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Venky Rao

@venkyrao

Agile Project Manager at Aviva Insurance, improving sprint velocity by 20% across actuarial modelling workstreams.

At Aviva Insurance, I manage delivery planning and Agile execution across actuarial modelling workstreams. I coordinate cross-functional teams and oversee release governance and deployment planning.

I led Agile delivery across three teams of 30+ members, improving sprint velocity by 20% through backlog refinement, sprint planning, and Agile coaching. Structured Definition of Done practices and clearer acceptance criteria reduced sprint spillover by 35%.

At HCA – Hospital Corporation of America, I managed Agile delivery for healthcare supply chain applications serving hospitals across the USA. I supported three application teams as they transitioned from Waterfall to Scrum, reducing time-to-release by 30%.

Earlier, I worked on insurance applications at Hartford Insurance, Nationwide Insurance, and Guy Carpenter Re-Insurance, contributing to development, testing, coordination, and releases. I hold CSM and PSM I certifications and have experience with Scrum, SAFe, Kanban, and release management.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Project Manager/Scrum Master

Current

Aviva Insurance

Mar 2018 - Present (8 years 7 months)

Managed delivery planning, scope, timelines, and governance for multiple actuarial modelling workstreams. Led Agile delivery across 3 cross-functional teams of 30+ members, improving sprint velocity by 20% and reducing spillover by 35%.

Agile Scrum SAFe Kanban Jira Confluence Azure DevOps Release Management Stakeholder Management RAID Management Governance Resource Planning Agile Metrics Backlog Refinement Sprint Planning Continuous Improvement

Project Lead/Scrum Master

HCA – Hospital Corporation of America

Nov 2011 - Nov 2017 (6 years)

Managed Agile delivery for 6+ healthcare supply chain applications serving 190+ hospitals. Led Agile transformation for 3 application teams, reducing time-to-release by 30% and defect escape rate by 40%.

Agile Scrum Waterfall to Scrum Transition Backlog Grooming Sprint Planning Dependency Management Cross team coordination QA Collaboration Release Management Jira Rally

Technical / Development Lead

Hartford Insurance

Feb 2009 - Oct 2011 (2 years 8 months)

Led a development team of 5 engineers delivering enterprise insurance applications across 3 major releases. Reduced offshore/onshore handoff delays by 20% and oversaw quality assurance across 4 application modules.

Team Leadership Requirements Gathering Scope Management Quality Assurance Offshore Onshore Coordination SQL Server Visual Basic ASP VBA

Onsite Co-ordinator

Nationwide Insurance

Oct 2007 - Dec 2008 (1 year 2 months)

Acted as primary liaison between onsite business stakeholders and an offshore team of 12 developers and testers. Supported delivery of 3 major application releases, maintaining clear traceability from requirements to test sign-off.

Stakeholder Management Requirements Gathering Change Management Coordination Release Management Application Development Testing

Software Developer / Tester

Guy Carpenter Re-Insurance

Jan 2004 - Sep 2007 (3 years 8 months)

Developed and maintained enterprise re-insurance applications, delivering software enhancements, maintenance, and bug fixes. Executed unit, functional, and regression testing across 2 application modules, achieving 98% test case coverage on critical paths.