Chief Technology Officers in Germany

Project: Defect Generation on Test-Bench Images of Metal Surfaces Environment: Automated Visual Inspection (AVI), Metallurgy & Manufacturing

• Objective & Implementation: Designed, architected, and trained Generative Adversarial Networks (Pix2PixHD / SPADE) for image-to-image transformation. Targeted generation of synthetic material defects (e.g., cracks, inclusions, scale) on rough metal surfaces under real test-bench lighting conditions for privacy-compliant and efficient dataset expansion (data augmentation).
• Technical Design: Implemented robust Generative AI and computer vision pipelines in Python and PyTorch. Used semantic segmentation approaches for mask-controlled defect synthesis and subsequent evaluation with EfficientDet object detection models.
• Business Impact: Massive dataset upscaling (10x) without time-consuming and costly physical test-bench runs, while significantly improving the detection performance of automated inspection systems.

Technologies & Skills Used: Python | PyTorch | SPADE | Pix2PixHD | EfficientDet | Machine Learning | Semantic Segmentation | Computer Vision

Stabilization of an Azure/.NET landscape in live operation.

• Architecture, DevOps, and operational readiness; technical decisions under time pressure
• Azure DevOps, monitoring, ETL/ELT, cloud security, FinOps, and data-mesh-related topics

Technologies: Azure DevOps, .NET, CI/CD, monitoring, FinOps

• 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.

• Transformation and global scaling (listed in the MDAX)
• Stabilization and professionalization of the ongoing value creation program
• Consistent challenging of the workstreams regarding content, target achievement, and progress, as well as realization of the defined value drivers
• Identification and removal of implementation blockers to ensure execution speed
• Reporting to the Executive Board and Supervisory Board

• Interim mandate to define the IT Service Strategy 2026, stabilize leadership and organizational structures, and prepare the platform and service organization for scaling. Focus on management clarity, stakeholder alignment and customer orientation in a volatile environment.

• Strongly technical predecessor role with limited leadership and management impact

• High turnover and increasing use of junior consultants

• Missing SLAs with key service providers (including BTC, Bechtle) as well as missing KPI and reporting structures

• Missing strategic framework and inconsistent communication with stakeholders

• Overall responsibility for the organizational unit, budget, providers and strategic prioritization

• Leadership of an organization staffed predominantly with external consultants (including PwC, Wavestone, Accenture)

• Responsibility for leadership stabilization and management effectiveness

• Close cooperation with executive management and the advisory board as well as with key stakeholders in a sensitive environment

• Development and communication of a clear IT Strategy 2026 as a framework for management and teams

• Restoration of leadership focus and decision-making clarity in a fragmented organization

• Noticeable improvement in how leadership and communication were perceived by stakeholders

• Introduction of a clear prioritization logic to reduce operational friction

• Initial stabilization of the organization within a deliberately short interim period

Tech & Methods: Azure Cloud, Service Governance, Stakeholder Management, Provider Steering, Leadership Frameworks

• Review and assessment of the existing situation
• Identification and definition of implementation measures to close existing gaps

• 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.

• Product responsibility for the central platform "one" as a group-wide web-based customer portal
• Coordination of the connection of 20 group companies to the product platform
• Derivation and steering of a group-wide product strategy and roadmap aligned with company goals
• Prioritization and bundling of strategic requirements from the various group companies
• Harmonization of different interests and moderation of complex decision-making processes at management level
• Ensuring the technical and business integration of the product into existing system landscapes, business processes, and business models
• Building transparent governance and decision-making structures for group-wide product development
• Representation of the product towards internal and external stakeholders at leadership level

Assessment of the product, delivery, and AI organization with a realignment of operational excellence, target architecture, and AI-first operating model

Situation: The product and delivery organization showed structural weaknesses in efficiency, control, and collaboration. In addition, there was no clear target architecture for AI-driven product and organizational development. At leadership level, there was limited transparency regarding roles, responsibilities, and operational performance.

Responsibility & approach:

• Analysis of the existing product, delivery, and organizational structures in terms of processes, governance, and controllability
• Evaluation of architecture and platform with regard to scalability, future readiness, and AI integration
• Development of a target picture for an AI-first product and delivery operating model
• Derivation of concrete measures to improve operational excellence and collaboration
• Sparring with the leadership team on structured organizational development

Results & impact:

• Creation of transparency regarding structural bottlenecks, performance, and decision-making logic
• Development of a target structure for a scalable AI-first product and delivery setup
• Improvement of decision-making capability and control at leadership level
• Creation of a solid basis for downstream transformation measures
• Definition of concrete levers to improve efficiency, collaboration, and time-to-market

• Coaching the CTO on translating the product strategy into technical strategy and AI transformation of the R&D organization; acting as an independent sparring partner on strategic and technical topics

• Self-employed · Berlin, Germany
• Co-founded the company and own the entire technical side: product architecture, backend, frontend, infrastructure and operations.
• Designed and built the Automated Booking System (ABS) as well as the core platform and payment logic.
• Development of AI-powered SaaS products, from architecture through backend and frontend to production operation.
• Technical consulting on product architecture, data protection and permissible automation.
• Building, running and monetising my own API products for AI agents, each available as a REST interface and as an MCP server.
• Full ownership of architecture, infrastructure, billing, legal texts and go-to-market.

Leading the technical vision and product strategy for a sovereign AI startup focused on European data infrastructure and compliance. Managing a cross-functional team of 7 across engineering, AI development, and operations in a fully remote environment.

• Defining the company's product and technology roadmap, including AI-powered solutions with integrated payment services
• Designing scalable platform architectures with emphasis on data sovereignty, security, and European regulatory compliance
• Driving hands-on development across the full stack while establishing engineering best practices and DevOps workflows
• Enabling developer productivity through mentoring, architectural guidance, and tooling decisions
• Shaping the long-term technical strategy to position the company for sustainable growth

I designed and developed an AI-powered multi-tenant platform on Azure that transforms SAP process recordings into technical documentation, presentations and automated tests, processing over 15,000 process recordings for enterprise customers like Würth. I owned the architecture, the production releases and the DevOps setup. I also designed a multi-tenant system with SSO and role-based access on Azure. Implemented an MCP Server with Dynamic OAuth Authentication.

Main Tasks:

• Sprint planning and feature preparation
• Design the multi-tenant platform architecture (FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, PostgreSQL row-level security for tenant isolation)
• Develop AI pipelines with Prefect for transcription (Azure Speech API), document generation and SAP screen-recording analysis (Claude, gpt-4-mini)
• Design and implement an MCP server to expose tenant knowledge to LLM clients (Claude), with async retrieval and reranking
• Implement LLM cost tracking, rate limiting and client pooling for Anthropic/OpenAI/Azure OpenAI endpoints
• Set up CI/CD: Docker images to Azure Container Registry, GitHub Actions, Azure Static Web Apps, Alembic migrations in containers
• Manage production releases and execute live data migrations for enterprise customers
• Define engineering standards and architecture patterns for the team

Environment: Azure / Azure Foundry / Python / FastAPI / Prefect / React / PostgreSQL