Backup Experts in Cologne

Architected and maintained data products for renewable energy operations, covering wind turbine, grid-meter, and weather data. Built scalable ETL/ELT pipelines in Azure Databricks using Delta Lake (bronze/silver/gold layers) and processed data in various formats, including structured and semi-structured data. Contributed to a data quality framework supporting table and column documentation, outlier detection, and completeness metrics across all datasets within a data product. In addition, implemented a DORA KPI Databricks dashboard used across all data products. Optimized CI/CD processes in Azure DevOps to streamline deployment across development, test, and production environments.

Technology stack: Azure Databricks, PySpark, SQL, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Azure Data Lake, APIs, Dremio, Azure DevOps, YAML, Git, Databricks Workflows, Application Insights, Terraform, OpenAI API, Codex, LLM-assisted workflows

• PRISMA project
• Ansible automation
• Windows third-level support for Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2013, Windows 2016, Windows 2019

• Regulated environment within a German banking group (approx. 8,500 employees, hybrid cloud strategy).

• Responsible for operating, provisioning, and continuously securing business-critical platforms – including a GenAI chat application, a big data/AI platform, and data science workspaces based on Azure Virtual Desktops and VMs. Ownership of Azure DevOps projects for ShaiHulud and React2Shell, as well as BSI alerts – Security Operations improvements across the SDLC.

• Deployment responsibility for the GenAI chat application, big data/AI platform (BDAI), and data science workspaces (AVD/VM-based) in the respective landing zones.

• Deployment & release management: end-to-end responsibility for deploying portal and service applications across multiple Azure landing zones, including technical approvals, compliance with development team deployment guidelines, and ensuring ITIL-based change and release processes via ServiceNow.

• Azure landing zones & network architecture: design, provisioning, and operation of Azure landing zones for 3-tier web applications with enhanced network segmentation, VNet peering, hub-and-spoke architectures, private endpoints, and firewall integration across separate subscriptions and tenants.

• Azure DevOps governance & operations: ownership of the Azure DevOps organization, including projects, repositories, and CI/CD pipelines; implementation of governance requirements such as branch policies, approval gates, permission models, and audit-ready operating structures.

• Infrastructure as Code (Terraform): design, implementation, and operation of a modular Terraform architecture for standardized cloud infrastructure deployment, including state management, provider versioning, reusability, and policy-as-code approaches.

• CI/CD pipeline engineering: design, operation, and optimization of complex YAML-based CI/CD pipelines with multi-stage deployments, template standardization, self-hosted agents, integrated secret management, and automated quality and security checks.

• Git migration & platform consolidation: planning and execution of repository and pipeline migration from Azure DevOps to GitLab CI/CD, including automated scripts, full Git history transfer, pipeline porting, and platform consolidation.

• Container & platform operations (AKS): operation and security assessment of containerized workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service, centralization of on-premises container registries for ACR.

• OpenShift (OCP) security reviews: security assessment of code baselines, build pipelines, and deployment processes for on-premises OpenShift clusters with critical applications, and derivation of specific hardening recommendations.

• Shift-left security & DevSecOps transformation: introduction of a company-wide shift-left approach for early security integration in development and deployment processes, enabling developers to perform self-led security checks and sustainably reduce vulnerabilities before production (IDE integrations, pre-commit hooks, local scanners).

• Software supply chain security: analysis and mitigation of supply chain risks in NPM- and Yarn-based applications through dependency audits, CI/CD pipeline hardening, token rotation, and restriction of risky build and lifecycle mechanisms.

• Frontend & framework security (React / Next.js): security assessment and coordination of critical vulnerability remediation across platform applications and web frameworks, including coordination and complementary technical mitigations with all teams following BSI alerts.

• Software composition analysis (SCA): introduction and operation of automated vulnerability scans for container images, pipelines/artifacts, and third-party dependencies, including SBOM exports within CI/CD pipelines.

• SAST/DAST integration: design and piloting of static and dynamic application security tests in close collaboration with security architecture and development teams, for continuous improvement of code and runtime security, and establishing operational acceptance tests.

• Artifact & registry consolidation: analysis and consolidation of all package and container repositories for service applications and AKS workloads, aiming for a centralized, secured registry strategy with centralized vulnerability scanning and governance.

• Dependency-Track & SBOM strategy: advising the compliance board on introducing a central SBOM and vulnerability management platform to increase enterprise-wide dependency transparency and accelerate CVE response capability.

• CI/CD pipeline hardening: security analysis and cleanup of the existing pipeline landscape by removing unused pipelines, improving secrets hygiene, implementing least-privilege principles, and isolating build agent environments.

• Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) optimization: analysis and tuning of existing Azure WAF rules (OWASP Top 10 Core Rule Set, DSR/SDC, custom rules) to defend against known vulnerabilities and exploit patterns, including reducing false positives and improving threat detection.

• Documentation & stakeholder communication: creating and maintaining technical documentation, runbooks, and architecture overviews in Jira and Confluence, as well as active knowledge transfer between operations, development, security, and compliance stakeholders.

• Full product responsibility from a business perspective: requirement analysis, UX design, product strategy, and go-to-market implemented without an internal dev team using fully AI-supported development (Claude Code / Anthropic)
• Technical differentiation: KRITIS-compliant air-gapped deployment (Windows/NSIS), GDT interface for PVS integration, DATEV-LODAS export for payroll
• Managed pilot operation with initial external client (Dormagen medical practice): structured requirement gathering, test support, error analysis, and release management
• Developed rollout and sales strategy for market entry in the segment of private practices and small medical centers
• Human-in-the-Loop development principle: business decision → AI implementation → manual review → approval → release – each sprint documented in Jira (TIME project), every change traceable via co-authored commits
• Product outcome: Tauri/Rust desktop app with GDT watcher, multi-tier model (Starter/Professional/Enterprise), cloud mirror on Hetzner/Traefik, complete ISMS framework based on ISO 27001 and BSI basic protection as product foundation
• Direct method validation for the test manager role: hands-on experience with quality assurance of AI-generated products from a user perspective, review gate discipline, release approval under GDPR and the EU AI Act

• Evolved the platform from bare-metal infrastructure with a monolithic PHP application to a hybrid Google Cloud architecture with Go microservices on Kubernetes
• Managed and scaled a production infrastructure with 300+ VMs and dozens of clusters, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, Redis and Elasticsearch clusters
• Designed architecture, deployment, monitoring, performance analysis, and upgrades for all platform services using Terraform and Ansible
• Migrated observability systems from ELK and Prometheus to Datadog, managed with Terraform
• Introduced Jenkins CI/CD with SonarQube integration and automated tests to speed up feedback cycles
• Containerized the testing environment and implemented GitLab CI pipelines for Docker image builds, static code analysis, and infrastructure tests
• Performed zero-downtime migrations of MySQL and MongoDB clusters to Google Cloud
• Developed reusable Ansible roles for database clusters and automated data obfuscation for staging environments
• Decomposed monolithic databases and migrated to microservice architectures
• Built tools to detect and optimize slow queries in MySQL and MongoDB
• Conducted online schema migrations with pt-online-schema-change without downtime windows
• Developed internal Go applications for batch queries, GitLab-Jira integration, and MongoDB backup recovery
• Technologies: Debian, Ubuntu, Alpine, Go, Bash, Python, PHP, SQL, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Drone CI, MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Redis, Elasticsearch, RabbitMQ, Kafka, Docker, Kubernetes, Nomad, Ansible, Terraform, Grafana, ELK, Prometheus, Datadog, Nagios, Zabbix, Nginx, HAProxy, Vault, Helm, SonarQube, Filebeat, Auditbeat, Google Cloud, AWS

• TSI customer project data center migration (since 2024-07-01)

• Inventory of active IT/OT components

• Creation / management of the migration concept

• Planning / execution of migration tests

• Execution of the IoT migration (network, VPN gateway, firewall adjustments)

• Service migrations (mobile services)

• Re-design of outdated technologies / services

• Integration into operations

• Logistics Bus project at Daimler Truck and Mercedes Benz (2024-01-01 – 2024-06-30)

• Development Lead / Technical Consultant for the Logistics Bus

• Coaching of customers / TSI development teams and Product Owners

• Creation / review of architecture designs and documentation

• Project planning / customer meetings

• Support for migrations from Java/WebSphere/JBoss to Kubernetes

• Service Design Performance Visibility (2022-06-01 – 2023-10-31)

• Performance Visibility service development, network monitoring service for internal Telekom customers

• Planning/integration/expansion of PV monitoring for cloud environments (AWS, Microsoft Azure)

• Design/planning/implementation of Performance Visibility services based on NetScout / Kadiska software in customer environments

• Agile project management / execution of PoCs (Proof of Concepts)

• Design / architecture / concept creation

• Diagnosis of network problems

• Packet capturing / debugging

• Creation of customer and training documentation

• Overarching technical coaching and support for project managers during the migration of regional companies into the group's O365 infrastructure (Azure).
• Creation and use of content, technical, and methodological synergies between the individual subprojects.
• Project duration: 9 months.

• Administration in a hybrid system environment
• Second- and Third-Level Support
• Incident and change management
• Ticketing system and tools: Jira Cloud & Confluence, MS Teams
• Exchange 2019/Outlook Online support
• AD/AAD support; creating and assigning permissions via AD/AAD GPO groups
• ARP-Guard (NAC) / network segmentation
• Citrix Workspace
• Distribution software support: Ivanti
• Veeam backup system in the cloud (AWS)