Paweł Wojnarowski
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Wrocław, Poland
Toptal member since August 10, 2021
Paweł is an IT manager driven by innovation and optimization with over 13 years of experience in banking and telecom. Working closely with the C-suite, senior management, and tech experts, Paweł's successfully managed budgets of $10 million and led cross-functional teams in strategic programs and highly visible projects using Agile and Waterfall. A responsible, dynamic, and result-oriented professional, Paweł combines a broad project management skillset with a robust QA and testing background.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile
- Agile Project Management
- IT Program Management
- IT Project Management
- Jira
- Line Management
- Scrum
- Test Management
Work Experience
IT Program Manager | Senior Project Manager
Credit Agricole
- Implemented a strategic, multi-year IT program that delivered a brand new sales platform and decision engine for all the bank's credit products to its customers in Poland via all channels—branches, contact center, and web and mobile banking.
- Led cross-functional teams of business analysts, architects, developers, integrators, testers, and business experts to deliver front- and back-end IT solutions.
- Delivered regular production deployments of software that met the highest quality standards—with at least 95% of bugs solved and above 90% of test cases positively passed.
- Completed the delivery of a credit risk system modernization program that allowed the bank to use new credit models, connect to external credit risk information systems & antifraud platforms, and extend credit products offer with preapproved loans.
- Managed effectively a retail banking IT program by implementing the new front ends for the bank’s entire sales network and combining it with project management of key projects (both in Agile and Waterfall methodologies) within these programs.
- Integrated elements of DSDM and Scrum frameworks with the bank's Waterfall approach to enable parallel coherent code deliveries from Agile and Waterfall workstreams by multiple internal and vendor teams.
- Identified, analyzed, and mitigated risks to budget, schedule, scope, and quality of multiple project workstreams by tailoring best project management practices to customer needs.
Head of Quality Assurance
Credit Suisse
- Ramped up and managed the entire testing services department consisting of over 110 professionals split into multiple project teams delivering for different business areas (fixed income, risk, private banking, data warehouses, and more) from the EMEA, APAC, and LATAM regions.
- Worked on various investment banking projects, ranging from strategic platform development (risk management system rationalization) through regulatory projects to legacy systems migrations.
- Engaged actively in the day-to-day cooperation with senior stakeholders from New York, London, Zurich, and Singapore.
- Oversaw four years of successful deliveries of regular BAU releases for the front office risk system used by traders in emerging markets.
- Spearheaded a dynamic department ramp-up (over 70 people onboarded) combined with active vendor management that allowed the rapid growth of flexible service-based testing organization against an ambitious deadline (nine months).
- Mentored and developed numerous teams of test managers, team leaders, manual, and automation testers—resulting in operational excellence.
R&D Manager
Nokia Siemens Networks (currently: Nokia)
- Managed an R&D team of 25 software engineers working on solutions for seven product lines used by GSM, 3G, and LTE businesses (support of both existing product portfolio and new product development).
- Led the successful deployments for leading mobile network operators from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and China.
- Acted as a 24/7 emergency team manager—coordinating software development and testing during the resolution of critical issues reported by customers.
- Conducted effective R&D lab extensions and modernizations that decreased software development and testing time and enabled significant cost optimization.
- Implemented automated test frameworks that delivered automated regression and functional testing of embedded software.
- Oversaw the integration and verification within a diverse and complex portfolio of IT projects—ensuring alignment of delivery within time, cost, and quality expectations.
- Served as an effective change agent driving the transformation towards a flexible, Agile-based organization.
Project History
Credit Agricole — Credit Risk Scoring System Modernization
Delivered a complex-and-crucial IT project—a new credit scoring system—which involved implementing three new complex scoring models and migrating three existing scoring models from legacy IT systems.
• Ensured the full project scope coverage and resolution of 99.9% of bugs, leading to a smooth production deployment.
• Enabled significantly more efficient and competitive customer assessment by the bank.
• Secured uninterrupted sales network operation despite implementing heavy modifications of most vulnerable systems in the bank's IT architecture.
• Applied effective PM governance and best practices in highly regulated banking organization.
• Proactively managed risk throughout all phases of the project.
Credit Agricole — Sales Network CRM System Extension
Delivered a broad set of enhancements to the bank's existing CRM system—enabling better customer service by integrating with various online systems and replacing legacy cyclical batch-processing-based solutions that provided outdated data.
• Introduced efficient Agile test-and-defect management, leading to the resolution of 96% of bugs prior to production deployment.
• Managed a cross-functional team of IT and business professionals, consisting of both customer and vendor resources.
• Provided numerous enhancements to a Java-based front end by integrating it with various customer information databases via online services, thus enabling real-time data presentation.
Credit Suisse — Front Office Risk System Business Support
Played a major role in regular successful deliveries through the four years of BAU releases for the bank's investment banking division, containing both new features, enhancements, and bug fixes.
• Successfully aligned business goals with feasible and cost-efficient technology solutions.
• Actively managed risks and issues stemming from the demanding project schedule and complex integrations with upstream and downstream systems.
• Proactively managed stakeholders from the front office, IT, CRO, and product control.
• Supported end-users from EMEA, APAC, and LATAM regions.
Credit Suisse — Continuous Integration Deployment
Implemented a continuous integration framework by leveraging for both the existing solution and new strategic risk platform.
• Secured stakeholder buy-in after creating a business case followed by a successful proof of concept (POC).
• Assured quicker code turnaround and high-quality deliverables by increasing the test coverage and reducing the test cycle execution duration by over 70%.
• Resulted in vast cost savings and reduction in the manual testing effort, thanks to overnight automated test runs; this allowed the team to focus on driving software and process improvements and switching to a preventive rather than a reactive approach.
Nokia Siemens Networks — R&D Lab Extension and Modernization
Completely redesigned and revamped the R&D lab in order to enable the proper support of both existing product portfolio and new product development.
• Enabled the US and China testing teams to remotely use the same hardware equipment within their LATAM and APAC working hours—resulting in a total of 120 people from various hubs using the same R&D lab in a 24/7 manner.
• Decreased software development and testing time thanks to a reduction of hardware and network outages and much more stable operation on a day-to-day basis.
Education
Master of Science Degree in Applied Computer Engineering
Wrocław University of Technology - Wrocław, Poland
Certifications
Agile PM Foundation
APMG International
REQB Foundation (CPRE — Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering)
REQB (since 2017 IREB — International Requirements Engineering Board)
ISTQB Advanced Test Manager (CTAL)
ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualifications Board)
ISTQB Foundation
ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualifications Board)
First Certificate in English (FCE)
University of Cambridge
Skills
Tools
Jira
Paradigms
Agile, Scrum, Agile Software Development, Agile Project Management, Software Testing, Waterfall Delivery, E2E Testing, Requirements Analysis, Continuous Integration (CI)
Other
IT Project Management, Test Management, QA Testing, Software QA, Team Building, Project Management, IT Program Management, Line Management, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Test Planning, Agile Software Testing, Test Cases, User Requirements, Functional Requirements, English, Resource Management, Resource Allocation, Vendor Management, Defect Management, Waterfall Methodology, DSDM, Risk Management, System Requirements, Technical Requirements, Integration, Automated Testing, Automation Tools, Contract Negotiation, Request for Proposal (RFP)
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