Headline

Head of Operations & Enterprise Transformation | Enterprise PMO Leader | Engineering GCC Built from Scratch | AI-Enabled SaaS & ERP

About

I’m a global operating executive with 20+ years of experience building and scaling cross-border delivery systems, engineering platforms, and transformation programs across North America, EMEA, and India. I’ve held senior leadership roles in Fortune 100 enterprises, PE-backed firms, and high-growth SaaS companies, where I led enterprise-scale SAP, SaaS, and platform initiatives with deep alignment to business outcomes. My core strengths are in modernizing delivery systems, embedding Agile and DevOps rhythms, and designing AI- and automation-enabled operating models that scale. I’ve built GCCs from scratch, stood up PMOs across Amazon business units, and led $40M+ ERP transformations, all while improving delivery velocity, stakeholder confidence, and team performance. I bridge engineering, product, and operations to make complexity navigable and execution predictable. What energizes me is creating clarity from chaos, architecting systems, elevating teams, and building sustainable, cloud-ready organizations that enable people to thrive. I lead with discipline, calm, and a systems mindset, and I’m most engaged when I’m helping an organization scale while reducing friction and lifting people along the way.

Location

Charlotte Metro

AI stack

codex

cursor

opencode

Work experience

Head of Operations & Enterprise Transformation | COO at Palo Alto Labs, Inc, Jul 2025 - Present · 1 yr 2 mos, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, Built and scaled the company’s global delivery platform and engineering infrastructure, overseeing a $55M P&L and 100+ staff across North America and India. Led AI-enabled transformation programs and the launch of two distinct GCCs across the healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services domains. ➞ GCC Buildout (Healthcare & Manufacturing): Scaled specialized GCCs from zero to 60+ engineers in 6 months; implemented engineering ladders, hiring bars, and Agile pods to improve delivery velocity by 50%. ➞ EPMO & Agile Frameworks: Established structured delivery governance, replacing ad-hoc execution with scalable Agile sprints, CI/CD pipelines, and rigorous quality gates. ➞ Product Strategy & Influence: Partnered with client leaders on roadmap design; aligned engineering delivery with user feedback to drive adoption and market fit. ➞ AI-Powered Engineering: Integrated a unified GenAI toolchain across the SDLC; utilized Flow Metrics to track a 30% increase in engineering productivity, elevated Developer Experience (DevEx), and accelerated feature time-to-market (TTM) by 40%. ➞ SI & Partner Ecosystem: Formalized partnerships with Google Cloud and Workato; secured $10M+ in new project revenue and expanded partner-sourced pipeline by $40M. ➞ Standardized Operations: Embedded PMO playbooks and SLAs; launched retainer-based advisory offerings to drive recurring revenue.

Enterprise Transformation Lead, Program Manager at Weisiger Group, 2022 - 2025 · 3 yrs, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, Directed a $40M SAP S/4HANA program across 11 domains and 21 dealerships; unified tech and operations across parts, service, rental, and finance. ➞ SAP Enterprise Rollout: Led SAP S/4HANA implementation across ERP, TMS, WMS, and Rental; enabled cloud-first transformation for 500+ frontline staff. ➞ Financial Governance: Built Smartsheet dashboards and milestone billing to track forecast vs. actuals; kept spend within 5% of budget across SI, Azure, and third-party vendors. ➞ Process Modernization: Re-engineered inventory, quoting, and intercompany finance workflows to eliminate leakage and reduce inventory variance by 21.9%. ➞ C-Suite Alignment & Risk Navigation: Unified 11 domain leaders and re-architected roadmap mid-program to resolve SI-led design deviations. ➞ Operational Transition: Established CI/CD readiness, CHaRM protocols, and tiered support models for SAP Run handoff.

Enterprise PMO & Delivery Governance Lead at Amazon, 2020 - 2022 · 2 yrs, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, Designed and launched PMO frameworks for AWS, Whole Foods, and satellite teams, enabling consistent intake, reporting, and Agile delivery across 75,000+ users. ➞ PMO Implementation: Built 5+ division-wide PMOs in under 6 months each; standardized Agile, RAID, and governance rhythms. ➞ Executive Dashboards: Integrated Jira, Asana, and BrightWork data into Power BI; enabled milestone tracking, risk aging, and KPI transparency. ➞ Leadership Coaching: Trained 25+ PMs and execs on delivery practices, KPIs, and Agile routines; created playbooks to embed new behaviors org-wide. ➞ Portfolio & Budget Planning: Set up budget tracking, forecasting cadences, and PMO governance tools to improve investment oversight.

Vice President, Customer Success at BrightWork, 2019 - 2020 · 1 yr, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, Led global consulting and PMO modernization for 150+ enterprise accounts and $9M in revenue. Managed a $3.2M P&L and drove adoption during a legacy-to-O365 product shift. ➞ Client Transformation: Delivered PMO modernization for USPS, Raytheon, and Collins Aerospace; migrated 100+ clients with minimal churn. ➞ Implementation Acceleration: Developed onboarding kits and reusable templates that cut time-to-value by 30–50%. ➞ Product Feedback Loop: Ran Voice-of-Customer cycles and partnered with Product to influence feature enhancements.

Enterprise Delivery & PMO Leader at JELD-WEN, Inc., 2013 - 2019 · 6 yrs, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, Led platform modernization across 80+ applications and unified ServiceNow, Salesforce, and SAP systems. ➞ Platform Strategy: Consolidated legacy Java/.NET apps into modular frameworks; created long-range technology roadmap. ➞ SaaS Operations: Unified ServiceNow (Change, Release, Incident, Config) and Salesforce workflows to enable SLA-driven, real-time sales support. ➞ SRE & QA Standardization: Defined uptime thresholds, incident playbooks, and CI/CD release workflows; reduced P1/P2 incidents by 40%.

Education

Doctor of Education - EdD, Organizational Leadership, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Stanford Advanced Project Management, Program Management, Stanford University

Public links

github: https://github.com/lokey5791