Rawad A. Assaf
Mount Lebanon
Summary
A lifelong learner and product executive with 18 years experience in leading digital transformation and AI adoption. Holds strong focus on fintech, banking and global outsourcing. Couples technical foundation with MBA-level business insight and agile leadership. Currently shaping product vision at SiiRA to build scalable platforms and advance AI-driven solutions. Excels in guiding products from concept to market with strategic clarity & organizational impact.
Overview
18
18
years of professional experience
5
5
Certification
Work History
Head of Product
SiiRA
Miami
11.2023 - Current
- Product Growth: Transitioned B2C app from beta to 20K+ active users (1,400% growth) in 11 months
- AI Innovation: Architected and deployed AI recommender system achieving 95% job-candidate matching
- Data Management: Built and maintained real-time database of 100K+ vetted candidates with AI-powered data cleansing/enrichment tools
- Revenue Impact: Launched SiiRA One B2B portal generating 40% increase in enterprise client acquisition
- Team Leadership: Led cross-functional product and engineering teams using agile (Scrum) methodologies
- Leading AI-powered talent matching platforms serving enterprise clients
Senior Business Analyst/ Consultant
Inspire for Solutions Development
07.2021 - 10.2023
- Process Optimization: Analyzed and streamlined 80+ change requests, reducing processing time by 35%
- Digital Banking: Led automation initiatives resulting in 60% reduction in manual banking operations
- Requirements Engineering: Compiled 200+ business requirements ensuring 90% project delivery accuracy
- Stakeholder Management: Acted as primary liaison between business units & IT facilitating digital initiatives
- Remote outsourced digital transformation consultant for Saudi Arabia's leading bank
Project Manager
GroundTruth Solutions
New York
02.2023 - 08.2023
- Portfolio Management: Successfully delivered 20+ concurrent projects with 100% on-time completion rate
- Quality Assurance: Implemented testing protocols reducing production bugs by 45%
- Executive Reporting: Direct SPOC to CTO, providing weekly project insights and risk assessments
- Remote contract role managing product and technology initiatives for weather data platform (Weatherbug)
Digital Banking Supervisor
Byblos Bank S.A.L
, Lebanon
01.2017 - 06.2021
- Product Launches: Successfully launched Mobile Banking, P2P payments, E-KYC, Corporate Internet Banking
- User Growth: Increased digital banking adoption by 180% across Lebanon and regional affiliates
- Innovation Leadership: Championed digital transformation initiatives saving annual bank operational costs
- Stakeholder Management: Supervised and coached a talented team of 5 business analysts
Senior Programmer Analyst
BLC Bank S.A.L
, Lebanon
03.2010 - 12.2016
- Platform Management: Maintained E-Banking Platform serving 50K+ active users with 99.9% uptime
Technical Consultant
QuanTech
, Lebanon
11.2007 - 02.2010
- Client Success: Implemented digital banking turnkey solutions for 3 Lebanese alpha banks.
- IBM Platinum Partner
Education
Professional Diploma - Artificial Intelligence & Data Science
01.2024
Master of Business Administration - undefined
01.2014
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
01.2007
Skills
- AI & Technical Leadership
- Agentic AI Implementation
- Machine Learning
- LLMs
- NLP
- Digital Banking Platforms
- Data Engineering
- Analytics
- Product Strategy
- Product Vision
- Agile Leadership
- Business Analysis
- ROI
- Jira
- Trello
- MS Studio
- Google Colab
- MS Sql Server
- Lucid
- Confluence
- MS Visio
- N8N
- Gumloop
- Makecom
- IBM EPM
- CLM
- Figma
- XD
- CI/CD
- QA
- Regression Testing
- Temenos T24
- Ethix
- Open AI
- Anthropic
- Claude
- Deep Seek
Websites
Certification
- Zaka<>AUB AI Starter Kit, 2025-11-01
- PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), 2022-01-01 to 2025-12-31
- Project Management Professional (PMP), 2013-01-01 to 2025-12-31
- Cognitive Project Management in AI (CPMAI) v7, In Progress
Accomplishments
- AI recommender system
- Digital transformation
- Designed multi-channel platform ecosystem
- Led crossfunctional teams
- Project delivery success
- Mentored PMs, business analysts and developers
- Cost savings generation
- Exponential user growth
- Maintain platform uptime
Languages
Arabic
English
French
Spanish
Professional Development
- Leadership Excellence Program, Nell Academy, 2025
- PMI Agile Certification Training, FormaTech, 2022
- Agile Workshop, ByblosBank, 2019
- Financial Inclusion, ESA University, 2018
- Culture Workshop, Grid International (Byblos Bank), 2017
Personal Information
Title: Head of Product
Timeline
Head of Product - SiiRA
11.2023 - Current
Project Manager - GroundTruth Solutions
02.2023 - 08.2023
Senior Business Analyst/ Consultant - Inspire for Solutions Development
07.2021 - 10.2023
Digital Banking Supervisor - Byblos Bank S.A.L
01.2017 - 06.2021
Senior Programmer Analyst - BLC Bank S.A.L
03.2010 - 12.2016
Technical Consultant - QuanTech
11.2007 - 02.2010
American University of Beirut - Professional Diploma, Artificial Intelligence & Data Science
Lebanese American University - Master of Business Administration,
American University of Beirut - Bachelor of Science, Computer Science