my portfolio

Early Career Experience

Early Career Experience

Roles: Sr. Business Analyst, Business Analyst, IT Administrator

Duration: 02/07 - 06/12

Summary:

I started my tenure at Forest as an IT Administrator supporting the VP of Informatics and his four department heads as well as providing office management support to the rest of the Informatics department across our New Jersey and Long Island offices. I then moved into the Project Delivery functional area within our department, and worked as a Business Analyst > Sr. Business Analyst on a variety of digital and IT-based projects that focused on running the business or improving the business for multiple portfolios within the company’s Research and Development (R&D) division.

Project Brief:

The projects I worked on were in support of the Clinical Operations, Corporate Project Management, Regulatory Operations and Affairs, Global Quality Assurance, Business Development, and Global Drug Safety departments that comprised the larger R&D organization.

Some of the major platforms I worked on included: Sparta Systems TrackWise, Aris Global ARISg, HP Project and Portfolio Management (PPM), OpenText ProVision and BPM modules, CA Technologies Clarity, Microsoft SharePoint, SAP Business Objects / Desktop Intelligence / Crystal Reports, EMC Documentum, Oracle Central Designer, Phase Forward InForm Portal, and the Inova Business Development platform.

Business Analyst - High-level Responsibilities:

  • Captured new project proposals with business stakeholders to help define their Roadmap as an input to the opportunity qualification process which supported the yearly budgeting review and approval process

  • Created and maintained Portfolio Roadmaps as a visual aid in communicating business and IT alignment strategies

  • Created and updated all key documents including but not limited to Project Charters, Scope Statements, User/Functional Requirements Specifications (UFRS), Test Plans and Test Scripts, Traceability Matrices, Mitigation and Contingency Management Plans, Training Manuals, Retirement Plans, and Test Summary Reports

  • Gathered and documented user and functional requirements to create UFRS documents for business review and approval

    • Standardized the UFRS template to streamline future validation efforts

  • Created weekly project status reports for my assigned Project Managers as well as for the VP of Project Delivery

  • Trained business users on their new and/or updated systems ensuring system and user adoption at the time of Go live

  • Constructed test scripts to ensure all requirements were covered and traced back to their UFRS

    • Ensured all systems were properly implemented in accordance with GxP/21 CFR Part 11 requirements to support audits from our internal QA department and/or from an external regulatory agency (i.e., the FDA)

IT Administrator - High-level Responsibilities:

  • Created SIPOC (Supplier, Input, Process, Output, Customer) process diagrams to standardize our core departmental processes such as onboarding consultants, drafting SOWs, processing invoices, creating purchase orders, and how to augment our teams with consultants

  • Managed all aspects of the employee onboarding process for full-time hires as well as temporary, freelance consultants

  • Coordinated and facilitated the Request for Proposal (RFP) process with our Procurement and Sourcing departments to send, receive, and review proposals and competitive bids for multiple Informatics initiatives

  • Tracked maintenance and software licensing costs related to the annual renewal of production assets to reduce overhead on underutilized applications

  • Entered purchase requisitions in our internal purchasing system, and interacted with our Purchasing and Accounting departments to ensure invoices were tracked, reviewed, approved, and paid on time

  • Tracked discretionary and non-discretionary budget entries into PPM for multiple cost centers which contributed to monthly budget reconciliation reports for various general ledger (GL) code purchases

  • Facilitated meetings with our Procurement and Human Resources departments to create the process model for establishing a preferred vendor list, and setting guidelines for maintaining the list

  • Ensured fully executed contracts were distributed to the appropriate parties, and maintained files of all Informatics Contracts, Statements of Work, Software/Hardware Licenses, and Mutual Non-Disclosure, General/Master Service, and Vendor Agreements

Added Value:

  • Participated in expanding our internal SDLC methodology to support the Agile Scrum framework according to project size, scope, complexity, and compliance risk (in a pharmaceutical project management context)

  • Led a 15-month team building initiative, and successfully delivered an Informatics department-wide team building exercise across multiple sites which contributed to a higher degree of cross-functional cooperation, planning, and execution of our projects

  • Selected by the Informatics Leadership Team to define a consistent set of processes and roles and responsibilities to govern project proposals within Hewlett Packard’s PPM tool

  • Elected as the DRC (Department Record Champion) for the Informatics RIM (Records and Information Management) Compliance Program to review and provide input to the newly established RIM policies

  • Contributed several IT-driven methods, and personal ideas and recommendations to the internal Innovation team to further demonstrate value and competitive advantage for the organization

Roles: eCommerce Coordinator, Sales Associate

Duration: 09/04 - 12/05

Summary:

I started my professional career in retail as a Sales Associate at the FCUK store on Broadway in NY, NY. After a few weeks working on the sales floor, I was invited to oversee the eCommerce operation that was running out of the basement of the same store. This started my journey in eCommerce - when eCommerce was still an afterthought in the corporate strategy. We utilized a home grown platform, printed and faxed orders to other stores to fulfill and ship, and PCI compliance was not even a thing yet. It truly was the beginning of the eCommerce movement.

High-level Responsibilities:

  • Managed the pick-pack-ship team who processed domestic-based orders, exchanges, and returns to meet our corporate sale forecasts

    • Scaled the operation with additional employees to support holidays and other marketing promotions

  • Responsible for processing returns for all North America (NA)-based orders that were shipped to our location - regardless if they were purchased online or from a physical store within the USA

  • Implemented new processes in organization and execution of daily operations for efficient sales order processing

  • Responded to all incoming emails and phone calls to establish a higher standard of customer service

  • Worked with Store Managers across NA to track the timely fulfillment and shipment of orders that came out of their inventory

  • Worked in AS400 and with the corporate merchandising team to maintain accurate inventory levels of 6000+ units of website merchandise to reduce back orders and cancelled orders

  • Performed weekly payroll projections and generated daily, weekly, and month-end recaps on website sales

  • Responsible for keying in all shipment invoices, store transfers, and incoming deliveries to adhere to our loss prevention policies

  • Partnered with the UK and NA teams to finalize website copy and product information before seasonal launches