Biography

25+ years · 11 institutions · measured outcomes

Who I am

I am Marius Mihail Russo-Got — also published as Marius Russo. Romanian, based in Bucharest, with a 5-year engineering degree in Computer Science from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest (EQF Level 7).

Over more than 25 years I have moved through the full arc of mission-critical IT delivery: systems engineering and IT direction at Helinick (1996–2002), large-scale secure-network programme delivery at Alcatel (2002–2006), distributed-team programme management at Motorola (2006–2008), regulated-client architecture and programme advisory at IBM (2008–2011), security and IT governance at Groupe Société Générale / BRD (2011–2013), advisory at the European Central Bank and UNDP / EU Advisory Group in Armenia and Georgia (2014–2015), enterprise platform transformation at the United Nations HQ — OICT (2016–2019), Section Head for Digital and AI at the Innovation Center / IBM (2019–2022), Technical Project Manager / hybrid Cloud / Cyber Security at the EEAS (2022–2023), Section Head for Content Collaboration at NATO / NCIA / NDW in The Hague (2023–2024), and currently Chief Innovation Officer / CTO at PIR2-IT, serving government, banking and defence clients across Europe, the Gulf and the United States.

The shape of the work has been consistent: institutions bring me in when transformation must land cleanly under regulatory, security or institutional pressure, and they need a single named architect who personally signs off on the architecture, the governance posture and the delivery plan.

What I actually do

The portfolio runs across top-tier banking and financial services, digital public infrastructure and government modernisation, defence and intelligence, and international organisations. Full lifecycle: strategy → target architecture → roadmap → delivery → cutover → operate → optimise → retire.

Two strands worth surfacing explicitly. On national-scale DPI: architecture authority on Romania's flagship sovereign digital services — ePassport, eVignette, eHealth, eCadastre, eNotar — and DPI advisory across 47 countries covering identity, trust, interoperability, payments and citizen-facing service delivery at country scale. On quantum strategy: advising sovereign and regulated institutions in the Middle East on quantum-safe migration planning, cryptographic agility and post-quantum architecture posture.

270+ Projects delivered
76 Mission-critical large-scale
47 Countries · direct delivery
2.6B+ Citizens · cumulative reach
25+ Years industry experience
11 Senior institutions served

Clearance & availability

NATO Secret ✓ — valid August 2027
Issued August 2022

Available for senior advisory roles, retained architecture authority, and programme governance mandates.

Remote-first across Europe · on-site NATO/UN/EU/banking as required · open to international assignments.

Career timeline

1996 → present

Named roles, named institutions, named outcomes. Not a list of responsibilities — the actual delivery record.

2024 – Present Current
PIR2-IT — CTO / Chief Innovation Officer (B2B)
Government, banking & defence · Europe / Gulf / USA
Leading the DPI/DPS centre of excellence across 37+ countries. Architecting government interoperability platforms, federated data-exchange (X-Road / GovStack), digital identity and eIDAS 2.0 / EU Digital Identity Wallet. National sovereign cloud (EUR 250M), ePassport Romania, agentic AI / LLM operations. 53% cycle-time improvement, 1,750+ hours saved. Portfolio: 978 assessed | 324 retired | 297 consolidated — up to US$1.9M savings.
X-Road / GovStack eIDAS 2.0 LLM / RAG (production) 53% cycle-time ↓ US$1.9M saved
2023 – 2024 1 yr
NATO / NCIA / NDW — Head of Section (interim) · NDW / CPS
The Hague, NL · 32 NATO nations · EN / FR
Led the digital-workplace and integration centre of excellence. 12 direct + 24 matrix reports. Budget OPEX US$41M / CAPEX US$24M. Rationalised 821 components (369 retired, 115 consolidated) — US$3.9M value. Hybrid cloud migration: +74% faster releases. 99.999% platform availability. 30,000 users.
NIST 800-53 Zero Trust 99.999% availability US$3.9M rationalised +74% faster releases
2022 – 2023 1 yr
EEAS — Technical Project Manager / hybrid Cloud / Cyber Security
Brussels, BE · EU-27 + 140+ delegations worldwide · EN / FR
Led EU diplomatic ICT integration and data exchange. 6 direct + 32 matrix reports. Budget OPEX US$29M / CAPEX US$14M. Consolidated integration estate (ESB / iPaaS / API) and 12 network backbones (267 devices). +27% faster releases, −36% MTTR, −52% incidents. Rationalised 224 assessed | 91 retired | 116 consolidated — US$1.4M savings.
SAFe/Agile +27% faster releases -52% incidents US$1.4M saved
2019 – 2022 3 yrs
Innovation Center — Section Head, Digital & AI
Worldwide / Bucharest · Defence, banking & public sector · 37 countries
Directed 39 experts across defence, banking, oil & gas. Built CyberPro: AI-driven cyber threat detection under 3 minutes (vs days), corrective action in minutes (vs hours), human-in-the-loop, Azure AI Studio / AWS Bedrock. Application rationalisation: 601 assessed | 131 retired | 198 consolidated — US$2.6M savings. Zero Trust micro-segmentation; unified 12 networks (121 devices).
CyberPro AI LLMOps Zero Trust US$2.6M saved <3 min threat detection
2016 – 2019 3 yrs
UN HQ / OICT — Senior IT Officer (Staff Member)
New York · Global rollout across 190 countries · 18 LMIC countries
Led global enterprise-platform and integration transformation. 15 direct + 25 matrix reports. Budget OPEX US$56M / CAPEX US$12M. Active-active HA: 99.98% availability, RTO <4h / RPO 15 min. −35% audit findings in Year 1 (ISO 27001 / SOC 2). Digital workplace: 120,000 users (95% workforce). Rationalised 408 assessed | 181 retired | 175 consolidated — US$1.4M savings. ~20% annual cost optimisation.
ISO 27001 / SOC 2 -35% audit findings 99.98% availability 120,000 users
2015 – 2016 1 yr
NATO HQ / NCIA / CSU BRX — Principal NNHQ IT Coordinator
Brussels, BE · 29 NATO nations
Coordinated relocation of data-centre infrastructure and digital-workplace adoption for 3,000 personnel moving into the new NATO HQ Brussels. 30,000 NATO staff (97% workforce) across 29 nations. Coordinated a US$110M NATO transformation programme. NATO Certificate of Appreciation (2016).
US$110M programme NATO Certificate of Appreciation 2016
2011 – 2015 4 yrs
Freelance — 8 framework contracts
ECB · INTERPOL · UN · UNDP · ENISA · SocGen (BRD) · UNDP/EU Armenia · eIDAS/SSEDIC
IT Adviser / Head of IT Security across eight simultaneous framework contracts. At Société Générale / BRD: governed 848-component portfolio for 10M+ banking customers; 39% year-1 IT cost savings sustained 3 years, −45% unauthorised-access incidents. At UNDP / EU Armenia: architected the 9-system eJustice criminal-justice interoperability backbone (~EUR 60M). SSEDIC: senior adviser on eIDAS Regulation EU 910/2014 trust-services framework (200+ EU eID experts).
39% year-1 savings 10M+ banking customers eIDAS / SSEDIC eJustice Armenia
2008 – 2011 3 yrs
IBM — EMEA CoE, Defence & Security + eGovernment
Worldwide / Bucharest · Defence, eGovernment, sovereign DPI
EMEA Centre of Excellence for Defence & Security and eGovernment. ePassport, eID, eHealth, eCadastre, eJustice and National PKI across multiple countries. 1,000+ applications assessed. DPI architecture advisory across 39 countries. Sovereign eID / ePassport for France (68M citizens), Germany (84M), Morocco (37M), South Africa (60M) via Alcatel (>€32M).
ePassport FR/DE/MA/ZA National PKI EURODAC 249M citizens
2006 – 2008 2 yrs
Motorola — Programme Manager
Austin TX / Bucharest · Military sector PMO
Managed technology programmes across distributed teams. 286 programmes & projects, 96 PoCs. Strengthened ITIL-aligned ITSM, reporting discipline, risk management and delivery cadence. Military-sector PMO with secure operational handover.
286 programmes Military PMO
2002 – 2006 4 yrs
Alcatel — Senior Architect / CoE Manager
Paris / Bucharest / Timișoara · 29 countries · EN / FR
Co-led the identity and telecom competence centre. Defence, Security & Intelligence CoE. Regional CoE for eGovernment (ePassport, eID, EURODAC, civil registration). Sovereign eID / ePassport delivery: France, Germany, Morocco, South Africa — ICAO biometric, national PKI, civil-registration interoperability. Digital-backbone unification for 21+ clients. Romania biometric ePassport and National PKI: 20M users, 250+ offices.
ePassport FR/DE/MA/ZA EURODAC 20M users · Romania PKI
1996 – 2002 6 yrs
Helinick — Systems Engineering / IT Director
Bucharest, RO
Hands-on foundations in systems engineering, infrastructure and secure operations. 14-person team. Biometric access control. US$200K+ Year-1 OPEX savings. The foundation for everything that followed.
Systems engineering US$200K+ Y1 savings
Education & Certifications

Credentials

Polytechnic University of Bucharest
5-year Engineer's diploma · Computer Science / Automation · EQF Level 7 (Master's-equivalent)
TOGAF · ArchiMate
Enterprise architecture governance · capability-based planning · architecture review board
ITIL 4 Master
Full track: Strategist · Leader Digital & IT Strategy · Specialist CDS / DSV / HVIT
PRINCE2 Practitioner · MSP · SAFe
SAFe Agilist & POPM · programme and portfolio delivery governance
COBIT · Harvard Risk Management
IT governance & risk frameworks · institutional risk management professional
CISSP · CISA · ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Security architecture · audit · NIST 800-53 · PCI DSS · GDPR · SWIFT CSP
Azure AI Engineer (AI-102)
Google Cloud Professional ML Engineer · IAPP AI Governance Professional · EU AI Act / ISO 42001
Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert
AZ-303 / AZ-304 · M365 Enterprise Administrator · Azure Identity & Access Administrator
eIDAS / eIDAS 2.0 · EU Digital Identity Wallet
Verifiable credentials (VC / DID) · national PKI · trust services · SSEDIC senior adviser
Philosophy

How I think about the work

📐
Credibility is documented, not claimed
In mission-critical environments, every architecture decision must be traceable, every control evidenced, every outcome measurable, and every choice defensible under audit, oversight or political scrutiny. The record above is structured around that conviction.
🔗
End-to-end ownership is the differentiator
The work runs the full lifecycle — strategy → architecture → roadmap → delivery → cutover → operate → optimise → retire. The same hand that authors the architecture stays accountable through stabilisation. That continuity is the largest single lever against drift in multi-year transformations.
🏗️
The backbone is where reliability lives
Most public-facing failures of regulated institutions are backbone failures — network, identity, integration, data, observability, security. The measured outcomes across NATO, UN, EEAS and banking portfolios (99.999% availability, +74% faster releases, −52% incidents) are all backbone work.
Engagements

Best-fit mandates

Where I deliver best value

Top-tier banking modernisation under SWIFT CSP / PCI DSS / ISO 27001.
Digital public infrastructure design and delivery for governments.
NATO and defence digital programmes with classified-environment delivery.
UN-system and EU-institution platform transformation.
Government interoperability and data-exchange backbone architecture.
Digital backbone consolidation and optimisation across complex estates.
AI governance and quantum-readiness strategy for regulated institutions.
Architecture authority as second-line review on troubled programmes.

How engagements work

Scoped against a written architecture or governance mandate, not a generic SOW.
I personally hold and sign the architectural decisions — not delegated.
Deliverables are evidence-led: target architecture, decision logs, control matrices, delivery KPIs, transition states.
Engagements run from intensive multi-week interventions through multi-year retained advisory.
Remote-first across Europe; on-site at NATO, UN, EU and banking locations as required.
Engagement-confidential metrics available under NDA on request.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Why an independent named architect rather than a Big 4 consultancy?
When a programme runs for three to seven years across multiple political cycles, what fails first is decision continuity. A single accountable architect maintains the architectural memory of the institution — what was decided, why, on what evidence, and what changed. That continuity is the largest single lever for reducing drift across multi-year transformations under high political and regulatory volatility.
What does "end-to-end ownership" mean in practice?
Engagements are not delegated to a rotating staff pool. The same hand that authors the architecture stays accountable through cutover, stabilisation and run. Deliverables are evidence-led — target architecture, decision logs, control matrices, delivery KPIs, transition states — not slide decks. The lifecycle covered runs strategy → target architecture → roadmap → delivery → cutover → operate → optimise → retire.
Why is digital backbone consolidation the most consistent theme of the career?
Most public-facing failures of regulated institutions are backbone failures — network, identity, integration, data, observability, security. Consolidating and optimising the backbone is the single most effective intervention for stabilising run, accelerating delivery and reducing operational risk. The measured outcomes across UN, EEAS, Innovation Center and NATO portfolios — 99.999% availability, +27% to +74% faster releases, −23% to −52% incidents, multi-million-USD rationalisation savings — are all backbone work.
What is the smallest engagement you take?
Intensive multi-week interventions where architecture authority, governance design, or audit-readiness must be set up cleanly under pressure. Below that, the answer is usually a referral. Above that, engagements run from multi-month delivery support through multi-year retained advisory.
Will you sign an NDA before discussing engagement specifics?
Yes — engagement-confidential metrics, named clients beyond what is published, and case-study detail are available only under NDA. Comparable, anonymised evidence can be shared in advance of any commercial commitment.
References and recommendation letters?
Formal recommendation letters exist from senior contacts across NATO, UN, EU and banking engagements. Named references and direct contact details are available after a mutual NDA is in place. Names are not published for GDPR reasons — individuals who provided recommendations have not consented to public disclosure. The letters exist; they are simply not the internet's business until there is a legitimate, confidential engagement context.

Ready to discuss an engagement?

Architecture authority, governance design, digital backbone consolidation, DPI delivery — or a second-line architecture review on a programme already in motion.

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