Martin Graf

Program Manager at Google

Ireland

About

Throughout my career, the constant has been scale, technology, and geography. I have spent more than a decade navigating the complexities of machine intelligence and geospatial data at Google, where I currently lead a globally dispersed workforce. But my foundation was built on adaptability—whether that meant setting up a gaming QA hub from scratch in Japan, delivering localized engineering for Microsoft Surface across EMEA, or utilizing my background in Communication and Psychology to build cohesive international teams. I specialize in taking cutting-edge, complex technical infrastructure and building the operational frameworks and human teams required to make it work at scale. I am energized by global challenges, emerging tech like agentic automation, and mentoring the next generation of program leaders.

Experience

  • Google (Full-time · 13 yrs 1 mo)
    • Senior Program Manager, Geo Data Operations
      Nov 2021 - Present · 4 yrs 8 mos

    • Program Manager, Geo Data
      Jun 2013 - Nov 2021 · 8 yrs 6 mos

      Managing a team of program managers in Google and a large vendor workforce (~500 headcount), delivering the next generation of geospatial and machine intelligence driven user products

  • Keywords Studios (6 yrs 6 mos)
    • Head of Operations, Asia
      Jan 2011 - Jun 2013 · 2 yrs 6 mos

      In charge of Keywords testing operations for games in East Asian languages (Japanese, Korean, Chinese) - Established new office and operations in Japan - Hired test team and grew to 50+ site headcount - Expanded customer base to 10+ high profile customers - Negotiated service and vendor agreements incl. budgets, rates, deadlines, contingency, etc. - Implemented, reviewed and optimised corporate processes and aligned globally - Hired, trained and managed 2 Project Managers and 10+ QA Leads - Helped on Business Development and raised company profile in the East Asian market

    • QA Project Manager
      May 2009 - Jan 2011 · 1 yr 9 mos

      - Managed various AAA localization QA projects, e.g. Halo Wars, Fable 2, Dragon Quest IV, PES 2012 - Responsible for budgets, schedules, resources and risk management - Customer and vendor management - Training and coaching of test teams - Performance monitoring and improving of test procedures

    • Localization QA Lead
      Jan 2007 - May 2009 · 2 yrs 5 mos

  • International Project Engineer at Microsoft
    Jul 2008 - Apr 2009 · 10 mos

    -Designed, implemented, managed and delivered Localisation Testing for the EMEA market launch of the original Microsoft Surface - project role assignment through Keywords International LTD

  • Transcriber at Nuance Communications
    Jan 2005 - Jan 2007 · 2 yrs 1 mo

    - Transcribing German into machine recognizable phonetic language - Usability testing - Application QA - Audio modeling and tuning

  • Military Service at Bundeswehr (German Federal Armed Forces)
    Oct 1998 - Aug 1999 · 11 mos

    Basic soldier training followed by being a trainer for other conscripts