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@nitobuendia

Nito Buendia

Product and Engineering Leader in Singapore

Country Cluster Manager, Media and Tech Services, at Google

About Me

Product and Engineering Leader with a balanced technical, business and leadership skill set. A highly accomplished leader and problem solver, with a proven track record in the Tech industry, across Ads, Commerce, Cloud, Finance and Payments; in multiple organizations from Solutions Engineering to Product Management; and relevant experience in AI and launching 0-to-1 products.

Professional Summary

Leadership and ManagementLeadership and Management

Led a global product organization through a team of Directors and Group Product Managers driving Risk, Compliance and Core platforms for payments and financial services at PayPal, delivering through 100s of Engineers. Our product roadmaps improved operating margin by 10s-100s of $USD millions; driving product launches, enabling new and existing revenue, preventing fraud loss, and delivering OPEX and headcount savings. Managed a team of senior Engineers and Product Managers who led and developed technical solutions and API integrations with the largest partners in APAC leading to a portfolio growth worth 100s of millions (USD) at Google. Defined team strategy and objectives (OKRs) aligning with the business and organizational goals. Hired, coached and managed the teams, fostering inclusion and career progression, while meeting business results. Managed teams through key transformational and culture change moments, and built team structures from scratch.

Partnerships, Technical Sales and ConsultingPartnerships, Technical Sales and Consulting

Led and landed consulting engagements with business and technical stakeholders, including C-level executives. Led technical consulting and sales engineering teams doing partnerships with the largest companies in both SEA and APAC. Connected business and Tech; communicating technical concepts to non-technical audiences, and translating business goals into technical requirements. Worked with companies of all sizes from Enterprise to SMB customers; landing deals worth $10s to 100s of millions (USD). Worked across industries including but not limited to Retail, Marketplaces, Gaming, Finance (FSI), Apps or FMCG.

Software Engineering and ArchitectureSoftware Engineering and Architecture

Developed applications as a software and pre-sales engineer and software architect at Google. Developed and open sourced solutions in multiple coding languages including Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Java, SQL, HTML and CSS. Architected and developed software using Google Cloud including technologies like SQL and NoSQL databases, compute like containers or cloud functions and leveraging multiple other products to connect them. Designed and developed big data pipelines working with Apache Beam and Apache Airflow. Reviewed code as an official Google reviewer for JavaScript, Python and SQL, where I mentored other engineers on best practices in the code base and coding languages.

Technical Product ManagementTechnical Product Management

Managed a global technical product organization, leading a portfolio of product roadmaps of core platforms under risk and compliance for payments and financial services at PayPal. Built and led roadmaps to launch and improve API integrations with the largest APAC Tech partners (like Alibaba, Shopify or Shopee) at Google. Launched multiple products to market from inception to success (from 0 to 1), including PayPal's new AI decisioning platform and Performance Max for Marketplaces, the first Google Ads product for marketplaces, worth billions of dollars. Managed the execution of these roadmaps through Product and Engineering teams; aligning the roadmaps and timelines, and adding governance structures to ensure timely delivery. Launched a new course platform to increase the product catalog and revenue of an online business school. Led architecture and technical reviews with engineering, business reviews with C-levels and unlocked roadblocks through cross functional collaboration. Managed developer teams to build and launch tech solutions in the advertising and cloud ecosystems.

Outstanding PerformanceOutstanding Performance

Outstanding manager and individual contributor performance. Most ratings on the top 25% of the company, with half of those being on the top 4%, and promotions every 2 years. As a leader, 100% positive feedback on the manager survey across all areas including coaching the team, defining strategy and delivering work.

Recent Work Experience

Cluster Manager, Tech and Media Services, gTech AdsCluster Manager, Tech and Media Services, gTech Ads

- (3mo) at Google (
Singapore
)

Country Cluster Manager for gTech Ads Large Customer Sales, leading operations and strategic growth across Singapore and Malaysia.

Click to read more

HighlightsHighlights

  • Leading a team of Engagement Managers, Technical Consultants, Architects and Engineers to support the growth of Google's Ads business and its customers.

    • Senior Director of Product Management, Core Platforms, Risk & ComplianceSenior Director of Product Management, Core Platforms, Risk & Compliance

    - (1y) at PayPal (
    Singapore
    )

    Led a global technical Product Management organization, managing a team of Directors and Group Product Managers, to drive the transformation of PayPal's risk and compliance core platforms into a modern, scalable and self-service platform; which spans all of PayPal's businesses, including Consumers, Merchants, Payments or Crypto.

    Click to read more

    HighlightsHighlights

  • Led a portfolio of core platforms such as PayPal's AI modeling and decisioning platform, identity and verifications, and account limitations. Setting the organization's product vision and strategy, informing roadmaps and delivering them through 100s of engineers globally.
  • Defined PayPal's new AI modeling and decisioning platform product strategy for risk, compliance and credit organizations, estimated at a USD$1bn incremental margin uplift. Delivered first platform buildout, landing first MVP use cases. MVP showcased higher agility - reducing AI model and rule deployment by 85% - and higher decision accuracy through enhanced simulation and faster model refresh and experimentation times.
  • Expanded face and biometric identity verifications to risk use cases globally, driving USD$100s of millions in margin uplift through fraud reduction (∇ losses) and good user experience enhancement (Δ revenue). Enhanced verification methods reducing fraud passthrough rates by 20-50%, while improving good user experience and pass rates.
  • Influenced cross-functional stakeholders to unlock a key project which was stuck for multiple years. Converged Venmo and PayPal infrastructure for account blocks and limitations platform, enhancing customer experience (∇ 50% reduction in time to lift limitations), while driving automation leading to USD$10s of millions in OPEX savings.
  • Enabled business, compliance and policy teams through verifications and limitations controls, ensuring compliance with key regulations (e.g. Know Your Customer - KYC/KYB), enabling key product launches, like crypto (PYUSD) and supporting key commerce partnerships; driving USD$ millions in direct revenue and enabling USD$ billions in TPV.
  • Rebuilt and scaled the team after a major organizational transition. Focused on hiring, team culture and first principles to foster a highly collaborative culture, delivering ambitious product visions and goals.

    • Cloud Solutions Architect, Google CloudCloud Solutions Architect, Google Cloud

    - (1y) at Google (
    Singapore
    )

    Cloud Solutions Architect specialized on data analytics, databases and AI.

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    HighlightsHighlights

  • Architected cloud solutions to enable business opportunities or migrate existing applications. Engaged with enterprise C-level, and other business and technical stakeholders, to pitch solutions and unlocked multiple deals worth 10s of millions (USD) through the Cloud and software architecture.
  • Designed, built and open sourced Google Cloud solutions used by tens of enterprise customers, adding value to their cloud adoption. Updated key technical documentation to facilitate the usage of cloud products including open source technologies like Apache Beam.

    • Sample ProjectsSample Projects

  • Database Archival and Pruning, a solution which allows you to archive and prune data from Google Cloud database products (such as Cloud SQL, AlloyDB, Spanner) into BigQuery. This solution archives and prunes data from Historical Data tables.
  • Dataflow: Apache Avro files to Cloud Spanner with Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCD), a Dataflow Flex Template template which loads data exports in Apache Avro format to Cloud Spanner from a staged Cloud Storage Bucket.
  • AlloyDB and Memorystore Cluster Autoscaler, a Cloud solution to autoscale AlloyDB and Memorystore (Redis/Valkey) Clusters based on time and/or utilization.
  • Dataflow: Google Cloud Storage (CSV and Avro) to AlloyDB and PostgreSQL, a Dataflow Flex Template template that reads data from files in Google Cloud Storage (in Avro or CSV format) and uploads it to a PostgreSQL compatible databases, including: AlloyDB, AlloyDB Omni and Cloud SQL for PosgreSQL.

    • Head of Solutions Engineering, Channel Partners APACHead of Solutions Engineering, Channel Partners APAC

    - (2y 7mo) at Google (
    Singapore
    )

    Managed a senior engineering team of former Engineers and Product Managers. My responsibilities include a mix of people, team and business management.

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    HighlightsHighlights

  • Landed partnerships with 5-10 APAC partners leading to a portfolio worth 100s of millions (USD). Doubled revenue of key partners to ~USD$500M by improving user experience and key user journeys.
  • Collaborated with teams across Google to unlock roadblocks for the team and our partners. Worked with multiple areas (e.g. Product, Tech Support, Policy, Marketing), to enable cross functional collaboration and reduce or remove roadblocks. Revamped partner-facing development workflows cutting the effort to launch API integrations by >60%.
  • Scaled APAC’s operational framework into our global teams to improve productivity, collaboration and best practice sharing among team members across regions.
  • Led the team through a major reorganization with a new leadership and vision. This required building the team from scratch; hiring and ramping up most members, and creating the team’s culture and operational frameworks.
  • Led the Singapore-based Latin Employee Resource Group. Set the strategy working with a team of 4-6 people aiming at fostering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within the (50+) represented group and at Google.

    • ManagementManagement

  • Defined strategy including defining team’s Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), and shaping the team’s shared vision. Responsible for the team’s success, including setting expectations and individual OKRs, performance management, coaching, and career planning through regular syncs and processes.
  • Responsible for team’s growth and hiring, including promoting the roles, screening and interviewing candidates, preparing interview panels, and onboarding new hires; while focusing on the team’s diversity and inclusion.
  • Worked with multiple areas (e.g. Product, Tech Support, Policy, Marketing), to enable cross functional collaboration and reduce or remove roadblocks.

    • Performance ReviewsPerformance Reviews

  • 1x Promotion
  • 100% Manager Responsibilities score on Manager Survey, including Leading Work, Developing People and Building Community.

    • Tech Lead, Outbound Product Manager, Channel PartnersTech Lead, Outbound Product Manager, Channel Partners

    - (1y 4mo) at Google (
    Singapore
    )

    Product Manager designing and leading new Products, through complex API integrations with large Tech Partners in the region and globally. Role scope includes defining the Product vision, UX and personas, piloting and validating hypotheses, creating user journeys and stories, designing and building the Product and API integrations, testing and launching to market. The Team's portfolio spans multiple verticals and sectors with high focus on e-Commerce (store builders and marketplaces) and Lead Generation (web builders and CRMs), and transforms into a 100s of millions (USD) in yearly revenue. Tech Lead role, holding the management responsibilities to the Head of Solutions Engineering, but without direct reports.

    Click to read more

    HighlightsHighlights

  • Launched a new Google Ads product for marketplaces, for a global opportunity of billions (USD). Identified and validated the opportunity through prototypes. Built the final product working with Engineering. Launched and landed the first integration with a marketplace, delivering 10s of millions (USD) in the first year.
  • Designed and aligned product roadmaps for Google Ads API integrations with top Tech companies in ecommerce, and lead generation; focused on improving onboarding rates, reducing churn and increasing overall business. Launched and managed product roadmaps for 5-10 product integrations.
  • Managed the delivery of the roadmaps with the partner engineering team as a Technical Program Manager. Prioritized features, aligned key timelines, facilitate delivery, created governance structures and led communications to align and keep deliveries of integrations on time.

    • ManagementManagement

  • Tech Lead role, holding similar responsibilities than as the Head of Solutions Engineering, but without direct reports.
  • Launched a team collaboration framework and tackle key team challenges on identity, performance, product and documentation globally. Launched an Awards and Recognition program to further foster collaboration.

    • TechTech

  • Consulted in Systems Design and UX of new Tech Products.
  • Designed and supported complex API integrations
  • Reviewed code in Python and JavaScript.

    • Sample ProjectsSample Projects

  • Performance Max for Marketplaces, a prototype solution of Marketplace Ads with an APAC partner, which was later used as the base to launch the first Performance Max for Marketplaces for Google globally. Designed conversion pipelines for custom marketplace attribution.

    • Performance ReviewsPerformance Reviews

  • 1x Promotion
  • 1x Top 4-25%
  • 2x Top 25-60%

    • See more work experiencesSee more work experiences

    Education

    Licentiate in Business AdministrationLicentiate in Business Administration

    - (4y 10mo) at Universidad Pontificia Comillas (
    Spain
    )

    Licentiate in Business Administration, a 5 year degree program which consists of a first and second cycle with specialization; similar to Bachelor (BSc) + Masters (MSc).

    Click to read more

    HighlightsHighlights

  • Majored in Marketing.
  • Achieved exceptional academic results including: 6 Dean’s List and 17 Outstanding grades, Top 5/300 student ranked by GPA and foreign language level, and the Grant of Excellence of Madrid for high achieving students in collaboration with Business Management department.
  • Class Prefect and Faculty Cloister member.

    • GPAGPA

  • 8.5 / 10 (B+)

    • Finance et Gestion, ExchangeFinance et Gestion, Exchange

    - (7mo) at Universite Catholique de Lille (
    France
    )

    European international exchange program (ERASMUS) at la Faculte Libre des Sciences Economiques et de Gestion de Lille. Semester abroad studying in French.

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    GPAGPA

  • 14.04 / 20 (A)

    • Business Administration and Management, ExchangeBusiness Administration and Management, Exchange

    - (1y) at University of Sydney (
    Australia
    )

    International student exchange program at University of Sydney, Australia. Year abroad in Sydney studying in English.

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    HighlightsHighlights

  • Top 1 in Unit: INFS1000 – Digital Business Innovation.

    • GPAGPA

  • 79.25 / 100 (A)

    • Professional Skills

    Leadership skillsLeadership skills

    Team building and management, Strategy planning and delivery, Cross functional collaboration.

    Business skillsBusiness skills

    Problem solving, automation, quick learning.

    Cloud certifications and skillsCloud certifications and skills

    Cloud Architect, Data Engineering, Database Engineering and Digital Leader. AI/ML, Apache Beam, Airflow, BigQuery.

    Coding languagesCoding languages

    Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, SQL.

    LanguagesLanguages

    Spanish, English, French, Catalan.

    Recent Projects

    Travel TrackTravel Track

    Travel Track is a self-hosted tool to track which countries and territories you have visited.

    Technologies: JavaScript, Vue, Node.js, HTML, CSS, Docker

    Lazy ShortcutsLazy Shortcuts

    Lazy Shortcuts is a Chrome Extension that allows you to create URL shortcuts for your local browser.

    Technologies: TypeScript, JavaScript, React, HTML, CSS, Vibe Coding

    Gmail Filter ManagerGmail Filter Manager

    Gmail Filter Manager is a utility to manage your Gmail Filters through Apps Script using YAML files.

    Technologies: JavaScript, Apps Script, Gmail API

    See more projectsSee more projects

    Recent Blog Posts

    How Grab increased their conversion rate by 30% with Marketing AutomationHow Grab increased their conversion rate by 30% with Marketing Automation

    Growing the digital economy with Shopee: launching Google Ads with ShopeeGrowing the digital economy with Shopee: launching Google Ads with Shopee

    The Impact of AutomationThe Impact of Automation

    Read more articles on the blogRead more articles on the blog

    Speaking

    Using BigQuery for Large Data ProcessingUsing BigQuery for Large Data Processing

    at GDG Cloud Singapore

    Company workshop on innovation, technology and machine learningCompany workshop on innovation, technology and machine learning

    and at letgo

    Personalized learning with virtual reality, xAPI and the Internet of ThingsPersonalized learning with virtual reality, xAPI and the Internet of Things

    at EXPOELEARNING

    Things I Enjoy

    Tech hobbiesTech hobbies

    Coding, gaming, home automation.

    Other hobbiesOther hobbies

    Coin collecting, Muay Thai, scuba diving.

    International experienceInternational experience

    Lived in 7 cities, 5 countries and 3 continents.