Mario S.-Interim CTO | AI Transformation of Software Development
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Experience
Interim CTO
Through Sourcegarden GmbH, ongoing engagement. Transitioning software development to agentic development in phases, from setup and pilots through transformation and handover.
Chief Technology Officer
Pharmaceutical wholesaler, GDP/GMP-regulated, VC-funded, around 100 employees. Budget 1 to 5 Mio. EUR; tech organization of 19, managing 5 direct reports.
- Led a lean digital transformation end to end: digitized data, automated processes, built a data warehouse and integrated systems, introduced agentic development in engineering, then brought AI to the entire company.
- Increased productivity per engineer by around 267 %, with the same delivery scope; rebuilt the commerce platform in a fraction of the previous time.
- Internally developed production software took filling documentation in the cleanroom away from operators; took it through GMP validation as owner. Filling capacity up 1014 %.
- Built the IT and delivery organization, 19 people in three months. Responsible for tech compliance (information security, incident response, ISO-27001 preparation, due diligence for investors), as well as SAP Business One and Salesforce.
Chief Technology Officer
Applied ML company with 20 people. My team of 11, managed through an Engineering Manager and a Data Science Manager.
- Built 'Seamless' and rolled it out worldwide at PwC, around 400.000 employees: any ERP data converted to the PwC format, based on XGBoost and BERT, with a human in the loop. Turned weeks into a few hours.
- Built 'AI OS' on Azure and Databricks with MLOps; coordinated global DevOps and ML/AI teams at PwC, 40 to 60 people across time zones.
Engineering Lead (interim), Product Team
Built the product team: Yara planned for 15 people, I hired four experienced professionals from my network. The team delivered, including product discovery.
CTO in Residence
Private investment firm; technical expert for the investors across five portfolio companies, without decision-making authority.
- Product development in Tel Aviv; from Berlin, provided AI sparring for investors and portfolio companies. Handed over more than 18 machine learning proofs of concept to production teams.
Interim CTO
Took over the technology and replaced a more than ten-year-old, expensive CMS with a cheaper platform; ongoing costs dropped significantly.
Team Lead, Chief Architect
HIPAA-regulated telecare: integrated the video calling required by the US Veterans Association; this opened up sales of over 100,000 hearing aids per year.
Team Lead
Team Lead
Interim Frontend Lead
Stepped in at short notice for the sick frontend lead; launched in two and a half months because I decoupled the frontend from the backend.
VP Mobility
Built custom clients, including ones based on the XUL framework.
Founder, Managing Director
Founded in 2003 and still owner-operated; I invoice engagements through it.
- Prepared Nokia prototypes for Deutsche Telekom for trade shows, produced the very first video podcast for Angela Merkel, and later delivered business-critical integrations. From 01/2027, also a team provider: five developers plus a lead.
Industry experience
See where this freelancer has spent most of their professional time.
Experienced in Information Technology, Telecommunication, Media and Entertainment, Pharmaceutical, Banking and Finance, and Education.
Business area experience
See which departments and functions this freelancer has contributed to most.
Experienced in Information Technology and Product Development.
Summary
Interim CTO for AI transformation: I move software development and companies toward AI, measurably and also under regulation. Over 20 years of software development, ten years of machine learning and AI, hands-on long before LLMs became popular. As CTO of Cansativa, a GDP/GMP-regulated pharmaceutical wholesaler, I increased productivity per engineer by around 267 % through agentic development; I took production software built this way through GMP validation as owner, increasing filling capacity by 1014 %. I build teams quickly from my network: at Yara, four professionals instead of the planned 15.
- Increased productivity per engineer by around 267 %, with the same delivery scope; rebuilt the commerce platform in a fraction of the previous time.
- Internally developed production software took filling documentation in the cleanroom away from operators; took it through GMP validation as owner. Filling capacity up 1014 %.
- Built the IT and delivery organization, 19 people in three months. Responsible for tech compliance (information security, incident response, ISO-27001 preparation, due diligence for investors), as well as SAP Business One and Salesforce.
Skills
- Ai Transformation Of Software Development
- Digital Transformation
- Regulated Software
- Security And Tech Due Diligence
- Erp, Platform And Integration
- Rapid Team Building
- Machine Learning And Mlops
Ai And Ml
- Llms
- Rag And Vector Search
- Evals
- Agentic Systems And Dark Software Factories
- Realtime Voice Including Own Models
- Knowledge Systems
- Classical Ml (Xgboost, Bert)
Platform And Data
- Apis And Microservices
- Event-Driven Architecture
- Postgresql
- Data Warehouse And Integration
- Databricks
- Mlops
Erp And Crm
- Sap Business One On Hana
- Salesforce
Regulated And Security
- Gmp Validation
- Gdp
- Hipaa
- Gdpr
- Iso 27001
- Soc 2
- Bsi It-Grundschutz
- Incident Response
Cloud And Infrastructure
- Aws
- Azure
- Gcp
- Bare Metal
- Kubernetes
- Terraform
- Bicep
- Ci/Cd
Programming Languages
- Typescript
- Python
- Go
- Java
- Rust
- C#
- C++
- Swift
Languages
Statistics
Experience
Global experience
Expertise
Profile
Frequently asked questions
Have questions? Find more information here.
Mario is based in Berlin, Germany and can operate in on-site, hybrid, and remote work models.
Mario speaks the following languages: German (Native), English (Advanced).
Mario has at least 23 years of experience. During this time, Mario has worked in at least 9 different roles. The average length of individual experience is 2 years and 11 months. Note that Mario may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.
Based on recent experience, Mario would be well-suited for roles such as: Interim CTO, Chief Technology Officer, Engineering Lead (interim), Product Team.
Mario's most recent position is Interim CTO.
Mario is most experienced in industries like Information Technology, Telecommunication, and Media and Entertainment. Mario also has some experience in Pharmaceutical, Banking and Finance, and Education.
Mario is most experienced in business areas like Information Technology and Product Development.
Mario has recently worked in industries like Information Technology, Telecommunication, and Media and Entertainment.
Mario has recently worked in business areas like Information Technology and Product Development.
Mario will be available full-time from November 2026.
Daily rate distribution
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Average rates for similar positions
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
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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