Lead Product Owner
0Years in product
0Languages fluent

Hello,
I'm Cornelia

Certified Lead Product Owner and Product Manager. 7+ years across fintech, automotive, medical technology and payments. I lead a team of Product Owners through complex, regulated product environments for tier one banks and enterprise clients.

Portrait of Cornelia Bicherschi
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Products built for

BMW Skoda Mastercard Ottobock ECB

About

I'm a Lead Product Owner who sets product direction for a team of Product Owners, turning regulatory complexity into products people actually trust. My world is fintech platforms built for the European Central Bank and tier one global banks, including Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC and Santander, where a single feature can touch a dozen legal jurisdictions before it ever reaches a screen. The technology is rarely the hard part. The hard part is turning business, legal, compliance, design and engineering into one shared language, then shipping anyway.

My path here started in translation booths, not roadmaps. I trained as a conference interpreter before moving into product, and the instinct never left me: find the signal in ambiguity, and say the true thing in the fewest possible words. Now I do it for banks instead of diplomats. Same job, higher stakes.

  • Based inMoldova, remote friendly
  • Experience7+ years
  • IndustriesFintech, payments, e-commerce, SaaS, mobile apps, marketing, automotive, medtech
  • Languages5, including native Romanian

Selected work

Products and platforms I've helped bring to market. From global automotive and payments brands to the fintech tools I own end to end at Quant.

Enterprise platforms

Delivered as part of the Appsfactory and Endava account teams
Skoda logoSKODA AUTO
Automotive

MySkoda App

A remote control companion for Skoda Connect vehicles: locking, charging, climate presetting, vehicle health and service scheduling, all from a phone. As part of the Appsfactory account team, I worked on feature prioritisation and delivery for the app's connected car experience.

RoleProduct Manager, Appsfactory
Timeframe2024 to 2025
Visit MySkoda
BMW logoBMW
Automotive

BMW iDrive

BMW's driver facing operating system: navigation, a voice assistant and personalised driving modes across the connected vehicle range. I supported discovery and delivery on the digital cockpit experience as part of the Appsfactory account team.

RoleProduct Manager, Appsfactory
Timeframe2024 to 2025
Visit BMW iDrive
Mastercard logoMastercard
Payments, open banking

Open Finance (Aiia Enterprise)

An open banking API platform giving licensed providers consented access to account data and payment initiation across European banks, built to PSD2 and strong customer authentication standards. I led agile delivery for the Mastercard programme, drove SAFe adoption across teams and jointly owned backlog strategy with product owners.

RoleSenior Scrum Master and Product Owner, Endava
Timeframe2022 to 2024
Visit documentation
Ottobock logoOttobock
Medical technology

connectgo

The companion app for Ottobock's microprocessor prosthetic components, including the Genium, C-Leg, Kenevo and Meridium. It lets users adjust settings, switch activity modes and track mobility data from their phone. I led discovery and user feedback loops on a product where usability affects daily independence.

RoleProduct Manager, Appsfactory
Timeframe2024 to 2025
Visit connectgo

Own products

Owned end to end at Quant, from requirements through to bank facing delivery
SafeSettle app showing a secured deal dashboard with deposited funds and dispute resolution status

Tokenised deposits, built at Quant

SafeSettle

A peer to peer escrow platform built on tokenised deposit rails

Part of GBTD (Global Banking Tokenised Deposits), a pilot programme led by UK Finance. SafeSettle lets two parties complete a transaction with funds held securely until handover is confirmed, removing the trust problem from peer to peer deals.

  • Owned the UI/UX design end to end, mapping every flow and interaction from onboarding through to deal settlement
  • Wrote a 21 case behaviour driven test plan covering lock, decline and timeout handling
  • Added QR code handover verification alongside the existing one time passcode flow
BankSimulator dashboard showing bank accounts, balances and tokenised deposits

Internal tooling, built at Quant

BankSimulator

A simulated banking environment for validating GBTD settlement before it touches a real bank system

Used to validate deal locking, settlement (gross and net) and deposit tokenisation.

  • Defined the business requirements and user stories for accounts, notifications and push payment options
  • Let the banks participating in GBTD, a programme led by UK Finance, test money movement end to end via Bank Simulator before it touched a live system
  • Diagrammed the cancel lock and release lock decline epics used to run sprint planning and kickoffs

Experience

March 2025 to Present
Lead Product Owner
Quant

Own product strategy and execution for complex, multi initiative fintech platforms delivered for the European Central Bank and tier one global banks. Lead and mentor a team of Product Owners, setting product direction and governance standards across their squads. Established discovery frameworks that increased stakeholder trust and roadmap clarity by 40%, and governance standards that improved sprint predictability by 30%.

January 2025 to Present
Product Management Mentor and Ambassador
Tech Women Moldova

Selected as Tech Women Ambassador 2025. Built and ran Product Blossoms, a three month mentoring programme for aspiring product managers, reaching a 100% mentee satisfaction rate.

2024 to Present
Speaker
Tech conferences and industry events

Speaker and moderator at events including the Tech Women Summit and microCON, on product leadership, human skills in the AI era and women in tech.

August 2024 to May 2025
Product Manager
Appsfactory

Delivered user centred digital products in automotive and medical technology for clients including BMW, Skoda and Ottobock. Led discovery and feedback loops, and streamlined delivery to reduce feature lead time.

March 2022 to August 2024
Senior Scrum Master and Product Owner
Endava

Led agile delivery for enterprise programmes with Mastercard as primary client in regulated financial environments, driving SAFe adoption across multiple teams and jointly owning backlog strategy with product owners.

August 2019 to January 2022
Senior Project Manager
Travod Ltd

Led end to end delivery, budgeting and vendor management for global enterprise localisation projects, including accounts with Google, Amazon and Swarovski.

Credentials and toolkit

Certifications

  • Professional Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I)
  • Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I)
  • Certified SAFe 6 Agilist
  • Certified SAFe 5 Advanced Scrum Master
  • Product Strategy Certification (Product School)
  • Product Roadmapping Certification (Product School)
  • Project Management Certification (Google)

Core skills

  • Product strategy and vision
  • Roadmap and portfolio strategy
  • Mentoring and managing Product Owners
  • A/B testing and experimentation
  • OKRs and goal setting across teams
  • Executive stakeholder management
  • Product operations and governance
  • BPMN and systems thinking
  • UX strategy and journey design
  • Product analytics

Education

  • MA, Translation in the European Context, University of Craiova (2018 to 2020)
  • Erasmus Exchange, Translation and Conference Interpreting, Autonomous University of Madrid (2016 to 2017)
  • BA, Translation and Interpreting, University of Craiova (2015 to 2018)

AI product toolkit

  • Research: Claude, Gemini, NotebookLM, Perplexity
  • Prototyping: Figma Make, Lovable, v0, Replit Agent
  • Technical: Claude Code, Cursor
  • Planning: Productboard AI, Atlassian Rovo, Notion AI

Beyond delivery

Community, mentoring and the languages that got me here.

Tech Women Moldova logo

Tech Women Moldova

Core team member and selected Tech Women Ambassador 2025, representing and promoting women's leadership in technology and product management across the Moldovan tech community.

Product Blossoms logo, a monogram of a stylised apple with the wordmark Product Blossoms

Product Blossoms

The mentoring programme I built and run through Tech Women Moldova. Three months, a structured curriculum from product foundations to stakeholder management, and MoodMate as the shared case study product. Six plus mentees, several now working in product roles, 100% satisfaction across the cohort.

Cornelia Bicherschi speaking on stage with her image projected on a large screen behind her

Speaking

Keynote and panel sessions on product leadership and human skills in the AI era, including a talk called Unmuted on finding my own voice as a product leader, and a session on stakeholder trust dynamics at microCON 26.

5

Languages

  • RomanianNative
  • EnglishC2
  • SpanishC2
  • RussianC2
  • FrenchC1