Helena Solberg Senior Program Manager
San Jose, CA • progmgr@gmail.com • +1 408-555-0173
Profile Summary
- Senior Program Manager with 11 years of experience delivering programs in enterprise networking and security software, primarily on multi-product platform releases and cross-business-unit initiatives, specializing in cross-functional roadmaps, dependency choreography, and executive reporting.
- Solid delivery toolkit across methodologies (SAFe, Lean + Kanban), PM platforms (Jira + Confluence), reporting on Tableau, comms / docs on Slack + Google Workspace, and credentials including PMP, PgMP, and SAFe Agilist, with strong fundamentals in dependency-first planning, exec-grade communication, and a bias toward removing blockers before they hit the critical path.
- Deep expertise in program scoping and roadmap architecture, cross-functional coordination across engineering, product, and GTM, risk, dependency, and issue management, and launch readiness and change management, applying practices such as RAID logs, RACI matrices, and steering committees and operating-mechanism design and decision forums to deliver predictable, on-budget, and exec-visible program delivery.
- Engaged partner working cross-functionally with Engineering, Product, Design, Marketing, Sales, Support, Legal, and Finance leadership in multi-quarter enterprise programs with monthly steering reviews, contributing to program intake, dependency war rooms, and launch-readiness reviews with a pragmatic, blocker-first mindset.
- Senior IC who shares delivery excellence and fosters a culture of written-narrative and decision-log discipline and dependency-mapping and risk-register rigor through PM coaching and operating-mechanism mentorship, while running monthly Program Council and PMO standards review sessions and authoring widely adopted program-management handbooks.
Technical Skills
- Methodologies & Frameworks:
- SAFe, Lean + Kanban, Agile / Scrum, hybrid Waterfall + Agile, PMBOK, OKRs, RAID logs, RACI matrices
- Planning & Roadmapping:
- Jira + Confluence, Smartsheet, MS Project, Asana, Roadmunk, critical-path planning, milestone management, capacity modeling
- Reporting, BI & Dashboards:
- Tableau, Looker, Power BI, Domo, exec-grade status narratives, KPI / OKR tracking, custom Confluence dashboards
- Comms & Collaboration:
- Slack + Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams + SharePoint, Notion, Miro / Mural, Lucidchart, executive communication, stakeholder management
- Risk, Issue & Dependency:
- Risk registers, issue logs, dependency maps, escalation paths, RAID frameworks, mitigation playbooks, blocker triage
- Launch & Change Management:
- Go / no-go reviews, launch readiness checklists, communications plans, training rollouts, change-management playbooks, adoption KPIs
- Budget, Vendor & Finance:
- Program budgeting, spend vs. plan tracking, vendor / SOW management, contract negotiation, finance forecasting, ROI reporting
- Certifications & Standards:
- PMP, PgMP, SAFe Agilist, CSM, PRINCE2 Practitioner, ITIL v4, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
Education
Santa Clara University
MBA, Operations & Program Management focus
Work Experience
Cisco
Senior Program Manager
- Own end-to-end program management for Cisco's enterprise SD-WAN + ZTNA platform release covering 6 product lines across 3 BUs with a $18M program budget, orchestrating 14 workstreams and 120+ contributors.
- Built the program roadmap and critical path across 38 milestones and 4 release trains, with PI planning + monthly re-plan loops; lifted on-time milestone delivery from 71% baseline to 92%.
- Orchestrated cross-functional delivery across Engineering, Product, Design, Sales, Marketing, Legal, and Finance with weekly standing dependency forums and a 48-hour escalation SLA on cross-team blockers; cut cross-team unblock latency from 9 days to 48 hours across the program.
- Ran the monthly SVP-level steering committee and bi-weekly working group with written-narrative status decks (status, risks, decisions, asks), producing 14 steering decks and 4 stage-review readouts over the program; the template was adopted as Cisco's PMO-standard exec-update template.
- Owned a 64-item risk register with weekly triage, monthly sponsor escalation, and mitigation playbooks across 11 risk categories; closed the launch window with zero severity-1 surprises and 4 top-quartile risks retired ahead of their target dates.
- Mapped 42 inter-team dependencies and 8 vendor handoffs in a live dependency graph in Jira Advanced Roadmaps, with weekly walk-the-board reviews and a 3-person escalation triumvirate; cut critical-path slippage from 22% to 4% per quarter.
- Coordinated GA launch readiness, training rollout, and a 28-region comms plan across the field organization, partnering with Sales Enablement on 6 certification tracks and a 90-day readiness runway; hit 86% sales-readiness completion before GA day-1 and zero post-GA cert blockers.
VMware
Program Manager
- Designed the PMO's intake, planning, status review, and decision-forum operating model across the portfolio, cutting weekly status-meeting load from 14 hrs to 5 hrs across PMO.
- Managed a $9.4M program budget across 6 vendor SOWs with monthly spend-vs-plan reviews and finance partnership; closed 7% under budget across 3 fiscal years.
- Mentored 4 mid-career program managers through stretch assignments, supporting 2 promotions to Senior Program Manager, and authored the PMO's program-postmortem and lessons-learned handbook adopted across the portfolio.
- Partnered with Engineering, Product, Design, Sales, Marketing, Support, and Finance teams across 9 portfolio programs and 2 product lines, authoring 46 program plans, RAID logs, and postmortem write-ups that became the team's PMO baseline and onboarded 6 new program managers into the team's intake + delivery workflow.