Derek Tarcza

About Derek Tarcza

I am a technology leader and program manager with over 20 years of experience that includes building project management teams and PMOs, product/business ownership of both customer-facing and internal systems, and driving transformation efforts within customer experience and operations. In 2021 I joined American Water where I serve as Director of Strategy & Ops Support, lead a Program Management Office, and Digital Product Owner. I previously spent nearly 15 years with Comcast where I held leadership roles within Customer Experience, Governance & Operations, and Accessibility organizations.As a leader I take a hands-on approach and am able to lead decision making and influence executives to achieve buy-in on key directives. Beyond my technical work, I have also been a champion of diversity efforts and have founded and grown a DE & I ERG that developed a national footprint at Comcast.

Experience

1. Customer Digital Product Management

   American Water

   Sep 2021 — Present · Camden, NJ, US

   American Water (NYSE: AWK) is the largest US publicly traded water and wastewater utility company. I was recruited by the Chief Customer Officer to leadCustomer Digital Products and Innovation for customer-facing and agent-facing systems, with responsibility for managing six project managers and leading digital programs and technical strategy.Responsibilities and highlights- Product Owner for a self-service portal used by both customers and agents for bill pay, viewing usage data, and support. The portal has undergone thousands of enhancements to functionality and UX. Re-focused efforts to deliver most valuable enhancements to production, resulting in 30% lift in customer satisfaction and 20% increase in stability- Oversee enhancements to SAP Meter to Cash that serves as agents’ system of record. Improvements in 2022 resulted in $1M additional revenue- Develop digital roadmap for customer and employee experience- Led key projects that included implementations of a cloud-based contact center that improves customer experience and saves >$2M annually, a customer assistance portal that provides support to low income customers, and a system to manage tax exemption eligibility that enabled reassignment of analysts- Manage data integrity and integration efforts for ~20 M&A events per year- As PMO Lead, I transformed the team by implementing formal processes, right-sized governance and better communications for all IT and customer projects.

Education

• Rutgers University

  BA, Economics, IT

  1998 — 2002

Skills

• Program Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Sdlc
• Vendor Management
• Outsourcing
• Business Process Improvement
• Project Management
• Strategy
• Business Intelligence
• Requirements Analysis
• Management
• Team Building
• Integration
• Ms Project
• Project Portfolio Management
• Product Management
• Inventory Management
• IT Strategy
• Logistics
• Customer Satisfaction
• Call Centers
• Change Management
• Quality Assurance
• Operations Management
• Process Engineering
• Business Analysis
• Start-Ups
• Software Project Management
• Crm
• Team Leadership
• Erp
• Project Planning
• Supply Chain
• Software Development Life Cycle (Sdlc)
• Business Process
• Six Sigma
• Process Improvement
• IT Management
• Customer Relationship Management (Crm)
• Pmo