Azure DevOps Expert in Berlin

Workflow-automation SaaS for operations teams (Berlin, 120 people); full-time freelance engagement reporting to the CEO: an initial 12-month interim mandate, extended twice through the AI build-out; owned product for one squad and coached the other product managers on process.

• Led generative AI (LLM) integration into the core product: from LLM-powered steps to natural-language workflow authoring and step-level automation suggestions, plus AI-managed dynamic workflows, shipped behind eval gates with human-in-the-loop fallbacks: AI-drafted workflows grew to 31% of all new workflows, and median time-to-first-workflow fell from 3 days to 4 hours.
• Packaged the AI capabilities as a usage-based add-on priced on executed automation steps, working with sales and marketing on positioning: ~€800K added ARR in the first year, and adopting accounts churned 1.8 pp less.
• Owned the roadmap end to end: replaced feature-request-driven quarterly planning with an outcome-based rolling roadmap built on quarterly bets and explicit kill criteria, presented monthly to the executive team and quarterly to the board.
• Rebuilt the product-management operating system: weekly customer-discovery cadence incl. workshop facilitation, RFC/decision-doc reviews and a single quarterly metrics narrative; coached four product managers, one promoted to senior during the engagement.
• Closed the engagement as scoped: hired and onboarded the permanent VP Product, handed over the process playbook and roadmap, and exited on schedule in June 2026.

• Own the 12–18 month roadmap and key outcomes for Elli's enterprise customer platform, covering onboarding, pricing, billing, analytics and broader platform modernization; redesigned the Fleet onboarding funnel to double conversion, supporting a projected €20.7M revenue uplift by 2028.
• Lead the broader Energy Intelligence product and directly own its AI/ML, asset and portfolio-optimization capabilities, including MLOps and safe strategy deployment, strategy lifecycle management and backtesting; delegated data and V2G integration roadmap ownership to a new PO as the platform scope expanded.
• Built a Human-in-the-loop GenAI/RAG support workflow, increasing L1 resolution by 24%, routing accuracy to 91%, and reducing L2 workload by 30%.
• Introduced standardized data contracts and a self-service Python toolkit for traders and Data Scientists, increasing platform adoption by 15% and reducing support effort by 50%.
• Built and scaled a real-time orchestration product from 32 to 3,000+ endpoints across four markets, growing recurring revenue from €1.4k to €56.3k MRR.
• Developed product and AI capability across the organization, training 20 PMs on RAG, agents and prototyping; mentoring a junior PM and coaching an Enterprise Platform Tech Lead toward Product Management ownership.

• ▶ Built real-time voice assistant (STT → LLM → TTS pipeline) benchmarking and evaluating multiple STT providers including faster-whisper and Azure Speech. achieved sub-3s latency, Groq API (Llama 3) with multi-turn memory - directly handling edge cases in dictation, names and passcode recognition.

• Owned end-to-end Product Management and Strategy for a B2B SaaS platform, from customer discovery and problem definition to roadmap, launch, and lifecycle optimization.
• Drove competitive analysis, customer insights, and sales analytics, identifying growth opportunities that improved product fill rates by 10–15%.
• Owned roadmap and backlog prioritization, balancing customer value, business impact, technical feasibility, dependencies, and strategic goals.
• Led a 12-member cross-functional Agile team across Product, Engineering, QA, Design, Sales, and business functions, ensuring aligned and high-quality delivery.
• Built KPI and product performance frameworks using Power BI, Excel, CRM, and Pendo to measure adoption, engagement, conversion, and business impact.
• Led API integrations and partner initiatives across US and Europe, expanding the partner ecosystem by 75% and enabling scalable B2B workflows.
• Led AI and automation initiatives that improved operational efficiency by 75–80% and reduced manual effort by approximately 15 minutes daily.
• Partnered with Sales, Customer Success, Marketing, Design, and Engineering to validate customer needs, launch products, improve UX, and drive adoption.

AI Platform Backend – Senior Developer

Brought in to design and build a backend for an AI platform from scratch, including multi-provider LLM orchestration and real-time infrastructure for AI influencer personas at scale.

Tasks and responsibilities

• Architecture and implementation of a multi-LLM orchestration layer with Semantic Kernel to integrate GPT-4 and other providers for core platform logic and AI influencer personas, reducing model-switching overhead by abstracting provider APIs behind a single interface.
• Design and development of a backend from scratch in C# / .NET 10, including domain modeling with DDD, a versioned RESTful API layer, and cloud infrastructure setup on Azure.
• Built a real-time chat infrastructure with Server-Sent Events (SSE), message persistence, and delivery guarantees for live operation of AI influencer personas at scale.
• Developed a media management service with integration of cloud object storage for upload and retrieval of influencer-generated content.
• Created an integration and unit test suite with data seeding for reliable regression testing across all core platform flows, significantly reducing production error rates.

Tools and technologies: C#, .NET, ASP.NET Core, Python, TypeScript, MySQL, Semantic Kernel, EF Core, Minimal APIs, LLM Orchestration, Prompt Engineering, Agentic AI, Generative AI, AI-Assisted Engineering, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Google Gemini, OpenAI API, Ollama, Redis, Azure, Azure Container Apps, Azure Database for MySQL, Docker, GitHub Actions, Clean Architecture, Vertical Slice Architecture, CQRS, Domain-Driven Design, REST API, xUnit, Integration Testing, Unit Testing, Jira, Confluence, Scrum

• Coach international tech professionals through career transitions, helping high achievers move from reactive decision-making to clarity-driven career and life choices.
• Combined software engineering and consulting background with coaching expertise to address challenges specific to the tech industry, including career stagnation, imposter syndrome, and uncertainty around AI's impact on the field.
• Some of my client's measurable outcomes include landing multiple concurrent interview processes after a multi-year career gap, launching independent product ventures, securing technical roles that improved both financial stability and job performance, transitioning into non-tech careers.
• ~200 hours of coaching sessions. Guided clients through 1:1 and group coaching engagements, ranging from single sessions to year-long partnerships, focused on sustainable, values-aligned career growth.

• 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

• Course duration: 46 min
• Certificate Id: Ab2Hw1PxFkKCHeycuKNujzCTWS6T

• Developed and implemented organization-wide discovery framework based on Ulwick’s Outcome-Driven Innovation; enabled 7 Product Owners to systematically identify and quantify unrealized value through shared outcome language and opportunity scoring methodology
• Transformed Product Owner role from backlog clerks to strategic experimenters; established dedicated time budget for autonomous hypothesis testing and discovery activities
• Rebuilt customer journey maps to start at actual user need (tool selection phase) instead of platform entry point; eliminated manual data aggregation work previously done by project teams
• Implemented OKR framework across 4 product teams; defined quarterly objectives with measurable key results (e.g., 40% reduction in manual integration effort, self-service adoption increase)
• Unified 3 separate platform roadmaps through cross-team dependency mapping and shared service agreements
• Supported enterprise sales cycle with ROI modeling and technical due diligence for automotive and defense customers

• Bootstrapping a CloudOps team and building a multi-cloud provider backend for a low-code Internal Developer Platform (IDP) with env zero

• Introducing user story mapping, ADRs, milestones, and backlog management

• Designing and developing core APIs, setting up CI/CD pipelines, OpenTofu/Terraform scripts

• Representing and communicating the team with third-party stakeholders (e.g. env zero)

• (Cross-)team coaching on DevOps, software design, Terraform, Golang, and agile practices

• Architected RESTful APIs and microservices using .NET Core.
• Designed and managed SQL Server and Cosmos DB databases.
• Developed responsive frontends with Angular, Bootstrap, and TypeScript.
• Deployed and managed Azure cloud infrastructure.
• Implemented unit tests for both backend and frontend modules.

• Development of a scaled agile working model for the work dimensions: values, roles, events, artifacts and workflows
• Team size: four delivery teams with 48 team members, five product owners, three agile masters
• Development of strategies in the area of scaled agile product development according to Scrum, LeSS and the New Work Heroes transformation helix
• Moderation of the SOL Planning Workshop for the overall project with more than 100 participants (PI planning according to SAFe)
• Coaching of all five areas and their managers for the SOL Planning Workshop (structuring the work packages, preparing the planning board)
• Coaching and mentoring for the three Agile Masters in the scaled agile team environment (four+ delivery teams)
• Moderation of scaled agile events, such as Sprint Planning I-III, Multiteam Refinement II, Sprint Review, overall team retrospective
• Support in consulting for stakeholder management and the strategic area of all project partners (construction site management: Inge, ARGE, cable producer NKT GmbH)
• Support for increasing measurability and the development of metrics according to agile product development
• Moderation of workshops, training and coaching for the overall project
• Methods and tools: Product Ownership, Scrum Mastery, Systems Thinking, User Story Mapping, Teamhood (backlog ticketing system), Miro, Kanban, Flight Level; certifications: LeSS Certified Practitioner, SAFe PI-Planning Moderator

• Role & Scope Responsible for realigning a unit of 600+ people as part of the top leadership team. Led a team of agile coaches and oversaw the entire transformation architecture – strategic, structural and cultural.

• Result The organization was fundamentally professionalized – reduced friction and costs, faster execution, higher team motivation and visibly more effective leadership.

Key Contributions

• Redesigned strategy and implementation processes
• Created a clear link between vision, priorities and operational execution
• Established business-IT alignment and communication structures
• Embedded shared goals, priorities and decision paths
• Developed a leadership-operating model
• Strengthened roles, responsibilities and leadership culture
• Introduced a unit-wide impediment removal process
• Systematically identified obstacles, assigned owners and developed solutions
• Consolidated 35+ Jira boards
• Created cross-unit manageability and transparency
• Led a team of agile coaches; established skill matrices and improvement processes
• Solidified a learning and development culture