Artificial Intelligence Experts in Frankfurt

• 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

• Strategic and operational leadership of the technical service organization
• Improvement of all processes and workflows
• Development and introduction of a service management IT tool incl. AI database, customer app, and self-service portal

• Analyzed, structured, and documented business requirements for digital investment solutions, such as robo-advisors.
• Designed applications for new retirement products, including user flows, UX requirements, and functional specifications.
• Modeled and optimized business processes and coordinated with stakeholders while taking regulatory requirements in the financial sector into account.

Remote freelance role focused on Agentic AI strategy, secure application patterns, and reusable agentic workflows for a government agency.

• Development and implementation of an open source Agentic AI strategy for a government agency, with a focus on GDPR, security, and self hosted solutions
• Development of reusable agentic workflows and mini applications that enable non technical employees to solve business problems independently
• Implementation of internal business applications with Single Sign On (SSO) and Azure PostgreSQL integration on Hetzner Linux servers
• Implementation of nine mini applications with Single Sign On (SSO) and Azure PostgreSQL integration on Hetzner Linux servers
• Techstack: Python, Nextjs, Typescript, Streamlit, Anthropic SDK (Claude), Azure, Linux Ubuntu, PostgreSQL, MS SQL, Angular, Authentik

• Fully on-premises LLM document-examination platform for a compliance-critical banking domain: agentic LangGraph pipeline with deterministic verification, every AI judgment structured and source-anchored; ~960 automated tests, zero data egress
• GPU throughput engineering (quantized serving, speculative decoding, prefix caching): 9.5x extraction speed-up, 500+ multi-document case files per day on a single A100
• AI-native EDI/EDIFACT integration platform (~116k LOC Java 25 / Spring Boot 4, 1,900+ tests): LLM-drafted partner mappings machine-verified before go-live (DFDL conformance, field-coverage checks, dry runs), ~99.5% byte match on real customer files — replacing weeks of manual mapping per partner

• Goal: Development and optimization of loyalty and CRM measures for a leading e-commerce platform
• Solution: Identification of promising users, increase in engagement, and long-term retention to drive revenue growth
• Definition of local CRM direct communication for specific segments
• Translation of research insights into actionable recommendations
• Planning and implementation of CRM campaigns in close collaboration with marketing and product teams
• Identification of optimization potential in direct communication
• Collaboration with external agencies on creative solutions, prototyping, and UAT
• Measurement and reporting of key KPIs

• Head of the group-wide, international, and cross-functional IT Governance & IAM department within the central IT division of a large French-German private banking group. Disciplinary management of around 30 employees at five different locations within the group (Frankfurt, Paris, Tunis, Saarbrücken, Düsseldorf). Head of IT committees and key role in direct communication with management, the supervisory board, external stakeholders, and regulators.
• Definition and establishment of a state-of-the-art IT strategy process and related IT governance structures for the group's IT department with more than 600 employees (testified by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority and the ACPR) and successful process run.
• Establishment of a new future-oriented process framework for IT and necessary governance structures (process squads) for the continuous improvement of IT processes with regard to new regulatory requirements (including DORA, EU AI Act, etc.).
• Establishment of stringent processes to close a historical backlog of findings (> 100 IT findings, 40 overdue findings in 2022) from internal and external auditors (WP, ACPR, BaFin). Successful reduction of stock of overdue findings to 0 at the end of 2025.
• Supporting more than 20 IT audits per year and establishment of regulatory monitoring processes. Introduction of ServiceNow to revolutionize regulatory change and IT compliance processes with advanced AI functionalities.
• Realignment of IT control processes in conjunction with the newly established ICT risk function under DORA and the three lines of defense concept using the TopEase GRC solution.
• Reduction of the application landscape, by systematically analysing the purpose with application and business owners, identifying duplicates while implementing a One-Tool Strategy throughout the group. Successful reduction of one third of the application landscape within the CMDB.
• Onboarding of all group applications into One Identity's group-wide IAM solution, as well as operation and further development of the solution in connection with segregation of duties (SoD), role-based access management (RBAC), etc.

• Led business development across DACH for a PropTech platform digitising distressed real estate and NPL asset sales — unlocking liquidity for illiquid assets through structured digital bidding processes for brokers, investors and insolvency administrators.

• Developed and managed enterprise relationships with real estate agencies, banks, servicers and PropTech platforms — driving pipeline generation, commercial negotiations and partnership development across Germany and Europe.

• Replaced opaque one-to-one negotiations with transparent multi-bidder environments — supporting distressed real estate sales, NPL/REO asset disposals, portfolio sales and high-demand residential listings with speed, compliance and auditability.

2nd LoD/Change the Bank (CtB)

• CtB: External consultant and workstream lead for rectifying findings by BaFin following a special IT audit in the 2nd LoD, management of the work package for revising the ICT Risk Management & ICT Asset Classification in accordance with DORA Chapter 2, the processes for structural analysis, protection requirements, and control assessments (4 FTEs).

• Development and optimization of the RTL+ frontend application for SmartTV and set-top box platforms with React and Next.js.
• Key role in the technical coordination of developers within the team and in coordinating implementation.
• Central interface to adjacent teams to simplify development processes and improve cross-team alignment.
• Improved frontend performance, stability, and rendering behavior on low-powered devices in a restricted runtime environment.
• Implemented a frontend testing strategy with Jest, React Testing Library, and Playwright.
• Implemented accessibility improvements according to WCAG 2.2 and WAI-ARIA.
• Integrated Didomi Consent Management as a contribution to increasing ad monetization on streaming platforms.
• Used AI-supported engineering workflows with Cursor for structured implementation, refactoring, and faster problem solving.

Technologies used: React, Next.js, TypeScript, JavaScript, GraphQL, Apollo Gateway, Zustand, Tailwind CSS, Styled Components, React Testing Library, Playwright, Jest, HTML5, CSS3, AWS Lambda, EC2, CloudFront, S3, GitLab CI/CD, NX, Cursor

Goal:

• Stabilize and realign a central software platform for digital office processes and restore solid product and delivery management.

Tasks & responsibility:

• Took over product and project management during a critical development phase
• Sharpened product vision, target picture, roadmap, and prioritized product capabilities
• Analyzed user needs, processes, system dependencies, and operational pain points
• Reorganized and prioritized backlog, releases, and work packages based on customer value and delivery risk
• Cross-functional leadership of engineering, product owners, scrum masters, architecture, business units, and operations
• Introduced reliable planning, decision-making, reporting, and escalation structures
• Moderated discovery, refinement, planning, and decision workshops
• Managed scope, risks, dependencies, and stakeholder expectations in a complex product environment

Result:

• Sharpened product vision and roadmap, stabilized delivery structures, and sustainably improved management and decision-making capabilities.

Europe-wide re-platforming & centralization

• Independently created the migration concept and implementation plan for the Europe-wide centralization and consolidation of IT services for around 20 European companies as part of a re-platforming program.
• Migration assessment: analysis of the existing IT, infrastructure, application, and service landscapes of the companies as the basis for the migration strategy.
• Development of the centralized target vision and target architecture based on a modern technology stack, taking platform and containerization approaches into account.
• Design of a highly available central infrastructure in an active-active model across two data centers; consideration of cloud, infrastructure, application, CMDB, and IAM services.
• Development of the migration and transformation roadmap, including defining migration waves, dependencies, requirements, and priorities for the move from decentralized services to the central platform.
• Analysis of technical and organizational dependencies, identification of migration risks, and development of a structured approach for step-by-step migration and centralization.
• Creation of target, solution, and implementation views for each service domain; design of the end-to-end join-move-leave process as a blueprint for the European rollout (Jira/Jira Asset Management).
• Alignment of migration strategy and roadmap with European companies, management, IT, providers, and other stakeholders; presentation of the 12-month roadmap to the Managing Director Europe.

• Helped cross-functional teams adopt Agile methodologies, resulting in a 30% increase in project delivery speed and better team collaboration.
• Designed and facilitated Agile training programs tailored to different organizational needs, improving team productivity and stakeholder engagement.
• Conducted training sessions and team workshops on Agile principles, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and adaptive planning.
• Implemented Scrum and Aankun frameworks across multiple departments, driving transparency and accountability in project management.
• Collaborated with product owners to prioritize the backlog and workflow interactions, ensuring alignment with business objectives.

I founded Nick's Advisory to make HR management, HR project delivery, and AI expertise available to companies on a temporary basis when internal capacity or experience is lacking.

Services:

• HR interim management: taking over the HR business partner or HR manager role during restructuring, growth, or a vacant leadership position, on a daily or hourly basis
• HR consulting: projects around reorganization, talent acquisition, separation processes, and building HR structures
• AI consulting for HR teams: selection, introduction, and use of AI tools in HR processes