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Kaushik Program - Technical Program Manager or AI Program Manager.

[email protected]

Location: San Jose, California, USA

Relocation: NO

Visa: H1B

Resume file: Resume Kaushik Ponnapally (1)_1773062631177.docx Please check the file(s) for viruses. Files are checked manually and then made available for download.

KAUSHIK PONNAPALLY SCHEDULE A MEETING |SAN DIEGO, CA | +1 973-363-2665 EXT 172 | [email protected] | LinkedIn PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY Strategic and adaptable Senior Technical Program Manager with 15+ years of experience delivering complex infrastructure, cloud, and software initiatives across Apple, PayPal, Caterpillar, and highly regulated environments. Skilled at leading cross-functional programs that balance engineering depth with long-term operational maturity. Adept at driving clarity in ambiguous settings, aligning technical execution with business priorities, and fostering collaboration across architecture, compliance, and engineering teams. Known for building strong stakeholder partnerships, navigating evolving requirements, and delivering outcomes at scale. SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS 15+ years of experience delivering high-impact SDLC, infrastructure, and AI/ML programs across Apple, PayPal, and Caterpillar in fast-paced, enterprise environments. Proven ability to drive large-scale, high-visibility software development programs, organizing complex, ambiguous problems into measurable deliverables and success criteria. Skilled in translating business objectives into execution strategy, aligning OKRs and Agile practices to enable cross-functional execution and outcome-focused delivery. Adept at fostering collaborative environments that promote autonomy, continuous improvement, and stakeholder transparency across engineering, product, cloud, AI/ML, security and compliance teams. Recognized for conflict resolution, risk mitigation, and milestone governance, consistently removing execution blockers and elevating program visibility with VP+ leadership. Experienced in end-to-end program ownership from inception and development through delivery, transition to operations, and long-term scalability. CAREER HIGHLIGHTS Drove large-scale modernization of Apple s build infrastructure, migrating more than 1,000 software releases from legacy systems to MacOS virtual machines. This initiative eliminated 100% of third-party dependencies on Dell Isilon and VMware, improved build efficiency by over 30%, and delivered $25 million in infrastructure cost savings. Enabled high-availability payment infrastructure at PayPal by leading the migration of 2,000+ micro-services across GCP, AWS, and on-prem Kubernetes. Retired 470K+ legacy VM instances, improved reliability, accelerated deployments by 70%, boosted fleet efficiency by 30%, and delivered $200M+ annual cost avoidance. Reduced infrastructure OpEx by $2M/year at PayPal by implementing an AI/ML-driven autoscaling system and leading FinOps initiatives. Leveraged real-time telemetry, GCP billing dashboards, and usage accountability frameworks to optimize cloud elasticity and drive cost transparency across hybrid environments. Cut $2M in support costs at Apple by leading the OS migration of 1,500+ VMs from Oracle Linux to RHEL 9, eliminating vendor lock-in and improving platform security. Partnered with 50+ teams to align technical dependencies, validate service integrity, and deliver on-time infrastructure upgrades. Developed executive dashboards in Jira and Tableau, improving leadership decision-making through real-time KPIs and milestone visibility. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Technical AI Program Manager, Apple, San Diego, CA | July 2023 Current Led large-scale modernization of Apple s build infrastructure, migrating 1,500+ VMs to RHEL 9 and 1,000+ software releases to MacOS virtual machines, improving build efficiency by 30%, enhancing security compliance, and delivering over $25 million in cost savings. Spearheaded the migration of 1500+ VMs to RHEL 9, avoiding $2M in extended support costs and enhancing security compliance. Successfully led the migration of over 1,000 software releases from legacy build infrastructure to a modern environment running on MacOS virtual machines. Achieved a 100% reduction in third-party dependency on Dell Isilon and VMware, improved build efficiency by more than 30%, and reduced overall infrastructure costs by $25 million. Led platform upgrades involving PostgreSQL, SQL-based, and NoSQL systems as part of infrastructure modernization Led large-scale data migration of build records and legacy image storage to scalable cloud solutions, improving access efficiency by 10% and reducing technical debt. Resolved critical AI/ML release pipeline blockers, enabling on-time asset delivery by identifying and validating alternative part-number allocations under tight deadlines. Orchestrated multiple high-impact engineering programs focused on infrastructure modernization, build optimization, and platform scalability. Built executive-level visibility through formal communication cadences and Tableau-based dashboards, tracking KPIs, milestone status, and cross-functional risk exposure. Technical Program Manager, PayPal, San Jose, CA | September 2019 June 2023 As a Technical Program Manager for Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Successfully led multiple large scale infrastructure programs that improved performance and reduced costs Initiated and led greenfield migration of legacy on-premise and GCP infrastructure to a modern containerized platform, aligning 50+ teams and defining PoR from scratch. Led the launch of an intelligent autoscaling system using Machine Learning, dynamically adjusting infrastructure based on real-time application usage (TPM), which lowered cloud OpEx by $2M annually. Orchestrated multi-team collaboration across SRE, security, and product groups to reduce production risks, increase automation, and support cloud readiness in new availability zones. Created real-time KPIs and dashboards (Tableau) that visualized fleet adoption, capacity savings, and service stability used by engineering leaders to inform product and scaling decisions. Leveraged internal GCP billing dashboards, and third-party tools to analyze cloud spend, identify cost-saving opportunities, and drive infrastructure cost optimization. Collaborated with developer tools and QA teams to improve release readiness through better observability and structured test environments, reducing post-deployment incidents by 30%. Defined and enforced streamlined rollout processes by implementing executive-ready program documentation, roadmaps, Mentored junior TPMs and engineers across reliability and platform orgs; defined best practices for milestone planning, RAID tracking, and service adoption metrics Decomposed quarterly OKRs into program milestones; tracked delivery health via Tableau dashboards Technical Program Manager, Caterpillar Inc, Peoria, IL | September 2017 August 2019 Served as a Technical Program Manager to design, develop and support CAT digital platform telematics that is built to support up to two million assets Spearheaded delivery of CAT s next-gen digital telematics platform, designed to support real-time analytics for 2M+ connected assets, improving operational visibility and preventive maintenance strategies. Analyzed and triaged 5,000+ customer-reported issues post-release, leading prioritization efforts that reduced critical bugs by 20%, and directly influencing backlog grooming and sprint goals. Partnered closely with data science and embedded teams to boost data reliability by 30%, significantly improving the customer experience across connected telematic machine services. Improved internal developer experience by streamlining CI/CD workflows and dashboard visibility into build/test coverage metrics Created program-level dashboards (Power BI/JIRA) for leadership and engineering teams to track velocity, release blockers, and long-term platform health metrics. Collaborated with QA and dev teams to improve testing and deployment coordination, building tighter feedback loops that surfaced customer-impacting issues earlier in the lifecycle. Acted as the glue between product, engineering, and field operations ensuring that customer needs and support insights were embedded into roadmap decisions and release criteria. Championed improvements to the bug lifecycle process and risk management practices, introducing metrics that helped quantify test effectiveness and reduce regressions. Early Career - Program Manager, Scrum Master & .NET Developer | GEICO, Microsoft, Cameron International & County of Fresno| January 2011 July 2017 Held progressive roles as a .NET Developer and Scrum Master across public sector, enterprise, and insurance domains. Led Agile teams and contributed to the design and delivery of web-based platforms, APIs, and enterprise tools. At GEICO, program managed a team of 15 developers, QA, and product owners to rewrite GEICO.com using Angular and C#. Led multiple Agile teams within a SAFe Release Train, driving lean practices, WSJF prioritization, and backlog grooming. Rolled out an Agile coaching program that reduced feature delivery time by 15%. At Microsoft, developed and deployed web-based training applications, created REST APIs, and enabled low-cost app integration using ASP.NET Web API and Azure DevOps (TFS). At Cameron International, enhanced client websites, fixed bugs, and developed ASP-based web forms while performing unit and integration testing. At County of Fresno, served as a Developer and Scrum Master, facilitating sprint ceremonies and contributing to architecture, development, and testing of .NET-based applications using RESTful Web APIs. CORE COMPETENCIES & SKILLS Program & Portfolio Management: Release Management Program Delivery Mentoring EPMs Portfolio Governance | Cross-Functional Leadership: Executive Communication Stakeholder Alignment Conflict Resolution Mentoring EPMs | Delivery & Execution: Agile/SAFe/OKR Execution Risk Mitigation Continuous Improvement Issue & Dependency Management | Technical Fluency: Infrastructure Modernization AI/ML Integration CI/CD Cloud Platforms (GCP, On-Prem, Hybrid) | Tooling & Data: Tableau SQL JIRA Azure DevOps KPI Dashboards Milestone Health Tracking | Strategic Impact: Cost Optimization Resource Planning Automation Strategy Scalability & Performance Improvements | EDUCATION Masters Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX CERTIFICATIONS & MEMBERSHIPS Program & Portfolio Management PMI-ACP Certified Scrum Master (CSM) SAFe Agilist (SA) SAFe Advanced Scrum Master (SASM) SAFe for Teams (SP) Keywords: csharp continuous integration continuous deployment quality analyst artificial intelligence machine learning business intelligence California Illinois Texas