
Francisco Colon
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Santo Domingo, Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic
Toptal member since March 8, 2022
Francisco is an experienced IT project manager with a demonstrated track record of agile project management, digital transformation, IT strategic planning, and team leadership. His passion for delivering high-quality services has led to innovative solutions across multiple industries for the private and public sectors. Francisco has managed global distributed teams across different time zones and projects with large and complex budgets of over $12 million.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Project Management
- Business Operations
- IT Projects
- Objectives & Key Results (OKRs)
- Product Development
- Product Management
- Professional Services
- Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
Work Experience
AI Program Manager
Freelancer
- Managed and executed complex AI/ML software development projects, delivering key solutions that enhanced client business outcomes and provided a competitive edge in the market.
- Optimized AI/ML project delivery by implementing Agile methodologies and improving cross-functional collaboration across engineering, data science, delivery, and product teams, resulting in a 17% increase in operational efficiency.
- Provided guidance and mentorship to cross-functional teams, fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement, which led to the development of cutting-edge AI/ML solutions and strengthened team performance.
- Supported the development of automated model evaluation systems, improving the accuracy of model performance tracking and reducing manual oversight by 40%.
Senior Scrum Master
The Weather Channel
- Implemented multiple team dashboards for clearer visibility into project progress and to enable backlog transparency between departments.
- Improved sprint velocity by 13% in two months by fostering cross-functional team collaboration and streamlining the refinement process.
- Removed blockers and assured business value by managing dependencies and risks with RAID logs to track and assess issues with the relevant stakeholders.
- Handled complex relationships with contracted suppliers and internal resources, ensuring continuous value delivery while communicating with stakeholders at all levels.
Senior IT Project Manager
Pluralsight
- Documented and Implemented a governance process that reduced lead time for change requests by 46%—measured by average ticket age in Jira.
- Implemented a real-time product leadership dashboard, offering insights into live production issues, SLA metrics, and other internal indicators that were crucial for strategic decision-making.
- Served as architecture governance process coordinator for change requests and scope adjustments.
- Provided documentation for change requests that clearly identified the current state, business need or priority, technical implications or limitations, team who will perform the work, and key dependencies.
- Implemented scrum of scrums to effectively separate a single more than 15 developer team into two scrum teams (offshore and onshore) for additional efficiency with a standard operating procedure (SOP) for handoffs.
- Onboarded new team members and coached existing teams on agile best practices.
- Managed the workload, backlog, and scrum ceremonies for the integrations team, balancing outstanding production support issues with project deliverables.
Project Manager
GBH Solutions
- Joined the team as a service delivery manager and became project director after six months, looking beyond product delivery to inspect and adapt internal processes and tailor new working methods based on agile practices.
- Led multiple distributed teams of over 18 members with agile and lean practices, coordinating all technical and functional requirements to guarantee continuous delivery, timely improvements, and the creation of business value propositions.
- Built roadmaps and project plans to ensure continuous delivery of value and stakeholder satisfaction.
- Managed products and teams for large corporations and startups while improving the delivery process of high-quality software.
- Mentored mid and junior project managers to implement agile processes successfully and supervised the delivery and performance of their projects.
- Helped C-level executives and VPs define the MVP despite the complexity and uncertainty of the product that the business needed to build for a third party.
Researcher
Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre Y Maestra (PUCMM)
- Managed a machine learning application to improve traffic congestion in Santo Domingo. Documented the project's technical and business plan.
- Analyzed the performance of machine learning algorithms for image analysis and decision-making to develop the technical solution outline for the project.
- Designed a system and a dashboard for the control and monitoring of traffic. This platform was able to monitor traffic flow in real-time, adjust traffic signals to optimize the flow of vehicles, and reduce wait time by 31% on average.
- Led the data collection and model training efforts, evaluating performance against key metrics, fine-tuning parameters, and testing the model on different datasets.
- Facilitated the growth and self-organization of the team by fostering a culture of continuous improvement and agile practices supported by clear and concise product requirements.
IT Project Manager
Supreme Court and Judiciary Power of the Dominican Republic
- Managed scrum teams of multidisciplinary engineers—developers, network and infrastructure administrators, database administrators, and a security specialist—with 25+ members to fulfill the institutional project's objectives.
- Established guidelines, procedures, report templates, and schedules to track and manage the successful completion of the IT projects of the justice strategic plan 2020-2024.
- Managed a program with a budget of $9+ million for the digital transformation of the justice system in the Dominican Republic.
- Led the development of a virtual judicial self-service system and electronic case management software for 80,000+ users.
- Coordinated the digitalization process of 600,000+ case files for an enterprise content management (ECM) software implementation.
- Supervised the optimization of 134 broadband, GPON, and fiber optic links for courthouses and administrative buildings.
- Implemented a virtual hearings solution for 618 courts using Microsoft Teams, Outlook calendar, and Microsoft Bookings.
- Orchestrated the migration of over 3,000 users from Microsoft Exchange 2016 to O365 and the provisioning of 2,000 new users.
IT Networks and Communications Manager
National Emergency System (9-1-1) of the Dominican Republic
- Managed the networks and communications division with 12+ engineers by coordinating daily tasks, supervising ongoing projects, and ensuring the fulfillment of institutional requirements.
- Led internal analysts, contractors, and suppliers in developing critical IT services and implementing the 9-1-1 emergency system in the north of the Dominican Republic.
- Implemented the network infrastructure of the north branch, which included 1,100+ nodes of urban video surveillance cameras connected through fiber optics, 600+ PCs, 500+ VoIP phones, and 24 server racks.
- Participated as a subject matter expert (SME) in national public bids and formulated terms of reference and RFPs for federal purchases.
- Supported the preparation and execution of the annual operating plan (AOP) for the IT department in the north headquarters.
Information Technology Manager
All Sportz Apparel
- Worked as a primary point of contact on IT projects, ensuring all needs were met and company customer service goals were upheld.
- Designed and implemented the network infrastructure of new branches and VPN connections between sites using Cisco and Fortinet equipment.
- Performed migrations from legacy to new hardware to ensure reliability and performance.
- Developed 5+ web applications for supply chain management, supplies management, and order tracking.
- Integrated wireless technologies with multiple vendor solutions while working with Cisco Aironet and Ubiquiti Networks.
- Managed the day-to-day operations of servers and the network infrastructure by monitoring system performance, configurations, and maintenance.
- Deployed tools to monitor, maintain, and administer all systems: AD, GPO, WSUS, and third-party software.
Project History
Digital Transformation of the Dominican Justice System
https://customers.microsoft.com/en-CA/story/1403839100209674399-dominican-judicial-branch-national-government-azure-en-dominican-republicManaged the IT program that began the digital transformation of the Dominican justice system and enabled the judiciary power to continue its operation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Migration of over 3,000 users from Microsoft Exchange 2016 to O365 and provisioning of 2,000 new users
• Deployment of an electronic signature manager system for judges, secretaries, and lawyers for judicial court decrees
• Implementation of a virtual hearings solution for 618 courts using Microsoft Teams, Outlook calendar, and Microsoft Bookings
• Digitalization of 600,000 case files for enterprise content management (ECM) software implementation.
• Optimization of 134 broadband, GPON, and fiber optic links for courthouses and administrative buildings.
Methodologies: Scrum, Kanban, and Waterfall
Technologies: Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Power Platform, Microsoft 365, React, Microsoft SQL Server, Jira, Microsoft Teams, and GPON.
Virtual Judicial System and Electronic Case Management System
https://servicio.poderjudicial.gob.do/portal/es/signinManaged the end-to-end delivery of the complete software development lifecycle (SDLC)—from requirements gathering to maintenance—of a self-service portal with 80,000+ active users and an internal back office for case management with 3,000+ users.
As the IT project manager, I was responsible for:
• Setting up and monitoring agile development processes and methodologies
• Defining the roadmap and plan for both the internal and external application
• Leading the requirements-gathering process
• Writing RFPs, evaluating vendors, and hiring contractors for development
• Conducting biweekly project status sessions for judges and internal stakeholders
• Facilitating scrum ceremonies for the project team: daily standups, planning sessions, sprint planning, sprint reviews, grooming, and retrospectives.
Methodologies: Scrum and Scrumban
Technologies: Zoho Ecosystem, Zappier, ASP.NET Core, Angular, and Microsoft Power BI.
Scanning Platform of Legal Developments
Successfully delivered an MVP for a complex platform with multiple workstreams and intricate external dependencies for a company within the top 20 Fortune 500 list.
As the project manager, I was responsible for:
• Guiding the UI/UX team in the requirements-gathering process by removing blockers and assuring business value
• Managing complex dependencies and risks by using RAID logs to track and assess these issues with the relevant stakeholders
• Working with the product owner to prioritize the backlog and perform grooming sessions with the project team
• Conducting scrum ceremonies with the project team consisting of three senior developers, a tech lead, two QA, a DevOps engineer, a user researcher, an interaction designer, and a visual designer.
Methodology: Scrum
Technologies: React, Node.js, Apache Kafka, machine learning, artificial intelligence, Elasticsearch, and MySQL.
End-to-end Process, Data and System Transformation Project
https://www.pluralsight.com/Implemented scrum of scrums with a team of over 15 engineers across multiple time zones for around-the-clock support and timely delivery of project outcomes.
As the senior IT project manager, my responsibilities included:
• Managing the workload, backlog, and scrum ceremonies for the integrations team (15+ engineers), balancing outstanding production support issues with project deliverables.
• Implementing scrum of scrums to separate a single 15+ developer team into two scrum teams (offshore and onshore) for additional efficiency with an SOP for handoffs.
• Documenting a new testing strategy and leading testing efforts for the digital motions of the product.
• Onboarding new team members and coaching existing teams on agile best practices.
Methodologies: Scrumban, Kanban, Waterfall PM
Technologies and Systems: Salesforce, Marketo, Zuora, DocuSign, MuleSoft, Avalara, React, Node.js, Python.
Enterprise Architecture Governance Implementation
https://www.pluralsight.com/Documented and Implemented a Governance Process that reduced lead time for change requests by 46% (measured by ticket age in Jira).
As the enterprise architecture governance coordinator, I was responsible for the following:
• Creating a forum where business and IT professionals can discuss problems or gaps requiring production systems or application changes.
• Reviewing the alignment of business requirements with the proposed technical approach to ensure business and technical needs are met.
• Providing enhanced documentation for change requests that clearly identified the current state, business need or priority, technical implications or limitations, team who will perform the work, and key dependencies.
• Scheduling on-demand sessions for additional information from the business or technical leaders so that teams can provide insights on cost, timing, and technological implications to business leadership.
Generative AI Test and Evaluation Platform
Led the end-to-end delivery of the platform, supporting multimodal testing (text, audio, image) and delivering high-impact features to Fortune 500 clients. Additionally, I managed cross-functional teams to ship 40+ features in under 12 weeks.
Education
Master's Degree in Business Administration
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology - South Korea
Bachelor's Degree in Engineering
Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) - Santiago, Dominican Republic
Certifications
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
Scrum Alliance
ITIL Foundation Certification
Axelos Global Best Practices
Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
Scrum Alliance
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Azure Fundamentals
Microsoft
Cloud Infrastructure Foundations
Oracle
Network Security Expert 2
Fortinet
Skills
Tools
Jira, Asana, Trello, Confluence, Slack, Figma, Salesforce
Paradigms
Scrum, Agile, Azure DevOps, Web Architecture, Agile Project Management, Kanban, Agile Software Development, Waterfall Delivery, Servant Leadership, Requirements Analysis, Management, Change Management, Agile Leadership, DevOps, B2B, B2B2C, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C)
Platforms
Azure
Industry Expertise
Technology, Professional Services, Higher Education
Other
IT Projects, Project Management, Scrum Master, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), IT Project Management, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Feature Prioritization, Meetings, Spanish-English Translation, Customer Success, Analytics, Certified Project Manager, Team Management, Business to Business (B2B), Digital Transformation Program Management, Statistics, IP Networks, Wireless Communication, Cloud, Data, Cloud Services, IT Operations Management (ITOM), IT Support, Cybersecurity, Teams, Microsoft, Scrumban, Product Owner, Product Management, Agile Product Delivery, Process Improvement, Budgeting, Annual Operating Plans, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Strategic Planning, Digital Transformation, Communication, Computer Networking, Fiber Optics, Video Surveillance, IT Infrastructure, Cisco, IT Strategy, Agile Transformation, Risk Management, Project Delivery, Leadership, Business Requirements, Stakeholder Management, Remote Team Leadership, Program Management, Roadmaps, Agile Practices, Build Processes, Backlog Grooming, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Crypto, Project Planning, Web Applications, User Stories, Project Timelines, Requirements, Product Launch, Delivery Management, Best Practices, Hybrid Project Management, Project Management & Delivery, Delivery, Estimation & Planning, Project Scheduling, Reporting, Planning, Stakeholder Engagement, Sprints, Agile Sprints, Team Leadership, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Consulting, Business Analysis, Project Estimation, Modernization, Discovery Workshops, Go-to-market Plans, Budget Management, Technical Project Management, Software as a Service (SaaS), Scope, Project Coordination, Technical Writing, Documentation, Coordination, Task Scheduling, Business Transformation, Continuous Improvement, IT Governance, Enterprise SaaS, Business Delivery Management, Communication Strategy, Process Documentation, Product Development, Business to Consumer (B2C), Business Process Automation, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Process Improvement Project Management, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Business Process Re-engineering, Business Operations, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Marketing, Project Portfolio Management (PPM), Technical Documentation, Writing & Editing, Organization, Conflict Resolution, Fintech, Innovation, IT Security, Programming, Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Core Services, Compliance, Unified Threat Management (UTM), Threat Analytics, Cloud Security, Emergency & Urgent Care, Fortinet Firewall Configuration, ASA, Machine Learning, Data Scraping, Software Engineering, Project Management Professional (PMP), Lucidchart, Business Process Analysis, Business Process Flow (BPF), IT Service Management (ITSM), Value Creation, IT Services, Web Services, User Needs, Machine Vision, Scientific Data Analysis, Finance, Sales, Software Development, Version Control, Media, Video Streaming, Group Purchasing Organizations (GPO)
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