Leadership · Innovation · Change
David Ferreira Marques
Building bridges for change. Creating the conditions for people and organisations to work better. Executing when the path hasn't been mapped yet. That is how 15+ years across sectors and scales have been spent — and what distinguishes managing from leading at a time when organisations need both at once. AI didn't change this way of operating. It accelerated it.
Porto / Maia, Portugal david@monco.io linkedin.com/in/dferreiramarques
Professional Experience
Senior Industrial Engineer / Product Owner
FedEx
Product Owner in a European Agile Release Train (SAFe), working on an internal operational-control platform for pickup and delivery, used across most European countries.
  • Product ownership of a platform that supports operational control at local stations across Europe
  • Scope also covers fraud detection and payment-processing optimisation
Product OwnershipSAFeAgile Release TrainOperationsIndustrial Engineering
Operations & Programme Manager
CDI Portugal · Centro de Inovação Carlos Fiolhais · Maia
Operational leadership of a Norte 2030-funded social innovation lab for youth aged 12–18. End-to-end management of eight simultaneous programmes, team, budget and performance indicators.
  • Defined and monitored quarterly OKRs and KPIs aligned with public funding obligations
  • Managed multiple parallel workflows under tight deadlines and limited resources
  • Coordinated with Câmara Municipal da Maia, European partners and British Esports Federation
  • Recruited, onboarded and supervised a multidisciplinary team
  • Developed and implemented proprietary operational workflows and management tools
Programme ManagementOKRs / KPIsBudgetingMulti-projectTeam Leadership
Innovation Principal
FARFETCH · Porto
Led strategic innovation initiatives across product, design and engineering at a global listed company (+5,000 employees). Managed innovation roadmap, KPI tracking and complex projects from conception through to delivery.
  • Set up the foundations of what is now an automated, AI-based process: technology definition, team creation, ways of working and expected outcomes
  • Cross-functional coordination in a large-scale Agile environment
  • Stakeholder management with competing priorities and tight executive timelines
InnovationRoadmapAgileStakeholder ManagementKPIs
Senior Production Manager
FARFETCH · Porto
Oversaw the global post-production department with strategic vision and operational leadership. Built a high-performance team culture while ensuring brand consistency across international markets.
  • Team leadership and mentoring of a creative production team in a high-volume global context
  • Drove process improvement through design thinking, with measurable departmental impact
  • Reported operational metrics regularly to senior and executive stakeholders
Production ManagementGlobal OperationsContinuous Improvement
Tools & Methods
Project Management
Scrum / Agile / SAFe
OKRs & KPIs
Lean / Continuous Improvement
Value Stream Mapping
Resource Planning
Digital Tools
Jira · Notion · Asana
Google Workspace
Microsoft 365
Dashboards & reporting
AI / workflow automation
Soft Skills
Team leadership & mentoring
Executive communication
Problem solving
Vendor management
Process documentation
Stakeholder engagement
Certifications
Certified Scrum Master
Lean Six Sigma YB
Design Thinking: CJM
User Stories for Agile
VSM Specialist
Languages
Portuguese
Native
English
Fluent C1
Spanish
Intermediate
David Ferreira Marques
CV · Page 2 of 2
Professional Experience (continued)
Founder & Managing Director
Creative Oscillator · Porto Brands: Monco (change management consultancy) · Devity Studio (design & culture)
Business structure housing two service brands. Responsible for operations, strategic positioning, client management and coordination of remote partners.
  • Developed replicable delivery processes and playbooks for consultancy projects (Monco)
  • Art direction, curation and production of cultural initiatives (Devity Studio)
Change ManagementConsultingOperationsDesign
Lead Designer — Platform Team
Surf & Code · Matosinhos / London
Led the product design team at a startup accelerator. Facilitated ideation, user research and product-market validation workshops for seed-round startups across Porto and London.
  • Ran ideation and product validation workshops for investor funding rounds
  • Led prototyping team and defined the product-market validation framework
Product DiscoveryFacilitationPrototypingScrum
Scrum Master & Design Manager
Namecheap, Inc. · Remote (Porto)
Built and led the global UX department. Managed sprint cadence, delivery quality and stakeholder alignment across distributed teams in Portugal, the US, UK, Ukraine and India.
  • Implemented and optimised Scrum processes and a UX Design Framework for distributed teams
  • Removed operational blockers and ensured continuous delivery flow
  • Regular performance metrics reporting to senior management
Scrum MasterUX DesignAgileDistributed TeamsMetrics
Course Coordinator
ESAD — Escola Superior de Artes e Design · Matosinhos
Coordinated the Product Design course. Managed timetables, faculty, industry partnerships and academic performance assessment. Member of the Pedagogical Council.
Operational CoordinationTeam ManagementPlanning
Assistant Lecturer
ESAD — Escola Superior de Artes e Design · Matosinhos
Taught Design Project, Models & Prototypes and Digital Lab. Curriculum design and learning outcomes definition. Organised international workshops including SummerLab on Cordophones and Sound Objects.
Curriculum DesignPrototypingDigital Arts
Way of Working
  • Bridges for change — not as a consultant optimising what exists, but as someone who enters, reads the context, and builds — with people, for people, with speed and without waste
  • Systems that outlast their creator — operational processes designed to be independent of whoever built them
  • Individual leadership presence — every team member receives attention, fairness and accountability; teams leave better than they arrived
  • Synthetic thinking — radical concepts translated into accessible language without losing depth; first principles over frameworks
  • AI as an operational lever — integrated into daily processes, not deployed as novelty; what changes is execution speed, not judgement
  • Cross-domain references — musician, cinephile, reader; perspectives that expand the solution space for teams
Profile
Building bridges for change — not as a consultant optimising what exists, but as someone who enters, reads the context, and builds with people, for people. With speed, clarity and without waste. AI didn't change this way of operating. It accelerated it.
Education
MA — New Product Development
ESAD, Matosinhos
2011 – 2012
PG — Design Management
ESAD, Matosinhos
BA — Industrial Design
ESAD, Matosinhos
2000 – 2006
Learning from Users
Fraunhofer, Porto
Certifications
Certified Scrum Master
Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt
Design Thinking: CJM
User Stories for Agile Scrum
VSM Specialist
Also Notable
Event production management
Orquestra Portuguesa de Guitarras e Bandolins, 2025

Digital fabrication & maker education

Board game design & browser-based tools
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