Vania La Rocca

• Senior Director Product Management, 2024-11 - Present
• Director Product Operations, 2023-02 - 2024-10

Reporting directly to CPO; leading strategy, roadmap, and execution of AI & GenAI portfolio.

• Orchestrated Cerence AI’s transition to Generative AI, launching next‑gen voice and conversational experiences for global automotive OEMs
• Launched Cerence xUI™, an agentic hybrid edge‑cloud LLM platform enabling contextual, multi‑user in‑car AI interactions
• Introduced Small Language Models (SLMs) with Microsoft, delivering industry‑first embedded GenAI with low latency
• Defined and optimized company‑level product operations and innovation pipelines, leading the phase‑gate innocation and productization funnel
• Led C‑level portfolio investment and divestment reviews, guiding the CEO, CPO, CFO, and CTO in invest/harvest/stop decisions to drive organic growth
• Managed product pricing strategy (royalty and SaaS), maximizing market alignment
• Directed global, multi‑disciplinary teams (PMs, engineers, UX, researchers)

Key Product Achievements:

• xUI https://tinyurl.com/cerencexui 
• CaLLM Edge https://tinyurl.com/cerencecallmedge 
• Chat Pro https://tinyurl.com/cerencechatpro 

Previously:

• Senior Principal Product Manager, 2022-06 - 2023-01
• Principal Product Manager, 2021-01 - 2022-05
• Senior Product Manager, 2017-02 - 2020-12

Owned vision, strategy, and execution for the Text-to-Speech product line, including roadmap definition, market research, and cross-functional delivery with 100+ global team members.

• Drove 25% of Cerence revenue by managing the full lifecycle of ML-powered Text-to-Speech products, deployed in 400M+ cars (1 in 2 globally)
• Led the transition to Neural TTS across cloud and edge, delivering the industry’s first embedded Neural TTS
• Expanded market presence into automotive, consumer electronics, and smart mobility through strategic product positioning and global sales support
• Partnered with AI research, engineering, and design teams to accelerate innovation and release cycles

Key Product Achievements:

• Reader: https://tinyurl.com/cerencereadertts 

Key Performance Achievements:

• Promoted 4 times in 8 years due to superior performance
• 2 times recipient of Cerence AI "Formula One Club Award", recognizing top performers 
• 5 times recipient of Cerence AI internal "CEO Spot Award" for sales performance

• Led a 15+ member team to deliver IoT-based fleet management solutions for a top off-road OEM.
• Owned full lifecycle from firmware to cloud/web apps, enabling advanced telematics adoption.
• Delivered project on-time and at quality standards, strengthening long-term OEM partnership.

• Supported sales of AUTOSAR 4.x embedded software in the Italian automotive market.
• Led technical evaluations and proposals, securing key customer deals.

• Key contributor to the successful delivery of the world’s first Linux + AUTOSAR automotive infotainment system for BMW
• Directed joint BMW–Magneti Marelli teams (up to 11 engineers) to deliver next-gen infotainment software.
• Ensured production readiness with zero critical system failures at launch.
• Owned deployment of core system features (Lifecycle, Power Management, Watchdog) into production.
• Applied Agile practices on-site in Germany to accelerate delivery under tight deadlines.
• Fostered collaboration between customer and supplier teams to navigate complex technical and organizational challenges

Master of Science final project: "Anomalies detection in backbone networks"