Ricky Upadhyay
Dubai
Summary
Project manager with over 8 years of experience in delivering complex cloud infrastructure and digital transformation programs in regulated environments. Led successful end-to-end delivery of AI data center and sovereign private cloud initiatives valued between $40M and $80M, coordinating over 15 technology partners and multidisciplinary teams. Expertise in project governance, RAID management, commercial oversight, and stakeholder engagement using both agile and waterfall methodologies. Recognized for fostering strong customer relationships and ensuring timely, high-quality delivery of complex technology programs.
Overview
1
1
Certification
5
5
years of professional experience
Work history
Senior Project Manager
World Wide Technology
Dubai
09.2024 - Current
- Delivered end-to-end sovereign private cloud and AI datacentre programmes valued $40m–$80m.
- Coordinated 15+ global technology partners across infrastructure networking, security, and cloud.
- Managed deployment of 200+ enterprise infrastructure assets across multiple datacentre locations.
- Governed programmes for 50+ engineers, tracking RAID, dependencies, and change control.
- Served as customer-facing project manager with weekly governance and steering updates.
- Managed project financial controls, including milestone invoicing, approvals, and revenue tracking.
- Built customer and partner relationships, proactively mitigating risks and resolving delivery issues.
Project Manager
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)
Dubai
01.2023 - 09.2024
- Managed a portfolio of 5+ concurrent SAP and Salesforce projects delivery-ready against scope, schedule, budget, and quality.
- Coordinated end-to-end delivery by aligning business stakeholders, technical teams, vendors, and third parties.
- Planned delivery using agile and waterfall, owning product backlog, sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives.
- Ran workshops for business requirements, producing user stories and acceptance criteria, prioritising backlogs.
- Maintained RAID logs, managed change control, and published executive reports to stakeholders throughout delivery.
- Led UAT, coordinated production release planning, and drove go-live for adoption by business users.
- Tracked delivery progress using Jira and Assembla, supporting PMO governance and reporting.
Junior Project Manager
Nija Tech
Dubai
06.2022 - 12.2022
- Delivered 10+ Oracle NetSuite implementation projects, managing the project lifecycle from initiation through deployment and customer handover.
- Facilitated business requirements workshops and translated business needs into functional requirements and solution designs.
- Coordinated project delivery across customers, consultants and technical teams using Agile methodologies and regular sprint ceremonies.
- Managed project governance, stakeholder reporting, UAT and production releases to ensure successful business adoption.
- Built strong customer relationships through regular status reviews, issue resolution and post-go-live support.
Project Management Office
Expo 2020
Dubai
03.2021 - 06.2022
- Supported IT application operations for Expo 2020 Dubai, ensuring business-critical systems remained operational across multiple functional areas.
- Coordinated application support activities across 15+ business towers, managing incident resolution, service requests and stakeholder communications to maintain service continuity.
- Contributed to the pre-opening IT readiness programme by developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), operational documentation and governance processes.
- Managed vendor coordination, procurement activities and third-party service delivery to support application operations throughout the event lifecycle.
- Recruited, trained and supervised support teams, driving operational excellence, process compliance and continuous service improvement.
Education
Bachelor of Computer Applications - Computer Science
Rabindranath Tagore University
India /2021 - /2023
Bachelor of Hotel Management -
Punjab Technical University
India /2008 - /2011
Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) - Commerce
Bholananda National Vidyalaya
India /2007 - /2008
Secondary School Certificate (SSC) -
Bholananda National Vidyalaya
India /2005 - /2006
Skills
Programme and project management
Agile and waterfall methodologies
Change management
Stakeholder and executive management
Project governance and RAID management
Risk, change, and dependency management
Financial and commercial oversight
Vendor and OEM management
Cloud infrastructure and datacentre delivery
Certification
- PRINCE2® Practitioner – PeopleCert
- PRINCE2® Foundation – PeopleCert
- Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM®) – Project Management Institute (PMI)
- Agile Scrum Master (ASM®) – EXIN
- ITIL® 4 Foundation – PeopleCert
- Salesforce Admin for Beginners
Languages
English – Fluent
Fluent
Hindi – Native
Fluent
Bengali – Fluent
Fluent
Tamil – Fluent
Advanced
Accomplishments
- Recognised by the customer for the successful delivery of the AI Infrastructure programme, receiving formal appreciation for leadership, collaboration and delivery excellence.
- Recognised by senior leadership for the successful implementation of the Sovereign Private Cloud programme and commitment to project delivery.
CAREER SNAPSHOT
Experience : 8+ Years
Programme Value : Up to $80M
Projects Delivered : 30+
OEM Partners Managed : 15+
Technical Resources Led : 50+
Infrastructure Assets : 200+
Methodologies : Agile / Waterfall / PRINCE2
Industries : Government / Cloud / AI Infrastructure / Enterprise IT
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
Senior Project Manager
World Wide Technology
09.2024 - Current
Project Manager
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)
01.2023 - 09.2024
Junior Project Manager
Nija Tech
06.2022 - 12.2022
Project Management Office
Expo 2020
03.2021 - 06.2022
Secondary School Certificate (SSC) -
Bholananda National Vidyalaya
/2005 - /2006
Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) - Commerce
Bholananda National Vidyalaya
/2007 - /2008
Bachelor of Hotel Management -
Punjab Technical University
/2008 - /2011
Bachelor of Computer Applications - Computer Science
Rabindranath Tagore University
/2021 - /2023