Georgi Garov

Member of the project leadership team supporting the delivery of VW Group projects within a complex automotive engineering environment, coordinating across distributed cross-functional teams of 50+ people in Bulgaria, Germany and India. Worked across System, Software, Hardware, Validation, Mechanics and Plant functions, providing project-level coordination and alignment across the different engineering teams.

• Managed project planning, scope, timelines, dependencies, risks, releases, backlog, change and defect management, quality and delivery readiness.
• Coordinated cross-functional teams and stakeholders across three locations, providing delivery leadership without direct line-management responsibility.
• Applied Agile/Scrum practices including sprint planning, backlog refinement, retrospectives and continuous improvement.
• Acted as Task Force Manager, coordinating focused cross-functional activities to resolve critical project issues and drive corrective actions.
• Managed the delivery and coordination of an external engineering supplier responsible for requirements development, ensuring alignment with project objectives, quality expectations and delivery milestones.
• Drove process improvements across the project organization, improving delivery processes and project execution.
• Successfully delivered a next-generation Volkswagen Gateway program to Start of Production (SOP) after approximately three years of development.
• Successfully achieved Automotive SPICE (ASPICE) Level 2, demonstrating compliance with required software development and process standards.

Owned software product delivery for automotive programs including VW Cluster and Audi Panorama Display, acting as the primary interface between customers, engineering teams and internal stakeholders. Responsible for translating customer needs into product priorities and driving delivery throughout the product lifecycle, with a strong focus on customer communication, change and defect management.

• Owned product requirements, prioritization, backlog management and delivery planning, aligning customer expectations with engineering execution.
• Took full ownership of change and defect management, driving analysis, prioritization, resolution and communication of product changes and defects throughout the development lifecycle.
• Managed extensive customer communication, including negotiations, requirement alignment, delivery discussions, escalations and resolution of technical and product-related topics.
• Coordinated cross-functional engineering teams and stakeholders, ensuring alignment between product priorities, development activities and customer commitments.
• Provided high-level management reporting, communicating product status, risks, changes, defects, dependencies and delivery progress to senior leadership.
• Applied Agile/Scrum practices including backlog refinement, sprint planning, retrospectives and continuous improvement.
• Supported multiple Start of Production (SOP) milestones across VW Group and Audi programs.
• Took ownership of a SEAT Cluster product from Day 1 through Start of Production, successfully delivering the complete product lifecycle on an existing/legacy platform.

Led functional validation activities across multiple automotive software projects, coordinating the validation team and ensuring software quality and release readiness. Served as the validation interface to Product Owners and Project Managers, providing clear visibility of software status, quality, defects and release readiness.

• Managed defect reporting and supported defect and product issue resolution in collaboration with software engineering teams.
• Reported software quality, validation status, open defects and release readiness to Product Owners and Project Managers.
• Coordinated functional testing activities, executed tests, and identified defects across multiple projects, ensuring alignment with quality standards.
• Supported software requirements specification reviews and analysis, contributing validation feedback and identifying potential issues early in the development lifecycle.
• Trained and supported new team members, helping them integrate into the validation team and projects.

Progressed from Functional Validation Engineer to Senior Functional Validation Engineer, working on automotive software projects including Head-Up Displays and Instrument Clusters. Developed strong expertise in software validation, customer requirements analysis, defect management and configuration management, building the technical foundation for subsequent leadership and product ownership roles.

• Performed black-box functional testing based on customer and software requirements, ensuring functional compliance and product quality.
• Analyzed customer requirements and translated them into effective validation and test activities.
• Developed and maintained test scripts, with a focus on improving test efficiency and opportunities for automation.
• Managed software defects throughout validation lifecycle, ensuring thorough identification, documentation, tracking, and verification of fixes.
• Used specialized validation and testing tools across automotive software projects.
• Executed configuration management activities, ensuring consistency and traceability across software versions and validation environments.
• Collaborated with cross-functional teams to identify and resolve technical issues during product development.