Hi, I’m

Anuja Lamahewa

Technical Project Manager (Software & AI)

I’m a Project Manager with 11+ years of experience, including 8 years of hands-on software engineering and 3+ years in technical program and project leadership roles across software, DevOps, and AI-driven initiatives. My background allows me to bridge delivery execution, engineering depth, and business objectives effectively.

I’ve led software and DevOps teams within Agile environments, promoting Scrum and continuous improvement practices while driving the adoption of modern engineering standards such as CI/CD, quality automation, and cloud-native workflows. I also bring strong Jira administration and delivery governance experience, including designing and mapping business workflows, configuring issue types, dashboards, and reports to improve visibility, alignment, and delivery predictability across teams.

I’ve worked across enterprise, government, and startup contexts, delivering reliable, high-impact platforms with a strong focus on execution quality, scalability, and long-term maintainability. I’m particularly interested in building efficient delivery frameworks, improving engineering standards, and helping organizations modernize how they build and deliver technology.

Experience

  • Managed and led the Software and DevOps teams, owning delivery execution, technical direction, and day-to-day coordination across multiple concurrent projects.
  • Coordinated cross-functional teams including software engineers, designers, QA engineers, SEO specialists, and digital marketing teams to ensure aligned execution and predictable delivery timelines.
  • Implemented Atlassian Jira across the organization, restructuring delivery workflows by establishing separate business units for Projects, Digital Marketing, and SEO with customized issue types, workflows, and permission models.
  • Led the transition of DevOps workflows from GitLab to GitHub, introducing GitHub Actions to implement standardized CI/CD pipelines across projects.
  • Introduced automated code quality and testing practices by integrating Sonar for static code analysis and standardizing GitHub Actions workflows to enforce build validation, automated testing, and quality gates.
  • Established clear repository management standards including naming conventions, branching strategies, and pull request policies, along with consistent Docker and Dockerfile standards to ensure secure, maintainable, and reliable build and deployment pipelines.
  • Introduced Next.js as the standard frontend framework, moving away from traditional WordPress-based implementations to enable more scalable, performant, and secure web applications.
  • Designed and established a reusable Next.js base project template, defining project structure, file naming conventions, coding standards, and architectural best practices to ensure consistency and faster onboarding of new projects and developers.
  • Conducted regular code reviews to maintain engineering quality, enforce standards, and support continuous improvement and skill development within the software team.
Project ManagementSoftware DeliveryTeam LeadershipDevOpsCI/CDGitHub ActionsNext.jsJiraDockerCode Quality
  • Led and managed a distributed team of 8 engineers delivering Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Computer Vision solutions across more than five concurrent projects.
  • Owned delivery planning and execution, ensuring projects met quality standards and delivery timelines in a fast-paced, multi-project environment.
  • Introduced and embedded Agile practices including daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, retrospectives, and stakeholder syncs to improve visibility, accountability, and delivery cadence.
  • Designed and customized Jira workflows to support structured sprint planning, backlog refinement, and issue tracking across multiple AI initiatives.
  • Led the migration of all projects to GitHub, establishing standardized version control practices, improving code review processes, and enhancing collaboration across the engineering team.
  • Centralized technical documentation by migrating content to Markdown and implementing a shared documentation platform, improving accessibility, maintainability, and long-term scalability.
  • Worked closely with stakeholders to align technical execution with business goals, manage priorities, and remove delivery blockers.
Technical LeadershipMachine LearningPythonAgile DeliveryJiraGitHubDocumentation ManagementStakeholder Coordination
  • Owned the configuration, administration, and ongoing maintenance of Atlassian products including Jira, Confluence, and Bitbucket, supporting multiple R&D teams across the organization.
  • Collaborated with cross-functional stakeholders to design and align Jira workflows, issue types, and reporting structures with delivery and governance needs.
  • Created and managed Jira projects, advanced JQL queries, and dashboards to support operational visibility and decision-making.
  • Integrated Jira with Microsoft Power BI to deliver advanced reporting on test automation results and KPI targets for leadership and delivery teams.
  • Managed integrations with external tools such as Aha! and 2C8, ensuring alignment with Jira-based processes and governance models.
  • Led multiple Jira migration initiatives, including migrations from IBM RTC to Jira, Jira Server to Jira Cloud, and Jira Cloud to Jira Cloud.
  • Gathered and documented business requirements from stakeholders and translated them into technical specifications and execution plans.
  • Developed detailed project plans covering scope, timelines, resource allocation, and cost estimates, and drove alignment on goals, deliverables, and success criteria.
  • Coordinated execution across geographically distributed teams, managing dependencies, risks, and stakeholder expectations throughout migration lifecycles.
  • Provided people leadership through mentoring and onboarding of new team members, and supported recruitment and interview processes for both internal and external titles.
Program ManagementJira AdministrationJira MigrationsConfluenceProject PlanningPower BIStakeholder ManagementTeam Leadership
  • Owned and maintained a consistent release cadence across multiple IFS Cloud and IFS Applications versions (21R1, 21R2, APP10), coordinating engineering, QA, and operations teams to meet delivery timelines.
  • Managed last-minute critical bug fixes and release risks, ensuring issues were resolved without compromising overall release schedules or product stability.
  • Defined and implemented comprehensive release criteria and test strategies that balanced short-term delivery needs with long-term product quality objectives.
  • Facilitated Change Advisory Board (CAB) meetings to align multiple teams on release readiness, surface risks early, and drive timely decision-making.
  • Reviewed and validated customer-facing release notes to ensure accuracy, clarity, and completeness prior to external communication.
  • Proactively handled critical customer escalations by planning and executing out-of-band releases to address urgent production issues.
  • Created and maintained detailed release documentation and root cause analyses to improve process transparency, support continuous improvement, and provide traceability for future releases.
Program ManagementRelease ManagementVersion ManagementJiraConfluenceRisk ManagementStakeholder Coordination
  • Served as Scrum Master for the team, owning Agile delivery practices including sprint planning, backlog refinement, daily stand-ups, retrospectives, and release coordination.
  • Created and maintained delivery roadmaps, sprint plans, and supporting documentation to align engineering work with delivery timelines and stakeholder expectations.
  • Tracked progress, risks, and dependencies across workstreams, proactively identifying and addressing blockers to maintain delivery momentum.
  • Facilitated and delivered training sessions on Agile methodologies, test automation practices, and DevOps principles to engineers and cross-functional stakeholders.
  • Promoted adoption of quality-first and automation-driven practices to improve delivery consistency and reduce release risk.
  • Led and participated in code reviews for critical release-related fixes, ensuring stability, quality, and adherence to engineering standards.
  • Conducted technical interviews and supported hiring decisions for new engineering team members.
  • Acted as a bridge between engineering, QA, and stakeholders to improve communication, alignment, and execution during active delivery cycles.
ScrumAgile DeliveryTeam LeadershipRelease ManagementCode ReviewC#ASP.NET MVC
  • Designed, developed, and maintained an internal ASP.NET web platform that provided comprehensive test automation statistics and analytics for the R&D organization.
  • Built and maintained test automation tools and supporting infrastructure, ensuring reliable and scalable testing processes across teams.
  • Implemented multiple RESTful API services in C# to enable seamless integration between Jira, Microsoft Azure, and Jenkins CI platforms.
  • Designed and implemented C# utilities to support automated testing and validation of SKUs within the core business application.
  • Collected and analyzed automation data and created Power BI dashboards to visualize test execution results and track key performance indicators (KPIs).
  • Mentored and onboarded new team members, providing technical guidance and supporting their transition into productive contributors.
C#ASP.NETREST APIsJenkinsAzurePower BITest AutomationMentoring
  • Maintained and enhanced an internal application testing framework used for component-level testing of the IFS application, ensuring consistent daily quality through reliable automated coverage.
  • Developed a monitoring tool using C# and ASP.NET to track nightly test execution results and automatically create Jira tickets for failed builds, significantly reducing the feedback loop for developers.
  • Designed, maintained, and optimized Jenkins pipelines to support daily CI/CD execution with automated test suites.
  • Created and maintained supporting automation scripts using Batch and PowerShell to improve pipeline reliability and execution stability.
  • Developed custom Jenkins plugins using Groovy to support tailored automation workflows and improve CI/CD pipeline efficiency.
C#ASP.NETJenkinsCI/CDGroovyJiraAutomation
  • Contributed to the development and maintenance of internal enterprise applications in a production environment.
  • Built custom tools to strengthen application testing and improve developer productivity.
  • Extended Microsoft FxCop for static code analysis to enforce consistent coding standards.
  • Automated report generation for daily builds, improving visibility into build health and code quality.
  • Evaluated CI tools such as TeamCity and Bamboo to assess suitability, scalability, and workflow integration.
C#.NETFxCopCI/CDTeamCityBamboo