Areas Of Expertise:

• Project Planning & Scheduling
• Budget & Financial Management
• Leadership & Team Management
• Stakeholder & Executive Engagement
• Risk, Issue & Dependency Management
• Governance & Reporting, Delivery Assurance
• Change & Release Management
• Agile & Waterfall Delivery

Education:

• Advanced Diploma in Business Systems, Spherion Education
• Bachelor of Arts (Sociology), La Trobe University

About Helena Perera

Helena is a seasoned project expert with over 20 years of experience delivering complex software, business, and regulatory projects. She brings deep expertise in both Agile and Waterfall methodologies, ensuring structured, efficient, and high-impact delivery aligned with strategic business goals.

She has a strong track record leading cross-functional teams and managing large-scale, multi-million-dollar initiatives across compliance, data, security, and enterprise transformation. Her work spans regulatory implementations, application modernisation, risk mitigation, and end-to-end project execution that drives measurable business value.

What Helena brings

• Experience in risk management, stakeholder engagement, and delivery optimisation to enable effective team collaboration and timely delivery of critical milestones.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and manage large-scale, multi-million-dollar portfolios.
• Brings strong delivery governance and assurance, ensuring initiatives remain aligned to agreed objectives and expectations.
• Acts as a trusted delivery partner to senior stakeholders, providing clarity, transparency, and confidence throughout the delivery lifecycle.

Key Clients:

• Bank of Queensland/ME Bank
• ME Bank

Key Achievements:

As Iteration Manager / Scrum Master supporting Bank of Queensland and ME Bank, Helena led Agile delivery across regulatory, payments, digital banking, and enterprise technology initiatives. She managed a portfolio of payments related initiatives valued at approximately $30 million, leading cross functional teams of up to 50 people, including internal teams and vendor partners. The portfolio encompassed ME Migration, SAF and scheme mandates, early phase delivery for Virgin Money, Finsim uplift, regulatory and scheme driven initiatives, digital payments enhancements, certificate management, and the rollout of the New Payments Platform, digital wallets, and digital signature solutions. Helena provided end to end delivery oversight, facilitated Agile ceremonies, managed dependencies across multiple workstreams, and led infrastructure and system separation initiatives, supporting smooth service transitions with minimal disruption. Her focus on delivery discipline, stakeholder alignment, and continuous improvement enabled compliant, high quality outcomes for the client.

As Senior Project Manager at ME Bank, and acting Program Manager, Helena led a complex program of work across Online Banking, Online Originations, payments, security, and enterprise technology initiatives. She managed a portfolio of work valued at up to $30 million, leading delivery teams of up to 100 people across onshore, offshore, and vendor partners. The program included delivery of the New Payments Platform, Digital Wallets, and major Internet Banking and Mobile App upgrades to cloud, alongside strategic initiatives such as OKTA implementation, RSA multi factor authentication, Pega Systems Customer Servicing, data warehouse development, and robotics automation. Helena provided end to end delivery oversight, defined scope and governance, managed budgets and risks, and reported to executive and steering committees, ensuring alignment to organisational and regulatory requirements while improving security, platform resilience, and customer experience.

As Release Manager at ME Bank, Helena oversaw end-to-end release management for complex transformation programs, infrastructure relocations, and branch IT fit-outs. She coordinated cross-functional teams, managed release schedules, conducted readiness reviews, and ensured compliance with organisational standards, security policies, and regulatory requirements. Helena successfully led a three-phased transformation program, managed infrastructure and system relocations with minimal disruption, and established robust processes at the bank’s disaster recovery site, driving operational efficiency, enhanced customer experience, and seamless technology delivery.