Trish Putnam

A proven leader in quality assurance, software development and project management, I specialize in building and scaling high-performing, cross-functional teams for fast-paced, high-growth environments. My expertise spans project and program management, technical hiring, and organizational leadership, with a strong track record of delivering complex initiatives on time and under budget. I’ve modernized legacy systems, implemented Agile and hybrid methodologies, and driven process automation—resulting in measurable gains in delivery speed, quality, and team morale. I’ve managed multi-million dollar budgets, launched new products and features for Fortune 100 clients, and consistently improved project transparency and stakeholder satisfaction. My approach combines strategic vision with hands-on execution, making me an ideal partner for startups seeking to accelerate growth, optimize resources, and build resilient, innovative teams.

trish@trishputnam.com | Redmond, WA | Austin, TX

Core Competencies and Skills

Project/Program Management:

  • Analysis
  • Budget
  • Schedule Management
  • Change Management
  • Relationship & Consensus Building
  • Policy & Procedure Creation and Management
  • Risk Assessment and Mitigation Strategies
  • Vendor Management

    • Personnel Management:

  • Hiring
  • Training & Development
  • Mentoring
  • Retention
  • Performance Management
  • Team Development & Growth

    • Organizational Leadership:

  • Strategic & Tactical Planning, Near and Long Term
  • Strength in Communications Across Organizational Boundaries
  • Solutions Driven Thinker
  • Collaborative Mindset with Business and Technology Leadership

    Broad technical knowledge in Quality Assurance, IT, DevOps, Release Management, Data Analysis

    • Key Work Experience

    • PACCAR Parts / Software Development Manager / 2024 – 2025

      • Directed and supervised a cross-functional, globally distributed team of 12 software developers and 1 QA engineer across six concurrent AWS-based initiatives, utilizing Agile (Scrum/Kanban) and Waterfall delivery models
      • Achieved optimized resource allocation and modernization outcomes by managing a $6.5M departmental budget, leading legacy code transitions (COBOL/RPG to Python and Java), and implementing API-based data exchange frameworks
      • Improved delivery timelines, software reliability, and cost efficiency by launching and scaling a Quality Engineering program.
      • Worked closely with project managers and business stakeholders to solve issues with existing projects that had stalled through better scope management, improved requirements gathering and communications enhancements
      • Partnered with head of project management to devise better reporting tools for accurate KPIs, which resulted in better visibility into business needs and budget utilization
      • Improved morale and collaboration with senior infrastructure development team, resulting in 25% improvement in output and better control of new project vs. support work through enhanced teamwork and KPI tracking.

    • QAnalysts / Client Site Mgr & Practice Advisor / 2021 – 2023

      • Hired to manage 30+ Quality Assurance FTE across 5 onsite project teams for a Fortune 100 client; long-term projects range from released products with new software or hardware, unreleased products, to an SDK and API product focus. Personnel: 12-31 FTE. Budget: $5M USD.
      • Successfully launched new product, three new hardware releases for a mature product, and ~15 new or updated major features across all 5 products in 1-year, delivering on schedule and ~6% under-budgets
      • Hired 12 new project professionals and hiring an additional 8 to fill newly created positions, while maintaining an 85% retention
      • Coach and guide staff on process development, leadership training, and QA techniques, resulting in 2 individual contributors promoted into lead roles with recognition by the client for improvements in leadership
      • Overhauled project team structure, reassigned duties based on skillset, and introduced rhythm of business cadence which transformed clients’ overview and satisfaction of the team, resulting in winning contract as primary managed service
      • Improved estimates for projects 25% by developing an estimation tool, training team leads on use, and providing guidance to client stakeholders which enabled preliminary high-level estimates at project planning phases
      • Won contract renewal with a 40% budget expansion and two additional projects with expected YoY growth by taking leadership in the training development team, developing new hire onboarding plan, and piloting exceptional training program

    • Trish Putnam Consulting / PM, Business and Technical Consulting / 2017 – Present

      • Advised multiple clients across software QA, network infrastructure, and business process transformation, delivering tailored project and program management solutions, as well as hands-on implementation when required.
      • Improved hiring efficiency by 25%, reduced onboarding time by two days, and elevated client satisfaction through targeted workflow enhancements and operational refinements
      • Directed full project lifecycle for Xbox QA initiatives for a variety of games, enhancing turnaround efficiency by 15% through streamlined hybrid Agile/Waterfall methodologies.
      • Elevated project transparency by developing metric-based dashboards and restructuring backlogs, resulting in a 10% improvement in on-time deliverables
      • Led cross-functional teams, applying technical skills and experience-based judgment to achieve optimized outcomes

    • Director of Quality Assurance / Array Health / 2014 – 2016

      • Ownership for QA/DevOps and teams responsible for planning and executing QA tests and client implementations of an eCommerce style SaaS platform for private insurance exchange technology client. Personnel: ~12FTE & ~30 On & Off-Shore Contractors. Budget: $2.2M.
      • Built QA, SDET, and DevOps organization, hiring 10 FTE and 30 Contractors over 2 years with a 94%+ retention rate while boosting employee performance and output ~30%
      • Increased success rate of manual and automated testing by 40% through transformation of quality standards, practices/testing, and release procedures and by instilling a TDD mindset across the engineering org
      • Slashed number of significant defects discovered during UAT by ~90% with transparency and communication during the product release process
      • Prevented loss of unhappy key customer by overhauling QA and UAT processes to reduce defects/bugs found from 300+ to just 30, resulting in complete turnaround of relationship in 6 months and multiple recommendations to new clients
      • Documented and automated complex processes, including validation tests, and reduced deployment time from 5 hours to less than 45 minutes

    Previous Experience

    Project Manager, Quality Assurance / Premera (contract)

    • Coordinated end-to-end QA activities across multiple projects to ensure product quality and timely delivery.
    • Guided cross- functional QA teams, assigning tasks, setting priorities, and tracking performance
    • Developed and maintained test plans, testcases, and test scripts for manual and automated testing
    • Managed defect tracking, reporting, and resolution using standard QA tools and processes.
    • Boosted delivery speed and platform resilience by shortening testing cycles by one week per release and enhancing system scalability by 25%
    • Increased test coverage by 50% and eliminated 70% of manual QA tasks by leading automation initiatives across 10 Agile Scrum teams using Selenium and Cucumber

    Quality Leadership, Strategy & Planning / AT&T

    • Led multiple teams with up to 25 FTEs and contractors as well as matrix responsibility for members of an offshore team supporting projects in the lab set-up, design of manual/automated testing procedures for releases, development of internal tools used in the QA organization, phone testing (including Android and iPhone, among others) and configuration of security measures
      • Developed all specifications for construction of the new lab, prepared the $100k proposed budget for new hardware/software, and presented the proposal and funding justification to Sr. Vice President of the division
    • Maintained 100% compliance with the specifications and requirements of 20+ enterprise initiatives while meeting and exceeding organizational testing and procedural goals
    • Authored new quality assurance processes and procedures for laboratory testing that impacted an organization of up to 60 QA analysts and SDETs, increasing laboratory efficiency by 20%
    • Developed employees through training and mentorship programs, identifying career paths for interested employees and promoting an average of 2 employees each year

    Software Developer in Test / Microsoft

    • SharePoint: Test owner for deployment and configuration of single instance and server farms
        • Key contributions:
      • Drove testing process for deployment and configuration of Assistance Platform (a SharePoint add-on), from test planning and test development through execution of manual and automated tests
      • Developed automated process for deploying and configuration of SharePoint servers, from single instance to multiple-server farms
      • Served as team SME for deployment and configuration issues
      • Project manager for major server migration for multi-team communications and document repository site, minimizing downtime to less than two hours to ensure mission-critical activities were not adversely impacted.
      • Administration of team's infrastructure, including SharePoint instance, file server, SQL server and web server
    • Microsoft.com Search: Performance and load test owner.
        • Key contribution:
      • Built automated test and report framework utilizing Perl
    • Microsoft.com:
        • Key contributions:
      • Successfully led multiple releases of unified site, including Windows, Servers, Office subsites
      • Responsible for test planning, test development and test execution, as well as daily and weekly status reporting

    Education Highlights

    Master of Business Administration
    Emphasis: Information Technology Management
    Western Governors University

    Bachelor of Science: Information Technology
    Emphasis: Network Design and Management
    Western Governors University

    Certifications and Coursework

    Certified Scrum Master

    Certified Ethical Hacker (2009) / Certified Computer Hacking Forensic Inspector (2009)

    Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer

    Coursework in R, Python, Data Science

    CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, Project+