Abhinov Rai

ROI-driven Associate Director / Senior Technical Project & Program Manager with 15+ years of business outcome-focused leadership across complex, large-scale enterprise transformation, modernization, and AI-led digital engineering programs. Specialized in driving measurable financial impact and operational excellence across Banking, Payments, Regulatory Reporting, and Healthcare. Improved release predictability by 30%+ by leading SAFe Agile delivery across multiple Agile Release Trains (ARTs), driving enterprise modernization and large-scale multi-region Agile transformation initiatives.

Reduced duplicate compliance controls by 35%, lowering operational complexity, maintenance costs, and improving governance across enterprise platforms. Led 60+ cross-functional engineering, product, and business teams to successfully deliver strategic, mission-critical programs across EMEA, North America, and APAC. Proven leader in SAFe Agile, Enterprise Program Governance, PI Planning, Portfolio Delivery, DevOps (CI/CD), Cloud (AWS & Azure), Microservices Architecture, and Digital Transformation, delivering scalable, resilient, and compliant enterprise solutions.

Sr. Technical Project Manager (Associate Director – MG6 Grade) - Citi Bank / Maruti Suzuki Ltd / JPMorgan / NEIRAP (Govt of India) - Global Delivery (EMEA, NAM, APAC)

(2023-08)

Associate Director – Technology Project & Program Management | Data & Gen AI-Led Global Delivery - Citi Bank / Maruti Suzuki Ltd / JPMorgan / NEIRAP (Govt of India) - Global Delivery (EMEA, NAM, APAC)

(2023-08)

Team Size: 60+ | Program Budget: $9.5M

• Managed $9.5M ROI-focused multi-region modernization program, delivering 40% reduction in manual effort through AI automation, 30%+ improvement in release predictability, and measurable business outcomes across EMEA, NAM, and APAC regions
• Enabled DevOps-driven delivery through CI/CD pipelines, cloud platforms (AWS/Azure), and microservices architecture
• Managed and mentored multiple Agile teams, leveraging expertise in Agile delivery, DevOps, Cloud, microservices, regulatory compliance, and enterprise transformation
• Directed effort estimation, financial planning, and resource optimization to ensure alignment with portfolio investment objectives
• Directed SAFe Agile delivery across multiple Agile teams, facilitating PI Planning, sprint execution, release governance, and executive steering committees
• Partner with business, technology, compliance, and vendor stakeholders to ensure regulatory alignment and on-time delivery

SAFe Agile Project Manager / Program Manager - British American Tobacco / Sabre – Airline - Berlin, Germany

(2021-01 - 2023-08)

Team Size: 30 | Program Budget: $2.5M

• Led multi-year Agile delivery programs across banking and regulatory domains
• Managed SAFe-based delivery execution across globally distributed teams, ensuring alignment across PI cycles and release milestones
• Improved program predictability through capacity planning, quarterly forecasting, and dependency management
• Presented consistent executive reporting via dashboards, governance reviews, and stakeholder forums
• Analyzed program risks and conducted weekly governance reviews with stakeholders to identify and mitigate delivery risks
• Planned Agile implementation and collaborated with experts to improve the methodology's efficiency
• Performed assessments of existing processes to identify areas of improvement so that the team can create a road map for the implementation
• Established executive governance and reporting frameworks for programs exceeding $10M in budget, improving stakeholder visibility and reducing decision-making turnaround time by 40%

Technical Project Manager - Nedbank - Cape Town, South Africa

(2018-07 - 2020-12)

Own Business Unit Product development | Team Size: 20 | Program Budget: $2.2M

• Partnered with solution architects, business stakeholders, and engineering teams to design scalable, resilient, and compliant solutions, reducing system downtime by 25% and improving platform performance
• Delivered enterprise platforms built on Java, Spring Boot, and microservices architectures
• Owned release and cutover management, including Go/No-Go decisions and production deployments
• Cooperated with solution architects to ensure scalability, resilience, and compliance
• Implemented coding standards, quality gates, and automated testing practices that reduced production defects by 35% and improved code quality across enterprise applications supporting 500K+ users

Delivery Manager / Release Manager - Nedbank - UK & India

(2017-05 - 2018-06)

Own BU product development and Product Processor (approx. 90 PP) implemented

• Managed cross-functional Agile teams of 20+ members across multiple geographies, improving sprint velocity by 25%, reducing delivery delays by 30%, and achieving 95% on-time milestone completion
• Coached teams on Agile best practices, increasing execution discipline and maturity
• Updated key stakeholders on progress through weekly/monthly reports, dashboards, and ad-hoc emails, calls, and meetings, ensuring alignment with evolving company initiatives
• Coached teams in self-organization and cross-functional collaboration, with a focus on disciplined planning, execution, and high delivery standards

Java Developer → Scrum Master → Technical Project Manager - Credit Suisse AG / Space Labs (US Healthcare) / Finastra (Payments) - Europe & India

(2012-10 - 2017-04)

• Advanced from Java Engineer to Delivery Leadership roles, successfully managing technology programs worth $5M+ and leading teams of 50+ professionals

Certified Scrum Master (CSM) - Warsaw University of Technology, Poland