Alexander Merkushev

AI Consultant / Lead Product Manager

AI consultant, cloud expert, leader and architect, Lead Product Manager with 7+ years of experience. Empowered with unique AI background, SAFe-certified practitioner, cloud professional certified by AWS, GCP, Microsoft and Linux Foundation. Launched worldwide products in the fields of Cloud governance and eCommerce. Experienced in enterprise-scale products and processes in domains of e-commerce, public sector, healthcare, highly interested in growing consulting teams and State-of-the-Art projects

📍Belgrade, Serbia, open to relocation

📧 [email protected]

💬 t.me/the_endeavour

📞+381 62 975 0293

🔗 LinkedIn


👨🏼‍💻 Work experience

Lead AI Product Consultant ∙Yango Tech

Belgrade – since mid 2024

Joined newly established team in the world-leading AI provider Yango (19th in rank of contribution to AI) to lead Product Management team. As a seasoned Lead, I successfully spearheaded multiple projects with key clients in Public, Healthcare and Finance sectors. I developed and delivered teams first MVP with AI already developed to Production, unlocking 10+ opportunities and multi-billion contract with strategic partnership for several years. I also drove business growth and delivery in cross-team audit project generating 30% yearly target revenue and opening up new opportunities for future collaborations. Additionally, I played a key role in shaping complex AI consulting offerings, presenting them on the showcase and receiving verification from Dubai AI Seal.

FinOps Consultant ∙EPAM Systems

Belgrade – mid 2022 - mid 2024

Conducted several FinOps consultancy projects in large enterprises. Established FinOps strategy and operating model, guardrails for the cloud landscape of 2000+ accounts. Created chargeback / showback data models, increased cost allocation via tagging strategy and systems integration in greenfield and brownfield landing zones of all major CSPs. Participated in FinOps dashboard creation, data normalisation and then communicating data to teams over architectural reviews. Specialist in AWS & GCP cloud platforms, a visionary leader, known for breaking organisational silos, automating and streamlining processes over enterprise rigidity, resulting in millions of cost savings, standardisation, and business agility.

Sr Product Owner ∙EPAM Systems

St Petersburg – late 2021 - mid 2022

Digital eCom experience for wholesale partners of industry-leading sports company. My duties laid in constructing from scratch ETL processes of content delivery to retailers (DAM/PIM) in a team of 2 Jr POs from the customers’ side. I was overcoming a challenge with managing 10+ teams of stakeholders worldwide, and processing data for 10,000+ products. In a couple of months, my team decreased content delivery time from weeks to 5 hours, produced AI-based content, and unified delivery approach around the globe.

Sr Business Analyst ∙EPAM Systems

St Petersburg – late 2020 - late 2021

Playing a role of a pure BA, I was performing delivery excellence for the Agile development team. I conducted elicitation of customers’ needs and change management through brainstorming, interviews, and evaluation of ideas on all SDLC stages, and ran SCRUM ceremonies myself. Recognized as the best delivery team with a backlog well-groomed for 3 sprints in advance.

Co-founder ∙Cloudtech

Skolkovo – early 2019 - late 2020

Started cloud analytics startup in Russian innovation cluster Skolkovo. Idea received the highest score from the expert collegium, and I led the business pitching to investors and clients in both marketing and tech talks. Pivoted to find the market fit, managed the project with one of the largest Russian banks from the first touch until strategic partnership, making the company beneficial and widely known in the domain.