Kalpana Babu

Results-driven Associate Program Manager with 5+ years of progressive experience leading large-scale technology, cybersecurity, fintech, and API initiatives. Proven expertise in Agile delivery, compliance, and stakeholder management across global teams. Skilled at managing complex dependencies, optimizing delivery velocity, and coordinating AI-driven innovations including Gemini CLI and LLM-based features.

Track record of award-winning performance in operational excellence and sustainable programme outcomes.

Junior Project Manager - Amiseq (Deployed at Google – Apigee)

(2025-08 - 2026-04)

• Managed end-to-end Agile delivery across 6 specialized Apigee engineering teams — Platform, UI, Runtime, Data Services, SSO/Mint, OPDK, and Edge — overseeing sprint planning, backlog management, and production release coordination across all tracks simultaneously.
• Partnered directly with the Product Owner to translate business and platform requirements into sprint-ready user stories; maintained sprint-wise backlog buckets in Taskflow, ensuring each team's priorities aligned with Apigee's product roadmap and Google's engineering standards.
• Owned full project tracking infrastructure using Taskflow for sprint-wise backlog management and Buganizer for issue, ticket, and bug lifecycle management — ensuring zero issues fell through the cracks across 6 active engineering work streams.
• Closed 100+ high-priority Buganizer issues ahead of schedule by driving structured triage, assigning clear ownership, and following up systematically across Platform, Runtime, and Data Services teams.
• Drove all Agile ceremonies across teams — daily stand-up calls, sprint reviews, and retrospectives — maintaining 95% sprint completion rate and surfacing and resolving cross-team dependencies before they impacted delivery timelines.
• Facilitated weekly Scrum of Scrums (SOS) calls to align leads across all 6 teams, escalate blockers to the right stakeholders, and maintain delivery velocity across parallel work streams.
• Produced and presented a full suite of programme reporting deliverables: weekly and monthly Demo PPTs, Quarterly Business Review (QBR) decks, Sprint Closure Summaries, and Post-Mortem (POMO) summaries with root cause analysis and action items.
• Coordinated planning and delivery of next-generation AI initiatives including Gemini CLI, LLM-based features, and the Jetski programme — aligning cross-functional engineering and product stakeholders on scope, timelines, and milestone tracking.
• Reduced cross-team issue resolution time by 20% and system downtime by 30% through structured dependency mapping, proactive escalation protocols, and tight coordination across SSO/Mint, OPDK, and Edge work streams.

Senior Executive – Project Lead - SPI Technologies

(2022-05 - 2025-07)

• Served as Centre of Excellence (COE) lead, directing 10+ concurrent projects and controlling cost and schedule elements across the full SDLC — from requirements through deployment.
• Boosted PI Planning effectiveness by building SMART PI objectives, managing cross-team dependencies, and coordinating SME alignment across multiple Scrum teams.
• Increased delivery velocity by monitoring team capacity and proactively realigning assignments and timelines, preventing schedule slippage across quarterly planning cycles.
• Spearheaded a high-stakes initiative in collaboration, ensuring secure API management and full regulatory compliance throughout the engagement.
• Created project documentation and knowledge base materials adopted as standard best practices across Straive's Project Management Office (PMO).
• Identified and closed skill gaps across teams by collaborating with stakeholders to recommend targeted training and resource realignment, sustaining high delivery quality.

Executive – Scrum Master & Project Associate - SPI Technologies

(2021-03 - 2022-04)

• Achieved a 50% increase in positive client feedback and 20% reduction in complaints by managing cross-functional teams across Dev, QA, and Business units.
• Improved sprint predictability by conducting regular backlog refinement sessions with Product Owners, aligning team capacity with evolving business priorities.
• Eliminated delivery blind spots by implementing Jira-based visualizations and metrics tracking, delivering actionable insights on team performance and process bottlenecks.
• Coached and mentored team members in Agile self-organization, driving increased collaboration and continuous improvement across all sprint cycles.
• Ensured zero SLA breaches by handling client communication, change requests, and delivery alignment — consistently meeting quality benchmarks under tight deadlines.

MBA - Human Resources - Anna University (2010)

B.Sc. - Biotechnology - Madras University (2008)