Ralf R.-Infrastructure Automation Architect
Check rate
Experience
Infrastructure-as-Code Transformation Architect
ODDO BHF
Responsible for designing and delivering a company-wide, comprehensive Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) transformation in a regulated banking environment.
Conducted an assessment of the current infrastructure, processes, tools, teams, ways of working and skill profiles as a basis for the target architecture and a PDO (Product-Driven Organization)
Defined a tailored, audit-ready Everything-as-Code infrastructure (including governance, security and compliance)
Built a comprehensive IaC operating model, integrating and transforming internal teams
Designed standardised, reusable Terraform modules for infrastructure and platform services
Integrated secrets management, PKI and Encryption-as-a-Service to secure critical VMware and Kubernetes platform components and stored data
Implemented the platform in line with regulatory requirements (DORA, BaFin, ACPR, CRA), with a focus on auditability and traceability
The initiative provides the foundation for standardised, automated and audit-ready infrastructure, reduces manual intervention and enables scalable, traceable delivery of IT resources in a banking environment.
Security Architect
Bundesagentur für Arbeit
Responsible for the design, migration and integration of a security- and audit-critical HashiCorp Vault platform in the Trust Center of a nationwide government agency providing critical services.
Analysed and redesigned the existing HashiCorp Vault environment, including current and planned use cases
Designed, proofed, migrated and integrated HashiCorp Vault Enterprise, taking into account the BA's PKI and operational processes
Designed and implemented automated certificate and secrets management for 300 Kubernetes clusters and several thousand Trust Center certificates
Secured the Vault platform using a Hardware Security Module (HSM)
The solution enables highly available, audit-ready and automated operation of certificate and secrets use cases in a highly regulated environment.
Technologies used: HashiCorp Vault Enterprise, Terraform, Ansible, OpenSSL, PKI, HSM
HashiCorp Nomad Consultant
E.ON SE
Technical responsibility for the time-critical stabilisation, migration and integration of a distributed Nomad platform in the production environment of an international energy company.
Migrated and integrated 16 production Nomad clusters with several hundred containers into a consolidated operating and security architecture
Improved availability and operational reliability by introducing end-to-end TLS encryption
Integrated Nomad, Consul, Vault and Terraform into existing automation and operational processes
Transferred knowledge to internal teams in a structured way to support the platform's long-term operation
The project ensured the continued stable operation of business-critical workloads under significant time pressure and reduced operational risks across a complex, distributed platform landscape.
Technologies used: Nomad, Consul, Vault, Terraform, Packer, Traefik, Amazon Web Services
Cloud Architect
Porsche AG
Architected, designed and implemented a standardised AWS foundation for operating a specialised 3D modelling software solution.
Designed and built a reproducible AWS Landing Zone as the basis for secure and scalable platform operations
Developed a modular Terraform base module library as a reusable foundation for dynamic infrastructure provisioning (approx. 150 Resource Types in 45 modules)
Enabled and provided technical guidance to external teams for production use of the Terraform modules in the project
Integrated Amazon EKS for containerised workloads
Aligned the architecture with internal development and operational requirements
The solution created a clean, maintainable and extensible cloud foundation for standardised and reproducible operation of the business application.
Technologies used: Terraform, Amazon Web Services, Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)
HashiCorp Terraform & Vault Expert
DEVK Deutsche Eisenbahn Versicherung AG
Supported the design and development of PKI and secrets infrastructure based on HashiCorp Vault in a regulated insurance environment.
Designed and built a PKI infrastructure using HashiCorp Vault OSS and Enterprise
Provided technical advice and integrated Vault as part of pre-sales decisions
Developed a Terraform backend to automate the provisioning of Vault environments
The project laid the technical foundation for secure, audit-ready management of certificates and secrets in the target architecture.
Technologies used: Terraform, Vault Enterprise, HSM
HashiCorp Terraform Integration Partner
T-Systems (Schweiz AG) / Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (SBB)
Design and implementation of core platform components for the automated provisioning of IaaS resources in a national critical infrastructure environment.
Development of dynamic, multi-tenant Terraform modules for Open Telekom Cloud as the basis for standardized infrastructure provisioning in SBB’s private cloud
Design and implementation of Packer templates to automate the creation of security-compliant system images (RHEL 7/8/9, Windows Server)
Focus on reusability, standardization, and long-term platform maintainability
The results provided the technical foundation for consistent, reproducible, and auditable infrastructure automation in a highly available environment.
Technologies used: Terraform, Packer, Vault
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Architect / Terraform Expert
Opitz Consulting Deutschland GmbH
Technical responsibility for modernizing and stabilizing a production Terraform platform without disrupting ongoing operations.
Upgrade of an existing Terragrunt/Terraform production environment from Terraform OSS 0.12 to 1.0
Migration and consolidation of approx. 450 Terraform state files with around 1.800 infrastructure resources
Analysis and optimization of existing CI/CD processes, along with structured code refactoring
Design and delivery of a tailored Terraform training program for internal teams
The project reduced technical risks, ensured the platform’s long-term viability, and enabled internal teams to develop it independently.
Technologies used: Terraform, Terragrunt, Packer, Ansible, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Head of Managed Cloud Services
Diso AG
Built and led the Managed Cloud Services department, focusing on standardized, automated cloud and platform services.
Designed and established a managed cloud service portfolio for enterprise customers
Defined technical standards and operating models for cloud and platform services
Provided technical leadership and worked closely with internal engineering and delivery teams
Reviewed and improved the existing implementation of ISO 27001
Short-term leadership and team-building role as part of the strategic realignment of the service portfolio and ISO 27001 recertification.
ICT Specialist
Eidg. Departement für Verteidigung, Bevölkerungsschutz und Sport
Designed and introduced comprehensive infrastructure automation in the Swiss Army Command Support Base (FUB) environment.
Designed and implemented automated infrastructure processes using HashiCorp tools
Supported the transition from traditional waterfall processes to agile ways of working
Contributed to security-critical projects and value streams as part of the “Erneuerung” program
The project improved the reproducibility, traceability, and operational reliability of infrastructure in a military environment with heightened security requirements.
Technologies used: Terraform, Vault, Consul, Packer, DevOps, Scrum
Cloud Architect
BearingPoint Software Solutions GmbH
Architected, designed, and implemented a cost-efficient testing platform in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for a business-critical software product.
- Benchmarked and migrated bare-metal IaaS environments from IBM SoftLayer to OCI
- Automated the infrastructure with Terraform and Packer
The new target architecture reduced cloud operating costs by around 60 %, while improving scalability and operational stability.
Technologies used: Terraform, Packer, Vault, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Oracle Database
Industry experience
See where this freelancer has spent most of their professional time.
Experienced in Government and Administration, Information Technology, Professional Services, Banking and Finance, Energy, and Automotive.
Business area experience
See which departments and functions this freelancer has contributed to most.
Experienced in Information Technology, Operations, and Product Development.
Summary
I take responsibility for security- and audit-critical infrastructure automation in regulated environments such as government agencies, banks, insurance companies and telcos.
For over 25 years, I have designed, migrated and operated IT platforms where misconfigurations, manual changes or reliance on specific individuals are not an option. My focus is on building and operating fully auditable Infrastructure-, Security- and Policy-as-Code platforms based on the HashiCorp stack and Ansible.
In projects, I have been able to:
- measurably improve operational reliability and audit readiness,
- eliminate manual changes, and
- reduce cloud operating costs by up to 60%.
I have designed, implemented and integrated platforms that automate the operation of infrastructure, access and security resources in multitenant environments at a scale of tens to hundreds of thousands, with high availability and auditability.
I am typically brought in when platforms are subject to regulatory oversight, must pass audits, and need to operate continuously and reproducibly without relying on undocumented expert knowledge.
Skills
Technical Qualifications
- Oracle Solaris 7/8/9/10/11 (Certified) – 30 Years (+++)
- Oracle Linux / Red Hat Enterprise Linux – 20 Years (++)
- General Linux Engineering – 25 Years (++ )
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (Oci) Architecture – 8 Years (++ )
- Amazon Web Services Architecture – 3 Years (+)
- Organisational Transformation To Devops / Agile / Scrum – 6 Years (+++)
- It Project Management And Technical Leadership – 17 Years (+)
- Leadership Experience With Personnel Responsibility – 8 Years (+)
- Infrastructure Provisioning – 8 Years (+++)
- Network Automation (Service Discovery & Service Meshes) – 7 Years (+++)
- Secrets Management, Mfa & Zero Trust (Security-As-Code) – 5 Years (+++)
- Application Orchestration (Containers, Vms, Bare Metal, Processes) – 3 Years (+++)
- Implementation Of Enterprise Policies (Policy-As-Code) – 2 Years (+++)
- Oci Generative Ai Dedicated Clusters (Llm Training, Fine-Tuning) – 1 Year (++ )
- Prompt Engineering (Chain-Of-Thought, Least-To-Most, Step-Back, Etc.) – 1 Year (++ )
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (Rag) – 1 Year (++ )
- Hashicorp Terraform & Packer – Infrastructure Provisioning – 8 Years (+++)
- Hashicorp Vault – Secrets Management, Pki, Encryption-As-A-Service – 5 Years (+++)
- Hashicorp Consul – Service Discovery, Service Defined Data Center – 7 Years (+++)
- Hashicorp Nomad – Application Deployment & Orchestration – 3 Years (+++)
Soft Skills
- It Service Management (Itsm, Itil) – 20 Years (++ )
- Project Management (Pmbok) – 4 Years (+)
- Devops & Agile Methods (Implementation, Training) – 8 Years (+++)
- Scrum & Nexus Frameworks – 6 Years (+)
- Technical Guidance And Training – 15 Years (+++)
- Client Perspective And Service Orientation – 15 Years (+++)
- Team Leadership (Primary Belpin Role: Shaper) – 15 Years (+++)
- Time And Resource Management – 12 Years (++ )
- Target Group-Oriented Communication – 6 Years (++ )
- Technical And Disciplinary Leadership Responsibility – 17 Years (+++)
- Personnel Management – 8 Years (++ )
- Decision-Making And Priorization – 15 Years (+++)
- Continuous Improvement Processes – 17 Years (+++)
Personal Attributes
- Preference For Independent Work
- Very High Degree Of Personal Responsibility
- Strong Initiative And Proactive Project Execution
- High Empathy For Customers And Diversity
- Excellent Communication Skills
- Strongly Structured Approach
Keywords
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
- Oci
- Aws
- Amazon Web Services
- Cloud Migration
- Cloud Architecture
- Hybrid Cloud
- Public Cloud
- Private Cloud
- Generative Ai Infrastructure
- Oci Generative Ai
- Llm Deployment
- Llm Fine-Tuning
- Llm
- Rag
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation
- Infrastructure As Code
- Iac
- Terraform
- Terraform Enterprise
- Packer
- Ansible
- Ansible Automation Platform
- Policy As Code
- Infrastructure Provisioning
- Network Automation
- Orchestration
- Automation
- Ci/Cd
- Devops Automation
- Container
- Orchestration
- Hashicorp Vault
- Vault Enterprise
- Secrets Management
- Pki
- Public Key Infrastructure
- Mfa
- Encryption As A Service
- Hsm
- Hardware Security Module
- Root Ca
- Intermediate Ca
- Certificate Management
- Zero Trust Architecture
- Security As Code
- Iso 27001
- Iam Integration
- Generative Ai
- Oci Generative Ai Professional
- Large Language Models
- Prompt Engineering
- Retrieval Augmented Generation
- Fine-Tuning
- Ai Infrastructure
- Private Ai
- Gpu Clusters
- Hashicorp Terraform
- Hashicorp Packer
- Hashicorp Vault
- Hashicorp Consul
- Hashicorp Nomad
- Service Mesh
- Service Discovery
- Nomad Cluster
- Consul Cluster
- Application Orchestration
- Hashicorp Partner
- Certified Hashicorp Implementation Partner
- Chip
- Ibm
- Ibm Partner
- Oracle Solaris
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- Rhel
- Oracle Linux
- Centos
- Linux Engineering
- Cloud Architect
- Infrastructure Architect
- It Consultant
- Security Architect
- Vault Consultant
- Terraform Expert
- Pki Specialist
- Devops Trainer
- Project Manager
- Team Lead
- Senior Engineer
- Devops
- Agile Methods
- Scrum
- Itil
- Itsm
- Continuous Improvement
- Project Management
- It Leadership
- Transition Management
- Organisational Development
- Customer Orientation
- Empathy
- Communication
- Team Leadership
- Personal Responsibility
- Time Management
- Training
- Training
- Decision-Making
- Independent Work
- Oci Architect Associate
- Oci Generative Ai Professional
- Aws Certified Solutions Architect
- Hashicorp Vault Associate
- Hashicorp Terraform Associate
- Hashicorp Consul Associate
- Certified Implementation Partner
Languages
Education
Technical University of Kaiserslautern
No degree · Department of Technoinformatics · Kaiserslautern, Germany
Technical University of Kaiserslautern
Department of Computer Science · Kaiserslautern, Germany
Staatliches Speyer-Kolleg
General university entrance qualification (Abitur) · Speyer, Germany
Certifications & licenses
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure 2024 Certified Architect Associate
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Vault: Certified HashiCorp Implementation Partner
HashiCorp
HashiCorp Certified Consul Associate
HashiCorp
HashiCorp Certified Vault Associate
HashiCorp
Terraform: Certified HashiCorp Implementation Partner
HashiCorp
HashiCorp Certified Terraform Associate
HashiCorp
Statistics
Experience
Global experience
Expertise
Qualifications
Frequently asked questions
Have questions? Find more information here.
Ralf is based in Belp, Switzerland and prefers 100% remote projects.
Ralf speaks the following languages: German (Native), English (Advanced).
Ralf has at least 7 years of experience. During this time, Ralf has worked in at least 9 different roles and for 10 different companies. The average length of individual experience is 1 year and 9 months. Note that Ralf may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.
Based on recent experience, Ralf would be well-suited for roles such as: Infrastructure-as-Code Transformation Architect, Security Architect, HashiCorp Nomad Consultant.
Ralf's most recent position is Infrastructure-as-Code Transformation Architect at ODDO BHF.
In recent years, Ralf has worked for ODDO BHF, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, E.ON SE, Porsche AG, and DEVK Deutsche Eisenbahn Versicherung AG.
Ralf is most experienced in industries like Government and Administration, Information Technology, and Professional Services. Ralf also has some experience in Banking and Finance, Automotive, and Transportation.
Ralf is most experienced in business areas like Information Technology, Operations, and Product Development.
Ralf has recently worked in industries like Government and Administration, Information Technology, and Banking and Finance.
Ralf has recently worked in business areas like Information Technology and Operations.
Ralf holds a Bachelor in Central heating and ventilation technician apprenticeship.
Ralf has 6 certificates. Among them, these include: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure 2024 Certified Architect Associate, Vault: Certified HashiCorp Implementation Partner, and HashiCorp Certified Consul Associate.
Ralf will be available part-time from January 2027.
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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 6 Nov 2026. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
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