Find the best Technical Directors in Berlin in minutes from 15,000 CVs with the power of AI
Bring in senior technical leadership for software architecture, production workflows, system integration, or hands-on delivery across complex projects. Get matched fast with vetted, available freelancers who can step in, align teams, and keep execution on track.
About the role
What they do
A Technical Director turns business goals into a working technical plan. In practice, this means defining the architecture, choosing the right tools, and making sure delivery stays realistic. In many companies, the role sits between product, engineering, operations, and external vendors.
- Shape technical strategy and delivery plans
- Review architecture, integrations, and dependencies
- Lead technical teams, specialists, or vendors
- Solve blockers during build, launch, or scale phases
- Align stakeholders on scope, risk, and trade-offs
Where they add value
Companies bring in a Technical Director when the work is too complex for a single specialist or too urgent for a long hiring cycle. This is common for platform rebuilds, multi-team launches, cloud migrations, live environments, and projects that involve several systems or suppliers.
In Berlin, demand often comes from software teams, agencies, media companies, e-commerce brands, and startups that need strong technical direction without adding a permanent executive. A freelance technical lead, engineering director, or CTO-level interim profile can cover this gap well when the scope is focused but high-stakes.
Core skills
A strong Technical Director combines deep technical judgment with clear leadership. They need to understand the build, not only the brief.
- System design, architecture, and integration thinking
- Cloud platforms, DevOps, and release processes
- Code review, technical planning, and quality control
- Team coordination across developers, designers, QA, and ops
- Clear communication with non-technical stakeholders
Typical deliverables
The output is usually concrete and easy to review. You should expect plans, decisions, and technical direction that teams can execute against.
- Architecture reviews and technical roadmaps
- Delivery plans for launches, migrations, or rebuilds
- Risk logs, dependency maps, and prioritised fixes
- Technical briefs for internal teams or agencies
- Vendor assessment and implementation oversight
Tools and environments
The exact stack depends on the project, but strong Technical Directors are fluent in modern delivery environments. That can include cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, monitoring tools, version control, and collaborative issue tracking. In product and platform work, they often work with engineering leads, developers, and DevOps specialists; in media, events, or industrial setups, they may also manage hardware, streaming, or control systems.
Signs you need one
When delivery is slowing down, decisions keep getting revisited, or teams are building without a clear technical owner, the role becomes urgent. It is also a good fit when you need someone to join quickly, assess the situation, and take control without long onboarding.
A strong freelance Technical Director is calm under pressure, precise in scope, and firm on quality. They do not just point out issues; they make the next step clear and keep the work moving.
Meet FRATCH Technical Directors
Thomas Übermeier
Innovative Fintech & Blockchain Leader · Head Of Engineering
Last position:
Head of Engineering - Midnight at IOG / Midnight
IOG (IOHK), is one of the world's pre-eminent blockchain infrastructure research and engineering companies.
- Converted a lingering R&D project into a cohesive, production-ready testnet; built and scaled the 35-member engineering team (Core, QA, SRE) to achieve this goal.
- Defined strategic direction and aligned technology development with business objectives as a key member of the leadership.
- Optimized software development processes and implemented agile methodologies, enhancing operational efficiency and code security.
- Delivered projects in a fast-paced startup environment through effective project management and resource allocation.
Clemens Berlin
Director of Engineering
Last position:
Director of Engineering at SIDES GmbH
- Leading engineering organization of 45 engineers across 8 teams while serving dual role as Head of Backend
- Addressed critical organizational challenges including siloed departments, lack of engineering processes, and absence of technical strategy
- Executed comprehensive engineering leadership in people management, organizational design, and strategic planning
- Drove platform modernization including migration to a new Python backend, implementation of React micro-frontends, and transition to event-driven architecture
- Established engineering excellence framework through Architecture Decision Records, RFC processes, and comprehensive technology roadmapping
- Transformed engineering into integrated business partner by building collaboration channels with Product Management and Customer Operations teams
- Reduced escaped bugs by 50% and increased test coverage in legacy systems
- Achieved 100% Q2 roadmap delivery through realistic planning and improved estimation accuracy
- Introduced AI engineering strategy, establishing policies, providing tools, and training team on prompt engineering and agentic workflows
- Saved €10k monthly through infrastructure optimization including AWS IoT to RabbitMQ migration and decommissioning legacy systems
- Improved team engagement from 60% to 100% survey participation and enhanced eNPS scores among team leaders
- Built high-performance team through strategic hiring of Python, Go, and frontend engineers and improved onboarding
- Implementing transition to self-organized cross-functional teams
Sven Krahn
Interim CTO / CTPO (Software-, Cloud- & AI-Transformation)
Last position:
Technical Advisor / Assessment Lead (Product Delivery & AI-Transformation) at nexMart GmbH & Co. KG
Assessment of the product, delivery, and AI organization with a realignment of operational excellence, target architecture, and AI-first operating model
Initial 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, transparency about roles, responsibilities, and operational performance was limited.
Responsibility & approach:
- Analysis of the existing product, delivery, and organizational structures with regard to processes, governance, and controllability
- Evaluation of architecture and platform in terms of 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 around structural bottlenecks, performance, and decision logic
- Development of a target structure for a scalable AI-first product and delivery setup
- Improved decision-making ability and controllability at leadership level
- Creation of a solid foundation for downstream transformation measures
- Definition of concrete levers to improve efficiency, collaboration, and time to market
Jad Nohra
Engineering Director (Hands-on)
Last position:
Software Developer at Side Project
- Vram.run: Rust, TypeScript, HF Inference API with 19 providers, 220+ HW configs, and 30+ cloud GPUs. Search a model to see which API providers serve it, which GPUs can run it locally (and how fast), and what cloud rental would cost. Or search your hardware and see what fits. Also includes a Rust CLI.
- Psychotron: JavaScript, Web Audio API, AudioWorklet, Canvas 2D. Front-end for flash fiction audiobook with Web Audio DSP chain featuring pitch-shifting, 12-voice chorus, flanger, 13-band EQ, and convolver reverb. Includes a 2D canvas effect morphing engine and synchronized teleprompter.
- RecentWork: Swift, macOS, FSEvents, launchd. macOS daemon that watches project directories and maintains a flat folder of symlinks to recently modified files. Homebrew installable.
- Mini-llm: Bash, macOS, launchd, Ollama, llama.cpp, MLX, Open WebUI. Single command that turns a Mac Mini into a headless AI server.
- ThatSlop: JavaScript. Chrome/Firefox extension for AI content detection on LinkedIn and Twitter.
- Smux: Bash, tmux. Human-friendly tmux wrapper that is Homebrew installable.
- Learn Rust Course: Rust. Course on Rust’s memory model for C++ programmers, written from experience of transitioning from C++ to Rust at Irreducible.
Jurgen Wiehan
Director of Engineering
Last position:
Director of Engineering at Wunderflats
- Reporting directly to the CEO.
- Responsible for all things in the engineering space including software engineering, architecture and quality assurance.
- Led a team of around 25 cross functional team members including frontend, backend and fullstack engineers.
- Aligned engineering strategies with organisation strategy through clearly identifiable OKRs.
- Introduced Team Topologies and Scrum, ensuring less hand-offs between teams and improving their efficiencies which resulted in more impactful solutions for our customers.
- Lead the technology due diligence process for an M&A decision.
- Spearheaded the re-architecture of our product from monolith to microservices, reducing technical debt and enabling expansion into new markets.
- Managed a budget of around €2m, optimising costs by introducing SaaS solutions and replacing homegrown systems.
- Negotiated vendor contracts, reducing costs by at least 10% and improving service delivery.
- Set clear expectations and goals for engineers ensuring their continued growth within the organisation.
- Technology stacks included React, Node.js, MongoDB and GCP.
Tino Truppel
Fractional AI Architect | AI Strategy Lead
Last position:
Director Technology at Forte Digital Germany
- Leading 20+ staff in development, site reliability engineering, and architecture.
- Leading the group-wide agentic AI initiative (Norway, Poland, Germany).
- Hands-on solution architect and AI consultant for over 50% of my working time on client projects in the publishing sector – from local publishers to international corporations.
- Strategic consulting and technical implementation of AI workflow platforms (n8n, Workato).
- Developing prototypes for traditional, AI-based, and agentic AI workflows.
Volker Krause
Head of Engineering
Last position:
Head of Engineering at Infoniqa
- Led engineering execution: roadmap planning, capacity alignment, risk management, dependencies, and delivery tracking.
- Consolidated multiple payroll product lines into a unified SaaS platform on Dynamics 365 Business Central, enabling scalable post-merger operations and reducing operational complexity across the portfolio.
- Restructured engineering and product teams in a remote-first setting across Germany, Austria and Poland, consisting of five cross-functional units: compliance/enabling, platform, DevOps and two stream-aligned teams with total FTE depending on phase of reorganisation.
- Rebuilt the mid-level leadership layer and mentored engineering leaders, establishing a leadership pipeline and strengthening architectural decision-making across teams for scalable growth, delivery ownership and predictability.
- Designed platform foundations and system boundaries using Team Topologies aligned structures, enabling scalable ownership, clear interfaces and parallel development across distributed teams.
- Spearheaded AI transformation by implementing AI-assisted SDLC practices using SpecKit and GitHub Actions for automated, executable specifications, while delivering agentic product capabilities by securely exposing platform data and services to AI agents and copilots via RAG-based retrieval pipelines and MCP-style extensions.
- Drove modularisation of tightly coupled legacy logic into independently deployable services, improving maintainability, testability and architectural clarity while preserving continuity through targeted, low-risk extraction rather than full rewrites.
- Established observability, CI/CD and DevOps governance as platform capabilities, increasing automated compliance gates from 25% to 75% and improving deployment cadence by 40% across 15+ product versions.
- Improved operational resilience using DORA-aligned practices (lead time ↓50%, SaaS MTTR ↓85%), strengthening reliability and reducing support overhead.
- Coordinated engineering recovery for the German payroll platform during a company-wide P0 ransomware incident; restored platform continuity within 72h, validated data integrity, and rolled out hardened runbooks and automated recovery playbooks.
- Responsible for budget compliance and cost oversight in Engineering, with limited P&L responsibility and participating in the annual COGS/OPEX/CAPEX planning cycle.
Alex Ischenko
Public Speaker
Last position:
Public Speaker at WeAreDevelopers
- Participated as a public speaker regarding leadership and transformational topics at the WeAreDevelopers World Congress with 15 thousand visitors.
Johannes Henel
Engineer / Consultant
Last position:
Project Lead at Public Sector (multiple federal and state authorities)
Consultant for the organization of several federal and state authorities
Program management
Project management
Change management
Digitalization
Danilo Freitas
Chief Technology Officer
Last position:
Chief Technology Officer at VR Smart Guide
- Responsible for the digitalization of complex financial processes by leveraging AI capabilities and stabilizing a technical team with strong engineering culture
- Member of the company's senior management alongside the CEO and COO, defined and executed the P&L strategy
- Rebooted the engineering team by replacing underperforming people, adding flexible engineering profiles for experimental projects, supporting the business, and restructuring the P&L by freezing financially unproductive scopes
- Actively supported fundraising by deep-diving into financial structures and validating the business rationale to focus on strategic goals
- Freezing products with no relevant revenue streams
- Prioritizing the pivot toward data products
- Renegotiating vendors
- Cleaning up unproductive SaaS
- Reorganizing the tech org chart into a flexible team to reduce committed cash burn
- Created data and AI teams and introduced AI specialists who produced core business solutions such as innovative prediction models for financial scoring and digitalization of the banking process
- Created and executed fintech compliance requirements in accordance with ZAG/BaFin
- Responsible for creating and executing a data-driven view to leverage financial services based on transnational data for SMEs' financial risk evaluation and management
- Formed first-level engineering leadership by creating cross-functional teams and introducing platform teams for speed and reliability
- Created a lean strategy for implementing a scalable microservices-based architecture using event-driven design and migrated existing projects from bare metal to GCP with CI/CD pipeline
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Technical Directors statistics
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
22 years
Position duration
3.6 years
Positions per freelancer
10
Top business areas
Information Technology, Product Development, Project Management
Top industries
Information Technology, Professional Services, Education
Certification focus areas
Project Management, Information Technology, Business Intelligence
Bachelor's degree or higher
80%
Master's degree or higher
60%
Certifications per freelancer
2
Most common languages
German, English, Dutch
Speak two or more languages
100%
Daily Rate Distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers in this role are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Average rates for Technical Directors & Seniority distribution
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
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.
Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Frequently Asked Questions
Got questions? Learn key details about FRATCH right now
A Technical Director defines the technical direction, checks whether the plan is feasible, and helps teams deliver it cleanly. On freelance assignments, that often includes architecture decisions, delivery oversight, and fast problem-solving when blockers appear. The role is hands-on enough to guide execution, but senior enough to protect the bigger picture.
A freelance Technical Director makes sense when the need is urgent, the scope is specific, or the company needs outside expertise for a limited period. This is common for launches, migrations, reorganisations, or rescue work on a struggling build. It avoids a long search and gives you senior direction right away.
The best Technical Director understands architecture, delivery processes, and team coordination. They should also communicate clearly with product, operations, and business stakeholders, because many problems are not purely technical. Strong judgment matters more than knowing one single stack.
Not exactly. A Technical Director is often more focused on delivery and technical direction than a CTO, and more strategic than a technical lead. Compared with an engineering manager, the role usually has broader ownership across systems, suppliers, and technical decisions.
In Berlin, Technical Directors are often brought in for software platforms, digital products, creative agencies, media projects, and complex cross-team builds. They are especially useful when several teams or vendors need to work together without losing technical consistency. The local market often values clear communication in English, and sometimes German for stakeholder work.
Look for a Technical Director who can explain trade-offs clearly, not just name tools. Good candidates show how they handled delivery risks, team conflicts, or messy technical transitions. Their past work should show structure, calm decisions, and a habit of leaving teams in better shape than they found them.
Many Technical Directors can start remotely, especially for planning, audits, and architecture work. On-site time helps when they need to align several teams, review live setups, or work with stakeholders who prefer face-to-face decisions. In Berlin, hybrid setups are common and usually work well.
A good Technical Director will first map the current setup, identify risks, and clarify who owns what. They usually ask for access to documentation, code, systems, or project plans, depending on the assignment. From there, they should quickly turn uncertainty into a clear action plan.
The average hourly rate for Technical Directors in Berlin is 153 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 1,220 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers working as Technical Directors in Berlin, 80% hold at least a Bachelor's degree and 60% hold at least a Master's degree.
On average, freelancers working as Technical Directors in Berlin have 22 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 3.6 years.
The most common languages among freelancers working as Technical Directors in Berlin are German (100%), English (100%), and Dutch (20%).
The most common industries among freelancers working as Technical Directors in Berlin are Information Technology (100%), Professional Services (50%), and Education (40%).
The most common business areas among freelancers working as Technical Directors in Berlin are Information Technology (100%), Product Development (90%), and Project Management (90%).
FRATCH Technical Directors main locations
Our freelancers and interim experts are at home across the DACH region — available on-site in the major business hubs or fully remote. Choose a location to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.
Request a Free Demo
Get in touch with the FRATCH team and we will get back to you within 4 hours.
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Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
