Kai Held - Backend Python Engineer for Secure APIs

Q: Where is Kai based?

Kai is based in Munich, Germany .

Q: What languages does Kai speak?

Kai speaks the following languages: German (Native), English (Advanced), Polish (Intermediate), French (Elementary) .

Q: How many years of experience does Kai have?

Kai has at least 14 years of experience. During this time, Kai has worked in at least 9 different roles and for 10 different companies . The average length of individual experience is 1 year and 4 months . Note that Kai may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

Q: What is Kai's latest experience?

Kai's most recent position is Backend Python Engineer at Rohde & Schwarz SIT .

Q: What companies has Kai worked for in recent years?

In recent years, Kai has worked for Rohde & Schwarz SIT , InformMe , Bundesdruckerei GmbH , Volkswagen AG (via Rackspace) , and Eurofins .

Q: Which industries is Kai most experienced in?

Kai is most experienced in industries like Media and Entertainment , Government and Administration , and Aerospace and Defense . Kai also has some experience in Information Technology , Education , and Biotechnology .

Q: Which business areas is Kai most experienced in?

Kai is most experienced in business areas like Information Technology , Project Management , and Operations . Kai also has some experience in Business Intelligence and Audit .

Q: Which industries has Kai worked in recently?

Kai has recently worked in industries like Government and Administration , Aerospace and Defense , and Information Technology .

Q: Which business areas has Kai worked in recently?

Kai has recently worked in business areas like Information Technology , Operations , and Audit .

Recommended expert

Munich, Germany

Check rate

Experience

Oct 2023 - Present

2 years 11 months

Backend Python Engineer

Rohde & Schwarz SIT

Conceptualizing & developing a need-to-know, domain-based identity and access management system in a high-security environment
Backend development (Python): API & microservice development

Apr 2023 - Oct 2023

7 months

Senior AWS DevOps Engineer

InformMe

Architecting & developing a GDPR-compliant AWS Account Factory for a MedTech startup
Architecture: AWS Control Tower setup, Service Catalog, CfCT pipeline, Node.js Lambdas
Infrastructure as Code: AWS CDK (TypeScript), CloudFormation
AWS Identity Center (SSO)
Custom SCPs, Config rules & SRA
On-premises migration to ECS Fargate & Lambda

Jan 2023 - Present

3 years 8 months

Site Reliability Engineer

Bundesdruckerei GmbH

Constructing & operating a data science platform in a high-security environment
High-security Kubernetes bootstrapping: Kubespray
GitOps: FluxCD
Monitoring/Logging: Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, Elasticsearch
Storage: MinIO, Longhorn
Authentication: Keycloak
Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Ansible, Helm, Kustomize
CI/CD with GitLab

Dec 2022 - Jan 2023

2 months

Senior Cloud Architect (AWS)

Volkswagen AG (via Rackspace)

Provided short-term support to Volkswagen on AWS IAM and resolved several internal audit findings
Analyzed the existing environment and defined security solutions with minimal effort

Jul 2021 - Nov 2022

1 year 5 months

DevOps Engineer (AWS, Kubernetes)

Eurofins

Architecting & engineering AWS EKS (Kubernetes) & supporting AWS services in a greenfield project
Greenfield: setting up & maintaining EKS (Terraform, Crossplane)
Kubernetes: Helm, ArgoCD, AWS LB Controller, ExternalDNS, External Secrets, Consul, EFS CSI
Kubernetes monitoring & logging: Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, Elasticsearch
Kubernetes security: cluster hardening (Bottlerocket)
Setting up Kubernetes authentication via OAuth2/OIDC (PingID) & AWS Cognito
Migrating on-premises workloads to an AWS serverless stack: Lambda, API Gateway, Cognito, DynamoDB
Setting up AWS security: IAM, SSM, CloudTrail, Secrets Manager
Setting up & maintaining Kubernetes-native development (Skaffold)
Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Crossplane)
CI/CD pipelines with Azure DevOps & GitLab
Linux administration (Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL)
Programming with Bash, Python & Go
Data engineering (AWS RDS: PostgreSQL, MS SQL)

Oct 2020 - Jun 2021

9 months

AWS Cloud/DevOps Engineer

Siemens AG & Siemens Energy

Migration of on-premise B2B e-learning platform to AWS ECS cluster & general AWS support for Siemens Energy carve-out
Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible)
Setting up AWS security: IAM, SSM, CloudTrail, Secrets Manager
Setting up SAML & OIDC authentication
Working with container tools: Docker, ECS
CI/CD pipelines with GitLab
Linux administration (Debian, Ubuntu)
Scripting with Bash, Python, JavaScript & Go
Data engineering (AWS RDS: PostgreSQL, MS SQL)
Configuration and deployments of EC2 Auto Scaling groups and launch templates with load balancing

Jun 2020 - Dec 2022

2 years 7 months

AWS Cloud/DevOps Engineer

ventx Gmbh

Worked on several DevOps projects
Architecting AWS cloud frameworks
CI/CD with Bitbucket, GitLab, Jenkins and Jira
Linux administration (Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS)
Working with container tools: Kubernetes, OpenShift, Docker
Consulting and support for the DevOps teams
Documentation of development
Building highly available and scalable multi-tier AWS infrastructure
Building serverless infrastructure with AWS Lambda, API Gateway and DynamoDB
Infrastructure as Code with Terraform and CloudFormation
Configuration and deployments of EC2 Auto Scaling groups and launch templates with load balancing

Feb 2019 - May 2020

1 year 4 months

System Engineer

Bamberger VerlagsGruppe

Agile project coordination (e.g. development of MS Dynamics NAV, helpdesk, wiki software)
Educational data mining/scraping with Python for learning analytics and business intelligence
Data engineering (Python: NumPy, Pandas) and maintenance of databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL)
Web development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and deployment (Linux: Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS)
Defined system standards and processes for provisioning and maintaining software on Linux
Developed scripts for unattended installations (start scripts, installation automation)
Maintaining on-premise server infrastructure (Windows; Linux: Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS; VMware)
Project budget planning (e.g. ~105k € image database project, ~95k € ERP development)

May 2015 - Feb 2019

3 years 10 months

DevOps Engineer (working student)

C.C.Buchner Verlag

Creating workflows to optimize processes
Automating tasks with Python (e.g. conversion scripts for various media outputs)
Sub-project management and assistance
Front- and backend web development (e.g. shop website, ticketing system)
Maintaining on-premise server infrastructure (Windows, Linux)

Jan 2013 - May 2015

2 years 5 months

System Administrator & IT-Supporter (student assistant)

Computing Centre University of Bamberg

Maintenance of university data centre hardware and software
Creating install-images for PC pools and maintaining hardware
Network administration (Linux: Debian, Windows Server)

Industry Experience

See where this freelancer has spent most of their professional time.

Experienced in Media and Entertainment, Government and Administration, Aerospace and Defense, Information Technology, Education, and Biotechnology.

Media and Entertainment

Government and Administration

Aerospace and Defense

Information Technology

Education

Biotechnology

Business Area Experience

See which departments and functions this freelancer has contributed to most.

Experienced in Information Technology, Project Management, Operations, and Business Intelligence.

Information Technology

Project Management

Operations

Business Intelligence

Skills

Aws - Container: Eks, Ecs, Fargate, Ecr
Aws - Vm: Ec2, Auto Scaling, Load Balancing
Aws - Storage: S3, Ebs, Efs
Aws - Networking: Vpc, Route53, Cloudfront
Aws - Serverless: Api Gateway, Lambda, Dynamodb, Eventbridge, Sqs, Sns
Aws - Databases: Rds (Postgresql, Ms Sql, Mariadb, Mysql, Aurora)
Aws - Security: Iam, Cognito, Waf, Kms, Secrets Manager
Aws - Compliance: Config, Cloudtrail
Ci/Cd: Gitlab, Github, Bitbucket, Azure Devops
Kubernetes & Container Orchestration - Deployment: Helm, Kustomize, Crossplane
Kubernetes & Container Orchestration - Gitops: Argocd, Flux
Kubernetes & Container Orchestration - Dev Tools: Skaffold, Devspace
Kubernetes & Container Orchestration - Observability: Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, Tempo, Elasticsearch, Kibana (Elk)
Programming, Scripting & Automation: Go, Python, Java, Kotlin, Bash, Html, Css, Javascript, Terraform, Cloudformation, Sql, Ansible
Authorization & Authentication: Oauth2 (Pkce), Oidc, Saml

Languages

German

Native

English

Advanced

Polish

Intermediate

French

Elementary

Education

Apr 2017 - Mar 2020

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

Master of Arts · Analytical Philosophy · Erlangen, Germany · 1.2

Oct 2012 - Mar 2017

University of Bamberg

Bachelor of Arts · Philosophy and Political Science · Bamberg, Germany · 1.5

Certifications & licenses

Statistics

Experience

Total positions 10

Experience in Media and Entertainment 5 y

Avg length 1 y 11 m

Longest experience 3 y 9 m

Expertise

Recent roles Backend Python Engineer, Senior AWS DevOps Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer

Main industries Media and Entertainment, Government and Administration, Aerospace and Defense

Main business areas Information Technology, Project Management, Operations

Qualifications

Highest degree Master

Certifications earned 2

Profile

Created

January 2024

Last Update

September 2025

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Frequently asked questions

Have questions? Find more information here.

Kai is based in Munich, Germany.

Kai speaks the following languages: German (Native), English (Advanced), Polish (Intermediate), French (Elementary).

Kai has at least 14 years of experience. During this time, Kai has worked in at least 9 different roles and for 10 different companies. The average length of individual experience is 1 year and 4 months. Note that Kai may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

Based on recent experience, Kai would be well-suited for roles such as: Backend Python Engineer, Senior AWS DevOps Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer.

Kai's most recent position is Backend Python Engineer at Rohde & Schwarz SIT.

In recent years, Kai has worked for Rohde & Schwarz SIT, InformMe, Bundesdruckerei GmbH, Volkswagen AG (via Rackspace), and Eurofins.

Kai is most experienced in industries like Media and Entertainment, Government and Administration, and Aerospace and Defense. Kai also has some experience in Information Technology, Education, and Biotechnology.

Kai is most experienced in business areas like Information Technology, Project Management, and Operations. Kai also has some experience in Business Intelligence and Audit.

Kai has recently worked in industries like Government and Administration, Aerospace and Defense, and Information Technology.

Kai has recently worked in business areas like Information Technology, Operations, and Audit.

Kai holds a Master in Analytical Philosophy from University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and a Bachelor in Philosophy and Political Science from University of Bamberg.

Kai has 2 certificates. These include: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate.

Kai is immediately available for suitable projects.

Kai's rate depends on the specific project requirements. Please use the Meet button on the profile to schedule a meeting and discuss the details.

To hire Kai, click the Meet button on the profile to request a meeting and discuss your project needs.

Daily Rate Distribution

0 2 4 6 8

<€640 €800-960 €1280+

The rates shown represent the typical market range for freelancers in this position based on recent contracts on our platform.

Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.

Average rates for similar positions

Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.

1000

750

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250

Daily rate avg. 851 €

The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.

1000

750

500

250

Median rate 840 €

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.

Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.