Roger Estrada
Career

Twenty-plus Years of Turning Strategy into Delivered Results

Credit unions, a broker-dealer, a SaaS startup and Qualcomm, leading teams around the globe. Ten years as a U.S. Navy Reserve officer.

Experience

Frontwave Credit Union

2021 – present

Oceanside, California

Vice President, Process Excellence & Enterprise PMO

  • Built the Enterprise PMO and portfolio management function from the ground up in an NCUA, CFPB and BSA/AML regulated environment.
  • Strategic advisor to the executive team; reports delivery performance to the Board of Directors.
  • Established the Lean Process Excellence function and Center of Excellence; certified 35 Lean Practitioners.
  • Governs an enterprise AI and automation portfolio spanning member service, lending, fraud and payments; designing the AI Governance Model.
  • Led two M&A integrations, including a $500M bank-to-credit-union operations merger.
  • $3.5M in vendor savings; efficiency ratio improved from 0.98 to 0.75.

Valley Strong Credit Union

2021

Bakersfield, California

Head of Enterprise Project Management Office

  • Recruited to establish the Enterprise PMO: portfolio governance, standard delivery methodology and investment aligned to strategy across M&A, capital projects, digital services and business transformation.

LPL Financial

2018 – 2021

San Diego, California

Vice President, Program Management Office

  • Directed the Compliance, Legal & Risk PMO: a $30M portfolio of 15 concurrent regulatory and technology programs, reported to EVP and managing director leadership.
  • Led the PMO’s transformation from Waterfall to Agile and SAFe.

Palm Tree Investments

2015 – 2018

San Diego, California

Director, Technical Program Management

  • Established the technical PMO for a SaaS digital marketplace and owned product roadmap delivery from concept to launch.

Qualcomm

1997 – 2001, 2004 – 2015

San Diego, California

Global Technical Program Manager; Business Manager, Corporate Business Development

  • Built a hardware and software technical operations center in Tijuana, Mexico, and a 24x7 Global Operations Center in Hyderabad, India.
  • Led 40 engineers across San Diego, São Paulo, Philadelphia and India, turning the BREW testing program from a $500K annual cost center into $10M in annual revenue.
  • Led a global Salesforce deployment across business development, marketing and finance.

U.S. Navy Reserve

1997 – 2007

Naval Officer, Lieutenant (O-3), ten years of service.

Education

Arizona State University

2026

Master of Science, Artificial Intelligence in Business, W. P. Carey School of Business

University of Nebraska

2017

Master of Business Administration, Finance, magna cum laude

U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

1997

Bachelor of Science, Business Management

Certifications
Lean Six Sigma Black BeltUC San Diego Extension, 2021
Prosci Change Management (ADKAR) Practitioner2023
SAFe, Scaled Agile Framework2018
Certified Scrum MasterScrum Alliance, 2018
Certified Project ManagerStanford University, 2007
CliftonStrengths Top Five

Strengths applied to the work

StrengthAI transformationProcess excellenceStrategic and tactical planning
1. Strategic
Weighs alternative paths, then commits to the best one
2. Context
Reads past initiatives and current state before acting
3. Analytical
Root-cause, evidence-based decisions with step-by-step rigor
4. Ideation
Connects disparate ideas; designs new processes and tools
5. Learner
Acquires new skills continuously and converts them to capability

Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment. CliftonStrengths® is a registered trademark of Gallup, Inc.

Contact

Let’s talk

I’m open to conversations about enterprise AI and automation leadership, process excellence and portfolio delivery in regulated organizations.