Sebastian (T.) Hefczyk

Overall Project Manager; Turnaround Manager & Coach

Bornheim, Germany

Experience

Aug 2024 - Present
1 year
Hamburg, Germany

Overall Project Manager; Turnaround Manager & Coach

Statutory Health Insurance

  • Took over a struggling project from internal leadership and achieved a successful turnaround Phase 1 (cutover of ~1000 servers (VMs)/standard and specialized desktops)
  • Led Phase 1 transition planning and execution in record time with minimal tickets
  • Stakeholder management: assumed daily direct communication with the end customer pre-cutover, rebuilding trust and restoring customer satisfaction
  • Ran a task force to resolve all issues and showstoppers before cutover
  • Defined scope and planned Phase 2 activities (e.g. silo/admin servers)
  • Kickstarted Phase 2 and returned project to success line for internal team to complete remaining tasks
  • Set up, prepared, and ran governance meetings with V-1 management to align guardrails
  • Moderated various jour fixes and operational workshops
  • Participated in lessons learned with the client to address pre-engagement dissatisfaction (client very satisfied with my work)
  • Tools: Atlassian Suite (Confluence/JIRA), MIRO, SharePoint; MS Office (PowerPoint, Excel, MS Project)
Jan 2024 - Jul 2024
7 months
Germany

Technical Project Manager; Turnaround Manager & Coach

International Electronics Manufacturer

  • Project management and leadership
  • Took over a troubled project (Poland) from internal team on a critical path
  • Scrum ceremonies: sprint planning, review, retrospective
  • Supported Product Owner with backlog refinement, prioritization, and product vision alignment
  • Turnaround management and temporary project leadership
  • Assessed current state and root causes
  • Defined, aligned, and implemented corrective measures with IT and business management (e.g. scope freeze, reprioritization, resource issue mitigation, dependency planning)
  • Aligned migration approach and overall project plan with architects and project leads
  • Supported test preparation with test management, teams, and architects
  • Created transparency by identifying cross-project dependencies and aligning fixes with other project leads and agile masters
  • Provided clear stakeholder reporting
  • Established active risk and issue management
  • Status meetings with international business and IT at C-level (including Poland leadership)
  • Guided the turnaround and handed back to internal leadership
  • Tools: Atlassian Suite (Confluence/JIRA), MIRO, SharePoint; MS Office (PowerPoint, Excel, MS Project)
Jun 2023 - Dec 2023
7 months
Germany

Project Lead/ Initiative Setup & Coaching

German Mobile Operator

  • Led "Device Compatibility Initiative" for network launch
  • Defined scope of measures needed for launch
  • Broke down requirements, aligned sprint goals and priorities at C-1 level, prepared board decisions
  • Derived and aligned project deliverables
  • Program organization: established a central steering structure with clear roles
  • Steering committee: setup, execution, and moderation of meetings with board and C-1 level
  • Contributed to and supported board meetings
  • Created transparent stakeholder reporting
  • Consolidated activities to identify mitigations where improvements weren't immediately feasible
  • Defined and implemented project management processes for planning, controlling, and reporting
  • Identified process impacts and supported integration into line organization
  • Tools: Atlassian Suite (Confluence/JIRA), MIRO, SharePoint; MS Office (PowerPoint, Excel, MS Project)
Sep 2022 - Jun 2023
10 months
Germany

Deputy Project Lead/ PMO/ Subproject Lead “Change Management & Communication”

International IT Infrastructure/Engineering Innovator

  • Defined and established project management processes for planning, controlling, reporting (single point of contact to project & portfolio management)
  • Deputy project lead
  • Aligned multiple suppliers and set up structures for "Celonis Process Analysis", "System Analysis", and "Change & Communication" workstreams
  • Steering committee with CIO and business leads: gatekeeping, moderation, and postprocessing of board decisions
  • Defined goals, managed scope, and shaped project direction
  • Set up stable project delivery framework
  • Developed, aligned, and executed change management and communication plans, managed communications across corporate channels on behalf of CIO
  • Tools: Atlassian Suite (Confluence/JIRA), MIRO, SharePoint; MS Office (PowerPoint, Excel, MS Project); Celonis Process Analysis
Feb 2021 - Sep 2022
1 year 8 months
Germany

Project Management, Concept, Implementation, Consulting, PM Coaching

Leading International Retail Group

  • Operational project lead
  • Leadership development, coaching, and training of lead developers into subproject lead roles via on-the-job training
  • Advised overall project leadership and teams
  • Set up project structures with clear ownership
  • Aligned sprint goals, tracked velocity and burndown charts
  • Optimized Scrum approach in hybrid setup
  • Sparring partner for internal agile coaches on methods, tools, and mindset
  • Defined goals and scope management
  • Ensured delivery capability and project delivery throughout
  • Defined and rolled out risk management
  • Shaped project guardrails
  • Project marketing and communication: created highlight posts and success articles
  • Detailed planning: roadmaps and workstream plans with dependency management
  • Ran task forces to enable project progress
  • Consolidated project closure report including lessons learned for knowledge management
  • Tools: Atlassian Suite (Confluence/JIRA), MIRO, SharePoint; MS Office (PowerPoint, Excel, MS Project); Azure DevOps
Aug 2020 - Jan 2021
6 months
Cologne, Germany

Interim Manager

Mid-Sized IT Consulting Firm

  • Optimized company structure for growth and developed a 3-year roadmap
  • Strategic realignment: one-on-one and group coaching for executives
  • Defined USP
  • Designed and rolled out new product portfolio
  • Aligned and defined business development action plan
  • Coached management on business development and sales strategy
  • Arranged client meetings and supported via remote coaching on conversation techniques (needs analysis, presentation, objection handling, self-presentation) with debriefs
  • Tools: Atlassian Suite (Confluence/JIRA), MIRO, SharePoint; MS Office (PowerPoint, Excel), HubSpot
  • Skills: interim management, business development, executive coaching
Apr 2019 - Jul 2020
1 year 4 months

Scrum Master, Multi-project Manager, Supplier Restructuring in Infrastructure

Global Insurance Group

  • Advised and implemented project approach reengineering / adapted agile methods to a traditional setup with tailored project setup (Scrum/waterfall)
  • Supported Product Owner in backlog refinement and prioritization
  • Prepared, ran, and followed up Scrum ceremonies
  • Managed scope, time, and budget
  • Multi-project management of suppliers in database server projects
  • Acted as internal senior project manager
  • Prepared decision documents for program leadership
  • Integrated internal and external teams into "One Team"
  • Participated and moderated operational and steering committee meetings
  • Skills: Certified Scrum Master, internal/external communication, PRINCE2
  • Tools: Guidewire, Atlassian Suite (Confluence/JIRA), MIRO, MS Office
Feb 2019 - Apr 2019
3 months
Neckarsulm, Germany

Scrum Master / Agile Coach

Large Retail Chain

  • Prepared, ran, and followed up Scrum ceremonies
  • Led Scrum of Scrums with other masters to improve cross-team agility (SAFe)
  • Identified agility improvement potentials in close coaching with product owners and teams
Jan 2018 - Feb 2019
1 year 2 months
Germany

Overall Project Lead

Mid-Sized Insurance Company

  • Phase 1 (end Jan–early Jun): LMS implementation with client-selected vendor
  • Aligned direction with sponsors
  • Ran agile-iterative approach based on Scrum
  • Harmonized scope at high-level requirement/story level across learning areas
  • Mediated and built team with differing goals
  • Led project and managed risks
  • Designed and implemented evaluation process for tool vendors
  • Prepared, conducted, and followed up steering meetings
  • Phase 2 (Jun 2018): Turnaround after board decision to change LMS vendor
  • Executed negotiation strategy with sponsors
  • Evaluated options and prepared decision materials for board
  • Led final negotiations in English to mutual separation agreement with vendor MD
  • Guided decision to separate and start vendor evaluation
  • Phase 3 (Jun 2018–Feb 2019): New vendor evaluation
  • Overall project lead and central liaison between client and LMS vendors
  • Designed a 3-stage evaluation to select best vendor
  • Created and managed quantitative scoring with >200 harmonized high-level requirements
  • Oversaw data collection and benchmarking
  • Drove board decisions to narrow vendor pool
  • Conducted delta analysis before contract signing to identify showstoppers
  • Facilitated scope definition for final LMS functionality
  • Handed over to internal lead for implementation
  • Tools: Atlassian Confluence, Ubuntu, various LMS including open source
Aug 2017 - Dec 2017
5 months
Germany

Quality Subprogram Lead

Logistics Group

  • Led two strategic projects focused on quality assurance
  • Planned and controlled subprogram activities for quality
  • Led supplier workshops
  • Reported to overall program lead
  • Ran workshops
Oct 2016 - Jul 2017
10 months
Germany
On-site

Program Management

Insurance

  • Multi-program management: leading project teams in customer programs (onsite/offshore/nearshore)
  • Line management for >200 staff
  • Main client contact and steering committee lead
  • Developed solutions for delivery programs
  • Optimized governance processes
  • Improved global delivery process (offshore/nearshore/onsite)
  • Converted two >100-staff client programs from waterfall to Scrum
  • Contributed to strategy development
  • Coached teams and individuals
  • Guided delivery transition to new vendors
Aug 2015 - Sep 2016
1 year 2 months
Germany

Deputy PMO Lead (IT Workstream)

Major Banks

  • Created roadmap for accelerated setup of multiple separation projects in bank’s processes and committees, presented to steering committee, supported setup phase
  • Conducted cross-bank blind-spot analysis with enterprise architecture to identify entanglement-relevant applications and verify ownership, designed approach, secured management approval, froze app list by board decision
  • Supported the "Application Development" cluster with urgent projects identified in blind-spot analysis in coordination with enterprise architecture and business
  • Clarified scope for "Production Organization" cluster in ITSM for services to former parent
  • Single point of contact for project offices; moderated weekly PMO jour fixes
  • Represented program leadership in task forces for critical issues (milestones, data separation)
  • Program marketing: wrote articles on infrastructure separation for internal channels, coordinated content
  • Single point of contact for program scheduling and release management alignment
  • Supported weekly IT status meetings organization, prep, follow-up
  • Assisted financials: coordinated with business and PMO of parent separation program, represented cluster lead in separation IT SteerCo
  • Acted as deputy internal PMO lead for programs in absence
  • Tools: Clarity, SAP, MS Office
Feb 2014 - Aug 2015
1 year 7 months
Germany

Deputy Project Lead Elsterlohn II; Management Consultant

Data Center of Tax Administration

  • Operational project management
  • Prepared, attended, and followed up steering committees across agencies
  • Introduced rolling planning and agile methods
  • Set up communication structures with internal/external stakeholders (agencies, other states)
  • Optimized planning, controlling, and reporting
  • Established communication and escalation paths with agencies
  • Prepared, attended, and followed up status jour fixes
  • Skills: agile project management, Scrum, large-scale projects, KONSENS, risk management, ELStAM
  • Rolled out risk management
  • Coached subproject leads
  • Tools: Atlassian Confluence, JIRA, SharePoint, MS Office
Oct 2013 - Feb 2014
5 months
Germany

Epic Owner Wholesale Rollout/ Scrum

Leading South German Automaker

  • Coordinated IT requirement implementation in global country rollout
  • Scrum-based requirements engineering
  • Liaison between business and development firms for CMS and supply chain components
  • Tools: MS Office, Confluence, JIRA
Mar 2013 - Sep 2013
7 months

Program Lead “Quality”

Leading Telecom Company

  • Led group-wide program to optimize customer processes in DSL and mobile, covering quality assurance, customer communication, and change management
  • Multi-project management of subprojects and their sub-subprojects
  • Defined scope and structured program from concept to delivery
  • Monitored progress, resolved conflicts, escalated when needed
  • Established closed planning-controlling-reporting cycle
  • Prepared and moderated overall project lead meetings
  • Drafted decision papers for division heads and board
  • Coached and supported client subproject leads in PM methods and next steps
  • Ran steering committees at board and division levels
  • Defined change management actions and planned mindset shift implementation
  • Tools: MS Office
Nov 2012 - Dec 2012
2 months

Project Setup Consultant / Business Analyst

Leading Insurance Company

  • Focused on project setup, supported planning during initiation, defined goals and detailed plan within PIP
  • Advised lead PM on goal formulation and PM methods
  • Supported project structure setup including WBS and subproject boundaries
  • Assessed test approach and scope
  • Verified subproject goals and dependencies to ensure clarity
  • Delivered phase-relevant PIP artifacts: project charter, capacity plan (resource gap analysis), timeline, budget (capex and opex) in OPX2, gathered IT security and compliance statements
  • Led steering committees (board and exec levels): prepared decision papers, post-meeting follow-up and tracking
  • Guided project through approval process, attended risk assessments, project board, and PMR
  • Set up PMO: provided templates and integrated processes for closed planning-controlling-reporting cycle
  • Handover to lead PM for ongoing execution
  • Business Analyst
Apr 2011 - Oct 2012
1 year 7 months

PMO, Deputy Project Lead, Internal/External Communication, Master Data Push Lead, Business

Leading Insurance Group / International Branch

  • Stand-in for IT program lead during absences
  • Designed and ran workshop chain for full program planning
  • Supported subprojects operationally, reviewed key documents (designs, concepts)
  • Assisted IT PM in prepping steering decisions (board, international management)
  • Advised on program-level planning
  • Led "Master Data Push" task force: reconciled data differences between local mapping and central solution, managed defect and CR follow-ups via status calls and push days
  • Budget, risk, and project plan controlling, prep for steering committees, managed booking structures in SAP-PS and OPX2
  • Reporting tailored to different stakeholders from top to middle management
  • Gatekeeping status rounds: prepared, moderated, and followed up program status meetings with IT PMs
  • Managed internal/external program communication (intranet, IT newsletter, events)
  • Test and defect management: joined daily international calls to identify and prioritize issues
  • Business Analyst
  • Tools: OPX2, SharePoint, ClearQuest, HPQC, SAP CO, SAP FI, SAP-PS, MS Office
Dec 2008 - Mar 2011
2 years 4 months

PMO, Project Lead Coaching, Internal/External Communication

Leading Mobile Operator

  • Interim lead for "Rollout & Retirement"
  • Concept and project setup
  • Gatekeeping steering boards: prep, moderation, follow-up with top and middle management
  • Agenda setting: refining topics and decision needs
  • Held alignment talks with business and IT management
  • Operational program management: intensive support of various projects, escalation support (budget, timeline)
  • Developed PM tools
  • Ran workshops, e.g., lessons learned
  • Single point of contact for reporting needs across top and middle management
  • Identified and drove significant change requests after rolling out strategic PM tool "TOP-S", led migration planning
  • Risk monitoring: set up risk reporting for program
  • Gatekeeping status rounds: ran program status meetings with IT PMs
  • Managed internal/external program communication (intranet, IT newsletter, events)
  • Advised on communication strategy with top management staff (group CIO, IT execs)
  • Program marketing: edited and wrote articles (intranet, year-end reports) in German and English
  • Oversaw test approach as sparring partner
  • Tools: TOP-S, iQ-Rep, MS Office
Sep 2008 - Oct 2008
2 months

PMO Setup, Process Analysis

Leading Insurance Company

  • Reviewed test process for optimization and quick wins
  • Supported internal management in building project office (e.g. risk management template)
  • Prepared and moderated project meetings
  • Contributed to various test jour fixes and subproject lead rounds
  • Technologies: OPX2, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio
Mar 2008 - Aug 2008
6 months
United States

Project Manager Support/ Concept Consulting/ International Multi-project Management/ Process Analysis/ Business Analyst

International Bank / Premium Segment

  • Assisted internal management in setting up multinational process rollout project
  • Co-led projects across Europe and USA: organization and conceptual support for process requirements per location
  • Collaborated with IT architects on standard processes (current vs. target), aligned cross-border with compliance
  • Prepared and drove board decisions
  • Advised/coached on internal/external communication across divisions
  • Reporting: created various regular reports from team presentations to executive status updates
  • Attended steering committees
  • Advised on rollout of core banking applications over Citrix
  • Advised PM on trends, risks, and measures; acted as backup during absences
  • Business Analyst
  • Technologies: Augeo Central, Citrix, PowerPoint, Excel, MS Project, Visio, JIRA
May 2005 - Apr 2008
3 years

Division Reorganization, International Multi-project Management

Leading Mobile Operator

  • Supported internal management in building and running a multinational benchmarking project (end-to-end performance) for mobile broadband (EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA)
  • Managed and coordinated project progress across European countries
  • Ran project office: prepared, conducted, and moderated project meetings; jour fixes with marketing and operations
  • Supported and coordinated test automation tool rollout in national subprojects with quality assurance focus
  • Analyzed test results for data quality and strategic insights for executive decisions
  • Advised on internal/external communication: single point of contact for marketing, operations, and project team inquiries
  • Created various regular reports from team presentations to status updates for exec boards and CTO reporting
  • Advised department head on trends, risks, and measures; represented head in meetings, e.g., steering boards
  • Technologies: HP IT Governance Center, HP Quality Center, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio, MS Project
Nov 2004 - Mar 2005
5 months

Quality Assurance; Test Management

Automaker’s Bank

  • Test management, planning, and design
  • Functional, application, system, integration, and acceptance testing
  • Set up Quality Center (Test Director) for monitoring test progress and defect tracking
  • Defined and executed test cases, provided support
  • Coordinated test activities across European locations
  • Conducted gap analysis in specifications
  • Project management support
  • Technologies: SQL Navigator, XML Spy, MQ-Series, HP Quality Center, MS Project, MS Office

Summary

  • Over 23 years of hands-on, cross-industry project experience confirmed by numerous written client references (provided on request) - roles include Project Manager, High-Level PMO, Test Manager, Interim Manager, Agile Coach, Epic Owner, and Scrum Master in complex, heterogeneous, mostly international and multicultural environments (English C1). Focus on new developments, greenfield, innovation, digitalization, change, and transformation projects.
  • Key assets: End-to-end consulting, design, coaching/training, and implementation of effective (agile and/or traditional – Scrum/Kanban/SAFe/Prince2) project management. Expert operational manager in strategic programs, flagship projects, vendor management, and setting up and leading PMOs. Core competencies highlights:
  • TURNAROUND MANAGEMENT: Identify project/program issues: assess health status, define and initiate corrective actions, implement measures, track to success
  • SERVANT LEADERSHIP: Respectful orchestration
  • HOLISTIC EXECUTION: Getting things done! Focus on achieving project goals within scope without tunnel vision
  • ONE TEAM: Integrate and align project players into a functional, motivated team (program/project), including vendor control and distributed teams (offshore/nearshore/onsite)
  • STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT: Effective expectation management. Align stakeholders to create stable guardrails and communicate appropriately at eye level
  • CHANGE MANAGEMENT & COMMUNICATION: Translate changes into employees’ language and gain acceptance
  • STRUCTURING: Create optimally sized, needs-based project framework for effective execution
  • COACHING & TRAINING: Share cross-industry best practices from nearly 25 years. Shadow management and on-the-job training for leadership development
  • PROGRESS TRACKING & RISK MANAGEMENT: Establish lean project structures and processes for transparency and control (planning-controlling-reporting cycle)
  • COMPOSURE: Professionalism, integrity, loyalty in extremely challenging project and team situations
  • AGILE EVANGELIST: Introduce or convert organizations to agile mindset, guide the mindset shift, tools, and practices for pragmatic effectiveness

Languages

German
Native
Polish
Native
English
Advanced
French
Elementary

Education

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Completed university degree with focus on Computational Linguistics, Sociology, and Political Science · Communication Research

Certifications & licenses

Adonis Certified

Certified Scrum Master

Certified SPICE Assessor

ISTQB

SQS Basic Software Testing Training

SQS Professionally Certified

SQS Additional Training “Technical Procedure Consultant”

Certified for SQS Test/ Professional Tool Family

Need a freelancer? Find your match in seconds.
Try FRATCH GPT
More actions