Open to opportunities

Chetana Vaka

@chetanavaka

Message

Experienced Scrum Master and project leader driving agile delivery and team performance.

United States

Message

What I'm looking for

I seek an agile leadership role where I can coach teams, drive continuous improvement, manage delivery in SAFe/Scrum environments, and contribute technical insights to business-focused solutions.

I am a certified Scrum Master (CSM), Advanced CSM (ACSM) and SAFe 4 Scrum Master with extensive IT leadership experience across infrastructure, application support and security services.

I have led and coached distributed, cross-functional teams in SAFe and Scrum environments at organizations such as TD Bank, FedEx, PenFed, Fiserv and Verizon, focusing on backlog management, sprint delivery and continuous improvement.

My background includes hands-on technical experience as a developer and technical business analyst, which helps me translate business requirements into practical engineering solutions and mentor teams on best practices.

I emphasize servant leadership, clear communication, metrics-driven progress tracking (burndown, velocity), and removing impediments to improve team maturity and deliver customer-focused outcomes.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Sr. Scrum Master

Current

TD Bank

Aug 2021 - Present (4 years 4 months)

Led two DAAS scrum teams to implement a centralized data strategy, improved cross-functional collaboration across US, Canada and India, and maintained metrics (burndown, velocity) to drive continuous delivery.

Scrum SAFe Backlog Management Jira Servant Leadership

Sr. Scrum Master

FedEx

Apr 2021 - Aug 2021 (4 months)

Facilitated scrum ceremonies for an AEM team, removed impediments, coached teams to higher scrum maturity, and reported sprint progress while participating in Scrum of Scrums in a SAFe environment.

Scrum Adobe Experience Manager SAFe Impediment Removal Jira

Sr. Scrum Master

PenFed

Jan 2021 - Apr 2021 (3 months)

Guided an auto-refinance project team in adopting Scrum, led sprint ceremonies, improved team performance by resolving impediments, and balanced onshore/offshore workloads to ensure timely delivery.

Scrum Sprint Planning Impediment Resolution Onshore Offshore Coordination Jira

Scrum Master / PIM

Fiserv

Jun 2018 - Oct 2020 (2 years 4 months)

Acted as Scrum Master and Program Increment Manager for product teams, facilitated all agile ceremonies, tracked velocity and release progress, and maintained transparency via VersionOne across onsite and offshore teams.

Scrum VersionOne Sprint Metrics

Scrum Master

Verizon

Dec 2016 - Apr 2018 (1 year 4 months)

Supported agile adoption by facilitating scrums, grooming backlogs, assigning story points, tracking burndowns, and collaborating with product owners and stakeholders to define system requirements.

Scrum Jira Confluence Backlog Grooming Story Pointing Burndown Charts

Technical Business Analyst

MDRC

Oct 2014 - May 2016 (1 year 7 months)

Gathered requirements and created user stories in Pivotal Tracker, designed test cases and reports, provided user training, and implemented SQL queries and SharePoint customizations for application support.

Business Analysis Pivotal Tracker SQL SharePoint UAT C++

Technical Business Analyst

DFPS

Jan 2014 - Sep 2014 (8 months)

Aligned business and technology through stakeholder workshops, performed QA/integration/UAT, and delivered .NET and SQL fixes to meet project timelines and specifications.

Business Analysis .NET SQL Server & QA System Integration UAT

Technical Business Analyst

American Express

Mar 2009 - Jun 2010 (1 year 3 months)

Worked with business users to elicit requirements, develop functional specifications, and implement ASP.NET solutions with ADO.NET and SQL Server stored procedures to deliver application features.

Business Analysis ASP.NET ADO.NET SQL Server Unit Testing

Net Developer / Business Analyst

American Express

Jul 2008 - Feb 2009 (7 months)

Gathered requirements and designed UML artifacts, developed ASP.NET web forms, and created user documentation and training to support project delivery and system configuration.

Requirements Gathering ASP.NET UML ADO.NET JavaScript Documentation Training

Java Developer

American Express

Aug 2006 - Mar 2008 (1 year 7 months)

Developed MVC-based Java web applications (JSP/Servlets), implemented data access layers, logging components, and supported testing and production support for transaction systems.