Vidya J

Technology executive with 20+ years building and scaling distributed engineering and product organizations across APAC, AME, and the US — including the scale-up of John Deere's Enterprise Technology & Engineering Centre (ETEC/GCC) across 3 cities, and partnering on hiring of 500+ employees within a single year. Proven senior on-the-ground leader who partners directly with US and global executive leadership to translate business priorities into technology roadmaps, establish cross-timezone operating rhythms, and raise the bar on delivery predictability, technical judgment, and service reliability. Deep experience in regulated, fintech-adjacent environments — real-time risk decisioning platforms (JDF-Financials: Crop Mapping, Risk Protection), zero major regulatory findings across annual FinTech/IT audits, and a 90% reduction in vulnerability exposure across 20,000+ systems.

Track record of moving ahead of the curve: pioneered Agile-Scrum and fully remote delivery a decade before mainstream adoption, and was among the first in the organization to pilot GenAI/LLM tools and AI-API orchestration (n8n) for delivery automation. Builds high-caliber, low-bloat engineering cultures with an entrepreneurial, extreme-ownership approach to creating structure from ambiguity.

General Manager – Engineering & Product Leader / Regional Engineering Manager - JOHN DEERE - APAC, AME, US, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina

(2015-01)

• Served as primary technology interface and digital advisor to C-suite and regional leadership across APAC and AME, converting business priorities — manufacturing, financial, GCC, warehouse, sales — into IT investment cases and delivery roadmaps.
• Orchestrated the ground-up setup and scale-up of the Enterprise Technology & Engineering Centre (ETEC – GCC) across 3 cities, including 5 Offshore Premise Centres (1,400 users), 10+ satellite offices, 4 training centres, and 7 labs — establishing India as a self-sufficient, high-performing technology hub.
• Built and scaled a 100+ member multi-country engineering, IT, and DevOps-aligned organization across two leadership layers — including an org of 8 Engineering Managers and ~100 field/backend engineers — establishing succession pipelines and Hi-Po development frameworks.
• Directed a $20M infrastructure portfolio with self-healing automation, reducing MTTR by 40% and preventing 40–50% of critical disruptions; drove a metrics-driven, automation-first operating culture across a $50M+ technology portfolio spanning 15+ countries at 80% SLA compliance.
• Pioneered fully remote, cross-functional Agile-Scrum delivery in 2011 — roughly 10 years ahead of mainstream adoption — and established disciplined regional demand governance with Global IT, HR, Legal, Suppliers, and Government institutes across 40+ business-unit expansions and transitions in 6 countries.
• Enforced Network Access Control across 20,000+ systems, cutting endpoint vulnerability exposure by 90% while sustaining zero major regulatory findings across all annual FinTech and IT audits; holder of two invention disclosures (P37119 – Advanced Infrastructure Automation & Self-Service; P37707 – IT Vulnerability & Risk Management).
• Partnered with HR and external ecosystems for the smooth hiring of 500+ employees and IT setup for 1,200+ users in a single year; upskilled 30% of the team in cloud-native, API, and AI fundamentals; drove Agile-Scrum/SAFe adoption across 6 teams.
• Led site and technology integration for multiple acquisitions — Wirtgen (factory), BlueRiver Technology, and CWT — each run from due diligence through stabilization, ensuring cultural alignment and a common technology backbone.
• Directed integrations across 15+ critical assembly lines with real-time IoT/telemetry monitoring and event-triggered alerting to stakeholders for shopfloor anomalies — a command-center-style model spanning systems, devices, endpoints, and user actions — improving uptime by 30% and reducing unplanned risk by 60%.
• Personally piloted GenAI/LLM tools and AI-API orchestration (n8n/Make.com) ahead of enterprise rollout, scaling the self-healing automation strategy toward large-volume automated incident resolution.

Tech Lead → Senior Project Manager - JOHN DEERE - Pune, India

(2007-01 - 2014-12)

• Pioneered Agile-Scrum for JDF — stood up 5 cross-functional scrum teams and a fully remote delivery model in 2011 (10 years ahead of mainstream adoption), improving release velocity by 20% while maintaining strong audit and compliance standing; drove PMO strategy.
• Delivered real-time risk decisioning applications — Crop Mapping and Risk Protection — for US-region customers on the JDF-Financials platform in a regulated environment.
• Enabled diagnostic equipment business growth through full-lifecycle delivery of 'Service Advisor' machine diagnostics and 'MOV Advisor' consumer robotic mower applications, piloted with US and European markets — including hands-on testing on the Consumer Robotic Mower (CRM) to improve field technician efficiency and customer experience.

Tech Lead & Onsite IT Coordinator - IBM GLOBAL SERVICES - USA & India

(2004-01 - 2006-12)

• Delivered telecom billing and e-commerce solutions (Java/J2EE, WebLogic/WebSphere) serving 1M+ end users across multi-shore teams, with direct Fortune-500 stakeholder engagement in the US.
• Built a regulated healthcare platform for Horizon BCBS incorporating National Provider ID regulatory updates for 1M+ members, improving portal UX by 50%.

Software Developer / Software Engineer - BAJAJ ALLIANZ GENERAL INSURANCE | INTEC INTERFACE GmbH (Client: Lufthansa) - India / Germany

(2001-01 - 2004-12)

• Deployed regulated insurance web platforms (Struts, J2EE, Oracle), achieving 50% defect reduction via TDD across 20+ corporate accounts; authored 100+ Lufthansa WBT e-learning modules (95% learner satisfaction).
• Enabled the foundation for smooth IT merger and integration of two large organizations during the Bajaj Allianz merger.

Global Senior Leadership Program - COO Specialization - IIM Lucknow (Dubai) (2025-12)

Executive Program - Strategic Leadership - IIM Indore (2017-01 - 2017-12)

Master's - Computer Management - Pune University (2001-12)

Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) with Diploma in Software Engineering - Commerce / Software Engineering (1999-12)