Sathish Kumar TS
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Toptal member since May 21, 2025
Sathish is a dynamic and results-driven professional with a robust program management and Agile coaching focus. He targets leadership roles that drive strategic initiatives and foster operational excellence within the IT sector. Sathish is a Certified Agile Coach, SAFe Agilist, and Scrum Master offering over 24 years of diverse experience in release train engineering, program management, and product management, focusing on executing impactful projects that elevate organizational effectiveness.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Coaching
- Agile Project Management
- Delivery Management
- Jira
- Program Management
- Release Train Engineer (RTE)
- Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
- Scrum Master
Work Experience
Delivery/Program Manager | Release Train Engineer | Enterprise Agile Coach
Freelance
- Implemented Agile, Lean, Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe, ensuring timely, efficient program delivery.
- Coached multiple teams, strategizing and leading Agile transformation.
- Brought 24+ years of global experience in Agile project management and delivery leadership, with a strong focus on lean, cross-functional team coordination.
- Coached multiple Agile teams, improving performance by 40% through DevOps practices and quality engineering standards.
- Implemented tools like Jira and Asana for project planning and tracking.
- Managed remote Agile teams spread across time zones, ensuring sprint goals were met with clear visibility and alignment.
- Specialized in breaking down user stories into actionable front-end and back-end tasks, even when working with stacks like Next.js or Python.
Release Train Engineer | Program Manager | Enterprise Agile Coach
Verizon
- Established and implemented Agile methodologies- Scrum and SAFe. Implemented Agile and Azure DevOps practices, and elevated team velocity from 10 to 40.
- Guided large groups of distributed Agile teams, ensuring seamless collaboration and delivery across multiple time zones, resulting in a 40% improvement in project delivery efficiency and velocity.
- Led teams through Agile adoption, fostering a mindset shift towards agility and self-organization while continuously improving Agile and SAFe practices.
- Designed and rolled out a comprehensive Agile training program, driving a 40% boost in team productivity and significantly accelerating project timelines. Led a cross-functional initiative to optimize communication, reducing project delays by 50%.
- Developed and oversaw program roadmaps, ensured alignment with organizational goals, and proactively tracked scope, milestones, and deliverables.
- Built strong relationships with key stakeholders, facilitating informed decision-making, and providing regular program updates to senior leadership using dashboards and reports.
- Trained, mentored, and supported Agile teams, product owners, and Scrum masters to drive continuous improvements in Agile execution, maturity, and business processes.
- Identified and resolved program-level impediments, managed interdependencies, and proactively mitigated risks to ensure smooth execution.
- Evaluated program health using KPIs and OKRs, conducted Agile maturity assessments, and drove process enhancements.
- Organized and led Agile awareness sessions, best practice sharing, and community of practice initiatives to foster a culture of continuous learning and Agile excellence.
Project/Program Manager, Enterprise Agile Coach
Tech Mahindra
- Led teams through successful Agile transformations, driving measurable improvements in project delivery metrics and fostering stronger collaboration among team members.
- Earned recognition for elevating Agile maturity levels through impactful coaching and mentoring, demonstrating the tangible benefits of these initiatives.
- Cultivated a culture of continuous improvement, resulting in enhanced team performance and increased stakeholder satisfaction.
- Spearheaded significant advancements in Agile practices and team performance, setting a high standard for project delivery and stakeholder engagement through expert coaching and leadership.
- Led enterprise-wide Agile adoption, optimizing frameworks to speed project delivery and enhance collaboration.
- Streamlined software development using Agile methodologies to ensure efficiency and high-quality execution.
- Empowered teams with Agile best practices, conducting maturity assessments to boost performance.
- Guided product owners and Scrum masters in Agile product management, driving high-performance teams and successful transformations.
Project Manager, Lead Agile Coach
Standard Chartered
- Led Agile adoption across the banking division, driving increased project delivery efficiency and fostering seamless team collaboration.
- Conducted training sessions, mentored teams, and facilitated Agile events to cultivate a culture of agility and continuous improvement.
- Assessed team maturity levels, identified growth opportunities, and implemented innovative ways of working to enhance Agile competency and effectiveness.
Release Train Engineer, Project Manager, Agile Coach, Scrum Master
Infosys
- Spearheaded large-scale Agile transformations within the banking sector, embedding Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe methodologies to enhance efficiency and business agility.
- Drove seamless execution by proactively identifying and resolving impediments, managing cross-team dependencies, and implementing robust risk mitigation strategies.
- Championed the integration of Agile and DevOps practices, optimizing CI/CD pipelines and elevating team velocity from 10 to 39 while improving program predictability from 55% to 80%.
- Cultivated Agile excellence through communities of practice, fostering knowledge sharing and earning accolades for exceptional leadership, on-time program delivery, and high-quality execution.
Project QA Leader, Agile Coach
General Electric
- Led Agile transformation across multiple sites, implementing Agile, Scrum, and SAFe methodologies.
- Served as the subject matter expert for Agile, Scrum, and SAFe processes, defining practices in the SDLC handbook, leading the SDLC task force, and implementing quality review strategies in collaboration with senior management.
- Implemented Jira for planning and tracking, and Jenkins for CI/CD.
- Received numerous customer awards for successful deployment and training.
Senior Manager, Agile Coach
Siemens
- Led the transformation, deployment, and training of teams on Agile, Scrum, and Kanban processes, enhancing productivity and quality.
- Directed project teams in the medical division, developed project plans, and ensured the timely delivery of programs while meeting all milestones.
- Integrated Jira for project planning and tracking.
- Implemented a knowledge management system in SharePoint to enhance team competencies.
Software Project Quality Leader
Philips
- Led and mentored the team through training on Agile, Kanban, and CMMI, ensuring process compliance and facilitating software quality assurance and testing for division projects.
- Directed team improvement, overseeing the deployment of testing tools across the organization to achieve the CMMI Level 5 certification.
- Integrated the Jira tool for planning and tracking.
Engineering Project Manager, Quality Manager
BPL Sanyo
- Headed R&D, project delivery, and quality functions; led product development and operationalization of engineering processes.
- Implemented process frameworks and managed cross-functional teams to deliver multiple products to market.
- Drove the organization to achieve ISO 9001 Certification and International Standards like CE Marking, etc., and implemented quality systems to develop and deliver electronic products with excellent quality.
Project History
Agile Transformation for a US Client
Led a team and successfully delivered a digital onboarding platform for marketing and revenue operations, implementing SAFe practices.
This project involved managing a team of 100+ developers, QA experts, Scrum masters, product owners, and DevOps engineers. I established and implemented Agile methodologies, such as Scrum and SAFe, to enhance communication in software development and ensure timely, efficient program delivery. In addition, I guided large groups of distributed Agile teams, providing seamless collaboration and delivery across multiple time zones, resulting in a 40% improvement in project delivery efficiency and velocity.
Enterprise Agile Transformation and SAFe Implementation for an Insurance Client in the US
Transformed a large team of 125+ people into a SAFe environment, achieving a program predictability of 85% and improving quality with no critical defects.
I spearheaded large-scale Agile transformations within the banking sector, embedding Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe methodologies to enhance efficiency and business agility. This project involved driving seamless execution by proactively identifying and resolving impediments, managing cross-team dependencies, and implementing robust risk mitigation strategies.
I integrated Agile and DevOps practices, optimizing CI/CD pipelines, and elevating team velocity from 10 to 39 while improving program predictability from 55% to 80%. I also cultivated Agile excellence through communities of practice, fostering knowledge sharing, and earning accolades for exceptional leadership, on-time program delivery, and high-quality execution.
Agile Transformation of a Large German Telecommunication Product Development Team
Guided a sizeable, cross-functional, multi-cultural, multi-geographical team of over 1,000 colleagues in the design and launch of leading-edge solutions.
I led an enterprise-wide adoption of Agile, optimizing frameworks to speed project delivery, enhance collaboration, and streamline software development to ensure efficiency and high-quality execution. This project involved empowering teams with Agile best practices, conducting maturity assessments to boost performance, and guiding product owners and Scrum masters in Agile product management.
Digital Project Management and eCommerce (Shopify)
Coached teams on Agile/Scrum in digital agency environments, reducing delivery cycle time by 35% and increasing client satisfaction.
1) Delivered agile web and mobile app projects for commerce clients, with an emphasis on Shopify storefront customization, payment gateway integration, and mobile responsiveness.
2) Managed sprint planning, stakeholder demos, and delivery reviews across up to 3 simultaneous client engagements using Asana and Jira.
3) Partnered with design and QA teams to streamline UX workflows and ensure high-quality, bug-free releases on tight timelines.
Large-scale Digital Project Management, Data Modernization, and AI-ready Program
Outcomes included a 40% improvement in data availability for AI workloads and enhanced governance across domains.
1) At Infovision/Verizon, I led a large-scale data modernization program integrating a domain-oriented data mesh architecture for telecom analytics. Scope included delivering a scalable, federated data platform enabling both real-time analytics and AI/ML model pipelines. I acted as Program Manager and Enterprise Agile Coach, overseeing a distributed team of 110+ members across platform engineering, data engineering, and DevOps. Key tooling and technologies included Azure Data Factory, Databricks, Kafka, Snowflake, Azure DevOps, and Jira. Outcomes included a 40% improvement in data availability for AI workloads and enhanced governance across domains.
2) I led platform enhancements to make the enterprise data environment AI-ready by:
• Implementing streaming pipelines with Kafka for near-real-time ingestion
• Establishing feature stores in Databricks to accelerate model training and reuse
• Integrating MLflow for experiment tracking and deployment automation
• Ensuring data pipelines met MLOps standards for continuous model retraining
This enabled scalable model training and deployment for predictive analytics and customer experience optimization.
Education
Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
Bharathidasan University - Tiruchirapalli, India
Bachelor's Degree in Electronics and Communication
PSG College of Technology - Coimbatore, India
Certifications
OKR Certification: Leadership and Goal Setting
Coursera
Generative AI Mastermind
Outskill
Generative AI for Project Managers
PMI
SAFe 6.0 Agilist
Scaled Agile
Scrum Product Owner Certified (SPOC)
Udemy
Team Kanban Practitioner
Kanban University
Agile Coaching (ICP-ACC)
IC Agile
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum Alliance
Skills
Tools
Jira, Confluence, Asana, Atlassian, Microsoft Excel, Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, Slack, Azure DevOps Services, Odoo, HubSpot, Salesforce, Figma, Google Sheets, Google Workspace, Shopify Plus, Microsoft Dynamics, GitHub, Moodle, Claude, Rally, Jenkins, SQL
Paradigms
Agile Project Management, Kanban, Agile, Scrum, Agile Leadership, Implementation Project Management, Change Management, Software Testing, Agile Delivery, HIPAA Compliance, Agile Product Management, DevOps, Azure DevOps, B2B, UX Design, Business Continuity Planning (BCP), B2C, AI Project Management, Machine Learning Operations (MLOps), User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
Industry Expertise
Digital Marketing, Healthcare, Professional Services, Business Technology, Electronics, Technology, Asset Management, Pharmaceuticals, Logistics, Consumer Products, Real Estate, Financial Services, Food, Retail & Wholesale, Revenue Operations (RevOps), Architecture, Education Technology (Edtech), Insurance, Sustainability, Booking Apps, Travel & Leisure
Platforms
Azure, Shopify, Zendesk, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Microsoft Dynamics 365, WordPress, Monday.com, Amazon Web Services (AWS), SharePoint
Other
Scrum Master, Agile Coaching, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Release Train Engineer (RTE), Delivery Management, Project Management, Communication, Program Management, Agile Release Train (ART), Backlog Management, Project Tracking, Stakeholder Management, Risk Management, Process Optimization, Dashboards, Project Planning, Workflow Automation & System Integration, IT Project Management, Project Reporting, Stakeholder Engagement, Technical Project Management, Digital Services, Technical Program Management, IT Governance, Project Delivery, Project Management Professional (PMP), Backlog Grooming, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Sprint Planning, Resource Management, Account Management, Client Software, Customer Service, Coaching, Product Management, Acceptance Criteria, Feature Prioritization, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Product Roadmaps, Project Timelines, Release Management, Process Improvement, Project Management Office (PMO), PI Planning, Waterfall, Process Improvement Project Management, Agile Program Management, Budget Management, IT Service Delivery, Client Delivery Management, Online Payments, Card Payments, Operations, Progress Reporting, Documentation, Executive Leadership, Team Leadership, Budget Controls, Financial Systems, Funding Strategy, R&D, Data Analysis, Futures & Options, Reporting, Process Documentation, Technical Documentation, Team Mentoring, Discovery, Contract Management, Team Management, User Stories, Business Process Optimization, Scheduling, Workflow Optimization, PMO, PMO Frameworks, PMO Processes, Program Management Office (PgMO), Remote Work, New Product Rollout, System Implementation, Budgeting, Process Mapping, User Workflows, Team Building, Strategy Consulting, Business Delivery Management, IT Consulting, Project Management in Gaming, Project Management Consulting, Creative Design, Product Design, System Integration, Chief of Staff, Management Consulting, Business Operations, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Getting Things Done (GTD), Operations Management, Client Management, Team Productivity, Offshore Team Management, Remote Team Leadership, Customer Success, Business Transformation, Manufacturing, Project Budget Management, API Platforms, CI/CD Pipelines, Sprint Ceremonies, Continuous Improvement, Regulatory Compliance, Microsoft Teams, Systems Thinking, Cybersecurity, Delivery, ISO Compliance, EMR, Electronic Health Records (EHR), Governance, Operational Efficiency Improvement, Planning, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Project Management Operations, Customer Retention, Jira Administration, Software Project Management, Client-side, Hiring, Ownership, ITSM, Jira REST API, Jira Service Management, Process Flows, End-to-end Implementation (E2E), Software Integration, Project Planning & Execution, Project Controls, Project Coordination, Governance Frameworks, RAID, FinOps, Strategy, Agile Deployment, Product Launch, Medical Device Management, Medtech, Startup Consulting, Medical Devices, Customer Support, Enterprise Change Management (ECM), Stakeholder Alignment, Team Coordination, Electrical Engineering, Microelectronics, Coordination, Performance Metrics, IT, Medical Software, Medical Applications, PMO Governance, Enterprise Project Management, Cross-functional Coordination, Metrics, Quality Assurance (QA), Scope Management, Sprint Retrospectives, QA Testing, Project Evaluation, Facilitation, Project Leadership, C-suite, Software as a Service (SaaS), Process Transformation, Agile Product Delivery, Business Requirements, ERP Implementation, Agile Sprints, Milestones, Strategic Initiatives, Digital Transformation, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Communications Management, Workshops, Roadmaps, Technical Delivery Management, Workflow Automation, Compliance, Project Scoping, Applications, Stakeholder Communication, Business Administration, Cloud, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Business Analysis, Product Discovery, Project Discovery, Consulting, Licensing, Procurement, eCommerce, Web Applications, Vendor Management, Web Development Strategy, Web Hosting, Web Development, SaaS, Large Language Models (LLMs), Jira Administrator, Software Implementation, Product Owner, Smartsheet, PRINCE2 Project Management, Information Security, Data Privacy, Single Sign-on (SSO), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), System Migration, Discovery Management, SAP, Financial Forecasting, Vulnerability Management, Events, Startups, Retail Management, Warehouse Management, Warehouse Management System (WMS), PySpark, Python, Market Research, Trading, Customer Data Platform (CDP), Data Management Platforms, Life Science, Notion, AI Product Management, FastAPI, Machine Learning, Technical Product Management, Data Scraping, Fintech, Business to Consumer (B2C), Web & Mobile Applications, Websites, Workflow, IT Infrastructure, Data Analytics, Decommissioning, Data Integration, Business Intelligence (BI), Data Governance, Data Management, Innovation, Business Communication, CRM Systems, OpenAI, Operational Workflow, Business to Business (B2B), Web Design, Web Project Management, DV design, UI Design, User Interface (UI), Web Platforms, Web Product Management, User Experience (UX), Design, Website Design, AI Automation, Discovery Workshops, Requirements, Product Strategy, Extended Reality (XR), Internet of Things (IoT), Web, SaaS Design, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), CPQ, Salesforce CPQ, Business Process Management (BPM), Business Continuity, BCP Testing, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Monitoring, Metadata, Mobile Apps, Commerce, Technical Requirements, Apigee, System Architecture, APIs, Hardware Integration, Linear, Supply Chain, FedRAMP, GRC, SOC 2, SOX Compliance, Consumer Marketplaces, Marketplaces, Advertising, Social Media Marketing (SMM), Sales Process Management, Automation, Atlassian Plugins, Human Resources (HR), Microsoft 365, Data Security, Deployment, IT Deployments, Workflow Automation Design, Software Development, Education, AI Agents, Data Warehousing, Databricks, Deltek, Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains (GP) ERP, Biotechnology, Agentic AI, Organizational Design, Payment Gateways, Custom CRM Modules, Payment APIs, SAP Basis, Pharmacy, SAP Supply Chain Management (SCM), Vendor Coordination, Event Planning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Data, Managed Services, Web Scraping, AI Prompts, Learning Management Systems (LMS), Content Management, Content Management Systems (CMS), Docebo, AI Integration, Business Cases, Go-to-market (GTM) Strategies, Pricing, Product Analytics, Subscriptions, Data Migration, Finance, Data Modeling, Master Data Management (MDM), SAP S/4 HANA, Business Processes, Intake, Acumatica, Sourcing, Vendor Negotiation, Production, DevSecOps, Middleware, Microsoft Copilot, AI Adoption, Claude API, Gemini, OpenAI API, API Integration, Gaming Platforms, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), Employee Experience, API/Services Architecture, Enterprise Startups, Database Architecture, Sustainability Reports, ServiceNow, Data Mesh, Business Management, SAFe 6, Agile Transformation, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Scrum Product Owner, Electronics Engineering, Computer Science, Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), Marketing, ClickUp, Booking Systems, Travel, Zoho Projects, Zoho, Data Engineering, Digital Project Management, Coding, Firmware Development, Databases, Programming, Goal Settting, Leadership, Quality Management
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