Six-week launch avoided a $300K+ extension
At LinkedIn, led a 10-person squad through the Skilljar MVP launch and migration, avoiding a vendor extension costing more than $300K. Owned the roadmap and operations of the platform serving 70K+ users.
Résumé
Richard Couch
Senior Program Manager for enterprise transformation and platform delivery
Albany, CA · organizewithrich@gmail.com · (510) 480-9488
Summary
Senior Program Manager with 9+ years leading enterprise systems, data, and regulatory programs at PG&E, LinkedIn, and public utilities. Leads program roadmaps and cross-functional decisions, with experience in enterprise platform launches and operations, ERP discovery and implementation readiness, analytics programs, and regulated reporting.
Selected impact
Analytics informing about $10M in annual decisions
Led PG&E Corporate Security's analytics roadmap across forecasting, reporting, and data quality. The work informed about $10M in annual prioritization decisions; one forecasting workstream produced 54 models developed by the technical team.
Analytical priorities grounded in reporting gaps
Reviewed 20 recurring Corporate Security reports to identify overlap and leadership questions requiring new analysis. The review informed KPI definitions, forecasting priorities, and data-improvement planning.
Core capabilities
Program delivery: Roadmaps, requirements, cross-functional leadership, program governance, risk and dependency management, vendor coordination
Systems change: Enterprise systems, ERP modernization, platform implementation and migration, user acceptance testing, launch readiness, change management, release management
Data and decisions: Analytics program leadership, KPI and reporting requirements, data quality, acceptance criteria, executive reporting
Program tools: Jira, Confluence
Systems experience: Skilljar platform operations, Zoho People implementation and administration, Oracle EBS implementation readiness, Palantir Foundry forecasting workstream with technical partners
Professional experience
Senior Program Manager, New Business Energization & Regulatory Reporting
PG&E
- Lead PG&E's SB 410 and AB 50 New Business Energization reporting program. Coordinate Operations, Analytics, Regulatory, Legal, and Reporting teams to produce the required data and narrative.
- Resolve unclear requirements and source-data gaps by setting definitions, acceptance criteria, QA controls, and owners. Raise filing risks and blocked dependencies early enough for leaders to act.
ERP Modernization Program Lead
Chelan County PUD
- Led Finance and Procurement discovery for an ERP modernization. Produced 25+ current-state process maps and converted workshop feedback into documented decisions, owners and timelines.
- Coordinated BA workloads, discovery-session sequencing and stakeholder feedback. Helped develop vendor-evaluation instruments and clarified requirements and ownership for demonstration readiness.
Program Manager, Data & Analytics
PG&E
- Led Corporate Security's analytics roadmap and backlog across forecasting, service-center analysis, KPI and dashboard design, reporting, and data quality. Set priorities with security leaders and data owners.
- The work informed about $10M in annual prioritization and investment decisions. In one forecasting workstream, the technical team produced 54 models across 18 site types and three activity categories.
- Reviewed 20 recurring reports and documented their owners, sources, audiences, and cadence. Used the inventory to expose overlap and guide clearer KPI definitions and system-integration planning.
Technical Program Manager, Customer Education Platform
- Led a 10-person squad across UX, Engineering, and Customer Success through a six-week Skilljar MVP launch and migration. Completing the migration avoided a vendor extension costing more than $300K.
- Owned implementation, migration, the roadmap, and ongoing operations for the Learning Center serving 70K+ users. Worked through product and content-design decisions, adjusted scope, and coordinated dependencies across internal teams and Skilljar.
- Coordinated resolution of an authentication integration issue with internal and vendor engineering teams.
- Led platform improvements including advanced search and filtering, seven-language localization, role-based workflows, administrator self-service tools, documentation, and training. Content-management effort fell about 40%, and engineering ticket volume declined.
- Established incident-response and release playbooks and managed integrations and upgrades, helping sustain 99.9% uptime.
IT Project Manager, Oracle EBS Implementation Readiness
DENSO
- Led Oracle EBS Order Management implementation readiness. Converted current and future workflows into role-based training, test scripts, and operating guides.
- Trained 60+ users directly using 350+ slides of system training materials and supported the wider go-live.
- Coordinated DENSO subject-matter experts and IBM's implementation team through UAT, defect tracking in Jira and TestRail, and launch preparation.
HR Systems Project Manager
FibroGen Inc.
- Implemented and administered Zoho People for 150+ employees. Configured employee data, self-service workflows, custom forms, and reports from HR requirements.
- Tested workflows, wrote administrator and user guides, and led rollout workshops.
- Supported the evaluation and rollout of TINYpulse and LinkedIn Learning alongside Zoho People, coordinating HR, users, and vendors.
Consulting practice
Principal Product Consultant
RichCouch.com
- Help clients choose and implement SaaS tools, redesign workflows, and automate recurring reporting.
- Define practical data ownership and reporting standards so teams rely less on spreadsheets.
- Recover stalled implementations by clarifying requirements, decisions, and responsibilities across clients, vendors, and engineers.
Education
B.A., Interdisciplinary Studies, University of California, Berkeley