Gavin Sellars

Core Enhancements Lead, MyServices Team

Accenture Federal Services

Washington

08.2019 - Current

Lead IT project delivery for a ServiceNow platform tailored to the U.S. Department of State, serving a global user base of 82,000+ across 284 locations.
Served as Release Train Engineer and Agile Product Owner for a 12-person cross-functional team, overseeing sprint planning, backlog management, and stakeholder coordination across dozens of Program Increments.
Championed risk management and delivery excellence, proactively addressing scope changes, managing team capacity, and ensuring all deliverables aligned with contractual and business objectives.
Collaborate with stakeholders to define team objectives to align with business value. This involves identifying and articulating clear goals that deliver impactful, customer-centric solutions.
Through iterative Agile development, our team enhanced security, streamlined workflows, and implemented critical new features. The project remains ongoing, with annual renewals since 2019, ensuring sustained value for U.S. diplomats, employees, and families.
Defined and refined project scope, goals, and success criteria in collaboration with stakeholders.
Developed and maintained the project roadmap, ensuring alignment with Department of State priorities.
Led backlog refinement and sprint planning, ensuring that work aligns with mission objectives and business value.
Partnered with the Product Owner to translate high-level requirements into actionable user stories and technical deliverables.
Engaged with overseas embassy personnel, diplomats, and IT teams to gather requirements, address pain points, and validate solutions.
Facilitated project governance, ensuring compliance with evolving security and process mandates.
Managed the risk register, proactively identifying, tracking, and mitigating risks related to compliance, data security, and system stability.
Led biweekly sprint planning, sprint reviews, and retrospectives to drive continuous improvement.
Ensured adherence to Agile best practices, optimizing team velocity and maintaining focus on high-value deliverables.
Removed blockers and facilitated cross-functional collaboration to accelerate development and issue resolution.
Maintained and updated project documentation, including sprint reports, release notes, and lessons learned.
Monitored key performance metrics, such as defect resolution time, system uptime, and feature adoption rates.
Evaluated team capacity to balance workload and improve efficiency.
Spearheaded continuous process improvements, identifying opportunities to enhance development workflows and user experience.
Worked closely with the team to give constant performance feedback and align myself as a servant leader. Expert in communication and emotional intelligence to ensure a happy and high functioning team.
Implemented and managed JIRA Agile program boards, improving visibility, prioritization, and delivery velocity during the team’s Agile transformation.
Mentored and onboarded four analysts; hosted regular 30-for-30s to provide feedback, share institutional knowledge, and develop individual growth paths.

Summary

Overview

Work History

Core Enhancements Lead, MyServices Team

Education

Bachelor of Science - Business Information Technology

Skills

Websites

Certification

Timeline

Core Enhancements Lead, MyServices Team

Bachelor of Science - Business Information Technology

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