Maria is a partner in McKinsey’s Seattle office and a leader in the Operations Practice. She focuses on large-scale product development and procurement transformations across sectors. Her work enables technology leaders to build cost engineering capabilities and achieve step-change results through should-cost modeling, negotiation programs, and end-to-end execution.
In addition to her client work, Maria is a leading voice on the future of computing and AI infrastructure. She authored McKinsey’s perspective on the $7 trillion “cost of compute” race and the trade-offs shaping the next wave of buildout across energy, silicon, and AI-driven demand.
Examples of Maria’s recent work include:
- leading multiyear, should-cost-based negotiation programs across the data center hardware stack to optimize unit economics for a hyperscaler
- optimizing bill of materials (BOM) costs for a new-to-world automotive electromechanical assembly through competitive sourcing and design-to-value (DTV)
- leading AI-enabled sourcing and DTV capture for direct spending categories at a large quick-service restaurant
- building and scaling cost engineering functions to manage multibillion-dollar infrastructure portfolios for a major data center operator
- orchestrating end-to-end data center rack integration and manufacturing programs to accelerate deployment for a hyperscaler
- optimizing the gray-space BOM to increase capex efficiency for a global co-location provider
- designing a customer-centric operating model to increase speed and execution quality at a leading data center equipment manufacturer
- advising on next-generation AI infrastructure product development strategy at the convergence of cooling and power architecture for a major hardware OEM
- accelerating market entry into rack-level power systems for an automotive power electronics supplier
- leading a DTV and procurement program, and refining the strategic and financial value of core capabilities at a cutting-edge electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) manufacturer
- driving a cash transformation focused on engineering R&D spending and long-term inventory optimization at a large industrial manufacturer