Seeking a Delivery Head or Program Director role owning a large portfolio end to end: delivery, margin, client and team. Best fit: BFSI, payments or healthcare programs, or Gen AI initiatives moving from pilot to production. I want senior client access, data-driven governance and a company investing in AI. Based in Kolkata; open to remote or hybrid roles across US time zones.
Looking for a job
Saptarshi Datta
@saptarshidatta
Delivery & Program Leader · BFSI, Payments, Healthcare · Gen AI Programs · 7+ yrs US client-site, Lead AI Enabled Transformation
IndiaWhat I'm looking for
Delivery and program leader with 25 years in IT services. I ran a $36.2M, 100+ person portfolio for Discover Financial Services with margin above target every year (Cognizant BFS Project of the Year), set up a new delivery site from scratch for Bank of America, and now lead Generative AI program delivery for Optum / UnitedHealth Group. I make complex programs predictable: governance, commercials, transitions, Agile/SAFe execution and building strong teams. With 7+ years on US client sites and two decades of onsite–offshore delivery, I work naturally across US time zones and with senior client stakeholders.
Experience
Work history, roles, and key accomplishments
Current
Program Manager, Generative AI (PPM CoE)
Sep 2024 - Present (2 years 1 month)
Lead offshore delivery of UnitedHealth Group's Employee Virtual Assistant (EVA) as it moves to an agentic, multi-agent architecture, managing 2 Scrum teams and 23 engineers. Built delivery-analytics baseline, improved productivity by 22% half-over-half, and contributed to a ~53% cut in SPARQ search latency.
Current
Currently serving as Associate Director, focusing on business development and customer relationship management.
Associate Director – Engagement Delivery Lead
Aug 2016 - Aug 2024 (8 years)
Held end-to-end delivery accountability for a $36.2M portfolio and 100+ member team, delivering contribution profitability above target year on year. Account won Cognizant BFS Project of the Year (2017) and was runner-up for the BFS Innovation Award (2018).
Managed projects with a focus on business development and customer relationship management.
Managed projects with a focus on business development and customer relationship management.
Project Manager / Account Manager
Mar 2015 - Aug 2016 (1 year 5 months)
Client-site single point of contact and escalation owner for 24x7 infrastructure support, critical changes and disaster recovery. Stabilized delivery through alert-noise reduction and SLA / KPI dashboards, rebuilding customer confidence.
Managed projects with a focus on business development and customer relationship management.
Led a 15-member development and QA team on a complex mainframe module, managing roadmap, WBS, estimation, risk and defect control. Designed a live Splunk dashboard for data reporting and process tracking, achieving 100% client satisfaction.
Set up Cognizant Kolkata's first BPS / KPO site from scratch and scaled it from 8 to 65 people with PCI compliance. Identified $2.5M in effort savings through automation, and was runner-up for the Cognizant BPS Automation Award 2013.
Onsite lead in Maryland for change-release quality across critical payment applications, running daily release calls and managing 24x7 SLA-driven production support. Back in Kolkata, led the offshore team and implemented Lean Six Sigma across First Data accounts, winning the BFS Process Innovation Award (1st place) in 2010, 2012 and 2013.
Worked as a Software Associate, contributing to software development and support.
Worked as a Programming Analyst, involved in programming and analysis tasks.
Mainframe development and 24x7 production support; transitioned critical modules from onsite to offshore and automated QA-region tasks with REXX / SAS.
Worked as a Programmer, involved in software development and coding.
PT
Software Engineer
Pastelshade Software Technology
Nov 2001 - May 2004 (2 years 6 months)
Core developer on imaging and embedded systems, including a ballistic identification system for the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, a biometric smart-card access system, plant-floor automation, and BIOS RAID testing.
Education
Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework
IIT Kharagpur
Python Programming, Computer Science
2020 - 2020
Python Programming certification from IIT Kharagpur in 2020.
IIT Madras
Internet of Things, Internet of Things
2019 - 2019
Internet of Things certification from IIT Madras in 2019.
Cloud Academy
AWS Operations, Cloud Operations
2018 - 2018
AWS Operations certification from Cloud Academy in 2018.
Cloud Academy
Certificate, AWS Operations
2018 - 2018
Completed an AWS Operations course from Cloud Academy in 2018.
Microsoft
Microsoft AI Fluency, Artificial Intelligence
Microsoft AI Fluency certification (MC1–MC3).
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Certificate, Python Programming
2020 - 2020
Completed a Python Programming course from IIT Kharagpur in 2020.
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Certificate, Internet of Things
2019 - 2019
Completed an Internet of Things course from IIT Madras in 2019.
CL
CMC Ltd
Advanced Diploma, Software Development
Advanced Diploma in Software Development from CMC Ltd.
University of Calcutta
Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Calcutta.
Microsoft
Certificate, AI Fluency
Completed Microsoft AI Fluency (MC1–MC3) certification.
Google Cloud
Certificate, Build With Gemni
Completed Build With Gemni from Google Cloud.
Tech stack
Software and tools used professionally
Availability
Looking for a job
Location
IndiaAuthorized to work in
Salary expectations
4500k+ INR
Social media
Skills
PythonProject ManagementExcelCRMAWSAIStakeholder ManagementMicrosoft OfficeCustomer ServiceAccount ManagementNegotiationBusiness DevelopmentClaudeML AIGeminiGoogle ADKRAG SystemsPortfolio ManagementStrategic PartnershipsClient RelationsPartnership DevelopmentBusiness Strategy and DevelopmentDelivery ExcellenceProgram DeliveryPortfolio DeliveryGenerative AIAgentic AILLM ApplicationsRAGContribution MarginRFP and SOW DevelopmentKPI GovernanceAgileScrumSAFe PI PlanningWaterfallLean Six SigmaTransition Stabilization
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