Neeraja Pal

• Highly Experienced PMO Leader: With over 23 years of industry experience & 16 years of PMO experience.
• Agile Methodologies & SDLC Expertise: Proficient in Agile methodologies, the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), and DevOps practices.
• Tool Proficiency: Extensive hands-on experience with JIRA, Power BI, Project Plan, Visio, SharePoint, Confluence and Smartsheet. 
• Leadership in PMO: Successfully led highly technical and complex product development programs, Portfolio Management for R&D division, PMO standards and processes definition.
• PMO Office Establishment: Developed and implemented governance frameworks for product development organizations, including Change Control Management process.
• Diverse Methodologies: Expert in executing programs using RAD, Agile, SaFE, and Waterfall methodologies.
• Broad Domain Experience: Demonstrated success as a PMO in the gaming sector, financial, communication, supply chain management, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing sectors.
• CCB/Project In-take governance: Leading cross-functional teams including Executive Leadership, Engineering, Sales, Product management, Compliance and Services.
• Servant Leadership: Dedicated to fostering a positive culture and building strong, collaborative teams.

Light & Wonder – Senior Director, PMO                                                                                    04/2009 – Current

(Reporting to Senior VP, Global Systems & Services)

• Established Project Management Office - Partnered with multiple stakeholders to establish successfully running execution methodology, Framework-model for R&D team, which is perceived by other BU PMOs at LnW. 
• Portfolio Management - Partnered with CCB, Business and Engineering for project intake and prioritization. 
• Tools - Partnered with Management to secure a budget to adopt JIRA for effective & efficient execution. Led PMO tool implementation project to streamline & automate entire Project Management tracking, Product Backlog, Resource Management, Portfolio Health Monitor using multiple modules in JIRA. 
• Pipeline Management - JIRA as the tool, defined & established in-take process for Business Case, CCB, project pipeline in coordination with cross functional stakeholders. Track BUCs, sign SOW/PCS before execution & publish COD to obtain project budget approval from CCB. 
• Introduced & successfully implemented fully automatic integrated Portfolio reporting dashboard which meet various business needs for Executive Management, Product Management, Sales, Services, Engineering covering industry standard EVM formula.
• Project Priorities - Manage multiple priorities and coordinate closely with Sales, Product Management & CCB to handle conflicting priorities, Resource allocation & Project assignments. 
• Process shift - implemented Agile process & transformed from Traditional to Agile for 671+ R&D team size.
• Team - Leading global Project Managers of 8, day-to-day monitoring & tracking, coach & mentor PMO team members at various levels, Project assignments. Interview panel for PMO hiring at LnW across Systems BU. 
• Project Management – 
  • [Completed] Innovation program- defined execution framework, process, artefacts for tracking release timelines. Released 40+ products in the year 2023 & 2024.
  • [Completed] Standardize Program-Strategized execution framework & delivered business critical program which is an integration of 20+ products. Managed a Project execution team of 115 creators, delivered on-time & on-budget.
  • [Active] Managing critical SW-HW program, a key revenue driver for the next 5 years revenue goal.
  • [Active] Tracking, Monitoring & Managing a specific product portfolio. Goal to release 250 conversions in 2025. The goal is to improve the speed of delivery to meet 2025 rev targets. 
• Established KPIs framework as defined by management: Schedule, Cost, Quality, Agile, Productivity; Monitoring & Tracking to ensure adherence.
• Never Settle - every year introduced & implemented new challenge which improved efficiency & operation of Project tracking & Management: 
  • Ideation & implemented ‘Agile League’ supported WFH situation during Covid and currently used as promotional as needed. 
  • Revamp TAE for R&D Cost tracking via an in-house developed tool - This improved process is highly used by Finance.
  • Continuous year on year improvement on the Process expanding capabilities in JIRA for complete automated reporting. 
• Resource Management Tracking - Introduced organically tracking mechanism of allocation, tracking & project assignment. 
• Partnering to foster a work culture of collaboration & inclusion. 

• Executive Program for Leadership - Cornell University
• Master Diploma in Business Administration - Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies
• Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) - Osmania University 
• PMP® from PMI- PMP® Number: 3656475 [Pursuing for PgMP certification]
• SAFe Agile Inc, Safe 5 Agilist - Dec 2020 
• Franklin Covey, Certificate - The 4 Essential Role of Leadership - Sept 2019 
• Scrum Master, Scrum Alliance Org - July 2015 
• Cheetah Project Management, Project Accelerator, NV, USA - Dec 2007