Cloud Migration Experts in Cologne

• Coaching the CTO on translating the product strategy into technical strategy and AI transformation of the R&D organization; acting as an independent sparring partner on strategic and technical topics

• Program Manager for a strategically highly relevant compliance project in the enterprise segment (C4)
• Management of 6 workstreams
• Establishment of the project organization, communication structures, project and budget planning, risk management
• Reporting to CIO
• Moderation of steering committee meetings
• Moderation of critical solution processes
• Responsibility for adapting the operating model of the IT organizations in Germany, the EU and India, including planning and managing the relocation of affected employees

• 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.

• Improvement of the Information Security Management System (ISMS) based on ISO 27001, NIS2, DORA, B3S, TISAX and BSI IT Baseline Protection
• Conducting comprehensive gap analyses to identify gaps and derive action plans according to the above standards and regulations; management and KPIs
• Data Loss Prevention strategy and implementation using MS Purview
• Vulnerability and patch management, security monitoring
• Risk analysis and threat modeling using the STRIDE methodology
• Development of vendor risk assessments, implementation of risk classifications, conducting supplier assessments and implementing technical monitoring solutions (e.g. Security ScoreCard)
• Securing cloud environments (AWS and Azure); expertise in CSPM/CNAPP (Wiz), cloud migration, secure CI/CD pipelines, container security and best practices in AWS, Azure and Office 365
• Application security: penetration testing, DevSecOps, OWASP, pre-commit hooks, key and secret management, IDE plugins, static source code analysis, dependency checks, container scanning, vulnerability management, CIS benchmarks and compliance
• Security assessment and hardening according to CIS benchmarks and cloud conformity in AWS, Office 365 and Azure

• Network elements, network, operational and operator-related systems
• Supporting around 20 different products (managed agile)
• Requirements analysis and management (functional and non-functional)
• Test concept and planning (scope, test phases, effort, schedule, resources, organization, etc.)
• Aligning approach with clients and service providers
• Managing and assisting in creation of test cases for system, integration and end-to-end tests
• Guiding and supporting test execution
• Defect management and planning bug fixes with external providers
• Preparing and facilitating workshops
• Regular reporting and creating automated test reports
• Further development of agile testing methodology and configuration of supporting tools
• Conceptual support in developing a quality seal for rating product and service quality of internal and external providers
• Requirements engineering based on ISO/IEC 25010, Scrum, SaFE
• BMC Remedy, Atlassian Confluence, Atlassian Jira (including plugins Xray, Structure), Microsoft Office (incl. Visio), Obsidian, doxis document management system, Gitlab, Obsidian

• End to end implementation of a Distribution Centre in the UK for Brooks Running
• Set project objectives, scope, plans and risk management
• Establish cross functional and cross organizational project team, including third party supplier team
• Development and integration of ERP and WMS systems to meet business operations of Brooks
• Project governance and risk management processes
• Day to day project management and progress against plan
• Set transition strategy and plan
• Objectives delivery to plan, scope and quality
• Hand-over to BAU and project close

• Implementation of custom reporting solutions for financial KPIs aligned with specific business requirements

• Development of a machine learning application that achieved a 250% performance improvement

• Data Architect "Production-Oriented Quality Assurance" (03/2024–09/2024):

• Design and implementation of an analytics platform to detect quality deviations in manufacturing

• Build of a scalable data lakehouse architecture on Databricks in combination with SAP ERP data via SAP Datasphere

• Close collaboration with the SAP team to harmonize bill of materials and order data

• Visualization of KPIs to support shopfloor management

• Lead Data Engineer "Sales Performance Monitoring" (08/2023–12/2023):

• Design and implementation of a Databricks-based platform for analyzing sales figures and promotion effects

• Integration of SAP SD data via SAP BW/4HANA

• Use of Azure DevOps to orchestrate ETL jobs and deploy workflows

• Technical Project Lead "Cloud Migration & Data Strategy" (02/2023–05/2023):

• Migration of a heterogeneous data warehouse stack to a modern cloud architecture on Azure with Databricks as the central processing platform

• Development of a governance-compliant data architecture to integrate SAP financial data and non-SAP sources

Technologies: Databricks, Delta Lake, Python, SAP Datasphere, Azure DevOps, PowerBI, SQL

• Overall responsibility for the strategic and operational realignment and management, further development of IT with direct reporting to the executive board
• Cloud transformation projects: MS365, Exchange Online, SharePoint Cloud, infrastructure cloud migration
• Leading an IT organization with around 20 employees
• Realigning IT as a strategic enabler for the entire organization
• Developing and implementing a holistic IT strategy ("Cloud First") including governance, security, and operational models
• Building a modern service management framework (ITIL) and effective control mechanisms
• Strategically managing software development and delivery (DevOps, CI/CD)
• Implementing cloud and digitization strategies
• Strategic planning and IT roadmap
• Optimizing IT infrastructure
• Budget and cost management
• Infrastructure migration: on-premise to on-premise (colocation)
• Overall responsibility for budget, cost optimization, resource and staff development
• Managing central digitization and transformation initiatives as well as board-level processes