Brian A. Bretz, MBA

AI product & technical program manager — delivery, AI insights, and executive reporting.

AI-driven product and program leader. 15+ years spanning 0-to-1 product development, end-to-end delivery, and executive reporting across tech, fintech, and financial services.

15+ YRS TECH · FINTECH · FINANCIAL SERVICES AMERICAN UNIVERSITY ARLINGTON, VA
Brian A. Bretz ARLINGTON, VA
Brian A. Bretz, MBA — AI program and product leader
Career trajectory ▲ 15 YRS
AI Product Program Leadership

Impact

The story, quickly.

A successful record driving software innovation in fast-paced environments — from small start-ups to large enterprises across tech, fintech, and financial services.

01 15+ Years leading product & program portfolios
02 5M+ Users of managed consumer SaaS apps
03 35 People managed across development portfolios
04 +20 NPS points gained by acting on user feedback
05 50% Planning cycle time cut with AI product ops
06 4 Compliance standards met — Fed to SOC 2

Portfolio

Selected products & initiatives.

Agentic AI, regulated payments, consumer-scale messaging, and digital transformation. Select a program to inspect it.

Experience

Delivery across AI, fintech, SaaS, and regulated platforms.

MAY 2025 — PRESENT
AI Consultant Current
Independent Consulting
  • —Advises product, engineering, and executive leaders on AI adoption, AI-powered products, and LLM and agent integration.
  • —Built a Python financial-analytics app with agentic Claude features via the Anthropic API, using Spec-Driven Development in Claude Code.
  • —Sets AI-enhanced product standards — LLMs accelerating PRDs, prototypes, and test cases across Claude Code, Figma, AWS, GitHub, Atlassian, and Notion.
  • —Engineered task-aware model routing balancing quality, speed, and cost; distills GenAI trends into executive summaries.
NOV 2021 — APR 2025
SVP, Director of Product / Technical Program Manager
MainStreet Bank
  • —Launched a Banking-as-a-Service and real-time payments platform — digital wallets, real-time transactions, and partner APIs — growing payment volume and active business customers.
  • —Ran a 35-person technical program (20 FTEs + 15 consultants) across payments, web, and mobile on a two-week release cadence.
  • —Cut specification cycle time by 50% with LLM-based product operations; kept services compliant with Federal Reserve, NACHA, PCI-DSS, and SOC 2.
  • —Delivered monthly executive and board-level reporting on program health, milestones, KPIs, and risk.
FEB 2019 — NOV 2021
Senior Product Manager
Angi
  • —Managed the Messaging Platform, Business Management Tools, and the mHelpDesk field-service platform — web, mobile, developer APIs, and docs.
  • —Launched Business Management Tools; led the Angi rebrand across email, SMS, and push, reaching 4M+ consumers.
  • —Lifted mHelpDesk NPS by +20 points in under six months by resolving high-impact workflow pain points.
SEP 2016 — JUL 2018
Director of Product Management
MyTaskit
  • —Principal product lead for a 10-person software team shipping architectural changes, streamlined workflows, and new-market entry.
  • —Won Boating Industry Magazine's 2018 Top Products Award and the company's 2017 CEO Excellence Award.
  • —Partnered with sales, marketing, engineering, and support on the strategic development plan across web, iOS, and Android.
NOV 2012 — APR 2016
AVP, Senior Technical Program Manager
T. Rowe Price
  • —Directed cross-functional teams (20+ FTEs) delivering digital capabilities across web and mobile portfolios.
  • —Rebranded, redesigned, and launched the Retirement Plan Services portal for 1M+ customers; shipped mobile transaction workflows.
  • —Promoted to AVP within the first year; owned schedules, resource plans, risk mitigation, and cost management.

Strengths

Where AI strategy meets program control.

Executive reporting

Monthly executive and board-level reporting — program health, milestones, KPIs, and risk, translated into clear decisions.

Program delivery

Schedules, action tracking, risk mitigation, resource planning, and release coordination across complex teams.

AI-enhanced operations

Ships agentic AI features and spec-driven workflows; LLMs accelerate PRDs, prototypes, mappings, and test cases.

Regulated product strategy

0-to-1 product development in regulated environments — fintech, payments, compliance, and business continuity.

Team leadership

Leads cross-functional teams of up to 35 people, coaching product managers and engineering leaders. CEO Excellence Award, 2017.

Skills & tools

Product management Agentic AI 0-to-1 product development Spec-driven development Product strategy & roadmaps OKRs & KPIs Agile portfolio management Program management Risk management Analytics strategy Executive reporting SaaS web · mobile · APIs User-centered design (UCD) Notion Jira Confluence Pendo Figma Postman Looker GitHub AWS REST APIs Visual Studio Code Claude Code Claude Design ChatGPT Codex Gemini Antigravity

Credentials

Education & certifications.

Graduate

American University

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Undergraduate

UMBC

B.S., Information Systems Management

Certifications

Product & agile

Pragmatic PM · A-CSPO · CSM · Agile OKRs · SAFe 4.0 Agilist

Contact

Available for AI, product, and program leadership conversations.

Based in Arlington, VA. Experience across financial services, fintech, SaaS, consulting, and regulated software delivery.

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