Philip Cheriyan

Technology project and program manager with 14+ years in complex enterprise environments, currently running AI and analytics initiatives for Microsoft. I am the person who takes something loosely defined, works out who needs to decide what, gets the stakeholders in a room, and then follows up until it is actually closed. That has meant coordinating across legal, security, privacy, procurement, and business functions, managing external technology vendors through evaluation and contracting, and keeping a written trail of decisions, owners, and open items so nothing quietly stalls.

I have delivered in regulated and heavily governed settings including a multinational bank, a government client, and a national oil and gas operator. Enough AI depth to evaluate what a vendor is actually offering rather than take the deck at face value. PMP, MBA, certified Advanced EU GDPR Practitioner.

Technical Delivery Manager - Upstart13

(2026-03)

Client: Microsoft. AI, data engineering, and analytics initiatives across Azure Hardware Data Analytics and the Analytics Center of Excellence.

• Run several concurrent AI and analytics initiatives, owning the plan, priorities, dependencies, decision points, and the follow-up that keeps each one moving to closure.
• Coordinate across engineering, data, BI, security, and business stakeholders, routing open questions to whoever can actually resolve them and chasing until they do.
• Facilitate the cross-functional sessions where decisions get made, and document decisions, actions, owners, dependencies, and risks in Azure DevOps so the trail is traceable rather than sitting in chat threads.
• Evaluate AI tooling and platforms on what they actually deliver, and make the build-versus-buy and adoption recommendations that follow.
• Established governance for AI adoption: tooling standards, human-in-the-loop controls, evaluation gates tied to release, and auditability.
• Translate loosely defined business needs into scoped workstreams and sequenced plans, including a staged Power BI and Microsoft Fabric readiness program where the sequencing mattered more than the technology.
• Produce concise executive updates and decision materials covering progress, cost, risk, dependencies, and the decisions required.
• Delivered AI and automation work that removed roughly 9,000 hours of manual effort a year, close to $1M in annualized value. Built the business case and reported against it after release.
• Hands-on enough to hold a credible technical conversation: custom agents, skills, and MCP integrations, fine-tuning and evaluation design, Azure DevOps pipelines, PR governance, managed identity, CI/CD.
• Own hiring, onboarding, and work allocation as the team has scaled, and coach engineers on stakeholder communication as much as on delivery.

Project Manager - Stem Capital Inc - Toronto, Canada

(2023-10 - 2026-02)

Enterprise CRM platform, customer-facing AI chatbot, and analytics program.

• Owned delivery of a US$36M enterprise CRM program, spanning a customer-facing conversational AI product, analytics, and process automation, coordinating four cross-functional teams against a shared release calendar.
• Defined and reported post-release KPIs for the AI chatbot including accuracy, deflection rate, response time, and escalation rate, and used them to prioritize each subsequent release.
• Ran release governance across four teams: go/no-go gates, privacy and security review, cutover planning, and operational readiness sign-off, with documentation retained for audit.
• Translated business requirements into scoped, sequenced deliverables with product owners and technical leads, and held the scope boundary when priorities moved mid-release.

Technical Project Manager / Business Technology Manager - IDG - London, United Kingdom

(2021-09 - 2023-07)

AI and digital delivery for a multinational bank and a public sector client.

• Delivered projects valued between $2M and $10M across bespoke web, mobile, and AI solutions, sustaining over 50% profitability on multiple engagements.
• Introduced generative AI into client operations, producing productivity gains and operational cost reductions exceeding $1M, delivered within existing budget constraints.
• Led delivery of a generative AI platform for personalized portfolio creation at a multinational bank, within its security, privacy, and compliance requirements.
• Delivered an AI-driven application review system for a government client, reducing manual review effort while meeting audit, fairness, and transparency requirements.
• Built project roadmaps and managed budget, resourcing, and risk across change-critical work, maintaining compliance with GDPR and data governance obligations throughout.
• Negotiated and led a Learning Management System integration with an external vendor, covering evaluation, commercial terms, and rollout across the business.

Program Manager - Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) - Muscat, Oman

(2019-10 - 2021-08)

Enterprise data and technology programs across the contractor ecosystem.

• Delivered a $5M program spanning technical and business change, aligned to the organization's digital transformation objectives and endorsed at senior stakeholder level.
• Ran enterprise data and technology programs across a 2,000+ contractor ecosystem, running steering forums and aligning competing business units on decisions nobody owned outright.
• Delivered cross-platform mobile and analytics capability for real-time performance monitoring, giving leadership visibility into contractor performance, compliance, and operational risk.
• Introduced predictive analytics to surface early risk signals; those models remain in use at PDO today.
• Managed external technology vendors end to end: evaluation, contractual commitments, commercial terms, onboarding, and delivery accountability, alongside Lean, Six Sigma, and Kanban practices to improve operational efficiency.
• Worked within a matrixed environment against strict legal, privacy, and compliance standards, coordinating with governance functions and owning the IT policies, procedures, and standards for the program.

Process Improvement Specialist - IDG - Muscat, Oman

(2019-01 - 2019-09)

Introduced lean processes and digital tooling across leadership and academic programs, combining data dashboarding with IT automation to improve cost-effectiveness and return on investment.

• Consulted on process enhancements and ran team-building, group facilitation, and data-driven training to embed the new ways of working.

Project Manager - BP - Muscat, Oman

(2018-09 - 2018-12)

Led a contractor welfare program across BP's operations in the Sultanate, covering worker surveys, evidence gathering, analysis, and stakeholder reporting.

• Acted as the single point of coordination across a geographically dispersed client and contractor base.
• Coached and presented data-driven findings to senior stakeholders at BP and contractor organizations, focused on HR, HSE, medical, operations, food, and accommodation standards.

Project Coordinator and Data Analyst - Petroleum Development Oman - Muscat, Oman

(2015-10 - 2018-08)

Led the data workstream of a three-year benchmarking program surveying 90,000 employees across 350 contractors, covering collection, analysis, and modelling through to actionable recommendations.

• Applied descriptive analytics and data modelling to identify opportunity areas, contributing to year-on-year profitability growth of 18%.
• Supported delivery of a $10M program and helped establish the PMO, including the process improvement tools and practices it operated on.
• Maintained privacy and data governance standards across sensitive workforce data throughout.

Scrum Master, Business Analyst and QA Lead - Cognizant - India

(2011-09 - 2015-01)

Ran agile delivery for distributed teams: sprint planning, stand-ups, retrospectives, backlog refinement, and release coordination between India-based engineering and onshore stakeholders.

• Led a team of QA analysts and translated stakeholder needs into requirements through interviews, workshops, and surveys, across healthcare, banking, portfolio administration, and wealth and investment management.
• Developed risk mitigation and change management approaches to support user transition during system implementations, and trained business systems analysts.