Freelancer Open for engagement

Technical leadership for complex AI + Web delivery.

I turn ambitious plans into successful launches and help products thrive.

30+ projects
Software, AI, web and hardware-related projects
25 years
Working with digital products and web technology since 2001
Hybrid work
Formal project leadership in on-site, remote, and hybrid team settings
PMI DASM®
Disciplined Agile® Scrum Master in English & German
Services

Areas of responsibility.

AI and digital product delivery

End-to-end coordination of software, AI and web projects involving internal teams, clients, developers, specialists, vendors and senior stakeholders.

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  • Alignment with business goals
  • Scope and priority management
  • Stakeholder, team and vendor alignment
  • Progress tracking and escalation
  • Testing, release and go-live coordination
  • Management reporting

Project structures

For companies that need a credible operating structure, and for existing projects that have become delayed, fragmented or difficult to control.

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  • Objectives and success criteria
  • Delivery roadmap and milestones
  • Roles, responsibilities and decision rights
  • Work breakdown and ownership structure
  • Governance and reporting model
  • Recovery priorities and immediate next actions

Requirements, risks and decisions

Practical management of the factors that determine whether a project succeeds. At a level of formality that matches the project's complexity and risk.

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  • Requirements clarification and acceptance criteria
  • Risk, assumption, issue and dependency management
  • Decision logs and change-impact assessment
  • Dependency mapping
  • Schedule and milestone management
  • Management-level decision briefs
Typical engagements
Possible deliverables
  • Project charter and delivery roadmap
  • Stakeholder and responsibility model
  • Requirements and acceptance criteria
  • RAID register and decision log
  • Dependency map
  • Implementation and rollout plan
  • Test and release plan
  • Meeting and action-item system
  • Executive status reporting
  • Project health and recovery assessment
Engagement models

Three ways to bring me in.

Operational Boost

Process Efficiency

A structured assessment of your current process with clear optimisation potential. Option to implement directly.

Clear Objective

Project Leadership

Ongoing delivery leadership on a defined number of days per week, with increased capacity during critical phases such as integration, testing and go-live.

Temporary capacity

Interim / Fractional Lead

Senior execution capacity without a permanent hire: covering a vacancy, stabilising a delayed programme, or leading a single critical initiative to completion.

Selected work

Reference engagements.

Qibixx · Software Project Manager

Financial services applications

  • Hardware-connected software
  • ISO 9001-related processes

I led agile projects across applications, financial services, web development and products with hardware components, owning the path from requirements to delivery.

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  • Requirements engineering, scope and priority clarification
  • Risk and dependency management across parallel workstreams
  • Coordination between clients, internal specialists and developers
  • Agile project communication and management reporting
  • Support for processes connected to ISO 9001 certification
Source Engine · Co-founder & Project Lead

AI-powered source verification

  • Award winning AI project
  • ~50 user interviews

I co-founded and led an AI product intended to make scientific source verification faster and more transparent, developing it from initial problem validation to a working prototype.

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  • Project setup, leadership and prototype prioritisation
  • User and market validation, product concept development
  • Engagement with journalists, scientists and potential customers
  • Partnership and investor discussions
  • Result: functional prototype, first place in a science award, invitations to public panel discussions, and interest from media, researchers and investors
REFACT · Venture Project Lead

AI-based legacy code modernisation

  • Technical feasibility assessment
  • Business-model analysis

A venture project investigating whether AI could significantly accelerate the modernisation of legacy software. I set up and led the validation phase.

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  • Coordinated technical feasibility assessment with developers
  • Market, user and use-case evaluation
  • Risk and business-model analysis
  • Prepared the decision on further investment
  • Finding: AI accelerated parts of the refactoring process, while experienced developers remained essential for architecture, validation and quality control
Barix · Digital Platform Lead

B2B e-commerce platform

  • International B2B commerce
  • 4 international product launches

I planned, implemented and launched a complex progressive web application for international B2B e-commerce as part of a wider corporate repositioning.

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  • Platform planning, implementation and go-live
  • Connected marketing, sales and the technical product organisation
  • Contributed to four international product launches
How I work

My approach.

Establish the delivery objective

I clarify the intended outcome, current status, constraints, assumptions, and open questions to ensure we are aligned.

Fast executable structure

The project is translated into deliverables, milestones, responsibilities, dependencies and the decisions each one requires.

Decisions prepared

Each stakeholder gets concise information: what changed, why it matters, the likely impact, the decision required, and the next action.

Maintain follow-through

Meetings and reports should lead to decisions, and decisions to completed actions. Open items are tracked through to completion.

Uncertainty clear

Risks, assumptions, issues, changes, and dependencies are documented early and actively managed, reducing avoidable work.

Adaptable

I adapt to your organisation's established ways of working, adding structure where wanted to support reliable delivery.

About
Manuel Merki
Manuel Merki · Meilen / Zurich

Technical understanding, project structure and entrepreneurial judgement.

I have worked with digital products and web technology since 2001. That is 25 years of project-based experience, including more than ten years in formal and de facto project-management roles.

This combination allows me to talk to developers and technical specialists on their terms, while holding the commercial and organisational perspective that clients and senior stakeholders expect. I work in English and German, remotely from Zurich and on site across Europe.

Background
  • Software project management
  • Web development
  • AI platforms & startup ventures
  • Financial-service applications
  • UX/UI certifications
  • B2B e-commerce product launches
  • Research-based innovation
  • PMI DASM®
Full employment history on LinkedIn →

Why clients bring me in

Contact

Have a project that needs to deliver?

Email
hello@manuelmerki.com
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/merki
Location
Meilen / Zurich, Switzerland.
Available remote and on site across Europe.
Languages
English, German
Availability
Open for engagement