Career / Chronological resumeComplete history
Valentin Simion
Games Product & Production Leader · Berlin, Germany
Established the product foundations of a new division, building its cross-functional team and experimentation infrastructure.
Senior Product Manager
Apr 2025 – Nov 2025
New product division, cross-functional team formation and delivery foundations.
- Built the cross-functional team from scratch, including hiring and a working framework for the new division.
- Defined and led integration of remote feature flagging and A/B testing for controlled releases and experimentation.
- Negotiated contracts and managed collaboration with third-party software providers.
- Aligned internal teams and external partners on product priorities, implementation and delivery dependencies.
Applied growth and experimentation experience to Freecash, building acquisition, feedback and lifecycle communication flows.
Senior Product Manager, Freecash
Jul 2024 – Apr 2025
Freecash acquisition, user feedback, lifecycle engagement and product experimentation.
- Designed and launched a new acquisition flow that became a consistent source of new-user growth.
- Built lifecycle communication and notification capabilities with split testing and tracking for re-engagement.
- Improved feedback and review flows, helping raise Trustpilot to 4.7, daily review volume by nearly 5× and US Google Play ratings to 4.3 during the July 2024–April 2025 role.
- Worked across product, technology and business on returning-user value for gaming partners and Freecash users.
Progressed from leading producers across the portfolio to owning Krunker Strike FRVR on Discord, then to product direction and resource decisions across the three-title Krunker franchise.
Production Lead
Jul 2022 – Sep 2023
Leadership and development of Game and Technical Producers across the portfolio.
- Led and developed Game and Technical Producers across live games and new initiatives, coordinating internal and external contributors.
- Built LiveOps capabilities, including remote configuration of game functionality and events, and strengthened virality and player-value measurement.
- Played a major role in scaling Basketball FRVR from approximately 400K to 2–3M daily users during this role.
- Established quarterly portfolio evaluation to guide leadership and game teams on prioritization and investment.
Senior Product Manager, Krunker Strike FRVR
Sep 2023 – Jan 2024
End-to-end product development, global launch and post-launch operations on Discord.
- Owned product development, global launch and post-launch operations, combining product management, production and game design.
- Worked closely with Discord to shape and validate capabilities for real-time multiplayer gaming.
- Refined product KPIs with the Data team and led a rapid-response task force with internal and external support through post-launch challenges.
- Coordinated the game team and platform stakeholders across launch decisions and ongoing delivery.
Lead Product Manager, Krunker Franchise
Feb 2024 – Jun 2024
Product direction across three titles at different stages of maturity.
- Defined forecasts, targets and priorities for Krunker.io, Krunker Strike FRVR and a new Discord-exclusive title in development.
- Balanced resources across live operation, ongoing development and new initiatives, scaling team capacity for parallel projects.
- Oversaw contractual milestones and internal and external stakeholder relationships.
- Reported directly to the CEO on franchise strategy, investment priorities and execution.
Expanded from Cookie Crush production into shared studio services, a rapid-response Taskforce and focused growth work on Bubble Shooter Pro. From 2020, responsibilities overlapped across games and studio capabilities.
Senior Game Producer, Cookie Crush
Dec 2018 – Sep 2019
Production leadership for SOFTGAMES’ flagship Facebook Instant Games title.
- Led a cross-functional team of 9–14 specialists and introduced the game’s first LiveOps events.
- Iterated virality, re-engagement and monetization across ads, IAP and promotional events.
- Introduced A/B testing, wider KPI reporting and user testing.
Product Owner, Studio Business Services
Oct 2019 – Jun 2022
Shared platform product team serving multiple game teams.
- Built and led the shared product team across backend services, data, analytics, internal tooling and reliability.
- Delivered a Data Warehouse and reporting capabilities for churn, game economy and automated product KPIs.
- Delivered centralized cross-promotion, monitoring and a scalable, self-recovering notification platform.
- Modernized legacy infrastructure with Infrastructure as Code and project-level cost visibility; patterns were adopted across other studio projects.
Senior Game Producer, Taskforce
Apr 2020 – Jun 2022
Rapid-response production supporting 10–20 Facebook Instant Games titles.
- Built and led a rapid-response Taskforce supporting 10–20 Facebook Instant Games titles.
- Integrated and tested new and beta platform capabilities through rapid experiments.
- Coordinated implementation, testing and continuous releases across live products.
- Used the results to identify opportunities worth expanding into individual games, including Bubble Shooter Pro.
Senior Game Producer, Bubble Shooter Pro
Apr 2021 – Dec 2021
Focused product roadmap, game design and growth strategy.
- Translated successful Taskforce experiments into the game’s product and growth strategy.
- Owned the roadmap and contributed extensively to feature logic and core player flows.
- The game grew 8× in user base and 11× in daily game sessions within three months during this role.
Led the delivery setup for a mobile video-creation product, coordinating a multinational team against a fixed launch deadline.
Project Manager / Scrum Master
Aug 2018 – Nov 2018
Delivery setup for a mobile video-creation product for an international toy brand.
- Defined the roadmap and delivery plan for a mobile video-creation product for an international toy brand.
- Led a multinational team of 15+ across Android, iOS, art, QA, BI and software architecture.
- Owned backlog priorities, sprint planning, dependencies and delivery risks against a fixed deadline tied to a movie release.
- Worked with client stakeholders to align product expectations, technical constraints and launch commitments.
Moved from developing live Facebook games into product ownership, game design, growth and Agile delivery.
Game Developer
Mar 2014 – Aug 2015
Backend, frontend, databases and operational tooling for live Facebook games.
- Developed backend, frontend, REST API and database systems for live Facebook games, including Solitaire Knockout.
- Worked on performance, database scaling and client-to-platform integrations across desktop and mobile delivery constraints.
- Built deployment controls, resource monitoring and data-processing tools for Producers and QA, including automated reports and exports.
- Became a technical adviser to product and production teams, contributing to architectural choices and product direction.
Product Owner / Scrum Master
Aug 2015 – Jul 2018
Product direction and delivery across social and Instant Games.
- Defined goals, roadmaps, gameplay flows and feature priorities across social and Instant Games.
- Used product and performance data to guide growth, monetization and feature decisions.
- Led cross-functional planning, design, engineering, QA and release while coaching Agile ways of working.
- Shipped and operated titles including Best Solitaire, Solitaire Challenge, Solitaire Live and Bingo.
Associated games
- Best Solitaire
- Solitaire Challenge
- Solitaire Live
- Bingo
Co-founded a digital development company, combining commercial responsibility with end-to-end project delivery.
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Nov 2012 – Feb 2014
Commercial ownership and end-to-end digital project delivery.
- Co-founded and operated a company that delivered 30+ projects, directly managing around half.
- Combined business development, client acquisition and partnerships with commercial and delivery responsibility.
- Led work from client discussions and scoping through development, launch and ongoing account management.
Combined hands-on development with programming-team and project leadership.
Programming Team Leader & Project Manager
Oct 2007 – Oct 2012
Hands-on development, technical team leadership and project coordination.
- Developed frontend and backend applications and external API integrations in PHP, JavaScript and MySQL environments.
- Defined technical approaches, estimates, database structures and resource needs at the start of projects.
- Coordinated programming and design teams, priorities and delivery risks.
- Acted as the technical liaison between internal teams, agency partners and client technical departments.
Worked with IT systems and data, building a foundation for later software and product responsibilities.
IT Systems & Data Analyst
Feb 2006 – Sep 2007
IT support and technical administration.
- Provided hardware and software support, computer-network administration and website management for the School Inspectorate of Bucharest.
Continued teaching computer science before moving further into IT and development.
Computer Science Teacher
Sep 2005 – Dec 2006
Computer science teaching and day-to-day school IT support.
- Taught computer science to students in grades 10–12.
- Supported the computer lab and the school’s day-to-day IT needs.
The earliest recorded chapter: teaching computer science.
Computer Science Teacher
Sep 2003 – Aug 2005
Computer science teaching, computer-lab support and student preparation.
- Taught computer science to high-school students and supported the school’s IT infrastructure.
- Prepared students for inter-school IT competitions and Olympiads.