Cloud Consultants in Germany

• Designed and moderated a NIS2 preparation workshop for RAS Reinhardt Maschinenbau GmbH and its IT service provider Catuno GmbH. Together with executive management and IT leadership, the current status was assessed, an initial GAP analysis was conducted and areas for action were prioritized based on ISO 27001.
• Developed an ISO-27001-based regulatory framework (ISMS) for NIS2 compliance, including a structured current/target GAP analysis, targeted improvement of the security maturity level and preparation of the organization for NIS2 audit readiness.

Creation of concepts for M365 implementation, especially Tenants, EntraID, EntraConnect and ExchangeOnline, taking BAS standards into account (mandatory baseline security requirements) in the project "Concept M365" with the aim of transferring the concepts to the M365 environments of Bitmarck and then handing them over to the customer.

• Creation of a current-state analysis of the existing M365 environments as well as the on-premises environments and the BAS standards.
• Creation of concepts for the topics Tenants, EntraID, EntraConnect and ExchangeOnline taking the BAS standards into account
• Design and implementation of an automated solution for creating standardized M365 tenants based on Microsoft M365 DSC (Desired State Configuration)
• Transfer of the concepts into the M365 environments
• Creation of detailed technical documentation

• Team leadership: Prioritization and coordination of four cross-functional teams.
• Platform strategy: Development and implementation of strategies to optimize existing IT platforms.
• Stakeholder management: Active management of expectations and communication with internal and external stakeholders.
• Program and innovation management: Prioritization and coordination of cross-department projects as well as innovation initiatives.
• Product Owner consulting: Advising Product Owners with a focus on product development and continuous product improvement.
• Organizational development: Improving communication and decision-making structures across all organizational levels.
• Change management: Implementing best-practice change management methods to ensure continuous optimization and innovation.
• Quality assurance: Ensuring high quality standards in processes, services, and deliverables.

• Short description: Lead a group-wide project to establish standardized cloud governance for Microsoft Azure, including policies, security and compliance controls, automation, and cost and operations control while preserving the autonomy of decentralized business units within regulatory boundaries.

• Tasks and activities:

• Overall responsibility for the design, setup, and implementation of an enterprise-wide cloud governance structure (Azure), incl. target picture, roadmap, and operating model.

• Management of internal and external stakeholders (C-level, IT, Security, Compliance, Cloud Architecture, DevOps) incl. decision-making and escalation management.

• Planning and facilitation of workshops on cloud strategy, governance principles, and the design of areas such as Identity, Connectivity, and Platform Management.

• Definition, implementation, and rollout of cloud policies (Azure Policy / custom policies), security standards, and compliance requirements (including GDPR, ISO 27001, BSI C5).

• Building a cloud governance framework aligned with the Azure Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF), incl. landing zone and guardrail concepts.

• Introduction of automation solutions for governance, security, and cost control (policy/control automation, IaC, CI/CD-based control mechanisms).

• Implementation of cloud security and compliance monitoring mechanisms as well as continuous improvement processes.

• Establishment and operationalization of FinOps in an enterprise environment (central and decentralized FinOps teams), incl. cost management strategies, reporting, and guardrails.

• Integration of governance policies into DevOps processes (e.g. CI/CD principles for security and compliance checks, GitLab Runner concept in spokes, GitLab CI/CD for CAF landing zones).

• Implementation of access concepts incl. RBAC design and "break glass" mechanisms (emergency access) as well as certificate automation (ACME / step-ca).

• Achievements:

• Created a unified, auditable governance and control set for Azure (policies, standards, compliance mapping) and thus laid the foundation for scalable cloud usage in a regulated environment.

• Established repeatable automation for governance, security, and cost control (IaC + CI/CD), reducing manual effort and implementation risks.

• Improved operational and decision-making capabilities across central and decentralized units (clearer roles, responsibilities, escalation paths, balance between autonomy and group requirements).

• Significantly increased workload compliance for lift-and-shift migrations.

• Technologies used:

• Microsoft Azure Policy, custom policies.

• Terraform, OpenTofu, Terragrunt.

• step-ca (ACME).

• Entra ID.

• Azure Firewall.

• Azure networking, hub-and-spoke architecture.

• Azure vWAN (evaluation).

• Azure Front Door, Azure Application Gateway.

• Azure ExpressRoute.

• Azure Key Vault.

• NetBox.

• GitLab (on-premises).

• Infrastructure, concepts used:

• Cloud shared responsibility model.

• Hub-and-spoke connectivity / central shared services (from a hub-spoke context).

• Central governance with decentralized delivery (business unit autonomy with guardrails).

• Methods used:

• Scrum.

• Stakeholder management (C-level to engineering).

• Cloud governance, Azure Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF).

• DevOps, CI/CD.

• Cost and FinOps approaches: tagging/chargeback models, budget/alert concepts, reserved instances/savings plans vs. on-demand scenarios, sensitivity analyses.

• RBAC, "break glass" concepts.

• ACME / certificate automation.

• GitLab Runner concept in spokes, GitLab CI/CD pipelines for CAF landing zones.

• Onboarded and conducted comprehensive documentation and system analysis to assess the existing data infrastructure, facilitating rapid integration and collaboration across functional data teams (modelling, processing, reporting).
• Collaboratively defined the architecture and project structure for a central data pipeline repository, including hierarchical standards, knowledge management strategies, and role-specific responsibilities, enhancing maintainability and onboarding speed.
• Evaluated and validated open-source data routing tools (Airbyte, Apache NiFi, Dragster) for ingest and sync requirements in retail analytics, including local benchmarking and error-state testing.
• Led the design and deployment of Airbyte in Kubernetes, creating customized Helm charts, securing secrets handling, and configuring Ingress with TLS and internal DNS routing, ensuring full API and UI accessibility.
• Troubleshot and resolved Ingress controller issues, iterating through multiple stages of debugging and testing, and documented setup and replication steps for scalable reuse.
• Mapped data models to ARTS standard, supporting schema alignment for ERP and reporting use cases, and coordinated review loops to align future data processing logic.
• Drafted strategic 1-pagers comparing MinIO, Pub/Sub, and routing architectures, providing technical guidance for architectural decisions and investment planning.
• Enabled secure access and authentication mechanisms, including initial evaluation for SAML integration, cluster-level configuration reviews, and service annotation improvements.

Designed and developed an AI-powered automation platform using n8n to analyze social media niches, identify target audiences, and automate marketing strategy generation. The solution combined AI agents, workflow orchestration, and data analysis to automate research processes and generate data-driven insights.

• Designed and implemented complex automation workflows using n8n
• Developed AI-powered analysis agents for market and audience research
• Integrated multiple APIs and AI services into automated workflows
• Built automated market, competitor, and target audience analysis pipelines
• Leveraged Large Language Models (LLMs) for information summarization, classification, and prioritization
• Containerized and deployed the platform using Docker

Technologies: n8n, AI Agents, OpenAI APIs, Prompt Engineering, LLMs, Docker, Linux, REST APIs, Webhooks

• Built and operate a hybrid Kubernetes platform across bare metal and cloud to validate multi-GPU workloads, security-zone isolation, and disaster recovery.
• Operate self-hosted AI coding agents in the platform's Git workflow, from issue triage to pull-request review; every change is gated by manifest diffs and policy checks in CI.
• Co-developed a sensor-fusion and GPU edge-inference platform selected by the European Defense Tech Hub from 50 solutions for field testing.

• Led client projects end-to-end — from scoping and cloud strategy to sprint planning and stakeholder alignment
• Planned and implemented secure Azure Landing Zones using Infrastructure as Code
• Developed governance frameworks and cloud security controls tailored to enterprise environments
• Executed cloud readiness assessments and managed cloud migration initiatives from evaluation to handover
• Facilitated client workshops and agile ceremonies (sprint planning, backlog refinement, standups)
• Built internal Cloud Competence Centers to foster knowledge sharing and best practices across teams
• Development of a general Cloud Service Portal

OpsWorker turns Kubernetes alerts into root-cause analyses, on top of the monitoring a team already runs. I lead the technical side: the agent architecture, the AWS infrastructure it runs on (fully inside EU regions), and the engineering decisions behind it, read-only in the cluster by default, human in the loop for judgment. The stack underneath: Amazon Bedrock and Bedrock AgentCore, agents built with the Strands Agents SDK, the Claude and OpenAI APIs, and the Kubernetes API.

Conceptual design and implementation of a modular customer portal based on Laravel.

The focus was on defining a maintainable system architecture with broad use of Domain-Driven Design principles (within the Laravel architecture), introducing automated quality assurance processes (test strategy, CI integration), and preparing an auditable operation (logging, traceability of changes) in an AWS-based infrastructure, taking IT security standards according to NIST and process requirements according to ISO 9001 into account.

Achievements:

• Analysis and structuring of business requirements in close coordination with stakeholders
• Documentation of the system architecture and infrastructure incl. change and release management
• Design and implementation of an interface for integrating SAP systems
• Planning and implementation of automated tests for quality assurance
• Implementation of security and compliance requirements, including SBOM generation, software license management, and QA processes
• Technical consulting and support for the internal IT team
• Introduction and establishment of AI-supported development processes (Spec-Driven Development), including AI-readable specifications, integration of AI instructions into the development environment, and training developers for productive use

Technologies and tools: SAP, Docker, ddev, PHP 8.4, Laravel, Filament, C4 Model, Architecture Decision Records (ADR), Mermaid, PlantUML, Spec-Driven Development, Claude, GitHub Copilot, Codex

• Lecturer for the GenAI Track at the Master School Institute of Technology
• Development of a full-stack AI application (React + Python/FastAPI) for automated supplier product import with intelligent column and category classification (4-layer hierarchical) including human-in-the-loop validation

• I carried out a software audit and architecture consulting for an existing portal software for infrastructure provisioning for a company that offers virtual reality environments.
• Role: Mentoring and consulting
• Technologies used: Java

• Insurance service provider*

Challenge: Business-critical documents were processed through external OCR providers, with ongoing costs, dependency, and data privacy risks for sensitive insurance data.

Implementation:

• Architecture and production implementation of an on-premise OCR solution with full data ownership
• Methods for recognizing document structures as the basis for automated further processing
• ML-, NLP-, and LLM/VLM-based information extraction, especially from invoices and quotations

Success: Replaced external providers: full data ownership, GDPR-compliant processing, and 75% lower recurring OCR costs per year

Used technologies: Python, Docker, Microservices, FastAPI, PyTorch, Torchvision, MongoDB, MySQL

As part of the preparation and operational support of a business succession:

• Company analysis: Analysis of the overall economic, organizational and structural situation (current state, strengths/weaknesses, risk potentials)
• Process analysis: Recording and documentation of all relevant business processes (BPMN, UML) in the areas of management, finance, procurement, sales and operations
• Process optimization: Identification of weaknesses and inefficiencies, development and operational implementation of improvement measures
• Stakeholder management: Identification and analysis of all relevant internal and external stakeholders; structured communication and coordination with previous and future owners, shareholders and employees
• Change management: Supporting the workforce and management through the handover process; building acceptance and trust among all participants
• Governance & documentation: Creation and handover of structured operation manuals, process documentation and organizational handbook for the new business owner
• Risk & vulnerability analysis: Assessment of operational and strategic risks in the handover process and development of recommended actions
• Operational support: Interim takeover of leadership tasks; ensuring business continuity during the transition phase