runic icon representing Dærick W Gröss, based on the glyph he uses to sign his artwork DÆRICK
GRÖSS
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY | EXAMPLES | WORK EXPERIENCE | CREATIVE |

LinkedIn Profile
daerickgross@gmail.com
he/him


Organizational Leadership

Department and Staff Development

Program and Project Ownership

Emergent Event and Incident Command

Creative Direction

Culture Advocacy and Promotion

MY VALUES

• People First
• Diversity Is Strength
• Think Big, Dare To Dare
• Mistakes Are OK, Learn From Them
• We Are One Team
• Be An Owner
• Be Yourself, Inspire Authenticity
• Be Humble
• Show Kindness & Gratitude
• Transparency Builds Trust



EXPERIENCE


Looking at the various roles I've held across my professional career including traditional corporate environments, small publishing and creative spaces, and in the tech world of software delivery, the single most consistent thing I have done is connect with and coordinate people. I've coordinated and led disparate teams across disciplines, bringing people together around common goals and delivery commitments. I've directly managed teams of project managers responsible for their own programs and initiatives. I've led departments as a director and been seated on various organizational leadership councils. Below is a view of some general and specific examples of the roles I've held and the work I've delivered:
  • Built and scaled project & program functions across enterprise and high-growth organizations
  • Established intake, planning, and operating practices that improved visibility, accountability, and team coordination
  • Led large delivery efforts that enabled new revenue opportunities while helping teams work together more effectively at scale
  • Brought together leaders from partnered disciplines including Product, Engineering, Operations, Marketing, Finance, Compliance, and business stakeholders to improve coordination, prioritization, visibility, and trust
  • Stabilized distressed initiatives and led incident response efforts during high-impact operational events

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Click or scroll down the page below the line to read a specific breakdown of each role in more detail

Umlaut Initiatives, Inc.

Principal
Remote | Nov 2025 – present

I had contemplated starting up my own consultancy for program management services for a while, and decided it was time to make that a reality after leaving Allergan Aesthetics. Umlaut Initiatives represents the culmination of my professional career to date, and I'm very excited to be working privately now for a variety of clients across various industries. This allows me to lean heavily into my leadership and mentorship experience to help establish and guide new practices for companies in need of an experienced hand.

Allergan Aesthetics (AbbVie)

Lead Technical Program Manager / Interim Director
Remote | July 2023 – July 2025

I began my tenure at Allergan as a Lead TPM within the provider-focused delivery silo of teams, specifically leading both the Acquisition and Retention delivery teams. After several months, I stepped into the vacant Director role for the silo and assumed responsibility for the broader delivery organization. In addition to managing and developing TPM staff, I participated in the PMO council and helped shape planning and delivery practices across the discipline. Throughout this period, I continued to maintain direct ownership of several initiatives supporting the Lead Generation team. This role brought together many aspects of my prior career, allowing me to lead both the work itself and the people responsible for delivering it.
  • Managed and developed a team of TPMs supporting a provider-facing healthtech platform serving 30k+ medical practices
  • Designed and implemented structured delivery practices for the TPM organization including initiative intake, continuous planning models, release management, executive reporting, and cross-team dependency management
  • Coordinated delivery across Engineering, Product, Marketing, Data, and Compliance teams to support provider-facing healthcare initiatives and operational improvements
  • Partnered with Product and Engineering leadership to translate business priorities into executable delivery plans, balancing operational needs, technical constraints, and organizational capacity
  • Oversaw prioritization, planning, execution, and delivery for Acquisition, Retention, and Lead Generation initiatives, balancing organizational capacity, business objectives, and competing stakeholder needs
  • Led enterprise launch of the provider email marketing platform enabling scalable lead generation and retention workflows
  • Acted as Incident Commander for emergent events, formalizing escalation protocols and improving cross-org transparency and response coordination

Disney Entertainment & ESPN Technology (The Walt Disney Company)

Manager, Technical Program Management | Advertising & Data Platforms
Remote | June 2020 – July 2023

Hulu's acquisition and integration into Disney created a period of significant organizational change and uncertainty. As teams were redistributed across Disney's various business units, my home in the Advertising Platform organization moved into Disney Technology while much of the broader Hulu organization became part of Disney Streaming. During this transition, I assumed leadership responsibility for the Hulu Ad Platform TPM team, which consisted of eight TPMs at the time.

This chapter of my career provided valuable exposure to operating within a large enterprise environment while helping teams navigate ambiguity, organizational change, and shifting lines of ownership. Much of the challenge centered on maintaining delivery continuity, establishing new channels of communication and collaboration, and coordinating work across organizations that traditionally operated in isolation. Throughout the transition, my focus remained on supporting the team, preserving delivery momentum, and ensuring Hulu's advertising platforms continued to operate successfully while the broader integration unfolded.
  • Managed an eight-person TPM team responsible for advertising platform delivery across Disney Technology and Disney Streaming organizations
  • Coordinated intake, prioritization, risk and change mitigation, executive reporting and presentation, and capacity planning
  • Established new communication paths and operating practices between Disney Technology and Disney Streaming to support critical company initiatives
  • Led coordination for platform integration work enabling Hulu content distribution within the Disney+ app ecosystem
  • Co-led the command team delivering the Disney+ Ad-Supported Tier across domestic and international markets
  • Coordinated cross-functional delivery supporting ESPN+ integration into the Hulu streaming experience
  • Participated in Disney Technology's Global PMO council, contributing to enterprise delivery standards, reporting practices, and cross-organizational coordination
  • Participated in Disney Technology's mentorship program and Diversity and Inclusion Council, serving on the board for Advocacy & Awareness and as a member at large for Recruiting & Retention

Hulu

Senior Technical Program Manager | Ad Platforms
Santa Monica, CA | 2018 – 2020 (acquired by Disney, see above)

I was directly approached to join Hulu's Advertising Platform group to help organize its growing engineering teams and to better standardize Agile practices across the organization. Within the first several months, I was asked to take on an ambitious effort to build out a net-new revenue stream for the company, one that would eventually become the backbone of Hulu's advertising model. After successfully delivering on this initiative, I took on ownership of mission-critical work for the Ad Platforms, coordinating directly with Ads' executive leadership. This sharpened my executive communication skills and presence. It also gave me the opportunity to more directly represent the Ads org to outside groups while driving large, cross-organizational work with peers who were otherwise siloed. During this time I also began to specialize in firefighting for distressed programs in need of short-term course correction.
  • Led cross-organizational delivery of Dynamic Ad Insertion for live streaming and Private Marketplace programmatic infrastructure
  • Developed new processes for large-scale cross-organizational program coordination and for executive-level progress reporting
  • Standardized Agile delivery practices across Ad Platform integration teams
  • Served as Ads liaison for cross-organization coordination and delivery

Rubicon Project (Magnite)

Senior Project Manager
Playa Vista, CA | 2014 – 2018

My time at Rubicon Project represents the moment where I began to grow out of just managing my own work and took on mentoring and coaching my peers more consistently. When I came on board, the Project Management team was a collection of independent managers embedded into their own development units and running things individually. With the eventual addition of a director for the team, we made a concerted effort to build out a unified PMO structure. I partnered closely with the new director and advised on standardization practices for the team.

Sleepy Giant Entertainment, Inc.

Senior Project Manager
Newport Beach, CA | 2012 – 2014

  • Served as project lead for player portal and account systems supporting Disney Infinity and Orcs Must Die! Unchained
  • Directed delivery of monetization, localization, and RtL UX adjustments for rollout across 14 languages and 23 countries
  • Acted as primary liaison between client stakeholders and internal engineering teams

DuMont Project

Director of Client Services
Marina Del Rey, CA | 2010 – 2011

  • Directed the Client Servicing team
  • Managed the client relationship for major B2B and B2C clients such as Vineyard Vines, Brooks Brothers, and InterFACE Talent Network
  • Introduced new internal and client reporting practices

Bruce Clay, Inc.

Director, Client Satisfaction | International BCI Office Coordinator
Simi Valley, CA | 2005 – 2010

  • Defined and scaled the role from an individual contributor position into a standalone department
  • Directed the Client Satisfaction team and acted as Coordinator for new international BCI offices (UK, Brazil, Japan, India, South Africa)
  • Managed the client relationship and delivery of enterprise SEO and SEM projects for major B2B and B2C clients such as Turner Broadcasting, MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, AT&T, and Edmunds.com
  • Developed all internal and client reporting and project visibility practices