Release Governance
Sprint readiness, release planning, deployment calls, runbooks, production validation, closure, and follow-through.
Technology Delivery Leader | Program Manager | Release Governance | Audit & Compliance | Agile Transformation
I help organizations deliver complex technology initiatives with predictable execution, strong governance, audit readiness, and reduced delivery risk.
22+ years leading enterprise technology delivery, release governance, audit readiness, quality engineering, and Agile transformation across Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance.
- ✔Program Delivery
- ✔Release Governance
- ✔ISO 27001 & Audit Coordination
- ✔Agile Transformation
- ✔Risk & Compliance
- ✔AI-Enabled Process Improvement
Minneapolis / Omaha, United States
Open to
Senior Program Manager · Technical Program Manager · Release Governance Lead · GRC Technology Program Manager · Director, Delivery & Governance
Executive Summary
Turning delivery complexity into predictable, governed outcomes.
Focused on the work leaders actually need done: alignment, governance, execution, evidence, communication, and follow-through.
Technology Delivery Leader with 22+ years of experience leading enterprise programs, release governance, Agile delivery, audit readiness, quality engineering, and operational transformation.
Proven success across banking, financial services, and insurance organizations including BNP Paribas, Travelex Insurance, Zurich, and Cover-More.
Experienced in leading global teams, coordinating regulatory audits, managing large-scale releases, and driving continuous improvement through automation and AI-enabled solutions.
Agile Delivery
Scrum/Kanban coaching, ceremonies, dependency management, stakeholder reporting, and predictable execution.
Audit & Compliance
ISO 27001, ICIF, PCI, third-party risk, evidence repositories, control traceability, and audit response.
AI + Automation
UnderwriterAI, AgentVerse, AuditReady OS, TestMaster, JiraFieldMaster, documentation acceleration, and workflow automation.
Delivery Impact
Measurable outcomes and leadership signals.
Concrete results from 22+ years of enterprise delivery, release governance, quality engineering, and Agile transformation.
22+
years in technology delivery
100+
enterprise releases coordinated
70%
manual testing reduction
$250K+
savings from delivery improvements
3
delivery teams coached
Multi-$M
technology programs supported
› Owned end-to-end release governance across sprint readiness, production deployment coordination, validation, and closure.
› Led global delivery teams at VP level across banking and insurance technology programs.
› Reduced manual testing effort by 70% through automation engineering and DevOps practices.
› Drove 20% productivity improvement and $150K+ in savings through enterprise Agile transformation.
› Delivered zero-defect releases for core banking platforms across multi-year programs.
› Built AI-enabled tools for underwriting automation, governance, and QA delivery workflows.
Problems I solve
Where I add the most value.
Leaders hire me when they need governance, delivery confidence, and execution maturity — not just Agile ceremonies.
✔Release failures and production risk
✔Audit and compliance readiness gaps
✔Agile delivery inefficiencies
✔Cross-team coordination challenges
✔Governance and process maturity
✔Quality engineering transformation
✔Executive visibility and reporting
✔AI adoption for operational efficiency
Experience
Selected leadership experience.
Focused on the recent experience most relevant to hiring managers, directors, CIOs, recruiters, and technology leaders.
Dec 2023 — Present
Travelex Insurance — Zurich / Cover-More Group
Program Manager / Scrum Master — Release, Governance & Compliance
- › Own release governance from sprint readiness through deployment coordination, production validation, and closure.
- › Lead production deployment calls and manage order of operations across Dev, QA, BA, Infrastructure, and business stakeholders.
- › Create release Confluence pages, deployment runbooks, validation documents, release calendars, and executive communications.
- › Coordinate ISO 27001, ICIF, PCI, internal controls, evidence repositories, control traceability, and audit response.
- › Coach three delivery teams in self-management, Agile practices, Scrum ceremonies, and predictable execution.
- › Drive AI-enabled workflow improvements and governance automation across delivery operations.
Oct 2018 — Dec 2023
Bank of the West — BNP Paribas
Vice President, Technology Manager & Scrum Master
- › Led multi-million-dollar technology upgrade programs across retail banking operations.
- › Managed vendor relationships, delivery governance, software risk management, and cross-functional execution.
- › Drove enterprise Agile transformation achieving 20% productivity improvement and 40% time savings.
- › Reduced manual testing effort by 70% through automation engineering and DevOps practices.
- › Delivered $250K+ in savings through delivery process improvement and automation.
- › Led global cross-functional teams across business, technology, infrastructure, and vendor stakeholders.
2010 — 2018
Apple, American Express, First Tech Federal Credit Union
Scrum Master / Test Manager / Process Implementation Manager
- › Led Agile ceremonies, QA delivery, CRM programs, data services, and reporting initiatives.
- › Implemented Jira, Confluence, Jenkins, Selenium, Cucumber, and automation workflows.
- › Reduced test cycle time and improved release confidence through QA gating and scalable automation.
- › Led distributed teams across onsite and offshore delivery models.
Career Path
A career built around delivery maturity.
From technical QA and automation to Agile leadership, release governance, audit readiness, and AI-enabled delivery.
2023 — Present
Program Manager / Scrum Master — Travelex Insurance (Zurich / Cover-More)
Release governance, Agile delivery, production validation, ISO 27001, ICIF, PCI, third-party risk, evidence repositories, sanction screening governance, and AI-enabled delivery improvement.
2018 — 2023
VP Technology Manager — Bank of the West / BNP Paribas
Multi-million-dollar technology upgrades, vendor governance, software risk management, Agile transformation, automation engineering, DevOps practices, and zero-defect release delivery.
2017 — 2018
AVP Senior Lead QA — Enterprise Banking
Senior QA leadership, test governance, release gating, automation maturity, and delivery execution across banking technology programs.
2015 — 2017
Senior QA Consultant
CRM, banking, reporting, automation frameworks, distributed team leadership, QA gating, CI/CD, BDD/TDD, and enterprise delivery maturity.
2002 — 2015
Earlier Leadership & QA Roles — Apple, American Express, First Tech
Foundation in software testing, automation, client delivery, Scrum mastery, Agile ceremonies, onsite-offshore coordination, and enterprise application quality.
Innovation & AI Initiatives
Building the tools I wish existed in delivery and governance work.
Each initiative is grounded in a real operational problem — audit readiness, release governance, underwriting efficiency, and delivery tooling. Built by a practitioner, not a hobbyist.
Compliance · ISO 27001 · GRC Platform
AuditReady OS
Problem: Compliance teams in regulated industries spend excessive time chasing evidence, managing control gaps manually, and preparing for audits with no central system of record.
Approach: Designed a governance and compliance platform for ISO 27001, ICIF, PCI, and SOC — covering evidence tracking, control mapping, risk registers, and audit coordination workflows.
Outcome: A live product concept directly informed by hands-on audit coordination experience at Travelex Insurance. Demonstrates what a practitioner-led GRC tool looks like.
AI · Insurance · Multi-Agent Platform
UnderwriterAI
Problem: Underwriting decisions involve repetitive policy lookups, broker queries, and routine approvals that slow cycle times and create inconsistent outcomes across teams.
Approach: Architected a TypeScript multi-agent platform to automate routine underwriting decisions, surface policy intelligence, and provide real-time broker support — built during active work in the insurance sector.
Outcome: Bridges domain expertise in insurance delivery with applied AI product thinking. Demonstrates initiative beyond day-to-day execution.
AI · Governance Automation · Multi-Agent
AgentVerse
Problem: Program managers and governance leads spend disproportionate time on status reporting, evidence collection, and documentation that could be systematically automated.
Approach: Designed a multi-agent orchestration framework applied to governance workflows — automating stakeholder reporting, audit documentation, and control evidence packaging.
Outcome: Practical AI applied to the exact workflows I manage daily. Reduces administrative overhead and improves governance output quality at scale.
QA · Jira Governance · Delivery Tooling
TestMaster & JiraFieldMaster
Problem: Delivery teams lack test governance visibility, consistent Jira field standards, and reliable reporting — creating noise in release readiness assessments.
Approach: Built internal productivity tools using Python, TypeScript, Flask, and Jira APIs — covering test suite management, field governance enforcement, dashboard analytics, and AI-assisted delivery workflows.
Outcome: Tooling that directly supports release governance and QA maturity — the same problems these tools solve are ones I address for organizations every day.
Governance, Risk & Compliance
A differentiator most program managers cannot claim.
Direct experience supporting regulatory audit programs, coordinating evidence management, and maintaining control frameworks across banking and insurance organizations.
› ISO 27001 audit coordination and evidence management
› Internal audit response and control validation
› ICIF control implementation and traceability
› PCI assessment support and risk tracking
› Evidence repository management and control mapping
› Risk identification and mitigation planning
› Third-party risk governance
› Audit coordination across engineering and compliance teams
Current context
At Travelex Insurance / Zurich-Cover-More, I support ISO 27001 audit coordination, ICIF controls, PCI compliance, third-party risk governance, evidence repository management, and cross-functional audit response across engineering and compliance teams.
Recommendations
What colleagues and leaders say.
Pulled directly from LinkedIn. 7 recommendations on file — 2 visible publicly without login.
"Praveen is always engaged and striving to improve the solutions he and his team implement. He is open to ideas and implements them into a product that is scalable and flexible. With he and his team's automation we were able to improve quality and become much more efficient. He is a great collaborator, leader and team player."
Pat Kostal
Colleague — Bank of the West
"Praveen has setup QA automation for the bank and is very valuable to our organization. Thanks for doing great work Praveen — really enjoy working with you!"
Michelle N.
Colleague — Bank of the West
7 recommendations on LinkedIn. View all on LinkedIn ↗
Skills & Credentials
Leadership, governance, Agile, compliance, and technology fluency.
Delivery Leadership
Program ManagementPortfolio CoordinationStakeholder ManagementVendor Management
Release Governance
Change ManagementCAB CoordinationDeployment PlanningProduction ReadinessRelease CalendarsRunbooks
Compliance & Risk
ISO 27001ICIFPCIThird-Party RiskControl EvidenceRisk Management
Agile Leadership
ScrumKanbanSAFeTeam CoachingAgile Transformation
Technology
JiraConfluenceAWSPythonTypeScriptAI SolutionsAutomationSharePoint
Certifications
Open to opportunities
Let's discuss delivery, governance, and transformation.
Actively exploring senior leadership roles where governance maturity, release excellence, and delivery leadership create real organizational value.
Senior Program ManagerTechnical Program ManagerRelease Governance LeadDelivery Excellence LeadTechnology Operations ManagerGRC Technology Program ManagerDirector, Delivery & Governance
Let's connect
Let's discuss delivery, governance, and transformation.
Best fit: Senior Program Manager, Release Governance Lead, Delivery Excellence Lead, Technology Operations Manager, GRC Technology Program Manager, and Director-level Delivery & Governance roles.