LEYLA OSWALD
Hardy
Summary
Senior Technical Program Manager with extensive experience in enterprise infrastructure and cloud systems. Successfully led complex global deployments and established frameworks that improved program governance, visibility, and execution. Recognized for driving impactful disaster recovery and business continuity strategies in partnership with engineering and executive teams.
Overview
1
1
Certification
16
16
years of professional experience
Work History
Founder & Principal Consultant
BLUE MINNOW CONSULTING, LLC
02.2024 - Current
- Established a specialized consulting practice focusing on selective, high-impact engagements in technical operations, cloud infrastructure programs, and PMO governance.
- Developed business operations, end-to-end service offerings, and targeted client engagement processes.
- Integrated advanced AI-enabled workflows to streamline program planning, automated documentation, meeting synthesis, and operational efficiency.
Senior Technical Program Manager
ACRONIS
06.2022 - 10.2023
- Orchestrated international data center colocation deployments, expansions, and migrations, overcoming geopolitical and global supply-chain bottlenecks to ensure timely delivery of multi-site environments.
- Expanded global data center footprint through precise infrastructure capacity planning, effective hardware growth strategies, and alignment among multiple vendors.
- Established cross-functional operating frameworks that streamlined delivery consistency, visibility, and standardized execution across all infrastructure programs.
- Maintained full portfolio visibility across complex, concurrent infrastructure projects by mapping milestones, resolving resource constraints, and delivering automated risk reporting to executive stakeholders.
Senior Project Management Consultant
RANDSTAD / SES SATELLITE
11.2021 - 03.2022
- Led critical satellite infrastructure programs supporting Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) O3b aerospace systems.
- Introduced and formalized priority frameworks and proactive risk management processes to enhance collaboration and minimize project risks across globally distributed technical teams.
- Led project planning sessions to define project scope and objectives.
- Coordinated cross-functional teams to streamline project execution processes.
- Developed comprehensive project schedules using industry-standard tools.
Family Caregiver
07.2019 - 08.2021
- Prioritized essential family caregiving responsibilities by stepping back from active program management.
Senior Technical Project Manager
VERISIGN
03.2017 - 07.2019
- Led global network delivery projects spanning new infrastructure deployments, hardware refreshes, capacity expansions, network architecture implementations, and infrastructure migrations while meeting aggressive delivery schedules.
- Directed a matrixed engineering team in executing Verisign's largest FY2019 infrastructure migration, completing a complex hot-swap of production hardware and supported applications into an upgraded colocation environment.
- Managed Verisign's network infrastructure programs supporting its globally distributed, high-availability DNS platform with 100% uptime across company-owned data centers and third-party colocation facilities.
- Partnered with senior leadership to develop annual infrastructure roadmaps, reprioritize initiatives, and deliver executive briefings on budgets, schedules, risks, issues, and cross-functional dependencies.
- Served as a trusted PMO leader driving process improvements, governance, portfolio visibility, and coordinated execution across Engineering, Application Development, Network Operations (NOC), Finance, executive leadership, and third-party vendors.
Director of Program Management
DOCASAP
04.2016 - 03.2017
- Designed and built corporate PMO governance frameworks from scratch, establishing key performance indicator (KPI) tracking and portfolio health metrics.
- Led cross-functional teams to develop and implement strategic program initiatives.
- Improved priority alignment, stakeholder agreements, and execution velocity across strategic corporate technology initiatives.
- Oversaw program budgets and resource allocation for optimal efficiency.
- Coordinated project timelines and resources to ensure timely delivery of services.
Principal Technical Program Manager
SYMANTEC
01.2015 - 12.2015
- Directed a high-priority Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) rollout initiative for the Cloud Platform Engineering organization supporting the global Cyber Security business unit.
- Governed $3M+ capital budget for cloud platform infrastructure, focusing on capacity planning, lifecycle modernizations, and resource optimization to enhance operational effectiveness.
- Developed quarterly product and engineering roadmaps aligned with Product Management and Core Engineering leaders to ensure strategic initiative support.
- Coordinated contracts, technical procurement timelines, and financial models across vendors and internal finance teams to streamline processes and ensure timely project delivery.
Senior Program Manager
SALESFORCE
01.2011 - 01.2015
- Directed large-scale global data center rollouts, infrastructure modernization, data protection, and enterprise disaster recovery programs.
- Led the full global rollout of EMC Data Domain DD990 technology architectures across all international data centers to optimize enterprise backup capabilities.
- Spearheaded the fleet-wide modernization and hot-swap replacement of 650+ production Sun Query Search host systems with Dell enterprise server architectures.
- Managed infrastructure program operations for HBase and Hadoop distributed systems across 2,100+ production servers.
Principal Technical Project Manager
AOL
- Directed operations program management and infrastructure deployment for high-traffic internet service properties, enhancing performance for AOL.com, AIM, Netscape.com, and AOL Video.
- Managed cross-divisional product-sunset lifecycle initiative, decommissioning 1,000+ legacy production servers to cut capital infrastructure overhead by $350K+ annually.
- Led international data center migrations and global portal localization strategies across major regional hubs in Frankfurt and Bangalore on time and within budget.
- Established pilot offshore IT operations infrastructure program, centralizing front-line systems and database administration, achieving $3.5M annual reduction in operating expenditures.
Skills
- Technical program management
- Cloud infrastructure
- Data center operations
- Global data center deployments
- Capacity planning
- Infrastructure delivery
- Infrastructure planning
- Infrastructure upgrade
- Cloud deployment
- Distributed systems
- High-availability platforms
- Cybersecurity frameworks
- Program governance
- Portfolio oversight
- PMO architecture and design
- ITIL framework
- ITSM frameworks
- RAID and dependency tracking
- Operational prep
- Technical operations
- Agile practices
- Waterfall management
- Lifecycle management
- Data-driven reporting
- JIRA management
- Confluence management
- Risk management
- Stakeholder management
- Stakeholder engagement
- Collaboration skills
- Project management
- Operational analysis
- Process optimization
- Process enhancement
- Complex problem-solving
- Analytical thinking
- Problem resolution
- Transformation management
- Process optimization
- Transformation management
Certification
Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Scrum Alliance
Additional Relevant Experience
AOL, Principal Technical Project Manager, Directed operations program management and infrastructure deployment for high-traffic internet service properties, including AOL.com, AIM, Netscape.com, and AOL Video., Managed a cross-divisional product-sunset lifecycle initiative; decommissioned 1,000+ legacy production servers to slash capital infrastructure overhead by $350K+ annually., Led international data center migrations and global portal localization strategies across major regional hubs in Frankfurt and Bangalore on time and within budget., Established a pilot offshore IT operations infrastructure program, centralizing front-line systems and database administration to reduce operating expenditures by $3.5M annually.
Professional Highlights
- Led large-scale infrastructure programs spanning global data center deployments, international colocation expansions, cloud platforms, distributed compute environments, network infrastructure, and technical operations supporting mission-critical technology platforms.
- Successfully delivered high-impact infrastructure initiatives by coordinating engineering, infrastructure, operations, product, finance, vendors, and executive leadership across globally distributed organizations while proactively managing risks, dependencies, and competing priorities.
- Improved program execution by establishing practical PMO governance, portfolio visibility, executive reporting, and delivery frameworks that increased organizational alignment, accelerated decision-making, and strengthened execution across technical organizations.
Timeline
Founder & Principal Consultant
BLUE MINNOW CONSULTING, LLC
02.2024 - Current
Senior Technical Program Manager
ACRONIS
06.2022 - 10.2023
Senior Project Management Consultant
RANDSTAD / SES SATELLITE
11.2021 - 03.2022
Family Caregiver
07.2019 - 08.2021
Senior Technical Project Manager
VERISIGN
03.2017 - 07.2019
Director of Program Management
DOCASAP
04.2016 - 03.2017
Principal Technical Program Manager
SYMANTEC
01.2015 - 12.2015
Senior Program Manager
SALESFORCE
01.2011 - 01.2015
Principal Technical Project Manager
AOL