Patrick Döring
C-Level Advisor | Engineering & QA Lead
Experience
C-Level Advisor | Engineering & QA Lead
Freelancer
- Supports companies as a C-level advisor, technical sparring partner, and engineering leader in scaling, structure, and technical excellence
- Over 15 years of experience, including more than 6 years in leadership with teams of 18+ engineers and budget responsibility over €2 million
- Direct collaboration with C-level, product, and compliance
Leadership & Organizational Development:
- Leading international cross-functional teams (18+ engineers) in agile environments
- Experience with Scrum, Kanban, OKRs through hands-on implementation
- Close collaboration with C-level stakeholders
- Strategic input on engineering roadmaps and organizational structures
Engineering Strategy & Developer Enablement:
- Building and rolling out developer productivity tools like GitHub Copilot and Synergizer
- Scaling, redesigning, and strategically advancing the observability architecture (Datadog, Grafana Cloud), including distributed tracing, metric design, SLOs, logging, and cost optimization
- Establishing developer enablement structures: coding guides, QA practices
- Consolidating CI/CD and DevOps toolchains for improved efficiency
People & Culture:
- Mentoring and coaching talents and leaders
- Active role in recruiting and team development
- Performance management and retention (< 5% turnover in scaled teams)
- Designing career paths and competency models in engineering
Lead Engineer
ProSiebenSat.1
- Technical and functional leadership of various projects to increase developer productivity, code quality, and observability
Medien Synergizer – AI-powered workflow platform & prompt engine:
- Led the engineering team (5 members)
- Designed, architected, and integrated Gen AI components with Python/Flask APIs, React/TypeScript frontend, and a visual prompt flow builder
- Integrated private GPT models for GDPR-compliant solutions
GitHub Copilot – Rollout & Developer Productivity:
- Led an AI enablement team (5 members)
- Coordinated the company-wide rollout of GitHub Copilot
- Defined guidelines, workshops, and analytics; hands-on sessions, hackathons, training
- Impact: +25% developer productivity, reduced manual effort, improved code quality
Code Quality Platform:
- Built and managed a company-wide code quality platform with Sonar, Qodana, and Teamscale
- Led an engineering team (4 members)
- Implemented unified coding guidelines, code coverage, quality gates, and feedback loops
- Impact: -35% critical bugs, -25% pull request cycles
Observability Migration – Grafana Cloud:
- Architected and executed the migration from self-hosted Grafana + Prometheus to Grafana Cloud
- Led an engineering team (5 members)
- Consolidated dashboards and alerts, set up ownership models
Observability Architecture – Datadog:
- Consolidated distributed Datadog instances into a central sub-org using Terraform
- Developed a tagging strategy, defined SLOs, SLIs, and error budgets
- Established distributed tracing across microservices
Senior Test Manager
MaibornWolff
IT-Consultant
Sogeti Deutschland GmbH
Quality Engineer
Euro-Log AG
Industry Experience
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Experienced in Information Technology, Media and Entertainment, and Transportation.
Business Area Experience
See which departments and functions this freelancer has contributed to most.
Experienced in Information Technology, Quality Assurance, and Product Development.
Summary
I support companies as a C-level advisor, technical sparring partner, and engineering leader when scaling, structure, and technical excellence are in demand. I bring over 15 years of experience, including more than 6 years in leadership roles with teams of 18+ engineers and budget responsibility exceeding €2 million, working directly with C-level, product, and compliance teams.
Whether as a C-level advisor, interim engineering lead, or consultant for structural scaling, I work hands-on, remotely, focusing on clarity, impact, and sustainable solutions.
Skills
Leadership & Organizational Development
- Leading International Cross-functional Teams (18+ Engineers) In Agile Environments
- Experience With Agile Methods (Scrum, Kanban, Okrs) Through Hands-on Implementation In Various Projects
- Close Collaboration With C-level Stakeholders
- Strategic Input On Engineering Roadmaps And Organizational Structures
Engineering Strategy & Developer Enablement
- Building And Rolling Out (Developer) Productivity Tools Like Github Copilot And Synergizer To Support Ai-driven Development
- Scaling, Redesigning, And Strategically Advancing The Observability Architecture (Including With Datadog & Grafana Cloud), Covering Distributed Tracing, Metric Design, Slos, Logging, And Cost Optimization
- Establishing Developer Enablement Structures: Coding Guides, Qa Practices, Etc.
- Consolidating Ci/cd And Devops Toolchains For Improved Efficiency
People & Culture
- Mentoring And Coaching Talents And Leaders
- Active Role In Recruiting And Team Development
- Performance Management And Retention (Under 5% Turnover In Scaled Teams)
- Designing Career Paths And Competency Models In Engineering
Languages
Education
Apprenticeship · IT Specialist in Application Development
Certifications & licenses
Cmap Mobile App Testing – Foundation Level
Datadog Fundamentals
Datadog Kubernetes Fundamentals
Datadog Log Management Fundamentals
Deep Learning Nanodegree
Udacity
The 7 Worst Communication Mistakes
Leading Without Direct Authority
ISTQB Certified Tester – Advanced Level, Test Manager
Machine Learning By Stanford University
Coursera
Sre – The Big Picture
Statistics
Experience
Global Experience
Expertise
Qualifications
Profile
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