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Program Governance · Regulatory Deadline
Cognizant Technology Solutions · Aug 2021 – Present

Annual enrollment: 80+ people, one deadline that doesn't move

Context

Annual enrollment runs against a fixed regulatory date. Historically, product, engineering, and operations found out about each other's blockers too late to react.

My role

Owned end-to-end program governance - the communication cadence, escalation path, and dependency tracking - for a team of 80+.

Approach

Built a single shared dependency map before build started, then set a standing cadence where blockers were surfaced by exception, not by status update - so escalation happened in days, not sprint reviews.

Outcome

Hit 100% on-time delivery against the deadline and cut cross-team delays 35%, with no recurring miscommunications.

What I'd do differently

Nothing about the cadence - but an early solo draft of the dependency map missed items that only surfaced once I built the next version with the teams in the room.

Let's talk about what you're building.

Open to Product Management, Technical Program Management, and platform / AI governance roles.