Digital, Data, & Artificial Intelligence
David
Manske
Digital Pioneer, Inventor, and Charismatic Leader
Born in the digital-first, mobile-first, and cloud-native era, David prioritizes learning and experimenting with new emerging technologies. He loves building software and cross-functional teams, and leads with bottomless energy and chutzpah. A visionary in digital strategy and innovation, adept at bridging business goals with cutting-edge solutions.
About Me
Bridging Business & Technology
David is a visionary in digital strategy and innovation, adept at bridging business goals with cutting-edge solutions and leading teams towards groundbreaking digital advancements. He prioritizes learning and experimenting with new emerging technologies, building software and cross-functional teams, and leading with bottomless energy and chutzpah.
Active & Engaged In
i.c.stars
Develops leaders through a robust program for underserved young adults; committed to racial equity and social justice.
Milwaukee SPIN
Software Process Improvement Network Meetup — discussing all things software development, product design, and user experience.
MKE Tech Hub
Transitioned NM vision into non-profit membership organization that serves as a unifying voice for the Milwaukee tech ecosystem.
WIT — Women in Technology
Ally to WIT, amplified effort to diversify hiring practices and mentor to women in tech careers.
Summerfest Tech
Active partner with Summerfest to drive the tech conference's mentorship and community participation.
gBeta / Corporate Innovation
Accelerator focused on early-stage companies with local roots and membership network for corporate VC, Innovation, M&A, and Strategy executives.
Career
Professional Experience
Clarios
VP IT, Enterprise Architecture, Strategy & Digital Enablement
Executive Leader Driving IT and Digital Transformation at Clarios, spearheading the development and execution of multi-year IT and digital strategies aligned with corporate objectives, enabling profitable growth and modernizing the organization's technology landscape.
Enterprise Architecture & AI
Lead teams in establishing robust enterprise architectures and manage the data analytics function, including operating the company data lake and delivering advanced analytical capabilities, including all applications of AI, to support and advance business functions.
Global PMO & SMO
Provide executive leadership to the Global Program Management Office and Service Management Office, reshaping project and portfolio management processes using both waterfall and agile methodologies to succeed in the digital era.
Strategic Advisor
Act as a strategic advisor to C-suite executives, offering thought leadership on industry trends and emerging technologies, and champion digital transformation initiatives across the organization.
Team Builder & Financial Steward
Manage, develop, and engage internal and external teams, fostering a culture of excellence and continuous improvement, while overseeing departmental budgets and optimizing resource allocation.
Generac Power Systems
Vice President — Digital Strategy and Data
As the digital strategist, I bridge our business objectives with cutting-edge digital solutions, driving enterprise data visibility and utility, and AI innovation, while fostering an engaged, collaborative, and agile culture at Generac.
Digital Strategy
Directing the Product Management Office (PMO) to bridge business objectives with digital strategies and budgets throughout Generac, while driving purpose-fit project management methodologies.
Software Leadership
Driving software development initiatives for the organization, encompassing e-commerce platforms, marketing websites, bespoke dealer portals, lead/sales/service applications, and cutting-edge digital innovation solutions.
Data Mastery
Champion enterprise-level data management, analytics, and AI, driving the organization transition towards an all-encompassing Data Platform, Catalog, and Data Lake, and leveraging AI where possible.
AI Innovator
Pioneering the integration of Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI within enterprise applications, cementing the organization's position at the forefront of digital innovation.
Northwestern Mutual
Sr Director → Asst. Director → Lead PM — Digital Innovation
Led cross-functional Digital Innovation teams through discovery, prototyping, developing, and validating ideas across all horizons of innovation (H1 core, H2 adjacent, and H3 disruptive), managed the budget, and deployed two-pizza Agile Scrum teams to de-risk business models and pilot new solutions.
Team Leadership
Led Product, Engineering, UX, Risk/Security, and QA team members through development and corporate sign-off from risk, security, compliance, privacy, and legal, to pilot test new systems.
Full-Stack Delivery
Prioritized the Innovation experiment backlog and delivered custom-built, full-stack, digital mobile/web applications on cloud-native, micro-service architectures, leveraging the best of AWS SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.
Impact Examples
Transformed forms and workflows to digital, gamified financial literacy, transcribed audio into data for performance and audit, built fitness portals, explored VR, predicted staffing retention, and more.
Budget & ROI
Managed the Digital Innovation budget ($11.3M) and reported on Innovation metrics — ROI (4x ~$40M), efficiencies/throughput, team planning, and external spend.
Centare
Team Lead Manager → Scrum Master → Engineer
Delivered 15+ custom-built software solutions for clients using modern frameworks and Agile cross-functional teams. Drove pre-sales, managed internal staff career development, and performed as an engineer, team lead, Scrum Master, PO, and manager.
Pre-Sales Engineering
Delivered innovative pre-sales engineering approaches from initial conversation to discovery, estimates, and pitch.
Team Growth
Grew internal development center from 5 to 50, standardized internal Scrum events and Community of Practices (SM, UX, PO, and ENG). Appointed Director of Fun to organize and drive engagement.
Engineering Excellence
Implemented and drove Software Engineering best practices including Agile, Scrum, CICD, and DevOps.
RateLinx
Software Engineer
RateLinx provides a SaaS application for pricing LTL / TL logistics to drive competitive bidding and enforce trucking decisions, and audits invoices to reduce billing errors.
Pricing Algorithms
Developed pricing algorithms for LTL carriers against published rate sheets to competitively bid on client routes and loads.
Integrations
Built interfaces to client ERP platforms to exchange data between RateLinx shipping APIs.
Client Training
Delivered on-site training and solicited feedback on custom client specific features and integrations.
Expertise
Skills & Competencies
Leadership & Strategy
Technology & Engineering
Innovation & Culture
Domain Expertise
Education
Academic Background
Marquette University
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Graduate School of Management · 2014
Marquette's MBA program focuses on developing leaders that can manage dynamic environments and address functional areas of business such as society, ethics, global international business, marketing, economics, and accounting.
UW Platteville
B.S. Software Engineering
Real-Time Systems · 2009
Platteville's Software Engineering curriculum emphasizes the application of theoretical concepts toward practical software engineering design and development. The core courses focus on the development of real-time embedded systems, such as those used in control appliances, security systems, automobiles, and aircrafts.