ITIL Foundation

• Focus on optimizing and further developing the internal customer EBICS application
• Functional and technical consulting for Aareal First Financial Solutions AG on EBICS standard products and applications in the areas of operations and further development, as well as project-related communication with external development partners and the product manufacturer to implement the corresponding technical optimizations
• As the functional coordinator, providing advice on content-related and regulatory requirements as well as technical prerequisites and requirements, and bringing these together at the functional level
• Consulting on the use of EBICS formats
• Reviewing the current EBICS standard for optimization and further development potential
• Analyzing the current state to identify development potential and deriving appropriate recommendations for action while considering regulatory requirements
• Conducting EBICS tests throughout the project
• Functional responsibility for requirements management and, in this context, recording and documenting requirements for such tests
• Designing a functional and sustainable test management system
• Conducting and evaluating tests
• Consulting on sustainable quality assurance and audits
• Project language: German and English
• Tools/Methods: MS Project, MS Office, MS Visio, TestRail, Confluence, Jira, Business Logics Bankkrecher, Business Logics Test Data Generator, Business Logics Banking Tool, Business Logics Test System, DBEAVER, Squirrel, Unix Virtual Machines, WinSCP, Kitty, Putty, various Aareal Bank products, Online Banking Portal, Aareal Sign, core banking system, SAP Blue Eagle, SAP RE-FX, Aareon Wodis Sigma, Haufe Real Estate Wowinex, GAP Group Immotion, UTS Karthago, SAP IS-U/Waste, SIV kVASy, various EBICS clients

• Project management and consulting services with a focus on IT interim management: digitalization of corporate management, including processes and applications
• Assessment of the entire IT infrastructure, including applications, core processes and contracts, including cost optimization
• Evaluation and implementation of solutions to promote digitalization in the company in the areas of property management, CRM, invoice review and approval processes, smart metering, DMS and time tracking
• Digitization of file folders and introduction of SharePoint and Microsoft Teams as central document and communication platforms
• Design and delivery of an AI workshop, including the rollout of AI tools to increase efficiency and transparency in key business processes
• Preparation of training materials and delivery of user training for newly introduced digital processes and solutions

Management of several MFA methods for centralized authentication within a group. Interface between various stakeholders such as support, financial accounting, developers, and security departments. Assessment of compliance requirements such as KRITIS. Budget controlling and monitoring of KPIs and SLAs. Support with internal and external audits on MFA and with connecting new systems. Review of operational documentation. Participation in steering committees and leadership of service review meetings and decision-making committees.

Tools/Frameworks: FIDO, YubiKey, Veridium, BSI IT-Grundschutz, NIST

• Overall leadership of several strategic operations projects focusing on Workplace Services, SLA Framework, access management, certificate management, e-learning, backup & recovery, test management, and capacity management, as well as the introduction of system monitoring and feasibility studies for 24x7 operations, in some cases including implementation in ServiceNow
• Creation of various ServiceNow operating concepts covering training, access rights, and emergency management as part of a new cloud hosting initiative for the ServiceNow platform
• Executive board reports and leadership of steering committees as part of company-wide strategic objectives, as well as the establishment of new balanced scorecards for measuring KPIs related to optimization-driven project results

• Strategic planning, detailed technical preparation and operational management of an email gateway migration in a security-critical government environment.
• Preparation of the technical specification and development of technical concepts and migration approaches in line with BSI requirements.
• Technical requirements management with business units, information security and operations.
• Coordination of external service providers, integrators and implementation partners; maintenance of project plans, milestones, resources, risks and dependencies.
• Regular reporting to project management, the program environment and internal stakeholders.

• Introduction of a new digital product to the Chinese market as part of a global growth strategy.

• Point of contact and coordinating interface between central product management, local Chinese teams and international stakeholders.

• Management of the entire program to coordinate complex digital projects.

• Successful market launch of a digital product in China (including successful certification for the Chinese market).

• Balancing local requirements with global priorities while taking tax and regulatory requirements into account.

• Introduction of a new way of working to improve collaboration and coordination across locations.

• Development and implementation of a scaling strategy for the digital business model in China.

• Use of Jira, Confluence, Miro, Scrum, agile working, SAFe.

• Project language: English.

Due to the steady growth of the client organization and the resulting increase in projects across various areas, including IT/digitalization, sales, organizational development and controlling, the demands on projects are increasing. Projects are often started but not completed within the planned timeframe, resources are not clearly assigned, and the business value is not clearly demonstrated. The objective of the assignment as Interim Head of PMO is to further develop and establish an existing project organization from the CDO area at executive management level. It is important that the governance is pragmatic, easy to understand and simple to apply in daily project work. The tasks and roles must be defined and established within the organization. In addition, this strategic PMO is to be supported by an IT solution, which must be selected and introduced. Furthermore, all ongoing projects are to be gradually integrated into the PMO governance and project management is to be centralized.

Migration of an existing application to a new IT infrastructure.

• Managed all project activities (infrastructure, applications, data, security, architecture)
• Planned complex network architectures with security requirements
• Designed and coordinated firewall configurations
• Planned and managed interfaces between ERP, cloud, and third-party systems
• Coordinated middleware solutions (e.g., SAP Integration Suite, MuleSoft, Boomi)
• Defined data flows, mapping rules, and integration architectures
• Managed data migrations and master data harmonization
• Coordinated with business departments, IT teams, service providers, and external partners
• Team size: International team of 35 employees – Germany | Poland | India | USA
• Languages: English

Tools: Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project), Brainloop, Jira, Confluence, MS SharePoint

• Requirements management, process planning, interface function, ISMS setup, and documentation
• Setup and establishment of an ISMS according to ISO 27001 and establishment of emergency management / ITSCM
• Coordination of the circumstances with the public-sector IT service provider
• Consideration of KRITIS relevance within the scope and implementation of a B3S
• Development of requirements for document control and the continuous improvement process
• Preparation of relevant project documents
• Analysis of existing processes and preparation of guidelines
• Requirements gathering for ISMS and ITSCM and coordination with the IT service provider, including definition of interfaces
• Analysis of communication processes and escalation paths
• Review of documents for risk management, ISMS, emergency preparedness, and emergency response
• Redesign of the complete documentation and preparation of new relevant documents
• Development of necessary rules, policies, and concepts
• Interface between customer and service provider to ensure document quality
• Coordination of protection needs with specialist departments, particularly regarding KRITIS relevance, and planning of resulting measures
• Development of preventive measures to minimize the risk of data center outages in scenarios such as pandemics or ransomware attacks
• Definition of the test strategy for IT emergency exercises
• Initiation of necessary awareness training measures for specialist departments
• External Information Security Officer
• Introduction of document control

• PMO Lead, Security Clearance Level 2 (SÜ2) cleared
• Reported to the GMN sub-program management
• Maintenance of 25+ systems
• Functional management and coordination of the Jira setup
• Preparation of decision papers (e.g., project planning, governance model, communication plans, controlling models, roles and responsibilities matrices)
• Development of program-wide knowledge management using Confluence; creation of a Jira concept
• Development of an access concept for all project tools
• Analysis of existing processes, identification of improvement potential, and design of solutions to increase efficiency and effectiveness
• Development of a concept for introducing automation approaches into existing tools
• Creation of intranet articles for project marketing
• Responsible for project governance through reporting and resource planning within the sub-program
• Agile further development of the project methodology
• Gathering customer requirements (Requirements Engineering)
• Preparation and support of contract negotiations (7-year term, 500+ million budget)

• Development and implementation of tailored information security strategies

• Introduction and further development of ISMS according to ISO 27001, BSI baseline protection, and other standards

• Risk management and creation of security concepts

• Consulting for KRITIS, PCI DSS, TISAX, and VdS 3473/10000

• Building and improving security organizations

• Creation and implementation of guidelines, policies, work instructions, and process descriptions

• Audit support and certification preparation

• Conducting trainings, workshops, and awareness campaigns

• Selection and consulting on the introduction of IT security solutions such as SIEM, DLP, IDS/IPS, firewalls, and encryption technologies

• Conducting penetration tests and vulnerability analyses

• Consulting on the selection, integration, and management of security architectures in complex IT environments

• Consulting on ITSM and managed security services and SOC

• Leading and managing complex projects to improve information security

• Process analysis, optimization, and management according to ITIL, ISO 27001, and cybernetics

• Introduction and quality assurance of management, documentation, and knowledge management systems

• Support in complying with regulatory information security requirements (e.g. GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, GMP, KRITIS)

• Development and implementation of risk analysis procedures

• Organizing initial response, forensic investigations, and organizational measures in the event of security incidents

• Designing and running targeted workshops on topics such as ISMS, IT risks, and current threat scenarios

• Awareness campaigns to promote security culture in companies

• Special trainings on ISO 27001, BSI baseline protection, KRITIS, and other relevant standards

• Simulations and exercises to prepare for information security incidents

• Interim management for leading information security projects or IT security organizations

• Taking on the role of an external CISO (Chief Information Security Officer)

• Support in developing and implementing IT security and corporate strategies

• Coaching and mentoring of managers in the field of information security

• Building and leading security departments as well as recruiting and qualifying employees

• Temporary assumption of management responsibility in critical situations

• Technical leadership across hardware, firmware, and software teams; scope: hardware/firmware team (4 people) and leadership group (5 people)
• Consolidated and documented a product family that had grown over more than 15 years and aligned it with CRA compliance — from the bare-metal I/O module to the cloud interface.
• Provided the most important customer product with the essential requirements and architecture documentation within two months — for a firmware landscape that had grown over more than 15 years. It now supports the customer’s modernization strategy.
• Established a monthly reporting line to the supervisory board and executive board within three months: nine meetings since 12/2025. The report itself is versioned and built from the CI pipeline; it is based on automatically collected activity and release data instead of assessments.
• Built a container-based CI/CD infrastructure from scratch: cross-compilation, host tests, and documentation builds in one continuous pipeline.
• Introduced declarative QA gates for DevOps and development artifacts — from the start using lefthook instead of pre-commit, executed in a dedicated container image.

Technologies used: arc42, req42, tpo42, docToolchain, PlantUML, ArchiMate, C4 model, ADR, C, C++ (GTest), CMake, Bare Metal (ARM Cortex-M3/M7), OCI containers, Jenkins, lefthook, Prometheus, Grafana, SBOM, CRA, OPC, SCADA, PLC integration, IPv6 migration, Zero Trust, Sociocracy 3.0, Cynefin

Stabilization of an Azure/.NET landscape in live operation.

• Architecture, DevOps, and operational readiness; technical decisions under time pressure
• Azure DevOps, monitoring, ETL/ELT, cloud security, FinOps, and data-mesh-related topics

Technologies: Azure DevOps, .NET, CI/CD, monitoring, FinOps