Rijesh Jacob
Melbourne,Australia
Summary
An adaptable Program/Senior Project Manager with 23 years of experience in Retail, Banking (SAP), Automotive, Telecommunications, and Education. I have successfully delivered complex transformation projects to achieve strategic goals. I value communication and strong business relationships with leaders, clients, customers, and vendors for effective collaboration. I aim to make a significant impact in my next role.
Overview
22
22
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Project Manager
Coles
Melbourne, Australia
10.2021 - 12.2024
- Managed several key projects across the Data and Payment Services portfolios by New Ways of Working (Agile), adhering to the project management methodologies and standards as set by Coles Group.
- Lead project teams and resources contributing to project delivery to successful outcomes, managing relationships with direct reports for resource availability.
- Proven ability to lead and manage change initiatives within an organization, ensuring smooth transitions and adoption of new processes.
- Be responsible for planning, overseeing, and leading projects from ideation through to completion.
- Identify and manage project risks and issues effectively; have mitigation plans in place.
- Collaborate with, and adhere to, the Project Governance and Reporting requirements.
- Ensure project progress is monitored, and risks are managed.
- Manage project budgets in line with Coles' reporting methodologies and standards.
- Provide targeted communication to all stakeholders to ensure a clear understanding of dependencies, deliverables, and issues, as well as to measure and manage stakeholder expectations; work with senior stakeholders across many parts of the organization.
- Work closely with delivery partners and internal stakeholders to achieve end-to-end outcomes.
- Manage supplier, vendor, and brand relationships, and ensure that key interdependencies are managed appropriately.
- Managing post-implementation evaluation of project development to foster continuous improvement.
- Successful delivery of Voice of Customer, Medallia Integration: July 2024.
- Successful delivery of quarterly goals: Data Products for Squad, September '23 - June '24.
- Successful delivery of the GenAI Data Automation Project: May 2024.
- Successful delivery of the Dynamic Markdown Project: February 2024.
- Successful delivery of the Clearance and Flash Sales Project: June 2024.
- Successful delivery of the Data Navigator project, replacing the legacy system (STR: Secure Transaction Repository) - March 2022.
- Successful delivery of the IST (Information Switching Technology) project to replace the office system with the first brand - March '23.
Project Manager
ANZ Bank
Melbourne, Australia
06.2021 - 09.2021
- Management of the PMO (Governance, Assurance, BA teams) for a program of work that caters to processes in improving the existing customer management (transition to a new system - Salesforce SaaS Cloud-based), which oversees ANZ's fair treatment of customers.
- Management of regulatory requirements (ASIC and APRA) for ANZ in response to areas where ANZ needs to uplift its internal practices.
- Managing the budget/costing for FY21 (~$20m) and planning for FY22 (~$22m) for the Portfolio.
- Management of software and hardware license renewals with vendor suppliers and finance partners.
- Preparing reports for the Steering Committee, the Board, and the Risk & Finance Forums.
- Successful in shaping up the PMO governance processes.
- Successfully delivered the Q4 FY21 Budget and FY22 Budget for the Portfolio.
Project Manager
Smart Communications
Melbourne, Australia
02.2021 - 05.2021
- Program managing client projects in the APAC region, focusing on scaling up businesses moving into a cloud-based and digital-first solution.
- Managing scope, requirements, planning, financials, and end-to-end project delivery.
- Responsible for vendor management.
- Successfully delivered projects for APAC clients.
Project Manager
illion
Melbourne, Australia
04.2019 - 06.2020
- Managed projects for external clients in the Financial services, Telecommunications, Utilities and Automotive Industries situated in Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand by providing a credit assessment workflow solution with access to credit bureaus
- Projects were managed using the Agile methodology
- Liaised with Sales Consultants, Solution Architects, Simple KYC and Green ID teams to finalise the Statement of Work (SOW) as per the client's requirements which involved Solution Design, Costing, Timelines
- Demonstrated leadership ability, commitment and contribution to team building
- Supported multiple stakeholders
- Developed and managed project plans/schedules
- Ensured projects meet deadlines
- Managed risks, issues log, dependencies and mitigation plans
- Delivery focused and working well bringing teams together to deliver outcomes and results
- Provided Leadership in adoption of Lean thinking and techniques
- Involved in Client contact and supported sales and operations group
- Commercially focused and the ability to land practical solutions to achieve business goals
- Successfully delivered the Decisioning Solutions projects for external clients namely Mercedes, QBE, Heartland Bank, Thorn, VHA, Openpay as per statement of work
- Initiated the improvement of PMO related governance processes which resulted in an increase of efficiency by 35%
- Successfully delivered the inhouse reporting System Upgrade (migration of existing customer base to the new upgraded system)
Program Manager
First National Bank
Johannesburg, South Africa
08.2015 - 01.2019
- Managed the delivery of a key Core Banking Transformation Program (~$25m) in replacing the existing payment system with PowerCARD Acquiring (Merchant Services) and Issuing (Card) system
- Program was managed using the Agile methodology/framework
- Data migration from legacy systems to the new system/platform was the key focus
- Managed and facilitated the program of work from concept to implementation
- Project managed the delivery of transformational initiatives focused on enhancing the customer experience and driving sales for the Business Banking segment
- Accountable for program governance from a PMO perspective, including management reporting, SLA negotiations, financial management, resourcing, contracts and vendor management
- Managed key relationships between a variety of stakeholders namely, Program Managers, CIO, CEO and Business Heads
- Successfully launched the PowerCARD program (Payment solutions) in all subsidiaries of the Bank and migrated a huge customer base of merchants facilitating transactions of above $300K per day
- ~ $5M cost savings recorded in the process of Data migration from legacy systems to the new system/platform
- Successfully commissioned 9 environments (infrastructure) for the Acquiring and Issuing businesses
Senior Project Manager
Standard Bank
Johannesburg, South Africa
05.2010 - 07.2015
- Managed the delivery of a Core Banking Transformation Program (~$20m) in Migrating legacy Mainframe Core Banking systems to the SAP platform
- Managed the Decommissioning of several legacy systems/applications which resulted in huge cost savings for the Bank
- Program was managed using the Agile methodology/framework
- Migration of transactional accounts from legacy to SAP accounts was the key focus
- Managed and facilitated the program of work from concept to implementation
- The program
- During this transformational program, Core Banking Applications and Customer relationship management applications were being migrated to SAP technology platform
- The main objectives were to improve production stability, make compliance easier and provide agility for future value extraction
- Managed change, risks, and issues
- Driving Agile methodology across all projects
- Facilitated the role of a Scrum Master as well in making sure that the team lives the Agile values and principles
- Managed key relationships between Business and IT stakeholders
- Managed Service Level Agreements and contracts with vendors
- Accountable for program governance including management reporting, budget control and resourcing
- Managed resources in the program including project managers
- Successfully migrated transactional accounts from legacy to SAP accounts (~7 million) using the ETL tool
- Successfully decommissioned several legacy systems/applications which resulted in huge cost savings for the Bank (~$7m)
- Establish an SAP CoE (centre of excellency) along with the CEO which resulted is creating competencies, capabilities & capacity
- This was a high priority project mainly focusing on retaining IP within the Bank
- Worked with the following vendor companies - SAP, Accenture, Wipro, Nihilent, HCL, EY, TCS, Infosys and McKinsey
ICT Head
Tshwane University of Technology
Pretoria, South Africa
07.2002 - 04.2010
- Managed the ICT Faculty which consists of 50 Staff members to deliver a world standard ICT education to approximately 1000 students/candidates spread across 5 campuses/sites
- Supported the Dean in planning and developed overall enablement strategy related to ICT Faculty
- Managed and controlled the budgets and funds for the ICT Faculty and various projects including infrastructure, software, facilities
- Managed effective ICT business process and systems
- Managed recruitment, development, and training of staff
- Solving and Handling crisis under the ICT Faculty
- Actively involved in qualification and training content creation and reviews
- Delivering learning needs analysis for candidates
- Managed BTech projects and Master's degree dissertations
- Developed and managed the new framework as per the changes requested from the Department of Education related to the Merger of Universities; was actively involved in decisioning making in the Merger related aftermath issues
- Managed to place candidates in various industries
- Conducted discussions with various stakeholders within the Banking, Telecommunication, Health, Utilities, Automotive industries regarding real-time projects (e.g
- Payroll, UI, HR, Networking, Security, Systems & Applications) candidates offered as part of the final year of Experiential Learning
- Candidates were given the opportunity to work in the respective industries to complete their final year
- Planned and managed exhibitions within the University to showcase the candidate's projects to the industry twice every year
Education
Master's Degree - Computer Applications
Visveswaraya Technological University
Bachelor's Degree - Science
Mahatma Gandhi University
Skills
- Program Management
- Delivery Management
- Financial and Operations Management
- Application Development Management
- Infrastructure Management
- Stakeholder management
- Requirements Management
- Crisis Management
- Strategic Planning
- Employee engagement
- Building high-performing teams
- Vendor Management
- MS Project
- MS Office
- SharePoint – Microsoft
- Jira - Atlassian
- Trello - Atlassian
- Confluence - Atlassian
- Smartsheet
- PPM (Project & Portfolio Management)
- Qlikview
Websites
Certification
- Certified SAFe 5 Agilist
- Certified SAFe 5 Scrum Master
- Certified PRINCE2 Practitioner
- Certified ITIL v3 Service Transition
- Certified ITIL v3 Foundation
Timeline
Project Manager
Coles
10.2021 - 12.2024
Project Manager
ANZ Bank
06.2021 - 09.2021
Project Manager
Smart Communications
02.2021 - 05.2021
Project Manager
illion
04.2019 - 06.2020
Program Manager
First National Bank
08.2015 - 01.2019
Senior Project Manager
Standard Bank
05.2010 - 07.2015
ICT Head
Tshwane University of Technology
07.2002 - 04.2010
Master's Degree - Computer Applications
Visveswaraya Technological University
Bachelor's Degree - Science
Mahatma Gandhi University
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