
Marcelo Santos
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Toptal member since July 27, 2022
Marcelo is a result-driven professional with more than 23 years of software development project experience. He has led global, cross-functional teams and fostered innovation on transparency, inspection, and adaptation pillars. Marcelo has participated in numerous projects in leadership roles with cross-cultural teams.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Coaching
- Agile Project Management
- Agile Transformation
- Process Improvement
- Project Management
- Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
- Software Engineering
- System Requirements
Work Experience
Senior Manager | Agile Coach
Salesforce
- Designed and implemented a strategy for Agile adoption in more than 100 teams on the assigned cloud. This also included helping over 20 teams improve their use of Agile principles and practices.
- Implemented a tool for teams and leadership, including senior directors and VPs, to assist them in following up on a set of metrics to assess Agile health in teams and identify coaching opportunities.
- Trained over 60 scrum masters and over 30 product owners on Agile concepts, such as story mapping, backlog management, Scrum, and working agreements.
- Developed a dashboard to track agile metrics on predictability, performance, cycle time, and capacity optimization.
Scrum Leader | Technical Agile Coach
Lenovo
- Implemented Scrum methodology globally, improving the overall requirement and development processes, and increasing visibility and value brought by the team, following the business expectations.
- Managed three remote Scrum teams and two Scrum masters on a global eCommerce platform, which brought web solutions to more than 100 countries around the globe.
- Improved the release and sprint management processes through continuous and integrated work with businesses, product owners, architects, and development teams.
- Worked as a Jira administrator and implemented a reengineering of the eCommerce development group processes, which included workflows, approval policies, automation of events, and GitLab integration.
- Acted as an active Agile CoE member, providing coaching and mentorship for other Scrum masters and product owners, and leading the Agile transformation of the eCommerce group.
- Developed a web application for team management and work follow-up (React/Django). This tool also allowed for the identification of leakage in delivery quality and brought support to the Scrum methodology by implementing custom reports.
- Implemented processes and tools to support both strategic and day-to-day work, driving agility transformation and earning recognition as the CIO innovation champion.
- Led Jira administration and governance for multiple global teams, focusing on standardizing workflows and reporting metrics to ensure data consistency, which was critical for executive-level performance dashboards and strategic decision-making.
Senior Project Manager
Samconsult
- Led business re-engineering and managed an agro-industrial software project for the production of wine and oil in companies located in Italy. This project also has several interfaces to integrate with current ERP and HR software.
- Headed business re-engineering and managed the implementation of hospitality software for hotels and restaurants in Italy. Developed interfaces to integrate with channel management (CM) software, an ERP, a pay-per-view system, and room keys.
- Managed a project for a new version of the current sales and logistic software used for fruit production in Argentina and Uruguay.
- Led the implementation of Qlik Sense as a reporting tool and led the redesign of the database model.
- Carried out the bidding process to acquire two HR products and consulting services, according to internal audit regulations.
Senior PMO
Petrobras Argentina
- Controlled project execution and budget for several projects in the geological team for some oil and gas production and exploitation areas in Argentina.
- Executed quantitive and qualitative risk analyses for project discovery phases.
- Oversaw the implementation of a project scordcard and control panel tool.
Senior PMO
Banco Itaú
- Centralized the project execution control, implementing a process of planning, capacity management, and mentoring services for project managers in the IT department.
- Implemented an automated management information system (MIS), including a customized earned value model and a reporting tool for middle and upper management.
- Headed the re-engineering of budget and cost management processes within the IT department. It also included the automation of reporting in different area levels, i.e., project management and mid and high-level management.
Senior Global Project Manager
Thomson Reuters
- Introduced Scrum and other Agile practices among multidisciplinary teams worldwide.
- Implemented Jira as a requirement, planning, and monitoring tool.
- Managed discovery and execution phases for five projects within time and budget, working with multidisciplinary teams in Argentina, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the United Arab Emirates.
Tech Lead | Project Manager | Consultant
Baufest
- Oversaw the development of middleware services based on web services for Ixe Bank, Mexico.
- Led a discovery phase and controlled a project to re-engineer a health insurance management system.
- Directed the implementation of a credit management system for Santander Bank.
- Provided consultancy services on functional analysis, business process improvement, and project management.
- Designed and developed a control panel web application, an order entry application, and a customer negotiation application for the Americas.
- Administered data warehouse and developed reports using MicroStrategy and SQL.
- Headed the implementation of logistics applications for fruit and vegetable transportation.
Project History
Lenovo eCommerce Website
Managed the website releases for three years, which included working with five different development teams.
I managed development teams with a total of 35 members. Also, I defined the project scope, sprint planning, and product management, managed relationships with business, and supported teams. We had releases every three weeks, and it also included roadmap planning.
Agricultural Production and Logistical System for Fruit in Argentina and Uruguay
Headed business re-engineering, requirement gathering, and project execution of a new version of the system that supports logistics from fruit collection to final transportation to customers worldwide.
The project started with a gap analysis on current functionality and new business processes. Then, I conducted the requirement stage. The vendor procurement process was also part of the project and development.
Software for Grape Production and Wine Cellar Management
Oversaw the business analysis, requirement gathering, and development of a system that covers all stages of wine production, from fruit picking to wine selling.
For this project, I needed to learn Italian to work with the business on the re-engineering and requirement gathering stages. I selected a provider and managed a project involving developing products in Italian wine cellars.
Agile Health Indicator Dashboard
Designed and developed a dashboard for the Agile health model in the organization with views by team and company area.
Developed a KPI model on Agile Health Metrics that allows teams to follow up on the Agile adoption and area leaders to understand their teams. Along with this tool, I worked with other coaches on the model extension for the whole organization.
La Ley Web Portal Argentina
Led and managed reengineering and implementation of a web portal of legal information.
This project involved a cross-functional team of 20 people with different backgrounds (legal experts, writers, content management specialists, and software developers). The result was the release of a new product version within time and budget.
Abeledo Perrot Web Portal Argentina
Led and managed reengineering and implementation of a web portal of legal information.
This project involved a cross-functional team of 14 people with different backgrounds (legal experts, writers, content management specialists, and software developers). The result was the release of a new product version within time and budget.
Thomson Reuters Checkpoint Chile
Led and managed the implementation of a tax and accounting information system.
This project involved a cross-functional team of 12 people with different backgrounds (legal experts, writers, content management specialists, and software developers). The result was the release of a new product version within time and budget.
Agile Project Management Tool
Designed, developed, and implemented a tool that consists of several features for Scaled Agile adoption at an eCommerce group at Lenovo.
This tool was developed using Jira REST APIs, Django, Python, React, and MySQL. It included features for capacity planning (100+ resources), roadmap planning, sprint planning, earned value management, bug leakage, test covering, sprint execution, and time management. In addition to the design and development of those features, I took the role of product owner and managed all Stakeholders’ communications, which included executive leaders and directors.
Financial Forecast Process and Tool
Designed and implemented the process of financial forecast planning and execution for the IT Department of Itaú Bank (50+ teams)
The tool was implemented using Clarity PPM. This project required an improvement in current forecasting processes and the automation of tools to register budget proposals, approval process, expenses registration, and monitoring reports. I was responsible for the process analysis and improvement, plus the implementation of the tools. I worked with different areas of the organization, such as executive directors, engineering leaders, and project managers.
Customer Data Middleware Layer
Led team and managed the project for the middleware development of a business intelligence group at IXE Bank (Mexico) within time and budget. The success of this project allowed the definition of a second project to integrate other data sources.
The project consisted of the implementation on 40+ web services that acted as interfaces between the customer database and other systems to integrate data and reduce the sources of information. I led a team of 10 professionals, including product owners, architects, developers, and testers. I acted as project manager of the overall initiative and scrum master for the team and was responsible for client relations with stakeholders of the bank.
Health Insurance Company ERP Reengineering
I managed the discovery phase for the digital transformation of how the company runs insurance coverage and clinical information.
I was involved in the requirements gathering phase and process reengineering. Later, I acted as the project manager for the planning stage and the agile transformation of the IT department. I implemented an Agile project management approach using the Team Foundation Server as the main tool to track requirements, change management, and source code management.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Buenos Aires University - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Certifications
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Skills
Tools
Jira, Office 2010, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Office 365, Tableau, GitLab, Slack, Asana
Paradigms
Scrum, Agile, Agile Project Management, Functional Analysis, Kanban, Agile Product Management, Web Architecture
Platforms
Einstein Analytics, Drupal
Other
Software Development, Software Engineering, Project Management, Jira Administration, Scrum Master, Procurement, Business Process Analysis, System Requirements, Project Planning, Client Relations, Stakeholder Management, Project Budget Management, Web Development, Sprint Planning, Agile Transformation, User Stories, Time Management, Functional Requirements, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Program Management, Risk Management, Project Management Professional (PMP), Process Improvement, Burn-down Charts, Remote Team Leadership, Vendor Management, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Reporting, Agile Sprints, Project Discovery, Jira REST API, Python 3, MySQL, Product Owner, Software Design, Technical Hiring, Agile Coaching, Project Management Office (PMO), REST APIs, Leadership & Coaching, Story Mapping, eCommerce, Quality Assurance (QA), Scripting, JavaScript, Backlog Management, People Management, Workshop Facilitation, Gemini, NotebookLM, Google Apps Script, System Integration, Web, Technical Project Management, React, Django, Salesforce SOQL/SOSL, Backlog Grooming, Clarity PPM, Cursor AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), TypeScript
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