Engineering & Product Leadership

Bridging product strategy with engineering execution. Building world-class organizations that ship faster, scale smarter, and leverage AI to drive competitive advantage.

15+
Years in Tech Leadership
100+
Engineers Scaled & Led
€4M+
P&L Management
3
Greenfield Centers Built
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About Me

I solve the critical SaaS challenge: aligning engineering with product to ship faster and smarter. With 15+ years bridging product strategy and engineering execution, I build organizations that translate product vision into technical excellence while leveraging AI to multiply team productivity.

I specialize in:

  • 🏗️ Building engineering orgs from 0-100+ engineers with product alignment built-in
  • 🔀 Creating seamless product-engineering partnerships and dual leadership models
  • 🤖 Implementing AI-driven practices for product and engineering teams
  • 📊 Translating product strategy into technical roadmaps and measurable outcomes
  • 🚀 Scaling distributed systems and platform engineering for faster iteration
  • 💡 Leading organizational transformation and cross-functional agile adoption

My Executive Strengths:

I partner effectively with C-suite stakeholders to align engineering and product roadmaps with business objectives. My experience spans from startup-stage greenfield operations to scaling complex infrastructure at Fortune 500 companies. I'm fluent in both technical architecture decisions and business-driven P&L management, with deep expertise in bridging the engineer-product gap.

AI-Powered Advantage: I help engineering and product teams adopt AI to accelerate discovery, improve code quality, enhance deployment velocity, and drive better product decisions. Recent achievements include identifying €2.5M+ revenue opportunities, transforming loss-making units into profitable business lines, and scaling delivery velocity across 50+ person organizations through product-engineering alignment.

“Alexander brings the rare combination of deep technical expertise, genuine product thinking, and business acumen. He doesn't just manage engineers—he builds organizations where product and engineering thrive together.”

Engineering & Product Leadership Experience

Deutsche Telekom Systems Solutions

Head of IoT & Connectivity
September 2023 – Present | Slovakia
  • €2.5M+ Revenue Turnaround: Assessed loss-making department, identified opportunities, transformed into profitable business unit with sustainable margins through product-market validation and customer alignment
  • Product-Centric Team Scaling: Scaled customer-focused engineering team from 6 to 40+ members with 5% attrition, integrating product thinking and customer feedback loops
  • Organizational Transformation: Led agile transformation across 50+ person engineering organization, optimizing delivery velocity and product-engineering collaboration
  • Strategic Business Development: Designed and launched advisory services with market-validated positioning and premium pricing models

Kiwi.com

Platform Product Manager & Site Lead
December 2021 – May 2023 | Slovakia
  • R&D Center & Product Excellence: Built greenfield R&D center from concept to full operation with 15+ engineers, establishing product-engineering collaboration from day one
  • Platform-as-Product Transformation: Co-led initiative migrating infrastructure platform into PaaS model serving 300+ internal engineers, introducing product management rigor and customer obsession
  • VP Partnership & Organizational Design: Provided executive advisory to VP Engineering and VP Product on dual/triple leadership models (SVPG), dual-track decision making, and cross-functional collaboration strategies
  • Product-Driven Metrics: Designed engineering-centric OKRs and KPIs translating business outcomes into measurable technical and product success metrics using DORA metrics and reliability indicators

Eleveo (formerly ZOOM International)

Managing Director & Engineering Director
May 2018 – August 2020 | Slovakia
  • Full Product Lifecycle Organization: Established R&D center, scaling from 0 to 35+ engineers while integrating product management, customer support, and professional services into cohesive product organization
  • Cloud-Native Platform: Architected and led development of flagship MVP on AWS using Kubernetes, Docker, and microservices, with product-driven architecture decisions
  • Business Outcomes: Delivered production platform generating €1M+ annual recurring revenue through product-engineering alignment and customer-centric delivery
  • Enterprise Infrastructure: Designed hybrid cloud/on-premise deployment capabilities and enterprise-grade security architecture enabling product expansion

T-Systems Slovakia

Head of TSO Application Development | Head of Database Operations
November 2015 – April 2018 | Slovakia
  • Product-Centric Transformation: Spearheaded strategic shift from head-selling model to product-centric delivery focus, winning competitive internal Deutsche Telekom tender and establishing product as business driver
  • Team Leadership & Collaboration: Directed 40+ person engineering team delivering mission-critical enterprise applications for Fortune 500 customers with strong product partnership
  • Budget Management: Managed €1.4M annual budget with cost efficiency while maintaining quality standards and product velocity
  • Operational Excellence: Maintained 99.9%+ SLA compliance across global database infrastructure supporting top 100 DT applications

Core Capabilities

Engineering & Product Leadership

  • Product-Engineering Alignment & Strategy
  • Dual/Triple Leadership Models (SVPG)
  • Organization Design & Scaling
  • Team Building & Talent Development
  • Engineering Strategy & Roadmapping
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Product-Driven Architecture & Delivery

AI for Engineering & Product

  • Generative AI Strategy & Implementation
  • AI-Driven Product Development
  • AI for Code Quality & DevOps
  • Prompt Engineering & LLM Integration
  • AI-Powered Discovery & Analytics
  • Team Capability Building with AI Tools

Technical Excellence

  • Full-Stack Cloud Architecture
  • Microservices & Distributed Systems
  • Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD Pipelines
  • AWS, GCP Cloud Technologies
  • Platform Engineering & PaaS
  • Observability & Reliability Engineering

Strategic Business

  • P&L Management (€4M+ budgets)
  • Product-Market Fit & Go-to-Market
  • Organizational Transformation
  • C-Suite Stakeholder Management
  • Data-Driven Decision Making & OKRs
  • Business Development & GTM Strategy

Bridge the Product-Engineering Gap & Scale Faster

Let's discuss how I can help your organization align product strategy with engineering execution, unlock team velocity, and drive measurable business outcomes through AI-powered practices.

Get in Touch