Karla J Ramos
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Miami, FL, United States
Toptal member since November 5, 2020
Karla is a senior project and product leader with 10+ years of experience delivering complex, large-scale programs for Fortune 500s and high-growth startups. She blends expertise in data platforms, data mesh, AI/ML, governance, and analytics with agile delivery in complex organizations. Skilled in vendor/stakeholder management and change leadership, Karla bridges business and tech to streamline operations, align strategy, and deliver measurable impact.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Software Development
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Change Management
- Distributed Team Management
- Enterprise SaaS
- Product Analytics
- Product Roadmaps
- Strategy
Work Experience
Project Manager
Mercola Consulting Services LLC
- Led Mercola Health Coach app modernization, integrating Mixpanel, Stripe, and HubSpot. Enabled AI/ML personalization, boosting engagement by 18% while ensuring HIPAA compliance.
- Led migration from legacy onboarding and lab ordering systems (custom PHP/MySQL and outdated CMS modules) to a unified React + Node.js platform, eliminating manual data entry and reducing onboarding time by 35%.
- Decommissioned legacy eCommerce tools (Magento 1.x, survey software), consolidating into a headless CMS with Shopify Plus, cutting maintenance costs by 22%.
- Implemented agile delivery practices using Jira and Confluence to coordinate cross-functional teams across engineering, marketing, and QA. Increased delivery velocity by 42% while maintaining sprint predictability.
- Negotiated and managed vendor partnerships for lab integration APIs, payment gateways, and content localization tools, ensuring on-time delivery and alignment with enterprise architecture standards.
- Championed change management and ways-of-working transformation, including training non-technical teams on analytics tooling and new workflows, which accelerated adoption of modern systems by 60% within three months.
- Bridged business and technical teams by translating marketing and clinical requirements into technical specifications, ensuring that new platform capabilities directly supported AI/analytics-driven personalization and operational efficiency.
Agile Coach
SailPoint - Main
- Optimized product development processes by redesigning the lifecycle using data-driven process mapping, resulting in a 20% increase in customer satisfaction and a 15% reduction in resource wastage.
- Enhanced team performance through coaching and mentoring over two Agile teams, resulting in a 50% improvement in velocity and improved product quality through tighter integration of business and technical stakeholders.
- Conducted high-impact workshops on Agile best practices and ways-of-working transformation, increasing team performance metrics by 25% and improving cross-domain collaboration for AI and analytics projects.
- Introduced and customized scalable Agile frameworks (SAFe, Scrum, Kanban) across distributed teams, improving collaboration and productivity by 35% while ensuring alignment with governance and compliance requirements.
Product Manager | Business Intelligence Operations
Dolby Laboratories
- Defined and executed a unified product roadmap for Dolby.io’s developer platform, aligning immersive audio API capabilities with customer-centric use cases across media, gaming, and communications sectors.
- Collaborated with marketing operations teams to launch full-funnel go-to-market campaigns, integrating product analytics into campaign targeting and improving MQL-to-SQL conversion by 22%.
- Developed integrated campaign performance dashboards that tracked product engagement, campaign attribution, and API adoption in real time, resulting in a 30% improvement in campaign optimization speed.
- Directed cross-functional teams across engineering, go-to-market, and Demand Gen to reduce launch timelines by 25%, accelerating time-to-market for Dolby.io’s SDK and feature releases.
- Implemented campaign-level A/B experiments using feature flags and marketing automation tools.
- Coordinated product-led campaigns that spotlighted new use cases and customer stories for Dolby.io APIs, contributing to a 25% quarter-over-quarter increase in active developer accounts.
- Integrated developer telemetry and feedback loops into lifecycle marketing automation flows, allowing the marketing team to personalize outreach based on usage stage, driving a 19% increase in re-engagement rates.
Agile Project Manager
Travelers - Personal Insurance Innovation Group
- Managed large-scale digital transformation programs within the insurance sector, integrating regulatory compliance, underwriting process optimization, and risk management requirements to deliver solutions that enhanced operational efficiency and Cx.
- Led enterprise-wide Jira implementation and governance, designing workflows, dashboards, and reporting structures to track progress across dozens of project teams and ensure accurate, real-time visibility for program leadership.
- Prepared and delivered program updates, risk assessments, and budget forecasts to the Travelers C-suite and senior leadership, translating complex delivery metrics into concise, data-driven insights that informed executive decision-making.
- Directed a multi-year enterprise data migration program spanning 10+ ongoing projects + over 700 contributors across technology, ops, and compliance, delivering strategic initiatives on schedule and within budget with cross-functional alignment.
Agile Project Manager
Travelers - Personal Insurance Innovation Group
- Spearheaded the MVP launch of an internal data and business intelligence platform aimed at transforming the marketing department’s access to real-time performance metrics and predictive insights.
- Led cross-functional alignment between data science, marketing, and engineering teams, defining clear objectives and KPIs that accelerated the MVP timeline by 30%.
- Defined user segmentation logic and tagging strategies in collaboration with martech, enabling personalized internal campaign strategies based on behavioral data patterns.
- Developed adoption success metrics and feedback loops, tracking engagement and satisfaction via surveys and system logs to inform future phases of the BI platform.
Agile Product Manager
Red Ventures
- Directed the launch of a digital financial services product roadmap that scaled to over 30 million users, integrating Bankrate’s content strategy with Lemonade Insurance’s data-driven funnels.
- Reduced editorial content production time by 40% through the design and implementation of agile workflows and marketing automation tools, accelerating campaign velocity and optimizing publishing cycles.
- Established reports for determining performance and production capacity on a weekly basis. Leveraged data analytics tools for visualizing, forecasting, and supporting business strategies.
- Defined and disseminated organization-wide program management tools, metrics, and standards.
- Managed the scope, time, budget, goals, and strategy of projects. Standardized project and campaign management processes, increasing cross-functional team adoption by over 60% and supporting brand consistency across multi-channel user journeys.
- Improved collaboration between marketing, product, and engineering teams, removing organizational silos and delivering fully integrated product-marketing campaigns with measurable lift in conversion.
- Addressed proactively risk factors tied to marketing compliance and data tracking, implementing solutions that decreased rework cycles by 25% and improved campaign launch accuracy.
Enterprise Program Manager
Amerant Bank
- Led large cross-functional teams (+40 members) composed of technical, financial, and business disciplines. Focused teams on business objectives and tracked progress to ensure milestones were completed on time, on budget, and with the desired results.
- Implemented enterprise applications with 200+ integration points, including the business online banking system costing around $7.5 million.
- Executed an RFP analysis, contract presentation/negotiation, and vendor supply management.
- Mitigated risk factors through the careful analysis of financial and statistical data.
- Gathered requirements concerning risk, information security, and compliance to effectively uphold security standards of disaster recovery, recovery time objectives, and recovery point objectives.
- Defined processes and tools best suited to each project and moved between Agile and Waterfall approaches depending on project specifics and client goals, creating detailed project road maps, plans, schedules, and work breakdown structures.
Director of Program Management
Ascend Digital
- Managed a $500,000 implementation of a custom, cloud-based travel app for two local charter companies serving over 100,000 yearly passengers while adhering to OFAC, TSA, and international security and reporting guidelines.
- Produced a medical iPad app and CMS for a Fortune 500 company, which shortened sales cycles by 65%, increased closing percentage by 110%, and yielded over $15 million of additional sales.
- Led the project planning activities by directing the creation, approval, and ongoing change control.
- Handled all client communications, conflict resolution, and compliance on deliverables.
- Led the efforts to pursue new business with existing accounts, oftentimes more than doubling revenue.
- Championed Scrum and Agile principles to manage the entire project lifecycle.
- Coordinated communications between internal IT team and vendors located in Latin America.
Registered Relationship Manager
UBS Wealth Management
- Served as a registered client services associate to three financial advisors with international clients in Chile, Panama, Venezuela, and Argentina, with a net worth of $400 million combined assets.
- Placed trades on behalf of stockbrokers with a focus on emerging markets such as offshore bonds and mutual funds.
- Researched on Bloomberg for international preferred and callable bonds.
- Communicated with high-net-worth clients in Spanish regarding opening new accounts, stocks, and bonds.
Project History
Product Manager | Business Intelligence and Marketing Operations
http://www.dolby.comLed product strategy and agile execution for Dolby.io’s API platform, accelerating time-to-market and increasing developer adoption across multiple verticals.
At Dolby, I served as product manager for Dolby.io, driving the product roadmap for immersive audio and media APIs. I partnered with engineering, go-to-market, and marketing teams to launch key platform features that improved developer experience and expanded use cases across gaming, virtual events, and media production. I facilitated quarterly planning, defined OKRs, and coordinated efforts across distributed teams in the U.S. and APAC. I also collaborated closely with marketing operations to align product releases with campaign launches, enabling a 25% increase in active developer accounts and improving cross-functional visibility. By building agile rituals and streamlining tooling and communication, I reduced release cycle times by 20% and improved sprint throughput. My work helped position Dolby.io as a reliable, scalable platform for real-time media innovation.
Product Manager | Marketing Intelligence & MVP Development
http://www.travelers.comLaunched the MVP of an internal BI platform that unified marketing data, improved campaign visibility, and accelerated decision-making.
Led cross-functional development of a marketing-focused business intelligence MVP, integrating CRM, media, and analytics data. Managed cross-team alignment, prioritized use cases, and implemented a centralized dashboard that reduced manual reporting by 70% and informed high-impact campaign decisions.
RedVentures | Lemonade Insurance
https://www.lemonade.com/Led product delivery and marketing operations for Lemonade at Red Ventures, launching high-impact campaigns and streamlining funnel performance.
As product manager supporting Lemonade Insurance at Red Ventures, I oversaw the full lifecycle of digital campaign initiatives—from intake and planning to execution and performance optimization. I collaborated with designers, developers, analysts, and marketing stakeholders to deliver frictionless user journeys, improve funnel conversion rates, and align acquisition campaigns with broader business goals. I defined campaign KPIs, prioritized backlog items based on performance insights, and ensured on-time delivery through agile rituals and roadmap visibility. I also led initiatives to improve marketing operations workflows, integrating analytics tools and refining campaign automation processes. This work led to faster iteration cycles, improved data accuracy, and a measurable lift in customer acquisition efficiency.
Bankrate Customer Experience and Personalization
https://www.bankrate.com/Launched MVP for Bankrate customer experience portal. Managed several releases in the personalization component for a Bankrate customer journey, including API integrations with the major credit bureaus.
The Bankrate CxP component provides a personalized experience for the users of our Bankrate website. Each person that visits our site is on a different financial journey. When our users sign in to the portal, they customize their experience based on their goals and credit. Our job was to provide the user with the most relevant information to help make better financial decisions.
Tasks Accomplished:
• Managed 37 developers, designers, analysts, and other key functional roles across three teams in Detroit, Pasadena, and Charlotte. Responsible for overseeing the planning, development, and execution of project deliverables impacting the user experience of over 50 million users across Bankrate.com.
• Led project planning, budgeting, action plans, and monitoring processes.
• Managed the relationships with the design vendors.
• Developed, implemented, and managed team metrics and made recommendations to teams and management for improvements.
• Interacted with senior-level management on the organization-wide agile adoption strategy and rollout plans.
• Worked with separate instances using multiple agile concepts and methodologies, including Scrum, Kanban, test-driven development, and continuous testing and integration.
Amerant Business Online Banking
https://www.amerantbank.com/business/Launched the business online banking app for 11,000 business account holders, including 200 bank app integrations with a combination of custom and out-of-the-box solutions, and also migrated all users from a customized legacy system.
Tasks accomplished:
• Led and managed the team in planning and continuous quality improvement.
• Oversaw the implementation and program oversight, ensuring goals and objectives are met.
• Owned the customer relationship through implementation (post-sale and pre-account management), collaborating with key internal stakeholders to understand business goals and define an implementation strategy.
• Handled implementations of varying scales (medium to large scale) for over 200 bank integrations into the online banking system, including account opening system, wire transfer system, bill pay integration, online QuickBooks, and so on.
• Helped build the process and lay groundwork for the team to scale.
• Completed virtual consultations and optimization strategies, supported roll-outs.
• Performed complex data migrations and advanced CSV imports/exports, including batch processes of real-time data.
• Helped improve efficiencies by up to 60% by replacing old systems with new apps such as Identity Guard for information security (multi-factor authentication).
• Leveraged Waterfall and Agile methodologies in internal and external vendor processes.
• Managed all change management communication to the Change Advisory Board (CAB).
Education
Master's Degree in Digital Marketing
Instituto Empresa (IE) - Madrid, Spain
Bachelor's Degree in Finance
Florida International University - Miami, FL, United States
Certifications
SAFe Program Consultant
SAFe
ICAgile-Agile Certified Coach (ICP-ACC)
ICAgile
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum Alliance
Skills
Tools
Zoom, Google Sheets, Jira, Confluence, Bloomberg, Asana, Slack, Basecamp, Atlassian Suite, Microsoft Excel, HubSpot, Microsoft Project, Salesforce, Tableau, Looker, Google Analytics, Figma
Paradigms
Agile Project Management, Servant Leadership, Agile Leadership, Scrum, Implementation Project Management, Agile Product Management, B2B, Kanban, Change Management, Agile, Agile Software Development, Requirements Analysis, Azure DevOps, Lambda Architecture, Web Architecture, Agile Delivery, HIPAA Compliance
Industry Expertise
Digital Marketing, Digital Banking, Banking & Finance, Financial Services, Insurance, Aerospace & Defense, Healthcare
Platforms
Monday.com, ProductPlan
Other
Scrum Master, Agile Coaching, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Communication, Facilitation, Teaching, Training, Team Mentoring, Teamwork, Distributed Team Management, Spanish-English Translation, Series 7, Product Analytics, Backlog Management, Project Management, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Project Management Office (PMO), Virtual Environments, Product Roadmaps, Project Scoping, Agile Sprints, Sprint Planning, Time Management, SaaS, Discovery Workshops, Online Banking, Fintech, Fintech Consultant, Program Management, Training & Training Content Development, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Team Leadership, Planning, Roadmaps, IT Project Management, Project Planning, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Management, Accountability, International Projects, Project Coordination, Complex Program Management, Agile Transformation, Operational Excellence, Strategic Planning, Process Improvement, PMO, Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Sharing, Hybrid Project Management, Mobile App Development, Mobile/Web Project Management, Agile Program Management, Digital Transformation Program Management, Risk Management, Vendor Management, Waterfall, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Business Analysis, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), PMO Development, Workflow, Marketing, Resource Management, Marketing Campaigns, Process Optimization, Workflow Automation & System Integration, Marketing Operations, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Business Communication, Outlook, Productivity, Senior Executive Management, Teams, Executive Support, PMO Frameworks, PMO Processes, Web Project Management, Product Launch, Business Delivery Management, Budgeting, Project Discovery, Product Strategy, Requirements, Technical Project Management, Project Management Consulting, Internet of Things (IoT), Chief of Staff, Management Consulting, Business Operations, CRM Systems, Getting Things Done (GTD), Operations Management, Project Management Operations, Project Leadership, Team Productivity, Project Management Professional (PMP), Startup Consulting, Software Project Management, Launch Strategy, Product Management, Project Delivery, Budget Planning, Project Planning & Execution, Technical Product Management, Project Design, Relationship Management, Market Research, Creative Problem Solving, Complex Problem Solving, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), App Integration, Executive Reporting, Process Improvement Project Management, Product Owner, Strategy, International Teams, Series 66, Data, Estimations, Investment Banking, Trading Applications, User Stories, Data Analytics, Tech Conferences, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Project Timelines, Software as a Service (SaaS), Vendor Selection, Data Science, Finance, Startups, Remote Team Leadership, Software Development Management, SAFe 4 Advanced Scrum Master, Scaled Professional Scrum (SPS), Dashboards, API Integration, Healthcare IT, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Organizational Design, Documentation, Insurance Product Manager, IT Infrastructure, Data Centers, Large Language Models (LLMs), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Campaign Management, Enterprise SaaS, Data Management Platforms, Program Management Office (PgMO), Project Management in Gaming, Financial Modeling, Program Increment Planning, Innovation, Machine Learning, Workflow Tools, Database Management, Single Sign-on (SSO), Multi-factor Authentication (MFA), Web Applications, Okta, AI Integration, Quality Assurance (QA), Presentations, Data Integration, Data Warehousing, Data Management, Data Migration, ServiceNow, Stock Trading, Gantt Chart, Community Management, APIs, Process Design, Project Estimation, Medical Software, Lean Startups, ERP Implementation, Aha!, Campaign Design, Marketing Operations, Market Risk, Operations, A/B Testing, AI Marketing, SEO Tools, Cross-cultural Management, Growth Strategy, Mobile Apps, Stakeholder Analysis, Big Data, Snowflake, B2B Marketing, AIOps, Technical Business Analysis, Data Governance, Agile Product Delivery, Business & Digital Transformation, SaaS Product Management, Python
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