Denis Denisov · Moscow, Russia

Business & Technology Executive

Digital Commerce, B2B Platforms & AI Transformation

Director, Product & Technology at Magnit Cosmetic

I build and commercialize digital products and lead business transformation, connecting strategy, business economics, people and technology.

Experience

Products, portfolios and platforms

KPMG

STAR

Created STAR, an enterprise fraud-detection product combining bank-system integrations, transaction data, analytics and machine learning.

Sberbank

AI Transformation Office

The portfolio contributed to revenue growth and lower recurring operating costs through changes to products and business processes.

MAX

Built the business platform domain for MAX within VK, enabling business partners and external developers to build services on top of the messenger.

Magnit

Product, technology and AI

I lead product, engineering and analytics, with accountability for portfolio priorities, management of the allocated budget and agreed financial outcomes.

About

Strategy, economics, people and technology

I build and commercialize digital products and lead business transformation, connecting strategy, business economics, people and technology.

My experience spans retail, banking, consulting and digital platforms: creating an enterprise product, building a platform organization from scratch, and managing investment priorities and financial outcomes across transformation portfolios.

Today, I am Director of Product & Technology at Magnit Cosmetic, a member of the business-unit management team reporting directly to the business-unit CEO. I lead product, engineering and analytics, with responsibility for the priorities, allocated budget and agreed financial outcomes of the product and technology change portfolio. My work spans digital commerce, assortment, pricing, inventory and store productivity.

AI is a recurring part of my work. At Magnit Cosmetic, I lead the adoption of AI in employee workflows, introducing AI agents for routine tasks and integrating machine learning into business processes. The focus is practical: reducing manual work, improving decision quality and increasing operational productivity.

Earlier:

At KPMG, I created and commercialized STAR, an enterprise fraud-detection product using data and machine learning, and led client implementations.
At Sber, I established an AI Transformation Office and led portfolio strategy, financial planning, forecasting and performance reviews, working with Finance and Risk to validate business impact.
At VK / MAX, I built the business platform domain: organization, key team, roadmap, bots, mini apps, developer tools and partner integrations.
At Avito Jobs, I led product engineering across employer verification, content quality and company profiles, and helped prepare a new transaction-based service for launch.

I start with the customer problem and the economics. I bring commercial, operational and technical teams together, make priorities explicit, and follow decisions through to adoption and measured results.

My focus is digital commerce, B2B platforms and AI-enabled operations: commercializing products, developing new business and improving operating performance.

Case studies

AI, B2B platforms and digital commerce

SBER · DATA AND AI

An AI Transformation Office and change portfolio at Sber

Context. Established an AI Transformation Office within Sber's Sales Network business unit, connecting AI investment with commercial performance and operating efficiency.

My responsibility. Defined the AI strategy and portfolio across branches, ATMs, field service and payroll-related products.

Work and contribution. The portfolio contributed to revenue growth and lower recurring operating costs through changes to products and business processes.

VK · MAX · B2B PLATFORM

The MAX business platform domain

Context. Built the business platform domain for MAX within VK, enabling business partners and external developers to build services on top of the messenger.

My responsibility. Established the organization, recruited key team members, and defined the platform vision, roadmap and delivery model.

Work and contribution. Led capabilities spanning bots, mini apps, notifications, developer tools and partner integrations.

MAGNIT COSMETIC · PRODUCT AND TECHNOLOGY

Product, technology and AI transformation at Magnit Cosmetic

Context. Director of Product & Technology for Magnit Cosmetic, reporting directly to the business-unit CEO and serving on the management team.

My responsibility. I lead product, engineering and analytics, with accountability for portfolio priorities, management of the allocated budget and agreed financial outcomes.

Current work. Resolved a cross-functional data-access constraint and expanded the analytical pipeline from a limited pilot to network-wide coverage.

All case studies

Career

Roles and responsibilities

January 2026 — Present

Magnit

Director of Product & Technology — Magnit Cosmetic

Director of Product & Technology for Magnit Cosmetic, reporting directly to the business-unit CEO and serving on the management team.

I lead product, engineering and analytics, with accountability for portfolio priorities, management of the allocated budget and agreed financial outcomes.

Read the case study

January 2025 — January 2026

CTO — Business Platform & Services, MAX

Built the business platform domain for MAX within VK, enabling business partners and external developers to build services on top of the messenger.

Reported to the messenger CTO and worked directly with the business-unit CEO on strategic integrations.

Read the case study

January 2024 — December 2024

Avito

Engineering Manager — Avito Jobs

Led product engineering across employer trust, content quality and new service development in Avito Jobs.

Led teams responsible for employer verification and identification, content quality and professional company profiles.
Developed verification approaches combining banking data, partner integrations and manual review.
Improved the delivery and decision-making model to shorten the path from product idea to release.
Managed priorities using product metrics for content quality, employer verification and profile adoption.
Formed the cross-functional team for Drive, designed the customer journey and transaction solution, and defined partner integrations during the pre-launch phase.

February 2021 — December 2023

Sberbank

Team Lead — AI Transformation Office

Established an AI Transformation Office within Sber's Sales Network business unit, connecting AI investment with commercial performance and operating efficiency.

Read the case study

February 2016 — January 2021

KPMG

Technical Lead — Data Products & Commercialization

Created and commercialized data and machine-learning products for enterprise clients, combining product development, client delivery and business development.

Created STAR, an enterprise fraud-detection product combining bank-system integrations, transaction data, analytics and machine learning.
Owned product direction and priorities, led implementation, and developed the product's commercialization.
Built the engineering team and the technical capabilities needed to deliver the product to clients.
Led an automation and analytics programme for a large corporate client, coordinating delivery across multiple initiatives.
Developed a reusable data platform for forensic investigations, expanding the practice's ability to analyse complex banking data.

Coverage of KPMG’s work

April 2013 — January 2016

Lazada

Senior Software Engineer

Developed commerce systems supporting inventory, sales and reporting, with a focus on reliability and business-process execution.

January 2012 — March 2013

Lamoda Group

Middle Software Engineer

Developed capabilities across inventory, logistics, checkout and payments, building an early foundation in e-commerce operations.

October 2011 — December 2011

Lamoda Group

Junior Software Developer

Approach

I start with the business outcome.

I define what needs to change: growth, margin, customer experience, speed, operating costs, resilience or decision quality.

Find the constraint
Separate the symptom from the cause and pinpoint where the business is losing growth, money, speed or control.
Make the choice
Define the primary outcome, acceptable trade-offs and initiatives that should not be pursued.
Build the missing capability
Determine what is missing: a product, data, process, technology, skills, partnership or a new way of making decisions.
Carry it through to a durable outcome
Assign ownership, define decision rights, change day-to-day work, verify the effect and remove the need for constant intervention.

Constraint → choice → missing capability → durable outcome.

Leadership

Three leadership principles

One shared outcome, not a collection of functional goals

Commercial, product, technology and operations teams should not optimize their own measures at the expense of the overall business outcome.

Explicit decision rights, not endless approvals

A team moves faster when it is clear in advance who recommends, who decides, who executes and whose approval is genuinely required.

An organization that does not depend on a hero

A strong system develops other leaders, maintains a working cadence and does not rely on constant intervention from one person.

Articles

Ideas, models, and practices for leading complex systems

I write about setting priorities, team accountability and launching products amid uncertainty.

December 22, 20259 min read

Why Make the Effort to Define Team Missions?

How to organize teams around value streams, clarify domain ownership, and preserve delivery speed without adding bureaucracy.

Read article

December 17, 20253 min read

The Idea Doesn’t Win. The Approach Does.

Why advantage in a mature digital market comes from learning speed, managed risk, distribution, and trust—not from the novelty of an idea.

Read article

All articles

Strategic session: assortment, pricing and online product development

Expertise

Core skills

Business Strategy
Business Transformation
Commercialization
Financial Planning
Cross-functional Team Leadership

Product Strategy · Data-driven Decision Making · Stakeholder Management · Digital Platforms · E-Commerce · Business Process Improvement · Business Development · Budget Management · Portfolio Management · Process Automation · Machine Learning · Artificial Intelligence (AI) · AI Agents · Product & Technology Leadership · Organizational Leadership · Technology Strategy · Product Development · Platform Architecture · Engineering Leadership · Enterprise Architecture · Team Leadership · Team Development · Microservices · Agile Methodologies · IT Strategy

Education

Voronezh State Technical University

View credential

Contact

Let’s discuss your challenge

I am interested in work on business growth, launching new business lines and transformation. Tell me about the challenge you are working on and where my experience could help.

denisovdenis@me.com Telegram LinkedIn

Leadership of a business line or a new venture
A consultation on a strategic challenge
A talk, interview or publication

Business & Technology Executive

Products, portfolios and platforms

STAR

AI Transformation Office

MAX

Product, technology and AI

Strategy, economics, people and technology

AI, B2B platforms and digital commerce

An AI Transformation Office and change portfolio at Sber

The MAX business platform domain

Product, technology and AI transformation at Magnit Cosmetic

Roles and responsibilities

Director of Product & Technology — Magnit Cosmetic

CTO — Business Platform & Services, MAX

Engineering Manager — Avito Jobs

Team Lead — AI Transformation Office

Technical Lead — Data Products & Commercialization

Senior Software Engineer

Middle Software Engineer

Junior Software Developer

I start with the business outcome.

Find the constraint

Make the choice

Build the missing capability

Carry it through to a durable outcome

Three leadership principles

One shared outcome, not a collection of functional goals

Explicit decision rights, not endless approvals

An organization that does not depend on a hero

Ideas, models, and practices for leading complex systems

Why Make the Effort to Define Team Missions?

The Idea Doesn’t Win. The Approach Does.

Core skills

Education

Voronezh State Technical University

Voronezh State University

Certifications

ICAgile Certified Professional

Google UX Design Specialization

Design a User Experience for Social Good & Prepare for Jobs

Build Dynamic User Interfaces (UI) for Websites

Create High-Fidelity Designs and Prototypes in Figma

Conduct UX Research and Test Early Concepts

Build Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Prototypes

Start the UX Design Process: Empathize, Define, and Ideate

Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design

AWS Cloud Solutions Architect Specialization

Introduction to Designing Data Lakes on AWS

AWS Fundamentals Specialization

Architecting Solutions on AWS

Migrating to the AWS Cloud

AWS Cloud Technical Essentials

Introduction to Machine Learning

Big Data Essentials: HDFS, MapReduce and Spark RDD

Let’s discuss your challenge