Cucumber Experts in Germany

• Built a scalable nearshore IT developer hub (Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland) as an independent company through a BOT model (Build – Operate – Transfer)
• Identified, selected, and managed full-service agencies; introduced management and control mechanisms, including KPIs, SLAs, and regular service reviews
• Prepared and reviewed data processing agreements and framework contracts in coordination with Legal & Compliance; integrated regulatory requirements (including KRITIS) into process design
• Advised on cloud vs. on-premise strategies, data storage, and authorization concepts; supported Procurement with tendering and service provider evaluations
• Managed change and process harmonization between internal teams and nearshore partners; reported to executive management, CFO, and CIO

Result: Scalable IT developer hub with an audit-ready governance model, reduced operating costs, and accelerated product development.

• 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

• Supporting the International Web Presence of the BA (IntWeb) project in the area of quality management, with the aim of taking responsibility for the quality of processes and project results while considering BA standards. The main objectives of the project are to give professionals abroad a quick overview of their opportunities for moving to Germany and to enable them to take the necessary steps consistently and with digital support by providing access to services.

• Defining the general guidelines in the QA handbook

• Summarising test results in QA reports for PLA

• Analysing project results for improvement opportunities

• Quality management of requirements analysis (particularly processes, methods, and tools)

• Ensuring compliance with SERA requirements

• Creating a cross-project test concept

• Agreeing on sprint completion reports

• Formal review of work results in accordance with requirements and/or the project plan

• Contact person for internal audit, external audits by auditors, or BRH (Federal Court of Audit)

• Technologies: JIRA, Confluence, MS Office, GitLab, Kubernetes

• Implementation of a full-stack application with Angular as frontend framework and Java as backend language
• Use of the Swagger OpenAPI specification for REST communication between frontend and backend applications
• Control of a card printer via the Nexus Card SDK framework
• Design and implementation of card management software with web interface and JavaFX module for printer monitoring
• Use of Cucumber tests for test automation and creation of test artifacts for testing outside the development environment
• Use of Wireshark for network investigations to analyze the API of a third-party product and to check the REST API of the self-developed software

• QA Lead for end-to-end quality assurance of the Sparkasse & Sparkasse Business banking apps (iOS/Android); design and implementation of the Test Strategy including functional testing, regression testing, and UAT for eID, Push Notifications, and white-label components
• Creation and maintenance of test concepts and test plans in TestRail; structured Defect Management and error analysis; stakeholder management and risk management for the early identification of critical quality risks
• Accessibility Testing according to WCAG 2.1 (iOS/Android); coordination of AI-supported test automation and optimization of test processes to shorten release cycles
• Release Management: planning, management, and coordination of all test activities; status reporting to management and stakeholders; quality assessment of releases and release recommendations in an Agile/Scrum environment
• Challenge: Highly complex build and release process across several Sparkasse institutions; close coordination with the DevOps team to stabilize the CI/CD pipeline and ensure reproducible test builds before every release.

Tools: Jira, Confluence, TestRail, Android Studio, Xcode, Firebase, Jenkins, GA4

• Success: Successful launch of the eID authentication process - quality assurance ensured for 50+ Sparkasse institutions

• Designed a migration strategy for WLS applications to BKA Cloud and Stack IT

• Created a hybrid cloud for internal testing and development with Kubernetes

• Transformed the IT landscape from an outdated monolithic architecture to a cloud-based architecture

• Integrated new CI/CD processes using Azure Pipelines

• Quadrupled the processing throughput for personnel security checks

• Migrated personnel security screening applications to Docker-based applications

• Implemented CI/deployment pipelines using Azure DevOps

• Environment: Java Springboot, Kubernetes, Oracle Weblogic, OpenID, Camunda, JUnit, TOGAF

Development and further development of an internal platform for managing and providing technical resources, virtual machines, and infrastructure services. The platform supports self-service processes and covers functions that are conceptually comparable to cloud management solutions like Azure or AWS.

• Responsible involvement in the design, development, and implementation of new backend and frontend features
• Hands-on development with Java, Spring Boot, Python, and Angular
• Implementation of REST interfaces, business logic, validations, and integrations into existing system landscapes
• Further development of modern web interfaces with Angular, including connection to backend services
• Participation in architecture and design decisions within the team, especially with regard to scalability, maintainability, and clean interfaces
• Containerization and deployment of applications with Docker, Kubernetes, and Helm
• Support with CI/CD processes and deployment to Kubernetes-based environments
• Work in the environment of vSphere, Broadcom, GitLab CI/CD, ArgoCD, Maven, npm, and NuGet
• Close collaboration with developers, business teams, DevOps, and other technical stakeholders
• Analysis of technical requirements, deriving suitable solutions, and independent implementation in an agile team
• Use of GitHub Copilot to support code generation, refactoring, test case creation, and technical documentation

Methods/ tools/ technologies: Languages & frameworks: Java (21), Spring Boot (4.x), Python, Angular, Robot Framework, Kubernetes, Helm Persistence: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Hibernate, Liquibase Architecture & communication: REST, gRPC, GraphQL, Apache Kafka, OpenAPI, Microservices, Event Driven, Domain Driven Design Cloud & infrastructure: Terraform, Docker, Rancher, Helm, Ansible Security: OAuth2, MS (Entra ID), web security, Keycloak (extensions for detailed group rights) DevOps: GitLab CI/CD, Ansible, Maven, Gradle, Grafana, Prometheus, Git, GitHub Copilot Testing & QM: JUnit, Robot Framework, automated component and integration tests, E2E tests with Playwright, Testcontainers, EasyMock Methodology & approach: Kanban, JIRA, Confluence, Clean Code

Further development of a software solution for managing audit applications and audit notifications according to §106d SGB V for the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in Hamburg.

• Developed numerous features, optimised performance, refactored code and analysed errors
• Refactored the development container setup
• Optimised the Gitlab-CI build pipeline
• Introduced improvements to the team workflow

• Project: Thermomix Online Mock
• Manual execution of functional tests
• Implementation of automated end-to-end tests
• Execution of regression tests and analysis of results
• Further development of the QA website server using Express.js, Handlebars and Node.js
• Further development of the test environment
• Technologies: Agile software development Scrum, Robot Framework, Python, JavaScript, Git (GitLab), VS Code, Jira, Confluence, Express.js, Handlebars, Phoenix/Elixir

• Iterative test planning

• Provision of the test infrastructure

• Resource planning

• Test concept development

• Coordination of the test teams

• Defect management

• Release management

• Project planning

• Cohort planning

• Test planning

• Test execution

• Trial test planning

• Rollout

• Business analysis

• Requirements engineering

• Change management

• E2E test coordination

IT consulting, analysis, architecture design, new and further development, code review, test automation, continuous integration, continuous delivery in backend and frontend areas for Automotive Project Instavalo.

Frontend:

• Implementation of UI components according to specifications, especially style guides and responsive design eith React and Typescript
• Component testing
• Code documentation
• CI/CD with Gitlab Pipeline

Backend / IoT:

• Analysis and architectural design with AWS Greengrass IoT on Edge Devices
• Setting up Microservices containers with Docker Compose on Edge device with AWS Greengrass and AWS IoT IAM, Token Exchange Service, Ansible
• CI/CD with Gitlab Pipeline, Terraform, AWS ECR
• Logging with Fluentbit Lua Language for AWS Cloudwatch
• Python Lambda for AWS Greengrass Recipe deployment on Edge Devices
• Implementation of test-driven development with JUnit, Mockito, and code Coverage
• Jacoco
• Definition of REST interfaces with OpenAPI / Swagger
• Development and enhancement of software based on Java Quarkus, Typescript NestJs NodeJs and Python
• Authentication and authorization in Aws IAM
• Development of REST and gRPC interfaces for the frontend and backend
• Implementation of Maven dependencies with DevSecOps OWASP
• Spring AI, Jetbrains AI Assistant, Junie, Github Copilot, Claude Code, Agents, Skills, Command, Hooks, Subagents

Consulting in testing

• Development and implementation of a test strategy for structured quality assurance
• Consulting on the setup and optimization of test processes
• Support in introducing QA standards

• Responsible for introducing agile methods within the Interface & Integration Team (2 Scrum Teams)
• Planning and delivering trainings in agile methods
• Facilitating workshops and Scrum events
• Removing impediments
• Increasing sprint performance

• Creation, maintenance and hardening of Kubernetes clusters employing Ansible and ArgoCD
• Keywords: Ansible, AWX, Kubernetes, NetApp, Prometheus, CI/CD ArgoCD, SSO, Fluent-bit, HAProxy, Calico, Keycloak, oauth2-proxy, SealedSecrets, kubeseal, Aqua kube-bench, CIS-Benchmarks, Aqua Trivy operator