Dirk R.-Interim CTO · Engineering leadership on demand
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Experience
Chief Technology Officer
HYPE Softwaretechnik GmbH
Member of the leadership team, 40 people across several international sites.
Technical ownership of the shareholder's buy-and-build strategy: assessment of target companies and their subsequent integration.
Platform, cloud infrastructure, information security and the engineering organisation.
Vice President Development & Technology
HYPE Softwaretechnik GmbH
The full engineering organisation, 24 people across development, QA and product support.
Architecture and launch of the high-availability SaaS platform for innovation management, scaled for global enterprise customers. Started the move from monolith to microservices.
Led the technical side of the company's due diligence during the 2019 change of ownership.
Head of Custom Development
HYPE Softwaretechnik GmbH
14 people. International projects and workshops including the USA, Saudi Arabia and Costa Rica. Managed the technical partnership with US resellers.
First investor review, 2010: prepared the technical documentation and ran the interviews with the buy side during the growth investment.
Senior Software Engineer
HYPE Softwaretechnik GmbH
- Led custom development projects for Daimler AG.
Software Engineer
AED-SICAD AG
- Graphics cache for GIS products
- Project work for RWE AG.
Software Engineer
Modern Technologies Inc.
- CRM mailing tools and server monitoring.
Co-founder & Managing Director
Colotec GmbH
Founded and built a technology company optimising charter flight schedules. Responsible from the mathematical modelling through to running the business.
Colotec grew out of my degree thesis and was built with a co-founder. After the charter market collapsed from 2001 the business model no longer carried, and the company was wound up in an orderly manner.
Industry experience
See where this freelancer has spent most of their professional time.
Experienced in Information Technology, Automotive, and Energy.
Business area experience
See which departments and functions this freelancer has contributed to most.
Experienced in Information Technology, Product Development, Quality Assurance, Strategy, and Project Management.
Summary
Twenty years in software engineering and technical leadership, nineteen of them in a B2B SaaS company of around 200 people across two ownership cycles. Most recently six years as CTO, leading 40 people across several international sites.
My focus is the technical side of buy-and-build: five technical due diligence reviews led, four of which resulted in a purchase, and those same four companies integrated afterwards. Alongside that, modernising the platform while the enterprise product kept running — cloud migration, continuous deployment, information security.
I know the metrics a portfolio team uses to judge technical decisions: gross margin, delivery capability, and how well a platform absorbs acquisitions.
Skills
Investor-Facing
- Technical Due Diligence On Both The Buy And The Sell Side
- Post-Merger Integration
- Platform Consolidation
- Finops
- Aligning The Technology Roadmap With The Business Plan
Leadership & Method
- Team Topologies
- Okrs
- Engineering Culture
- Distributed Teams Across Time Zones
- Managing External Development And Consulting Partners
Technology
- Java
- Spring Boot
- Kubernetes
- Google Cloud
- Terraform
- Ansible
- Gitlab
- Microservices
- Vue
- Python
- Genai And Agentic Coding
- Web Security
Languages
Education
University of Cologne
Dr. rer. nat. · Computer Science · Cologne, Germany · Magna cum laude
University of Cologne
Diplom, Focus on software engineering management and computer science · Information Systems · Cologne, Germany
Statistics
Experience
Global experience
Expertise
Qualifications
Profile
Frequently asked questions
Have questions? Find more information here.
Dirk is based in Cologne, Germany and can operate in on-site, hybrid, and remote work models.
Dirk speaks the following languages: German (Native), English (Advanced).
Dirk has at least 25 years of experience. During this time, Dirk has worked in at least 6 different roles and for 4 different companies. The average length of individual experience is 4 years and 6 months. Note that Dirk may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.
Based on recent experience, Dirk would be well-suited for roles such as: Chief Technology Officer, Vice President Development & Technology, Head of Custom Development.
Dirk's most recent position is Chief Technology Officer at HYPE Softwaretechnik GmbH.
In recent years, Dirk has worked for HYPE Softwaretechnik GmbH.
Dirk is most experienced in industries like Information Technology, Energy, and Automotive.
Dirk is most experienced in business areas like Information Technology, Product Development, and Quality Assurance. Dirk also has some experience in Strategy and Project Management.
Dirk has recently worked in industries like Information Technology.
Dirk has recently worked in business areas like Information Technology and Strategy.
Dirk holds a Doctorate in Computer Science from University of Cologne and a Master in Information Systems from University of Cologne.
Dirk will be available full-time from November 2026.
Daily rate distribution
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Average rates for similar positions
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The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Calculated based on our freelancers’ daily rates as of 21 Oct 2026. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
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