Michael Giard
Development Engineering Manager Technical Program Manager
<Experience>
Populus Group (Contract to Stellarus / Blue Shield of California) 2024-2026
Technical Program Manager
Data Product Owner
- Directed the end-to-end roadmap and technical execution to successfully launch the enterprise Commercialization Stack from concept to production. Controlled a multi-million-dollar budget, overseeing product requirements and spearheading high-value vendor negotiations for platforms including Microsoft, Snowflake, Salesforce, and OpenAI. Architected scalable program management infrastructure by driving strategic resource allocation, team onboarding, and the implementation of essential enterprise tooling.
- • Led the Commercialization launch and directed the end-to-end roadmap planning and execution to successfully bring the enterprise Commercialization Stack from concept to Production.
- • Led the Financial Strategy & Vendor Negotiation. Administered a multi-million dollar program budget and directed complex contract negotiations, licensing, and lifecycle management for critical enterprise infrastructure including Google Gemini, Microsoft, Okta, Snowflake, and Salesforce.
- • Authored and managed comprehensive product requirements, bridging the gap between high-level commercial objectives and actionable technical phases. Successfully translating high-level business goals into clear product outcomes and success metrics in high-ambiguity environments. Partnered with Product, Engineering, Marketing, Finance, Legal, and Go-To-Market teams to define strategy and Go-To-Market (GTM) deliverables.
- • Acted as a decision-maker for the evaluation, selection, and implementation of enterprise program management tooling, establishing scalable frameworks and executive reporting structures.
- • Drove strategic resource and capacity planning, designing onboarding protocols to rapidly scale cross-functional teams and accelerate time-to-productivity using Agile methodologies.
- • Identified and navigated critical technical dependencies across multiple workstreams, implementing proactive mitigation strategies to protect production timelines.
Cambia Health Solutions 2021/2024
Senior Technical Program Manager
Engineering Manager
- Developed and implemented the annual roadmap for the Digital First 2023 initiative, coordinating execution across multiple internal departments and acting as the Product Manager for requirement gathering and discovery. Partnered with Engineering leaders to shape multi-quarter and multi-year roadmaps. Spearheaded end-to-end cloud migration of customer-facing digital platform and legacy backend services, modernizing architecture through replatforming that reduced operational costs by $640K annually while improving system performance by 40%.
- • Spearheaded the transition towards a microservices-oriented architecture with a comprehensive redesign of the customer-facing website backend and frontend, improving resolution times for critical production issues.
- • Fostered and managed vendor relationships to enhance operational efficiency and ensure project outcomes through contract negotiation and performance metrics monitoring, implementing an OKR system to align the vision and goals for the Member Experience team.
- • Cultivated productive vendor relationships to increase operational efficiency by 18%, achieving over 95% on-time project delivery through strategic oversight, contract negotiation, and performance monitoring.
- • Oversaw the Enterprise Architecture Review process for 8 Enterprise Architects ensuring a clear delivery goals across the Digital First initiative.
- • Coordinated the cross-organizational delivery of 9 delivery teams and oversaw more than 40 production releases annually.
- • Identified and mitigated delivery risk factors, managed backend replatforming and software reallocation efforts, resulting in a sustainable annual savings of $450k.
- • Collaborated to coordinate delivery for the Member Engagement Service team, facilitating a cooperative environment with cross-organizational matrix staffing.
- • Led enterprise-wide implementation of decision-tracking and status reporting framework, streamlining communication across multiple Senior Stakeholders (Product, Engineering, Marketing, Finance, Legal, and Go-To-Market teams), C-Level Executives, Business Organizational Directors and external vendors and 8 vendor partnerships.
- • Led the delivery of 78 independent releases in 2023 for the Member Engagement Service team, fostering cross-organizational staffing collaboration.
Intel Corporation – Corporate Services 2017/2021
Technical Program Manager
- Implemented formal Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) processes for the Corporate Services Project and Solutions Team. Aligned processes with Agile methodologies and Product Development Lifecycle (PLC) stages.
- Established and executed a governance model for Building Management Systems (BMS).
- Selected and supervised vendors through strategic oversight, contract negotiation, and performance monitoring to ensure alignment with project goals and budgetary constraints.
- Coordinated cross-functional teams to deliver compelling and compliant proposals within stringent deadlines.
- Addressed two AA audit findings by enhancing the security of FM and SC Data Center BMS, involving the relocation of 376 network points to 10 VLANs, and safeguarding data centers from intranet access to ensure security compliance.
- Led the expansion of the Data Lake team, integrating seven additional data sources and four sites, with a strategic plan for integrating six more data sources over the next two years and continued database consolidation.
- Defined and implemented roles and responsibilities within the Project Management Office (PMO) for various project types.
Intel Corporation – Customer Quality Network 2014/2017
Operations & Engineering Manager
- Provided strategic direction for a 54-employee organization, developing and executing a comprehensive 5-year support plan and defining performance metrics.
- Imported and exported data between different sources, including Oracle SQL, MS Access, and Microsoft Excel using SSIS.
- Managed the end-to-end RFP process, from drafting to submission, ensuring competitive proposals aligned with organizational objectives.
- Oversaw onboarding, offboarding, resourcing, and team allocation for 15 direct reports across multiple geographic locations, focusing on development, goal setting, and mentoring.
- Prioritized and managed incoming incidents to ensure high availability of 116 applications, implementing robust Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) plans.
- Implemented a robust documentation process to support existing production applications for continued support post-implementation.
- Implemented JIRA for issue resolution tracking and Atlassian for documentation across the Quality Business Solutions (QBS) and partner organizations, serving as administrator and training coordinator to streamline development activities.
- Managed IT financial planning for 2015, 2016, and 2017, collaborating across four organizations within Intel to align budgeting with strategic initiatives, securing over $3M in funding each year.
Intel Corporation – Strategic Architecture Initiative 2011/2014
Software Solutions Analyst
- Led the alignment of existing application development policies with the new governance structure in the Intel IT Enterprise Architecture Council, resulting in annual savings of approximately 20,000 man-hours and earning a Division Recognition Award.
- Championed the submission and review process of the 2013 PM Virtual Conference whitepaper, contributing to a redesigned virtual conference environment that enhanced usability by 30%.
- Managed Intel IT's Decision Tracking Tool, overseeing requirements gathering, bug submission and tracking, timeline management, and resource allocation for recording enterprise-wide decisions on application standard waivers and exceptions.
Intel Corporation - Information Technology, Sales and Marketing 2009/2011
Software Solutions Analyst
- Spearheaded the transition of Quality Assurance work to the emerging market in Guadalajara, Mexico, for the LinuxSET Platform Reference Design (PRD), ensuring seamless continuity, developing a highly responsive team, and improving operational efficiency, transitioning three headcount with an annual savings of $75k per HC.
- Revamped the PRD website to align with Intel IT Standards, enhancing page load times, workflow efficiency, and user navigation, resulting in improved accessibility and usability.
- Analyzed PRD Utilization Rates to drive adoption across Intel IT Engineering, providing insights and recommendations that increased usage and efficiency by 23% year over year.
Intel Corporation – Digital Home Group 2007/2009
Lead Software Validation Engineer
- Developed comprehensive test strategies and procedures for the Widget Channel Group (later released as "Google TV"), ensuring robust validation methodologies.
- Collaborated closely with the Intel Embedded Graphics Driver Development team to validate video, audio, and hardware compatibility, ensuring seamless integration in a fast-paced, consumer-based team.
- Coordinated with external vendors such as Sony and Yahoo to address and resolve driver compatibility and implementation challenges effectively.
- Created and implemented detailed test plans and checklists to verify backward compatibility and functionality between existing applications and their previous versions, ensuring quality and reliability.
Intel Corporation – Sales and Marketing (SMO) 2005/2007
Operations & Engineering Manager
- Led team of 5 Quality Assurance (QA) Engineers for multiple SMO, Finance and Enterprise projects, including: CRM Service Pack rollout; Master Data Management (MDM) Phase 1; Intel Japan round-out encompassing customers in Ireland, Japan and Israel; LAR/ICE SAP; Telesales; SRM; and, AT Sub-Con.
- Developed, implemented, and improved procedures and test automation for effective hold, release, disposition and communication of issues to achieve timely resolution which reduced the time needed for quality assurance by 50% while increasing test coverage by 200%.
- Defined risk assessment process and metrics for issues and escalation model as appropriate to solicit swift feedback from key stakeholders and Senior Management which identified 5 red flag applications in production which were proactively fixed without any issues or user impact reported.
- Implemented a detailed test planning process to ensure complete coverage of product releases utilizing industry best practices.
- SMO Representative for the ITIL CCB process driving projects towards approval for release throughout the software development lifecycle reviewing and approving >500 releases annually.
- Clearly communicate status with stakeholders regarding go-to-market strategy and timeline.
<Core Competencies>
- Cross-Organization Influencing and Collaboration
- Agentic AI
- Vendor Procurement and Negotiations
- Program Governance and Oversight
- Process Definition and Implementation
- Technical Program Management
- Strategic Planning & Execution,
- Full-Stack Development
- Continuous Integration (CI/CD)
- Metrics Definition and Tracking
- SaaS
- Data-Driven Decision-Making
- Technical Specification
- Budget Oversight
- Deliverable Management
- Test Protocols
- Cross-functional Coordination
- Technical Issue Troubleshooting
- Risk Mitigation
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Product Quality
- Industry Standards
- Regulatory Requirements
- Motivational Leadership
- Professional Experience
< Career Timeline>
2001
Starts at Intel as contractor doing Quality Assurance
2004
Hired at Intel as full time employee
2005
First Management Position (QA Manager)
2007
Moves to Digital Home to work on Smart TV's
2009
Switches roles to Solution Analyst
2011
Takes on responsibilities as Technical Program Manager
2014
Returns to Management and starts work as Operations Manager as well
2017
Moves to Coporate Services
2021
Leaves Intel to forge new path at Cambia Health Solutions
2024
Started at Blue Shield of California and Stellarus as a contractor to handle the Commercialization efforts
2026
Exploring new opportunities!