Marcel Rapold

Information Technology Project Lead and Deputy Head of ICT (Stv. Leiter ICT) at the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (ZVV) – supporting the Head of ICT / CIO in leading the IT organization while continuing to drive hands-on delivery.

• Deputizing for the Head of ICT / CIO: Standing in for the Head of ICT / CIO on internal IT topics, decisions and day-to-day leadership.
• Cantonal IT governance: Representing ZVV in the canton's IT governance and steering committees (Kanton Zürich).
• IT financial control & budgeting: Co-owning IT financial control and budgeting processes – planning, controlling and cost governance.
• Platforms & strategic projects: Leading digital platform initiatives, strategic IT projects and AI-enabled automation.
• Strategy & delivery: Bridging strategy and delivery across business and technology teams.

Leading digital platform initiatives, strategic IT projects and AI-enabled automation within the Zürcher Verkehrsverbund (ZVV).

• Digital platform ownership: Responsible for the ongoing evolution of zvv.ch as ZVV's central digital customer interface, including architecture coordination, hosting, release management and quality assurance.
• Platform integrations: Contributed to key integrations including SwissPass login services and the national NOVA public transport platform, connecting ZVV's digital channels with the broader Swiss mobility ecosystem.
• CMS modernization: Contributed to the modernization of ZVV's enterprise CMS landscape towards cloud-based architecture with Adobe Experience Manager.
• Digital ecosystem & app portfolio: Co-responsible for the web and mobile service landscape, delivering new digital services to improve the end-to-end customer journey.
• Ticket shop & digital channels: Ensured interoperability between ticket shop, customer account and digital touchpoints. Contributed to account-related and frontend roadmap topics.
• Public procurement & vendor evaluation: Prepared supplier evaluations, RFP-related documentation and decision bases in line with public sector governance requirements.
• Vendor coordination & governance: Central point of contact for external development partners - coordinating requirements, QA cycles, and delivery timelines while ensuring alignment with security, privacy, and regulatory standards in a public sector environment.
• AI-enabled automation: Designed and implemented workflow automations and editorial tooling using n8n and LLM-based pipelines to reduce operational overhead.
• MVP & prototyping: Rapid development of proof-of-concept solutions and low-code approaches to validate new digital services and internal workflow ideas.

Application Manager and Product Owner for core digital services within the ZVV ecosystem.

• Product ownership: Responsible for roadmap definition, backlog management and continuous service development across core digital platforms.
• eTicketing leadership: Technical project leadership for eTicketing services across architecture, security and operations.
• Digital customer services: Contributed to the rollout of multiple customer-facing apps and digital leisure services to expand the digital service portfolio.
• Gamification & loyalty: Contributed to digital gamification elements and engagement mechanics aimed at activating and retaining recurring customers.
• Business-IT alignment: Translated business requirements into structured delivery across process and service management.
• Stakeholder coordination: Coordinated internal departments, business owners and external development partners.
• SharePoint cloud migration: Independently planned and delivered the migration of an on-premise SharePoint environment to the Microsoft cloud, including requirements, stakeholder management, information structure and rollout coordination.

Building Dominicano Express GmbH as a Swiss-based logistics and service company focused on structured cross-border solutions between Switzerland and the Dominican Republic. Responsible for strategy, operations, digital infrastructure, partner coordination and scalable service design across logistics, customer communication, payment workflows and operational execution.

• Logistics & service model: Building a trusted logistics and service model for private and business customers between Switzerland and the Dominican Republic.
• Digital workflows: Designing digital workflows for booking, customer communication, payments and shipment coordination.
• Operational processes: Structuring operational processes for consolidated shipping, documentation and service execution.
• Partners & markets: Coordinating partners, suppliers and local execution across both markets.
• Scalable operating model: Developing a scalable operating model with clear governance, customer trust and lean digital processes.

Co-Founder of ΛLPA.one, a Bitcoin-native infrastructure initiative focused on self-hosted Lightning Network technology and decentralized payment infrastructure.

• Self-hosted infrastructure: Designed and operated virtualized and containerized Bitcoin and Lightning environments using Proxmox, Docker and redundant service setups.
• Lightning stack: Built and maintained LND-, LNDg- and LNbits-based setups for node management, routing, channel operations and payment functionality.
• Active channel management: Operated a private Lightning node ranked at times among the top 100 worldwide, optimized for maximum sats throughput, routing efficiency and fee-earning strategies.
• Resilience & privacy: Implemented Tor-based connectivity, remote access, backups and high-availability operating patterns to improve resilience and operational control.
• Payment workflows & service models: Developed Lightning-based payment workflows and explored decentralized, Lightning-enabled service models for instant and low-cost digital transactions.

Served on the board during a transitional period, helping stabilize the association and prepare a structured foundation for the next board.

• Operational stabilization: Supported the association during a transitional phase by helping normalize operations and restore structural clarity.
• Knowledge consolidation: Collected, organized and consolidated key information and institutional knowledge to create a reliable basis for future board work.
• Structured handover: Helped prepare a clean and structured handover, enabling the incoming board to restart from a well-prepared foundation.

Led digital channel and web platform initiatives for business clients, with a focus on customer process digitalization, service improvement and connected IT solutions.

• Web platform management: Managed the web platform lifecycle, coordinating content, functional requirements and ongoing service improvements.
• Customer process digitalization: Helped digitize customer-facing processes to improve efficiency, reduce manual effort and strengthen service delivery.
• SEO & analytics optimization: Improved search visibility and digital performance through SEO enhancements, tracking concepts and analytics-driven optimization.
• Multi-channel solutions: Planned and delivered digital initiatives across web, smart-home and IT multimedia environments.

Led end-to-end delivery of custom web and digital projects across project management, requirements engineering, solution design, implementation, testing and client-facing delivery.

• Built web pages and digital brand presences for clients including Gerber Fondue, Kägi and ZAG.
• Led web delivery across agile and waterfall project setups.
• Managed requirements engineering and business analysis for client projects.
• Delivered full-stack implementations across HTML5, JavaScript, PHP, SQL and CMS platforms.