Kristina Stoitsova

AI Practice Lead | Developing AI-enabled products | Scaling consulting businesses | Applying ML and AI to drive business outcomes @ Financial Times | ex-VMware

Sofia Metropolitan Area

About

AI leader with a track record of leading an AI practice, building products and scaling a global consulting business. At the Financial Times, I drive the adoption of AI across products and user journeys to increase egnagement and revenue. I own the design and delivery of RAG solutions, semantic search, ML-powered personalization, predictive and recommendation models. Previously, at VMware, I led a global professional services business with full P&L ownership, scaling revenue from $5M to $20M and growing teams from 30 to 70+ consultants while aligning closely with sales, pricing, and enterprise delivery. Earlier, I led large-scale product engineering organizations delivering flagship enterprise products used globally. I combine technical depth, product thinking, and commercial ownership to turn AI into tangible business outcomes. I engage with the community by hosting events, taking speaking opportunities and supporting causes that are close to my heart.

Experience

  • Financial Times (Hybrid)
    • Director, Data Science and AI
      Aug 2023 - Present · 2 yrs 11 mos

      Leading the usage of AI across FT’s products and user journeys to drive engagement and revenue Defining AI strategy and execution across product, commercial, and editorial domains Owns the architecture and delivery of RAG-based systems, GenAI-powered content discovery and delivery and ML models Leading Data Scientists, ML Engineers, and MLOps Engineers across Sofia and London Defining and implementing frameworks for responsible and ethical AI, model selection and governance Building and managing strategic partnerships to accelerate AI capability delivery

    • Technical Director, FT Core Platforms
      Sep 2019 - Jul 2023 · 3 yrs 11 mos

      Led FT’s core digital platforms, spanning content, subscriptions, and data. Led an organization of 80+ engineers delivering content publishing, user access, payments, and data processing capabilities. Influenced the technology strategy powering FT’s digital business. Ensured that platforms evolve in a scalable, secure, and future-ready way aligned with business growth.

  • Branch Director, Financial Times Sofia at Financial Times Sofia
    Aug 2023 - Present · 2 yrs 11 mos

    A lead and a legal representative of FT's Bulgarian operation. Overseeing strategic partnerships, branding and events.

  • VMware (10 yrs 9 mos)
    • Sr Director, Professional Services Center of Excellence
      May 2016 - Feb 2019 · 2 yrs 10 mos

      Matured and scaled a global consulting business delivering integration, customization, and automation solutions for enterprise clients. Owned full P&L (revenue, margin, utilization, customer satisfaction) Scaled the business from $5M to $20M revenue while maintaining strong profitability Grew the organization from 30 to 70+ consultants working across geographies Partnered closely with sales on pipeline, pricing, and pre-sales strategy

    • Director R&D | Sr. Manager R&D | Manager R&D
      Jun 2008 - Apr 2016 · 7 yrs 11 mos

      Led the development of the user interface for VMware’s flagship vSphere platform, used globally by enterprise customers. Delivered multiple releases of vSphere's user interface. Led the migration from the legacy vSphere C# Client to a Web Client. Drove product quality, scalability, and user experience improvements at enterprise scale Led engineering teams from 20 engineers in Sofia to 100+ engineers across multiple geographies

  • BSH Ltd. (4 yrs 6 mos)
    • Project Manager | Head of E-commerce Department
      Jan 2006 - Jun 2008 · 2 yrs 6 mos

      Led the development of B2B and B2C digital platforms and integrations Acted as solutions architect and technical lead across architecture, delivery, and operations Represented the company at international forums (CeBIT, Systems)

    • Software developer | Technical Lead
      Jan 2004 - Jan 2006 · 2 yrs 1 mo

      Delivered e-commerce and integration solutions, using C#, .NET Framework and Microsoft SQL Server.

  • Software developer at Libra AG
    2003 - Oct 2003 · 10 mos

    Contributed to defining a modern and scalable architecture of an internal inventory system.