Nicholas is available for hire
Hire NicholasNicholas Nagle
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Toptal member since February 1, 2021
Bio
Nicholas had the privilege of holding multiple positions within agile software development, from business analyst to scrum master, agile coach, project and program manager, and senior manager, allowing him to expand his learning and hone his skills. Nicholas worked in multiple industries through various positions, which helped him see software development through different lenses, enabling him to craft a unique and holistic approach to driving projects and navigating challenges.
Project Highlights
Cigarette Pricing Application Revamp
Utilized Scrum to revamp an on-premise tobacco pricing solution, focusing on both retail and wholesale environments. We modernized the solution to work more efficiently by developing and integrating an API tool to assist in automation.
Salesforce Transformation
Helped lead an oil and gas industry client through a Scaled Agile Framework transformation, which standardized their cloud solution across multiple teams.
Supplier Risk Initiative
Helped an IT client develop and implement a new supplier risk platform.
Expertise
- Agile
- Agile Coaching
- Agile Project Management
- Agile Transformation
- Kanban
- Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
- Scrum
- Scrum Master
Work Experience
Senior Manager - Delivery
2021 - PRESENT
Yara
- Served as the head of delivery for Yara AgTech solutions. Responsible and accountable for the global delivery vertical success and portfolio health within the AgTech space.
- Defined portfolio-level Agile delivery strategy to drive Yara’s digital transformation, aligning solutions with business and regional objectives.
- Led the creation and implementation of an Agile delivery structure, steering AgTech’s transformation to a SAFe framework.
- Spearheaded Agile transformation across teams, embedding SAFe principles to enhance collaboration and delivery efficiency across teams.
- Established a comprehensive delivery competency framework, clarifying roles and responsibilities across the global delivery organization.
- Led resource planning and organizational structuring for all delivery functions, ensuring optimal allocation of resources to meet strategic goals.
- Led global Agile training initiatives, delivering best practices and working methods to over 300 team members.
- Collaborated closely with the product team to establish a robust intake process, improving backlog refinement and prioritization for PI planning and responding to product and regional needs.
- Accountable for uplifting underperforming teams through SAFe adoption, resulting in a 90% predictability rate in Program Increment (PI) outcomes.
- Provided leadership in PI planning, coordinating cross-functional alignment across five value streams to drive cohesive strategy execution.
Agile Coach
2019 - 2021
CGI
- Acted as the main subject matter expert and lead for clients in assisting with a Scaled Agile Framework transformation.
- Assisted multiple clients in adopting Agile methodologies and helped scale from the team level to the program level.
- Helped multiple clients spin up new scrum teams to support newly identified initiatives in both cloud and on-premise solutions.
- Adopted the scrum master, product owner, and business analyst roles to help facilitate new teams and coach them through all Scrum ceremonies.
- Coached the existing scrum masters and product owners to help remedy existing anti-patterns and course-correct backlog refinement to increase throughput.
- Facilitated and led Scaled Agile Framework classes for existing clients and independent parties.
Scrum Master
2015 - 2019
SAP Ariba
- Managed the implementation and deployment of upstream solutions, including supplier lifecycle and performance, supplier risk, contracts professional, and sourcing professional.
- Adopted the Scrum framework in order to implement client solutions, as they previously followed traditional project management methodologies.
- Solicited clients' requirements and transformed business requirements into features and user stories for product backlog and leveraged historical velocity to derive timeline of feature delivery roadmap for clients.
- Acted as client liaison to ensure roadmap is being adhered to and continued refinement of features facilitating prioritization according to client needs. Escalated any blockers and risks to final handoff delivery.
- Facilitated Scrum ceremonies and events on client initiatives, disaggregating epics and features from the SOW to user stories for the team to develop incrementally.
- Facilitated the backlog refinement with product owners, ensuring the top priority items were addressed in the next iteration.
- Protected the team from any scope increases or other distractions interrupting their development cycles.
- Utilized Scrum and Kanban best practices to manage workload between support and tech teams.
- Facilitated the establishment of team practices to continuously improve their development lifecycle and imposed a limited WIP to enhance the team's throughput.
- Acted as a coordination point between Scrum framework and traditional project management by holding weekly progress calls with designated support contacts, following up on current projects, and diagnosing and logging existing issues.
Scrum Master
2010 - 2015
American Eagle Outfitters
- Joined the team as a business analyst and acted as a backup scrum master for teams in sprint planning ceremonies and other ceremonies while the lead scrum master was out. Promoted to scrum master for ORPOS implementation and support team.
- Established a new framework for executing new store rollouts and defined bug fix/enabler backlog in Jira.
- Participated in management stand-up reporting team statuses to senior leadership, including large blockers, burn down, and demo or release communications.
- Embodied servant leadership style to drive the team through Scrum processes and arrange around a common backlog.
- Created continuous flow framework for bug fix/enabler backlog execution, which took open items down from 500+ to under 150 open tickets.
- Collaborated with store operations and store technology teams to launch the new Oracle POS system in the US and the UK.
Project History
Cigarette Pricing Application Revamp
Utilized Scrum to revamp an on-premise tobacco pricing solution, focusing on both retail and wholesale environments. We modernized the solution to work more efficiently by developing and integrating an API tool to assist in automation.
Managed the overall project and acted as a scrum master, product owner, and business analyst to assist in development. While on the project, I was responsible for maintaining the budget as well as facilitating any adjustments to the SOW. As the scrum master, I worked with product managers to identify requirements and disaggregated epics into a prioritized backlog of user stories to act against. Additionally, I facilitated and organized all scrum ceremonies and led the team through various releases to the completion of the project, when we managed to create a roll-off plan to hand over to another team to support the solution via Kanban methodology.
Salesforce Transformation
Helped lead an oil and gas industry client through a Scaled Agile Framework transformation, which standardized their cloud solution across multiple teams.
Acted as scrum master and managed several teams consisting of 5-10 individuals. I facilitated all ceremonies at both the team and program levels and assisted in scaling from the team up through the portfolio level.
Supplier Risk Initiative
Helped an IT client develop and implement a new supplier risk platform.
Managed 5+ individual teams to assist in the development and rollout of a new supplier risk solution. Gathered and maintained requirements in an organized and prioritized backlog for the team to develop against via Scrum. Additionally, I assisted in the rollout and support of the MVP. We utilized both Scrum and Kanban methodologies for development and support.
Education
2006 - 2010
Bachelor's Degree in English
Saint Vincent College - Latrobe, Pennsylvania
Certifications
FEBRUARY 2020 - MAY 2024
Certified SAFe 5 Program Consultant
Scaled Agile, Inc.
Skills
Tools
Jira, Rally, Slack, Bugzilla, Salesforce, VersionOne
Paradigms
Scrum, Kanban, Agile Project Management, Agile, Management
Other
Agile Coaching, Writing & Editing, Sprints, Scrum Master, Status Updates, Agile Transformation, PI Planning, Agile Program Management, Business Analysis, Product Owner, Stakeholder Management, Scrum Coaching, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Microsoft Teams
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