior managers, business process optimization, and team management. Divij teaches maths and physics in his free time.
Project Highlights
Project Manager - Mergers and Acquisitions IT Integration
Fortune 5 client with an evolving PMO environment had me as project manager to manage the integration of acquired company.
Client Executive and Business Agility Transformation Manager
Changed a traditional PMO in a large enterprise to Agile, including role/department based transformations while POS delivery.
Program Manager, AI and ML Projects
Saved vaccine batches worth millions of dollars thanks to analytics and AI applications implemented at Pfizer production sites during the pandemic, directly contributing to the growth of Industry 4.0
Expertise
Work Experience
Senior Director, Project Management
2022 - PRESENT
Hexagon
- Managed project leads which included supporting the company-client relationship and ensuring customer satisfaction. Provided budget analysis, labor planning, and coordination of activities between clients and company personnel.
- Mediated internal issues and conflicting priorities for members of cross-functional teams focused on the delivery of new or existing solutions to clients. Selected, developed, and evaluated personnel to ensure the efficient operations,.
- Implemented technology solutions, business process improvement, outsourcing of business support functions, and strategic management consulting. Was responsible for the overall financial performance of the services organization.
- Worked with sales on negotiation escalations, improving practices, developing a strategy for employee career paths, supporting global initiatives, and propping up the off-shore strategy.
Project Director
2020 - 2022
Infor
- Collaborated with industry leaders, diverse teams, and innovative minds.
- Interacted with senior executives across multiple industries.
- Worked on C-level/board-level communication and presentation skills.
- Managed multiple priorities effectively, networking internally to get things done, and was accountable for decisions. Executed multi-million dollar programs.
- Undertook financial analyses of projects, wrote reports, and issued information memos.
- Delivered oversight for Enterprise Resource Planning initiatives to maximize value and drive business outcomes and designed and implemented processes for PMO services.
- Worked on startup services to get the project started right and had a better probability of success and on recovery services for projects that have fallen off the rails and needed to be set back on the correct path.
- Ensured client satisfaction and worked on quality assurance reviews for projects.
- Directed the oversight for P&L for all project staff and overall financial management and delivery success and developed work plans that have a variety of non-routine assignments or projects.
- Established specific objectives determining appropriate methods, procedures, and deadlines and identified new priorities and took necessary action accordingly.
Senior Agile Project Manager
2018 - 2020
IBM
- Developed business strategies to improve organizational agility. Led the Agile Center of Excellence and initiated Agile champions to take ownership of their new roles.
- Managed all project phases (initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing). Chose and used multiple methodologies to direct multiple streams of work activity. Shouldered the entire responsibility of the planning and the organization of the project.
- Documented the decision points. Analyzed the costs and supervise/control the budget.
- Developed change management strategies, including organization change impacts, stakeholder adoption, and communications. Undertook value stream (process) mapping, gap assessments, and process re-engineering to identify associated improvements and maximize value creation.
- Defined the high-level sprint structure and project plan by organizing PI Plannings. Planned and coordinated team activities. Mitigated and planned all risks. Managed the team deliverables. Led and coordinated all Agile and DevOps related meetings. Led and coordinated change management meetings.
- Managed management and steering committees’ activities, presentations, status reports for executives. Mentored and coached junior project managers.
- Ensured that the clients were happy with IBM engagements, handling multi-million dollar projects across three continents leveraging global resources.
- Audited projects in the PMO to ensure that the best practices and the business processes are followed.
- Sought to expand upon past research to identify the technical, leadership, and strategic business competencies and skills/knowledge needed to manage projects. These identified and defined competencies and skills will include performance measurement criteria at each level of expertise to support project management professionals.
- Initialized and led the design thinking workshops in tandem with the Agile and DevOps delivery transformation journey.
ERP Implementation Project Manager
2017 - 2018
Mi9 Retail
- Managed cross-functional global team of 13 people for the following US-based multimillion dollar accounts each having multiple projects.
- Oversaw the entire software implementation life cycle, including the following tasks: gather requirements, author specifications, build task lists, run status reviews, prioritize, manage scope, track, anticipate and address challenges.
- Managed projects and assessed the business requirement to be achieved, the capabilities of the project team and alternative approaches to meet the requirement. Interact directly with many 3rd party businesses and technical stakeholders.
- Developed and maintained full-scale program plans including defining scope, goals, and deliverables.
- Defined and monitored project dependencies, milestones, timelines, and budgets to ensure adherence to project requirements.
- Organized and led scrum calls for the projects, and receive updates and exchange information from the team.
- Defined and effectively managed expectations with team members and other stakeholders.
- Assured timely completion of configuration and IT infrastructure related tasks.
- Ensured the development and implementation of required policies, procedures, work instructions, and standards of all products and services met customer and company requirements in a cost-effective and efficient manner.
- Developed new business opportunities, maintained good relations with existing client base, and proposed alternative client solutions that would yield added revenue.
- Reviewed, analyzed, and developed the rationale for recommendations to policy changes, as required.
- Initiated and made new tools for the evolving business processes including setting up Jira workflows, cross-silo methodologies, MS Project and Jira relationships through Visio and Excel, templates for client meetings using Mural and Realtime boards, etc.
Scrum Master/Agile Coach/Project Manager
2016 - 2017
Sirius Consulting
- Created the standard "Agile Consulting at Enterprise Level" document which Sirius employs with its clients. This document details the transition of a company from the traditional project management philosophy towards Agile, the level of Agility required, the impacts, and of course change management.
- Benchmarked the various software available corresponding to some criteria so as to help Sirius better serve the clients and recommend which new features were essential for its own software to incorporate.
- Created the agile document specifically targeting the website development process in order to identify the distance between the current project management process and the potential application of Scrum/Kanban. This will also help in creating a snapshot of the current process in place.
- Defined the project plan.
- Elaborated and presented the project organization manual.
- Managed the team deliverables.
- Managed resources, internal and external.
- Prepared the different management reports, and registers. Participated in management committees.
- Shouldered the entire responsibility of the planning and the organization of the work.
- Regularly held meetings with all concerned parties and stakeholders (Scrum method).
- Documented the decision points.
- Analyzed the costs and supervise the budget.
- Put in place the functional team structure.
- Ensured a good overall communication between teams.
Project Manager/Business Analyst
2014 - 2016
XPeria Technologies
- Donned multiple hats including that of the traditional project manager and also that of a business analyst who was involved in writing the product specifications by engaging closely with the voice of the customer.
- Planned, managed, and administered the scope, risks, timelines, costs, change requests, outstanding issues, human resources, and communications for assigned projects.
- Coordinated and oversaw the work of the project teams with the PMO and assisted the staff by following the “serving is leading” paradigm.
- Evaluated the resources working on these projects.
- Promoted the interaction and synergy between the customers and stakeholders (internal/external) and the project teams.
- Ensured the optimal use of resources (human, financial and material) within the course of the projects.
- Managed the quality of the project and its smooth implementation in a multiproject environment.
- Ensured the proper deployment of the training modules for the Red Hat Certification in Linux at the clients of Xperia which had demanded consultancy aid for the same. The clients were based on Bangalore and had to work in Virtual teams. Also had to learn the then current version of RHEL. The project manager assigned me to coordinate the activities in Delhi and Gurgaon (National Capital Region) and to assure the proper follow up of the project plans, both at the company itself and also at the client side.
- Worked efficiently under pressure while facing tight deadlines and multiple tasks.
- Elaborated the strategies and objectives for maximizing the return on investment of the client.
- Assured excellent relations with the client.
- Evaluated the risks and to look for new opportunities.
- Managed changes from the existing training system in place towards the new one.
- Took into account the possible evolutions and recommend them to the client.
IT Project Manager
2013 - 2014
L'Oréal
- Represented the purchasing department to the company's manufacturing plants.
- Teamed up with the local teams for deploying the new software.
- Assured the quality testing of the new software.
- Followed up activities of day to day happenings in the projects.
- Managed the IT team from Accenture which helped L'Oreal for this project.
- Worked at the interface of technology and management - interlocutor between the corporate purchase department and the information systems department.
- Wrote user guides and conducted workshops to “Train the Trainers."
- Handled change management. For market allocation consisting of changing suppliers for the purchasing department, did a feasibility study and created the business rules.
- Deployed a new software interfaced on SAP in the pilot plants of Europe and America and later on everywhere in the world.
- Inculcated in the software the control rules and the purchase department rules applied with respect to the SAP objects created when BAPIs for switching a supplier for an article is applied. The aim was to furnish a tool which helps the plant workers in L'Oréal to easily switch suppliers.
Project Coordinator
2010 - 2011
XPeria Technologies
- Assisted the PM and learned on the job the tricks of the trade.
Algorithmic Programming Science Consultant
2008 - 2010
DRDO and Ministry of Communication and IT
- Managed image analysis, graph theory, fourier transformation, and mathematical morphology.
- Assisted the scientists for multiple projects. Assisted the managers for multiple projects.
- Proposed new mathematical solutions for solving problems.
- Authored research papers proposing new methods for image filtering based on the Frobenius norm which were published in the International Journal of Computer Applications, Harvard Database, NASA Astrophysics database, and IEEE International Conference at Shanghai, China.
Project History
Project Manager - Mergers and Acquisitions IT Integration
Fortune 5 client with an evolving PMO environment had me as project manager to manage the integration of acquired company.
Implementation using the SAFe agile framework, in the mergers and acquisitions scenario where two giants of the pharmaceutical industry were forming a unified bigger company, across countries and time zones.
I lead right from the executive white-board, to the digitization of ideas through design thinking workshops to track the hills and convert the ideas into initiatives, epics and user stories for feeding the backlog.
I had a skilled team of IT infrastructure specialists, architects, data modelers, and software developers, with whom we laid out a phase by phase approach of the integration.
Scope creep was controlled when the line between the creation of net new ideas and integration of existing ideas was being blurred by enthusiastic stakeholders.
It was necessary to undertake the business process and workflow reviews and inventions when the departments of the cross-silo cross companies would interact, and on to top it all off both companies were moving to a new internal tool for process management and financial management.
The added complexity of the project came from legalities because of the highly sensitive personal health information of the clients of the merging companies.
I lead right from the executive white-board, to the digitization of ideas through design thinking workshops to track the hills and convert the ideas into initiatives, epics and user stories for feeding the backlog.
I had a skilled team of IT infrastructure specialists, architects, data modelers, and software developers, with whom we laid out a phase by phase approach of the integration.
Scope creep was controlled when the line between the creation of net new ideas and integration of existing ideas was being blurred by enthusiastic stakeholders.
It was necessary to undertake the business process and workflow reviews and inventions when the departments of the cross-silo cross companies would interact, and on to top it all off both companies were moving to a new internal tool for process management and financial management.
The added complexity of the project came from legalities because of the highly sensitive personal health information of the clients of the merging companies.
Senior PM - Purchase Management Contracting and Market Reallocation
Developed and deployed ERP tool interfaced on SAP from pilot plants in France and Germany, then all plants globally.
A complete purchasing process control system was built at a fortune 50 company, which has its own manufacturing plants world over and has specific requirements for the raw materials and the contracts with their suppliers.
From the input of the initial raw material into SAP, and linking it to the correct plant, with the right pricing, the right supplier, and the right delays in the supply chain, our software is now used by all first-line workers to handle demand and forecast appropriately enterprise-wide.
From the input of the initial raw material into SAP, and linking it to the correct plant, with the right pricing, the right supplier, and the right delays in the supply chain, our software is now used by all first-line workers to handle demand and forecast appropriately enterprise-wide.
Client Executive and Business Agility Transformation Manager
Changed a traditional PMO in a large enterprise to Agile, including role/department based transformations while POS delivery.
I handled a program spanning two multi-million dollar accounts, and more than 20 projects.
I acted as the solution train engineer and I launched and oversaw multiple release trains in a software development company in the retail sector and lead the transformation after having given the requisite education and knowledge to other managers.
I was the principal liaison between other vendors and the clients acting as the trusted adviser on point of sale, business intelligence, advanced analytics, third-party payments, and time-keeping solutions.
The projects spanned Europe and North America, with multiple teams in different locations.
I acted as the solution train engineer and I launched and oversaw multiple release trains in a software development company in the retail sector and lead the transformation after having given the requisite education and knowledge to other managers.
I was the principal liaison between other vendors and the clients acting as the trusted adviser on point of sale, business intelligence, advanced analytics, third-party payments, and time-keeping solutions.
The projects spanned Europe and North America, with multiple teams in different locations.
Program Manager, AI and ML Projects
Saved vaccine batches worth millions of dollars thanks to analytics and AI applications implemented at Pfizer production sites during the pandemic, directly contributing to the growth of Industry 4.0
As a program manager, I was responsible for around 80 people, four external vendors, and 30 internal key stakeholder divisions. I also oversaw around 50 projects at any given time. My responsibilities included proper funding allocation and hiring and firing for personnel, and overseeing sub divisions.
Education
2012 - 2013
Master of Science Degree in Management of Information Systems
ESIEE - Paris, France
2011 - 2012
Master of Engineering Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science
ESIEE - Paris, France
Certifications
FEBRUARY 2019 - PRESENT
IBM Agile Thought Leader
IBM
JANUARY 2019 - PRESENT
Statistical Thinking for Data Science
Columbia University
SEPTEMBER 2018 - PRESENT
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
AUGUST 2018 - PRESENT
SA Certified Agilist
Scaled Agile Frameworks (SAFe)
FEBRUARY 2018 - PRESENT
Omnichannel and Retail Mangement
Dartmouth College
OCTOBER 2016 - PRESENT
Managing Projects with MS Project
Microsoft
JULY 2016 - PRESENT
Agile Software Development
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
JANUARY 2016 - PRESENT
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
NOVEMBER 2015 - PRESENT
SQL
Oracle
OCTOBER 2015 - PRESENT
ITIL
Axelos
OCTOBER 2015 - PRESENT
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum Alliance
Collaboration That Works
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
1
Share your needs
Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.
2
Choose your talent
Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.
3
Start your risk-free talent trial
Work with your chosen talent on a trial basis for up to two weeks. Pay only if you decide to hire them.
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring