Technical Product Owner in Germany

• Technical leadership across hardware, firmware, and software teams; scope: hardware/firmware team (4 people) and leadership group (5 people)
• Consolidated and documented a product family that had grown over more than 15 years and aligned it with CRA compliance — from the bare-metal I/O module to the cloud interface.
• Provided the most important customer product with the essential requirements and architecture documentation within two months — for a firmware landscape that had grown over more than 15 years. It now supports the customer’s modernization strategy.
• Established a monthly reporting line to the supervisory board and executive board within three months: nine meetings since 12/2025. The report itself is versioned and built from the CI pipeline; it is based on automatically collected activity and release data instead of assessments.
• Built a container-based CI/CD infrastructure from scratch: cross-compilation, host tests, and documentation builds in one continuous pipeline.
• Introduced declarative QA gates for DevOps and development artifacts — from the start using lefthook instead of pre-commit, executed in a dedicated container image.

Technologies used: arc42, req42, tpo42, docToolchain, PlantUML, ArchiMate, C4 model, ADR, C, C++ (GTest), CMake, Bare Metal (ARM Cortex-M3/M7), OCI containers, Jenkins, lefthook, Prometheus, Grafana, SBOM, CRA, OPC, SCADA, PLC integration, IPv6 migration, Zero Trust, Sociocracy 3.0, Cynefin

• LLM-based features for automated CO₂e data extraction from unstructured documents (70% reduction)

• Agentic AI pipeline for automated Scope 3 emissions calculations with 150.000+ validated data records

• Intelligent API workflows for real-time carbon footprint calculations in ERP and ESG systems

• ML algorithms for predicting emissions hotspots and optimizing product design

• Automated data validation pipelines with NLP for quality assurance of CO₂e datasets

• Led a 15-person cross-functional team in developing 10+ AI features

• Strategic product planning and AI roadmap with 35% shorter time-to-market

• Stakeholder management with DAX companies (40% higher satisfaction, 95% retention)

• On-time project delivery with 95% budget adherence through data-driven backlog management

• Agile methods (Scrum, Kanban) with continuous AI/ML integration (25% increase in team velocity)

• Product-market fit for AI features through A/B testing and analytics (60% higher adoption rate)

I support the development of an industrial automation and communication product in which hardware, firmware, embedded software, system architecture, and testing work closely together. As a coach and technical sparring partner, I support product and project owners as well as development teams in turning product goals into a clear technical delivery structure.

• Technical Vision & Strategy: translated product goals into prioritized requirements, milestones, decisions, and executable work packages for HW-/SW teams.
• HW-/SW Collaboration: structured the interfaces between hardware, firmware, Embedded Linux/RTOS, fieldbus/connectivity, system test, and product management; made risks and dependencies transparent.
• Coaching & Leadership Sparring: clarified roles, responsibilities, prioritization, and decision paths with technical leads and teams and strengthened cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Methods & environment: Polarion, GitHub, requirements engineering, configuration management, PROFINET, embedded systems, agile delivery, coaching, and facilitation.

CRM and revenue platform managing billing and subscription workflows.

• Scaled payments infrastructure across data products, direct debit expansion and automated abuse prevention, generating $416K in annualized operational savings ($8K/week) by eliminating redundant gateway calls.
• Owned backlog and sprint execution for autonomous checkout abuse detection pipelines, designing real-time risk guardrails and velocity heuristics that blocked card testing attacks.
• Architected enterprise billing migrator user stories and data reconciliation mechanisms, achieving zero-downtime subscription state transitions and cutting $60K in infrastructure overhead.
• Expanded European direct debit (SEPA) payment capabilities, managing cross-squad API dependencies and automated webhook error-handling to eliminate checkout friction.

Workflow-automation SaaS for operations teams (Berlin, 120 people); full-time freelance engagement reporting to the CEO: an initial 12-month interim mandate, extended twice through the AI build-out; owned product for one squad and coached the other product managers on process.

• Led generative AI (LLM) integration into the core product: from LLM-powered steps to natural-language workflow authoring and step-level automation suggestions, plus AI-managed dynamic workflows, shipped behind eval gates with human-in-the-loop fallbacks: AI-drafted workflows grew to 31% of all new workflows, and median time-to-first-workflow fell from 3 days to 4 hours.
• Packaged the AI capabilities as a usage-based add-on priced on executed automation steps, working with sales and marketing on positioning: ~€800K added ARR in the first year, and adopting accounts churned 1.8 pp less.
• Owned the roadmap end to end: replaced feature-request-driven quarterly planning with an outcome-based rolling roadmap built on quarterly bets and explicit kill criteria, presented monthly to the executive team and quarterly to the board.
• Rebuilt the product-management operating system: weekly customer-discovery cadence incl. workshop facilitation, RFC/decision-doc reviews and a single quarterly metrics narrative; coached four product managers, one promoted to senior during the engagement.
• Closed the engagement as scoped: hired and onboarded the permanent VP Product, handed over the process playbook and roadmap, and exited on schedule in June 2026.

• Own the 12–18 month roadmap and key outcomes for Elli's enterprise customer platform, covering onboarding, pricing, billing, analytics and broader platform modernization; redesigned the Fleet onboarding funnel to double conversion, supporting a projected €20.7M revenue uplift by 2028.
• Lead the broader Energy Intelligence product and directly own its AI/ML, asset and portfolio-optimization capabilities, including MLOps and safe strategy deployment, strategy lifecycle management and backtesting; delegated data and V2G integration roadmap ownership to a new PO as the platform scope expanded.
• Built a Human-in-the-loop GenAI/RAG support workflow, increasing L1 resolution by 24%, routing accuracy to 91%, and reducing L2 workload by 30%.
• Introduced standardized data contracts and a self-service Python toolkit for traders and Data Scientists, increasing platform adoption by 15% and reducing support effort by 50%.
• Built and scaled a real-time orchestration product from 32 to 3,000+ endpoints across four markets, growing recurring revenue from €1.4k to €56.3k MRR.
• Developed product and AI capability across the organization, training 20 PMs on RAG, agents and prototyping; mentoring a junior PM and coaching an Enterprise Platform Tech Lead toward Product Management ownership.

• Owned requirements management for a connected mobile app integrating live vehicle hardware and embedded systems, from analysis through implementation (Requirements Management). App has grown to 500,000+ Google Play downloads and 5,800+ App Store ratings (4.4/5), ranking #170 in Germany's Navigation category.
• Steered digitalization and process optimization projects, coordinating between specialist departments, development teams, and external partners.
• Formulated requirements as user stories and acceptance criteria, accompanying implementation through testing and release.
• Applied genuine, practical AI Fluency to identify automation opportunities and accelerate delivery work. Applied SAFe and PRINCE2 methodologies; earned SAFe® 6 POPM and PRINCE2® Foundation certifications while in this role. Certified in Anthropic's AI Fluency framework.

• Advising clients on digital transformation, IT architecture and the introduction of cloud-based environments.
• Gathering, evaluating and prioritizing customer requirements, as well as coordinating projects and programs based on scope, time, quality, budget and risk.
• Designing, documenting, maintaining and developing IT environments, automation and containerized applications.
• Implementing digital platforms, including e-commerce and ordering solutions, event platforms and the product concept for a legal-tech platform.
• Working in interdisciplinary teams and communicating effectively between clients, service providers and technical stakeholders.
• She accompanied companies in their transformation into the digital and agile working world, whether in business process or IT architecture consulting or as part of managed services.
• She developed individual strategies for the digital transformation of our customers and designed new IT environments in the cloud.
• As part of demand management, she gathered, evaluated and prioritized customer requirements.
• She worked in project and program management and coordinated our service providers and those of our customers, monitored their own projects in terms of scope, time, quality and budget and kept an eye on the associated risks.
• She led projects successfully to the end and ensured a professional transfer to regular operation.
• Ms. Sara Mussie has an exceptional understanding of the structure and optimization of IT infrastructures and various cloud technologies as well as modern IT architectures.
• Her areas of responsibility were the development of solutions, considering the service strategy and the possibility of automation, working on design and architecture documentation for projects and services, as well as working on the structure, maintenance and development of IT environments, automation and related tools for our microservice environment and containerized application.
• She was involved in improving our processes and the tool chain used.
• She is confident in handling common IT processes and IT standards.
• Ms. Sara Mussie has very good knowledge of PHP, PHP OOP, Laravel, MySQL, VueIs | Vuex, HTML | CSS | JS, Bootstrap, MongoDB, NodeIs and Python.
• To this day, Ms. Sara Mussie remains available to us for consultation requests from specific clients.

As a freelance employee / independent consultant, I supported a wide range of development projects and advised clients on digital innovation initiatives. A common role was acting as project manager / product owner at the interface between the client and the development team.

• Product Consulting — (Fractional) Product Owner, Freelance Product Management
• AI Services — AI consulting, training, vibe coding / agentic engineering, AI agents
• Tech Services — full-stack web development, design/UX, MVP delivery.

Two complementary tracks: (a) building my own AI products and open-source tools under the Neckarshore AI brand, with a focus on AI-supported multi-agent development processes and documentation automation; (b) freelance support for industrial, logistics, and financial companies in IT-related transformation projects.

Current product portfolio under the Neckarshore AI brand:

• Omnopsis Documenter — AI-powered documentation engine: generates compliance, technical, and release documentation from Git, Jira, and Confluence. 500+ automated tests, 100+ API endpoints, RBAC, monitoring stack.
• TrustScope — trust analysis for public GitHub repos: deterministic three-pillar report (Security & Supply Chain, Governance, Community) based on OpenSSF Scorecard, with constructive fix suggestions instead of a single misleading score.
• md-viewer — dependency-free Markdown viewer for macOS (Finder Quick Action) and web, split view of rendered document and raw text.
• Obsidian Vault Autopilot — AI-supported vault automation for Obsidian × Claude Code: sorts the inbox, renames notes, enriches frontmatter.
• Phonesis Voice Bank — voice archive for families, hospices, and cultural archives (guided recordings, inheritable archive, optional voice cloning); currently in the GDPR compliance phase (Art. 9, biometric data).
• Multi-Agent Development Process — 12+ specialized agents (architecture, implementation, security, refactoring, marketing) with structured handoff protocol, parallel execution, and automated quality assurance — powers the entire product development.
• Freelance consulting: Technical Product Ownership for production, logistics, and compliance/AML systems; steering international rollouts including test, cutover, and change management.

Stack: NestJS, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Redis/BullMQ, Next.js, Claude Code (Opus), Docker, GitHub Actions, Vercel

Conceptual design and implementation of a modular customer portal based on Laravel.

The focus was on defining a maintainable system architecture with broad use of Domain-Driven Design principles (within the Laravel architecture), introducing automated quality assurance processes (test strategy, CI integration), and preparing an auditable operation (logging, traceability of changes) in an AWS-based infrastructure, taking IT security standards according to NIST and process requirements according to ISO 9001 into account.

Achievements:

• Analysis and structuring of business requirements in close coordination with stakeholders
• Documentation of the system architecture and infrastructure incl. change and release management
• Design and implementation of an interface for integrating SAP systems
• Planning and implementation of automated tests for quality assurance
• Implementation of security and compliance requirements, including SBOM generation, software license management, and QA processes
• Technical consulting and support for the internal IT team
• Introduction and establishment of AI-supported development processes (Spec-Driven Development), including AI-readable specifications, integration of AI instructions into the development environment, and training developers for productive use

Technologies and tools: SAP, Docker, ddev, PHP 8.4, Laravel, Filament, C4 Model, Architecture Decision Records (ADR), Mermaid, PlantUML, Spec-Driven Development, Claude, GitHub Copilot, Codex

BAFA consulting and project support for the introduction of AI solutions and AI agents.

• Analysis of existing business and customer service processes and identification of automation potential
• Design of AI-supported processes and agents for communication, support, and internal operations
• Gathering and structuring requirements with the company’s contacts
• Planning implementation and coordinating between the client, consulting, and development teams
• Consulting on the integration of AI into existing workflows and systems
• Development of use cases and prioritization based on value and implementation effort
• Support with testing, adjustments, and the rollout of solutions
• Consulting on data protection, process design, and the use of AI within the company

Methods/Technologies: AI agents, on-premises LLM, RAG, prompt engineering, process automation, API integrations, n8n, project management.

• Strategic consulting and implementation of AI-supported automation solutions for service processes (email communication, document handling, review processing, voice agents)
• Technical orchestration using n8n (workflow automation), Claude and ChatGPT (LLMs), as well as custom API integrations into existing enterprise tools
• Measurable customer results: response times reduced from hours to minutes, 8 fewer hours of invoice processing per week, 75% fewer routine calls
• Assessment of regulatory requirements (GDPR, compliance) as part of customer consulting
• Technical Product Ownership (backlog, roadmap, prioritization)
• Formal contracting vehicle for freelance assignments, including 1&1 Telecommunications
• Building & scaling enterprise AI platforms

• Capturing requirements, including prioritization

• Coordinating the implementation schedule

• Supporting the necessary tests

• Setting up the necessary reporting structure

• Prioritized requirements for necessary measurements (KPIs)

• Monitoring dashboard for measuring system performance

• Reporting structure for measurement results