Samantha Justus
Verified Expert in Project Management
Scrum Master and Project Manager
Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Toptal member since February 8, 2023
Samantha is an ambitious and dynamic Agile leader offering expertise in technical and marketing strategy-driven solutions. She drives large change management initiatives with cross-functional teams from strategic planning through execution. Samantha is also especially passionate about Scrum and has a proven track record of successfully building team culture and maintaining open communication between executive leadership teams, clients, and team members.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Coaching
- Agile Leadership
- Agile Program Management
- Change Leadership
- Change Management
- Dispute Resolution
- Scrum
- Scrum Master
Work Experience
Skills PMO Director
Pluralsight
- Built a new PMO as the first senior technical project manager hired.
- Grew the PMO to 10 programs and project managers over two years as the team lead and got promoted to a PMO director role, reporting to the VP of product strategy and operations.
- Vetted candidates to find world-class talent able to collaborate with C-level executives and run a program across hundreds of people.
- Hired a team of senior program managers, created service offerings, and educated leadership on the function and value of the PMO.
- Increased transparency and allowed a cohesive product development lifecycle by migrating heavily-siloed teams from 12 systems to a new knowledge management system rolled out to 2,000+ employees. Optimized peer accountability and collaboration.
- Oversaw an $18 million budget for technical integration. Served as the project manager and key point of contact for the cloud integration for product, tech, and content spanning 20+ teams and 100+ people.
Senior Technical Project Manager
Merkle
- Managed a year-long digital transformation project for a major client, the Japanese conglomerate Nagase. Propelled the client into the digital age and enabled online commerce.
- Led the implementation of Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) and oversaw a $25 million budget and strategy across three teams: the systems suite, creative, which included marketing materials, photography, branding, and translation, and technical teams.
- Delivered enterprise-level digital transformation using Agile methods, overseeing three cross-functional Scrum teams with 85 members. Managed the chargeback model and ensured billing for all hours.
- Identified and validated requirements by partnering with product owners and the CMS, eCommerce, and QA teams.
Agile Coach
Trove Brands
- Implemented Agile methodology in the marketing and product brand department to scale and grow the brands.
- Managed three brands, including BlenderBottle, Whiskware, and Avana, and conceptualized the new brand: Owala.
- Enabled growth by reorganizing the department into four scrum teams, one for each brand.
- Implemented Scrum across all four teams by training staff on the Scrum framework and its benefits. Trained brand managers to become product owners.
- Benefitted the entire company and transformed the organization of digital assets by procuring and implementing Brandfolder, a cloud-based digital asset manager.
- Ensured searchability of creative assets by designing a taxonomy, training scrum teams on best practices, and creating a documentation library.
Scrum Master
Clearlink
- Managed two performance marketing scrum teams of 12 members each. Facilitated the scrum teams from strategy and copywriting to design and front-end development.
- Built high-performing, efficient teams by developing and managing project timelines and workflows through planning sprints, leading daily standups, and meeting with stakeholders.
- Ensured productivity by identifying and removing roadblocks and creating risk mitigation plans.
- Became the subject matter expert in Scrum and earned my scrum master certification.
Scrum Master
ExpertVoice
- Managed clients and oversaw the implementation and direction of all creatives—including strategy, interactive design, copywriting, and video production—for emerging markets such as kitchen and beauty brands. Drove 10-15 projects simultaneously.
- Oversaw all facets of large-scale interactive projects, including creatives, integrations, video, and budget. Assigned and managed teams for each project.
- Achieved client objectives by collaborating with brand strategists on campaign ideation and project cadence.
- Ensured profitability by tracking expenses, keeping video production within budget parameters, and pricing video appropriately.
Project History
A Cloud Guru (ACG) and Pluralsight Integration
Established the governance and strategic plan for the technical integration of products post-acquisition, executed change management across organizations, and hired a project management team of six to facilitate execution alongside agile teams.
I was the project manager and primary point of contact for the cloud integration for product, tech, and content affecting 20+ teams and 100+ people. I also managed an $18 million budget for this technical integration project. I built a process for tracking initial and ongoing costs for ACG integration and developed the budget, attributing resources and assessing opportunity costs.
Trove Brands Agile Transformation
Scaled the company's growth by implementing Scrum, managing all aspects of planning, training, execution, ongoing education, and change management.
I was hired to implement the Agile methodology in the marketing and product brand department to enable the brands to scale for growth. During which, I managed three brands—BlenderBottle, Whiskware, and Avana—and conceptualized a new brand called Owala.
Nagase Digital Transformation
Achieved enterprise-level digital transformation by overseeing three cross-functional project teams of 85 members using Agile methods. Managed a chargeback model to ensure billing for all hours.
This project was for a major client, the Japanese conglomerate: Nagase. I managed its year-long digital transformation, enabling eCommerce and effectively propelling the client into the digital age. I led the AEM implementation, overseeing a budget of $25 million and driving the strategy across the systems suite, creative, and technical teams. This included overseeing marketing materials, photography, branding, and translation. Additionally, I built integrated program plans, forecasted utilization, reported project burn actuals, and identified risks.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in International Security and Conflict Resolution
San Diego State University - San Diego, California, USA
Certifications
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum Alliance Inc.
Skills
Tools
Jira, Slack, Confluence, Salesforce, Wrike, Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)
Paradigms
Change Management, Agile Leadership, Servant Leadership, Scrum, Agile, Release Trains
Other
Scrum Master, Agile Coaching, Project Management, Agile Program Management, Change Leadership, Dispute Resolution, Conflict Resolution, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Client Success, Integration, System Integration, Video Production, Production, UX Strategy, Web Accessibility, UX Process, Workforce Management (WFM)
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