Senior Programme Lead · Regulated Connected Products
Regulation into revenue. Proof into production.
I help smart and renewable energy, mobility and telematics companies take regulated, connected products (hardware, firmware and cloud) from proof to market, turning compliance into a launchpad for recurring revenue.
From Ghent to Munich to Bratislava. A native German speaker based in Belgium, your bridge between Benelux, DACH and Central & Eastern Europe: market entry that respects how each country buys.
Available freelance, interim or part-time.
Get in touch See selected work ↓
Services
A new rule or certification stands between your product and the market.
I scope the product, the roadmap and the certification path (EU Mobility Package, CE/ISO, AFIR, GDPR, AI Act), including Germany-specific requirements (§14a EnWG, Eichrecht), and turn compliance into features you can sell.
Hardware, firmware, software and cloud have to ship together, certified and buildable.
Stage-gated delivery from business case to final sales and service release, aligning R&D, certification, operations, sales, training and support.
A legacy platform or hardware-led business has to become subscription-based without losing customers.
Migration plans, scoping decisions, licensing and packaging, and the customer journey, delivered against a hard deadline.
Many partners, public funding, and nobody owning the whole.
Governance, a single point of contact across government, industry and research partners, and the consortium and funding bids behind it.
Your product works at home, but Germany and Central Europe buy differently.
Market-entry plan and certification path, product positioning and localisation, partner and installer channels, German-language materials and negotiation, and cross-cultural alignment between headquarters and local teams.
Not sure yet? Start with a Proof-of-Value Pilot: two to four weeks to show whether an idea works before you commit the budget.
Selected work
6projects, from Germany market entry to EV launches
Senior Project Manager for new product introduction. Aligning R&D, product management, certification, operations, training, support and sales support across the Germany market entry (CE, ISO, §14a EnWG, AFIR, Eichrecht), battery storage, the Genius Flex gateway and the EV One / EV Wall v4 launches.
Case study on volkerhoja.me →81,000subscriptions migrated to SaaS
Led the migration of ~81,000 subscriptions (~600 customers in my portfolio, of ~1,800 in total) onto the SCALAR SaaS platform ahead of EU deadlines, protecting a ~€3.5M annual revenue portfolio (€2.2M licence + €1.3M SaaS ARR).
Case study on volkerhoja.me →31production use cases, 30+ partners
Single point of contact for 30+ partners in Flanders' €5M connected-mobility programme: 31 production use cases, three DPIAs, and the application for the follow-on programme.
Case study on volkerhoja.me →How I work
Map the regulation, the stakeholders and the constraints. Agree what “done” means and what is explicitly out of scope.
An MVP, pilot or proof of concept that settles viability before the big spend, with one source of truth for every use case.
Stage gates, clear owners and a regular programme rhythm, until the product runs in operations without me.
Applied AI
Most AI efforts stall on governance and alignment, not on technology. I run the launch as a project: four weeks, concrete deliverables, no big-bang transformation.
Week 1 · Days 1–7
Inventory the AI tools and data flows already in use. Write a two-page policy: what is allowed, what is not, who approves, how use is logged, who to call.
You get: an adopted policy and a named AI owner.
Week 2 · Days 8–14
Collect 10–15 use cases top-down, bottom-up and from benchmarks. Score each on value, feasibility, risk and reuse.
You get: three pilots, each with a business owner.
Week 3 · Days 15–21
Define the approved data sources for each pilot, and what is off-limits. Agree success and stop criteria. Set up the tool, platform or API.
You get: an approved-sources list and pilot criteria.
Week 4 · Days 22–30
Switch on input and output guardrails, logging and access control. Start with 5–15 users and a 30-minute briefing.
You get: a running pilot and a one-page report (usage, time saved, quality, incidents) to decide: scale, iterate or stop.
I run the plan, the workshops and the stakeholder alignment with your business owners, IT and legal/DPO. I don't build models. For regulated, connected products I add the EU AI Act, GDPR and data-sharing agreements to the plan. In my own project work I use AI for drafting, analysis and reporting automation, and I check every output.
About
I lead regulated connected-product launches in mobility and in smart and renewable energy systems. After 25+ years I know the real challenge is rarely the plan: it is transforming converging value chains, choosing the right partners and shipping. I think in outcomes, not roadmaps, grounded in operational reality, customer insight and commercial discipline. I am also the link between your Benelux, DACH and Central & Eastern European markets: German-native, fluent in Dutch and English, and at home in each business culture.
Open to freelance, interim or part-time assignments, and to partnering on new ventures.
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