RAHUL FARUQI
Dallas
Summary
Technology leader with extensive experience in driving digital transformations across multiple industries. Proven ability to develop strategic IT roadmaps that enhance customer experiences and deliver significant business value. Expertise in managing multi-million-dollar budgets and complex project lifecycles while fostering collaboration among stakeholders. Skilled in applying technology solutions to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency.
Overview
30
30
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
SR. ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT, PRODUCT OWNER & AGILE PROGRAM MANAGER
UnitedHealth Group / Optum
Fort Worth
02.2020 - 02.2025
- Envisioned and delivered innovative solutions, streamlining operations and generating significant revenue.
- Led distributed agile teams, collaborating with SMEs and IT leadership on feature design and user experience documentation.
- Developed product roadmaps, refined backlogs, and prioritized tasks to align with strategic objectives.
- Created AI-powered forecasting tool, optimizing staffing at multiple call centers and saving millions.
- Delivered critical systems including Reporting Dashboard, Call Center solution, and Customer Applicant Portal.
- Coordinated four agile teams of 26 members across Dallas and India, enhancing project delivery efficiency.
- Conducted weekly ceremonies for planning, story grooming, testing, and client demonstrations.
- Established architectural artifacts to communicate solutions, integrations, and workflows effectively.
- Documented detailed designs for application integration projects in accordance with standards and best practices.
- Provided guidance on the selection, design, development, implementation and maintenance of IT systems.
- Evaluated third party products for compatibility with existing systems prior to purchase or implementation.
SR. ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT, PRODUCT OWNER & AGILE PROGRAM MANAGER
Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield
Atlanta
04.2017 - 12.2019
- Implemented Voice of Customer IT strategy using Medallia for centralized customer experience analysis.
- Integrated key enterprise CRM systems through ETL processes to enhance data accessibility.
- Led enterprise initiatives focused on Consumer Payments to Providers and Anthem/CVS Pharmacy.
- Collaborated with Agile PMO Senior Director to align IT and Business Executives on strategic goals.
- Acted as Technical Program Manager, Solution Architect, Release Train Engineer, and Sr. Scrum Master.
- Facilitated stakeholder communications and managed expectations to navigate organizational barriers.
- Coordinated efforts of 40 onshore and offshore team members, including product owners and vendors.
- Utilized JIRA and Confluence to organize workloads and facilitate program increment releases.
SR. ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT, PRODUCT OWNER & AGILE PROGRAM MANAGER
Aflac Insurance
Columbus
03.2016 - 03.2017
- Spearheaded multi-year business and IT transformation for Enterprise Agility Office.
- Collaborated with stakeholders, product owners, and architects to unify vision for 2020 Aflac transformation.
- Mentored teams in applying practices from Aflac Agile Framework based on SAFe 4.0.
- Coached product owners in establishing epics, features, capabilities, and user stories; prioritized backlogs effectively.
- Facilitated scrum ceremonies and maintained a two-week Scrum cadence across multiple teams.
- Resolved conflicts and communication issues during retrospectives to enhance team dynamics.
- Managed financial forecasts, budgets, time-entry, and Agile reporting for senior management.
- Provided architectural leadership for integration of multiple enterprise systems utilizing Service Bus Architecture.
SR. PROGRAM MANAGER – HEAD OF CRM & PRODUCT OWNER
Musanada
Dubai/Abu Dhabi
08.2010 - 12.2015
- Directed implementation of Enterprise CRM and Digital IT strategies as visionary leader within divisional management team.
- Acted as Architect and Product Owner, presenting business cases to secure approval for multi-year Customer Experience Program.
- Transformed business processes through collaboration with department heads, enhancing operations and service tracking for 20,000 requests monthly.
- Established single backlog and prioritized initiatives based on customer value stream alignment with corporate strategy.
- Led daily stand-ups and sprint planning as Scrum Master, utilizing hybrid SDLC/Waterfall and Agile frameworks for software projects.
- Delivered phases of $15M CRM Strategy Program, increasing organizational customer orientation through enterprise-wide project execution.
- Implemented CRM SaaS and Customer Self-Services Portal, influencing IT architecture to foster change across local government entities.
- Launched 24x7 Client Services Call Center, hiring supervisors and support agents while designing workflows to enhance service delivery.
MANAGER – HEAD OF PMO & IT PLANNING
Musanada
Dubai/Abu Dhabi
02.2009 - 08.2010
- Established IT governance framework, developing standards and policies for 15 project managers.
- Planned and managed IT portfolio program budgets totaling $41M and over 50 enterprise resources.
- Created divisional IT strategy through stakeholder workshops and internal surveys with key input from McKenzie Consulting.
- Championed formation of first Program Management Office, defining essential project management processes.
- Led weekly PMO Governance Review Board meetings with CIO, stakeholders, and project sponsors.
- Proactively monitored budgets, milestones, and deliverables to ensure value delivery to sponsors.
- Streamlined IT processes through development of automated tools for financial planning and resource management.
- Implemented PPM system (MS Project Server) for comprehensive tracking of IT portfolio activities.
- Monitored budgets and expenditures to ensure cost-effectiveness while maintaining quality standards.
- Ensured compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards.
- Conducted performance reviews for team members.
DIRECTOR OF PMO & IT STRATEGY
L-3 Communications-IS
Dallas Fort Worth
05.2007 - 11.2008
- Company Overview: Aerospace & Defense, IT Division, Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, USA
- Directly reported to the CIO to lead a new strategic planning advisory role that would identify gaps in IT/Business alignment. Trusted to develop a 5-year plan that recommended transformational activities to improve business alignment, client relationships, project management practices, architectures and efficiency of operations with a 10% cut to $25M IT budget for 15 sites and 350 staff. Served as a change agent for the organization - recommended and influenced leadership of a new way forward to better serve the business.
- Successfully conducted multiple planning workshops with key stakeholders. Captured requirements from business units. Found commonalities in functionality, identified overlaps, gaps and opportunities. Developed a 5-year IT Strategy and Enterprise Architecture plan to establish COEs and IT Shared-Services. Presented ideas and gained support from executive leadership team.
- Revamped the Project Management and technology governance, in line with industry standards. Chaired PMO weekly meetings to approve, challenge or deny IT charters that didn’t meet the new principles. Pushed cost-savings by architecture consolidation, reduction in duplicate efforts, standardization, maximizing assets, and resource utilization and vendor contract renegotiations.
- Coached PMs to apply PMO methodology, EA standards, tools and templates throughout the project management lifecycle.
- Proactively led ITIL assessments to identify areas of improvement in IT service delivery management. Regularly attended Change Advisory Board meetings to ensure production changes were tested, ready and well communicated to user community.
- Aerospace & Defense, IT Division, Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, USA
- Conducted research on emerging technologies to identify potential business opportunities and reduce operational costs.
- Developed and implemented enterprise architecture strategies, roadmaps, and governance models.
- Negotiated contracts with third-party vendors for software licenses and hardware purchases.
- Analyzed existing IT infrastructure to identify areas of improvement and recommend changes.
- Provided leadership during times of change by driving adoption and utilization of new technologies.
- Assisted in developing policies and procedures related to application development life cycle.
- Provided guidance on the selection of technology platforms based on cost and benefit analysis.
- Communicated effectively with internal stakeholders at all levels regarding progress updates and issues.
DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY
Alliance Data / Epsilon
Dallas Fort Worth
08.2006 - 04.2007
- Streamlined technology functions for Loyalty Program, managing a team of 37 across multiple roles.
- Led development teams through software release iterations every four weeks, maintaining budget adherence.
- Served as Agile Project Manager and Technical Architect, enhancing project delivery efficiency.
- Coached junior staff, organized training sessions, and conducted performance reviews to strengthen team capabilities.
- Formalized project management practices with regular meetings and task lists to improve communication.
- Implemented PPM (MS Project Server) to enhance visibility into resource utilization and status reporting.
- Promoted ITIL best practices to elevate service delivery and customer satisfaction.
- Standardized architecture methods and instituted pre-release QA reviews to ensure quality outcomes.
TECHNICAL SENIOR MANAGER - ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT
DELL / Perot Systems (HCL)
Dallas Fort Worth
05.2001 - 08.2006
- Developed and implemented healthcare technology solutions for Tenet account, enhancing operational efficiency.
- Managed delivery teams creating enterprise security software, integrating systems, and overseeing infrastructures.
- Established technology practice supported by 32 consultants, including developers, architects, PMs, and designers.
- Set up and maintained multi-tenant SaaS application environment with round-the-clock support.
- Led multiple Agile and Waterfall/SDLC projects, achieving on-time and budget-compliant deliveries.
- Designed and executed enterprise IAM solution, automating HR user provisioning for 115,000 hospital users within minutes.
- Influenced adoption of central security model across hundreds of managers, developers, and vendors.
- Converted small business unit from 3 staff cost center to $5M/year revenue center with 32 staff.
- Participated in recruitment initiatives by interviewing potential candidates and selecting suitable hires.
- Mentored junior staff in the organization's business processes, customer service standards, and quality assurance protocols.
- Conducted regular performance appraisals for direct reports to provide feedback on their work performance.
- Collaborated with external vendors to negotiate contracts that met company requirements while minimizing costs.
- Leadership role in planning annual budgets for each department based on forecasted sales volumes.
- Developed long-term relationships with key stakeholders including customers and suppliers
IT Consultant
MTW Corporation & Glow Networks
Dallas Fort Worth
01.1998 - 12.2001
- Assisted with planning, designing, coding, debugging, testing, documenting, and maintaining software applications.
- Developed programs to automate processes and improve user experience.
- Debugged code to identify errors and fix them efficiently.
- Designed database structures to store data securely and efficiently.
- Collaborated with team members to ensure successful project completion.
Senior MIS Analyst
Lowe’s Companies
Wilkesboro
05.1995 - 12.1997
- Developed and implemented IT policies, procedures and standards to ensure data accuracy and integrity.
- Maintained a library of technical documentation including manuals, user guides, flowcharts, diagrams.
- Created complex SQL queries for extracting data from multiple databases for analysis purposes.
- Analyzed business processes and requirements to create technical solutions that meet customer needs.
- Collaborated with project managers to develop detailed project plans outlining timelines and deliverables for each phase of implementation process.
- Supported data migration projects by designing ETL scripts and validating source and target datasets.
- Assisted with planning, designing, coding, debugging, testing, documenting, and maintaining software applications.
- Designed database structures to store data securely and efficiently.
- Led the design and development of client server and mainframe applications using IEF COOL GEN 5GL Case Tools, Visual Basic, C against IBM and SQL Server databases
Education
master’s in business administration (MBA) -
The University of Texas, Dallas
bachelor’s in business administration (BBA) -
The University of Texas, Arlington
Skills
- IT strategy formulation
- Enterprise digital transformation
- Strategic multi-year roadmaps
- Portfolio management
- Program and technical project leadership
- PMO and IT governance
- Business case development
- Financial planning and forecasting
- P&L management, ROI, budgeting, cost optimization
- Executive communication
- CxO, VP, and director stakeholder management
- Project management (Agile and traditional)
- Risk assessment and mitigation
- Cost/benefit analysis
- Process and performance optimization
- Vendor management
- User-centric UI/UX design and user experience
- Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
- Enterprise architecture and design
- Security architecture
- Cloud computing (Azure cloud expertise)
- AI applications and strategy (Azure AI services)
- Platform consolidation
- System architecture and migration
- DevOps practices
- Microservices architecture
- Inventory and accounting systems
- Microsoft NET, C#
- Rest API development and integration
- Application integration
- Solution implementation
- Technical documentation
- Visio diagramming
- Data integration and modeling
- Data warehousing, mining, and replication
- Business intelligence and reporting
- SQL, SQL Server, NoSQL (Cosmos DB)
- Database, dashboards, and report design
Certification
- Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals, 2024
- Microsoft Certified Developer (MCAD) .NET C#, 2004
- Microsoft Azure Cloud, In Progress, 2025 planned
- Microsoft SQL Server, Training, 2005
- TOGAF fundamentals, Training, 2007
- SAFe Training, Anthem & Aflac Experience, 2016 - 2019
- Certified Scrum Master accreditation (SCM), 2016
- Scrum Fundamentals Certified (SFC), 2016
- Project Management Professional (PMP), 2007-2008
- Mastering Agile Project Management – Certification of Completion, 2017
- ITIL Foundation v3 Service Management, 2003-2004
Personal Information
Citizenship: US Citizen
Languages
English
First Language
Urdu
Proficient (C2)
C2
Hindi
Proficient (C2)
C2
French
Elementary (A2)
A2
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
SR. ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT, PRODUCT OWNER & AGILE PROGRAM MANAGER
UnitedHealth Group / Optum
02.2020 - 02.2025
SR. ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT, PRODUCT OWNER & AGILE PROGRAM MANAGER
Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield
04.2017 - 12.2019
SR. ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT, PRODUCT OWNER & AGILE PROGRAM MANAGER
Aflac Insurance
03.2016 - 03.2017
SR. PROGRAM MANAGER – HEAD OF CRM & PRODUCT OWNER
Musanada
08.2010 - 12.2015
MANAGER – HEAD OF PMO & IT PLANNING
Musanada
02.2009 - 08.2010
DIRECTOR OF PMO & IT STRATEGY
L-3 Communications-IS
05.2007 - 11.2008
DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY
Alliance Data / Epsilon
08.2006 - 04.2007
TECHNICAL SENIOR MANAGER - ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT
DELL / Perot Systems (HCL)
05.2001 - 08.2006
IT Consultant
MTW Corporation & Glow Networks
01.1998 - 12.2001
Senior MIS Analyst
Lowe’s Companies
05.1995 - 12.1997
master’s in business administration (MBA) -
The University of Texas, Dallas
bachelor’s in business administration (BBA) -
The University of Texas, Arlington
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