Chief Technology Officers in Germany

• Private Equity owned precision grinding machines for Auto, Military & Aerospace – 1200 Employees
• Acting as Interim Group CIO / CISO consolidating Global IT back to Europe – M&A consolidation
• Managed major Security event and post event cleanup – Reporting to regulators
• Performed Vendor & Contract Management – full assessment of capabilities
• Guided Infrastructure refresh & Security Hygiene assessments

Carve-out and post-merger integration of two automotive engineering companies under Accursia Capital, 6 locations in Germany and Spain, 250+ employees after the carve-out. Reporting directly to the investor, with overall IT responsibility for both companies.

• Consolidation of the ERP landscape into one instance (replacement of SAP legacy)
• TISAX certification
• M365, identity and data center migration
• Replacement of end-of-life infrastructure
• Weekly investor reporting

Results:

• Critical infrastructure risk eliminated, backup and platform stabilized
• One IT organization established for both companies
• Weekly investor reporting successfully established

Responsibility:

• R&D budget €6,7 Mio. p.a.
• 65 employees in the teams: PMO, Software, Mechanics, Electrical & Electronics, Systems Engineering/Testing/Autopilot, Kite Design
• Sole signing authority & member of the management board

Activities:

• Overall technological responsibility for a highly complex mechatronic system (autonomous flight system, ground station, electronics, software)
• Organizational development of R&D from a start-up to a scalable structure
• Introduction of technology/development roadmaps & product development process, alignment of priorities with Product Management/Sales
• Transformation to a fully agile way of working (SCRUM, Flight Levels) with an established feedback culture
• Introduction of a strategy process for the entire company
• Representation of R&D in investor relations and responsibility for IP protection activities (IP)

Achievements:

• TRL progression & product maturity: advanced from TRL 6→7/8; completed CE risk assessment for serial deliveries; responsible for the world's first certified power curve of a high-altitude wind turbine
• Development strategy: reduced cost-intensive field tests in favor of a validated digital end-to-end toolchain (simulation, load calculation, structural design) and lab tests as the primary development path; shortened design cycles by 50–75%
• R&D architecture & organizational transformation: differentiated the development organization into pre-development, product development and series support; transformed the start-up structure into a scalable, agile organization (diverse teams, stronger team engagement); turnover in R&D <4%
• Company-wide AI transformation: introduced/scaled AI tools across all areas – 92% usage rate, 78% demonstrated application competence
• Investor dialogue: represented the company in international investor dialogues

• Industry: Insurance, Trade, IT
• Customers & Projects: Consulting and selling insurance and similar services
• Main tasks: Insurance consulting (health insurance, retirement planning, wealth building); commercial services, inside and field sales; sales data analysis and forecasting; customer consulting and support; opening a new sales headquarters for private and business customers; business development & innovation management; business use case development; process optimization; stakeholder management; team leadership and training; preparation and delivery of trainings;
• Technologies used: Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Draw.IO, Camunda 8, Java (8, 17,21,25), Git, Spring Boot, Spring Batch, Spring Data REST, Spring Web, Spring Security, J-Unit, Playwright, Lombock, Vaadin, H2, PostgreSQL (16, 17 18), pgAdmin, Docker, LLMs, JasperSoft Studio, JasperReports

• Restructuring & interim management: Leading and stabilizing R&D organizations during periods of change and growth, particularly during strategic realignment, M&A or to bridge leadership vacancies
• R&D operating models: Assessing and redesigning devel...

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

Support for Transformation Projects:

• Expert CTO advisory and enterprise architecture consulting for several short-term transformation projects, ensuring measurable improvements in project outcomes and technical business alignment.
• Supporting strategic IT initiatives for diverse clients, driving digital transformation and optimizing technology operations to increase business value and operational efficiency.

• 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

Available for interim and contract mandates

• Responsible for the backlog and roadmap of a production SaaS compliance platform for the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), with around 30 customers on AWS and Docker.
• Coordinated feature development and API integrations across 2 external and internal development teams.
• API integrations with the EU EUDR API and SAP.
• 70% fewer customer-reported issues, supporting ISO-27001 certification.