Ruchir Desai
Summary
Seasoned Program and Delivery Leader with 15+ years of experience driving complex IT transformations, including Salesforce CRM and HRIS implementations, across healthcare, government, and enterprise sectors. Currently leading national programs at Telstra Health, delivering critical outcomes through Agile, DevOps, and governance best practices. Proven ability to align delivery with business strategy, manage enterprise-wide programs, and lead high-performing cross-functional teams across Australia and offshore. Skilled in stakeholder engagement, risk mitigation, and optimizing delivery performance.
Overview
22
22
years of professional experience
Work History
Program Manager
Telstra Health
06.2025 - Current
- Managed and supervised administrative and daily program operations, complying with policies and regulations.
- Established strong relationships with key stakeholders, ensuring support for program initiatives.
- Developed strategic plans, setting clear objectives and achievable milestones for the team.
- Managed cross-functional teams for successful project completion within deadlines and budgets.
- Managed multiple strategic projects with numerous sub-projects or workstreams.
- Coached team members on professional development opportunities, contributing to improved overall performance.
Head of Quality Assurance
Fusion5 Ltd.
08.2022 - 12.2024
- Founded and led a QA practice from inception to support CRM and ERP applications, building a high-performing team of 10 consultants across Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines, achieving a $750K revenue in the first year of its inception.
- Directed a globally distributed team to successfully deliver a multi-million dollar project, coordinating seamless collaboration across time zones and improving project efficiency by 12%.
- Oversaw comprehensive QA operations, including Test Management, Functional Testing, SIT, UAT, Security Testing, and automation strategy, resulting in a 30% increase in testing efficiency.
- Led RFP development, contract bidding, and budgeting for the Quality Engineering and Assurance practice, securing high-value contracts and maintaining budgets within a 5% variance.
- Collaborated with clients to design customized test strategies, aligning QA solutions with business goals, which contributed to delivering high-quality outcomes valued at over $1M in the last 1 year in enhanced client satisfaction and minimized risk.
- Optimized resource and demand planning, achieving a $100K increase in QA resource utilization and more accurate project forecasting, reducing overstaffing and idle resources.
Head of Program & Delivery
BSA Ltd.
01.2021 - 07.2022
- Reported directly to the CTO, leading a PMO-style team of 20+ professionals, including Project Managers, Architects, Salesforce/Pronto/Mulesoft Developers, Business Analysts, Test Analysts, and Release & Implementation specialists.
- Managed a technology solutions portfolio and consistently achieved expenditure targets within 5% of approved limits.
- Provided strategic technology recommendations and impact assessments to the Technology Steering Committee, influencing key business decisions and driving operational efficiencies.
- Established a scalable Project Management framework that improved project consistency and efficiency across teams, reducing delivery risks by 30%.
- Developed IT Release and Implementation Management processes, increasing deployment reliability and reducing post-release incidents by 25%, saving an estimated $100K in incident management costs.
- Introduced Agile Scrum methodologies for warranty management and BAU enhancements, boosting delivery speed by 20% and enhancing adaptability to changing priorities.
- Led strategic technology roadmaps, aligning initiatives with annual business strategies, and mentored team members from business and IT teams to increase retention and cross-functional capabilities, saving the company approx $200k annually in resourcing costs.
Program Implementation and Test Manager
BSA Ltd.
11.2019 - 12.2020
- Program Implementation and Test Manager for Salesforce Implementation of Field Service Lightning, finance, and compliance systems on Beakon, delivering solutions for clients including NBN, Optus, Foxtel, Telstra, Aldi, and Woolworths.
- Established and led a team of 4 automation and manual test analysts, achieving a 25% reduction in defect leakage rates and ensuring seamless delivery across technology projects.
- Developed and implemented release processes for major Go-Lives, cutovers, and warranty support, improving deployment efficiency and reducing post-release issues by 30%.
- Introduced a Governance framework for release management within JIRA, enhancing traceability, compliance, and process standardization, resulting in a 20% increase in release predictability and quality, leading to a $95K reduction in delays and rework costs.
Implementation Project Manager
ANZ Wealth
04.2018 - 11.2019
- Managed releases for the multi-phase ‘Edison’ Major Separation Project, coordinating cross-functional teams and achieving a 98% on-time release delivery rate.
- Oversaw resourcing requirements and demand management, optimizing resource allocation to meet project milestones while reducing resource conflicts by 15%, resulting in savings of $250k.
- Directed end-to-end release planning, including developing detailed runbooks, resource plans, and implementation strategies, ensuring seamless collaboration between onshore and offshore vendor teams.
- Represented release changes in the CAB, securing approvals with minimal rework and ensuring compliance with governance standards.
- Provided warranty support for releases, ensuring smooth transitions and avoiding high-severity incidents. Managed change orders using SDM and ServiceNow, driving process efficiency and ensuring all changes progressed smoothly, saving approximately $100K in administrative overhead.
Digital Release Manager and Scrum Master
Foxtel
04.2017 - 04.2018
- Optimized the Agile Release Process for Digital Acceleration and BAU projects, achieving a 95% on-time deployment rate with minimal post-release defects.
- Led the Release Management Guild, standardizing best practices that reduced deployment risks by 20% and improved production stability.
- Synchronized sprint cycles and release schedules in collaboration with Scrum Masters and Tech Leads, enabling fortnightly sprint-end releases with increased efficiency.
Release and Delivery Manager
MLC Limited
07.2014 - 04.2017
Release Manager, Business Analyst, Branch Manager
CBA
09.2003 - 07.2014
Education
MBA - undefined
University of Wollongong
01.2004
Master of Information Technology - undefined
Griffith University
01.2001
Bachelor of Science - Maths
M.S. University
01.2000
Skills
- Project Management
- Program Management
- IT Delivery Management
- Quality Assurance
- Process Improvement
- Enterprise Test Management
- Governance
- Agile Methodologies
- Scrum
- Waterfall Methodologies
- Risk Management
- QA Metrics
- KPI Tracking
- Test Automation
- CI/CD Implementation
- Budgeting
- Resource Allocation
- Vendor Management
- Stakeholder Communication
- Executive Reporting
- Team Leadership
- Mentorship
- Change Management
- UAT Support
- Acceptance Criteria
- Process Mapping
Websites
Professional Highlights
Designed and implemented a no-code test automation framework with Leapwork, saving enterprise clients $480,000 over 3 years by eliminating the need for 2 test analysts., Awarded for introducing generative AI to create test cases from user stories, reducing manual effort by 75%, improving team utilization, and enabling competitive client pricing., Established an agile-driven SDLC framework that reduced IT project delivery timelines by 23%, increased on-time project completion rates by 30%, and enhanced collaboration between IT and business teams, leading to more efficient project execution and improved stakeholder satisfaction.
Personal Information
Title: IT Delivery Executive
Timeline
Program Manager
Telstra Health
06.2025 - Current
Head of Quality Assurance
Fusion5 Ltd.
08.2022 - 12.2024
Head of Program & Delivery
BSA Ltd.
01.2021 - 07.2022
Program Implementation and Test Manager
BSA Ltd.
11.2019 - 12.2020
Implementation Project Manager
ANZ Wealth
04.2018 - 11.2019
Digital Release Manager and Scrum Master
Foxtel
04.2017 - 04.2018
Release and Delivery Manager
MLC Limited
07.2014 - 04.2017
Release Manager, Business Analyst, Branch Manager
CBA
09.2003 - 07.2014
MBA - undefined
University of Wollongong
Master of Information Technology - undefined
Griffith University
Bachelor of Science - Maths
M.S. University
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