DevOps Experts

I designed and built a self-service AWS platform for Data Science teams with little or no infrastructure-as-code experience. A team writes about 10 lines of Python and gets a deployable stack with full SDLC release cycle that already follows the governance rules. Networking, encryption, IAM and tagging are decided by the platform, not by each team.

New teams or AWS accounts are onboarded with one pull request. Waste prevention and cost control is built into the defaults: Data scientists don't need infrastructure skills.

• Construct library (AWS CDK, Python). Built a versioned catalog of about 20 hardened constructs for being used in data-science projects with ML context
• Governance as code
• Multi-account, multi-tenant
• Golden-path scaffolding
• CI/CD and supply chain. Built reusable GitHub Actions workflows
• Release engineering
• QA with e2e, contract testing and unit test coverage with each release candidate

Agile Transformation: introducing agile principles and transforming traditional IT departments into Scrum and Kanban teams

IT Operating Model: redesigning the IT organization and introducing modern delivery structures and roles

Flight Levels: building up Flight Levels practices within IT to align strategy, coordination and operational execution

Leadership & Coaching: recruiting Agile Coaches and coaching Scrum Masters and IT leaders

ERP Operations: acting as Interim Product Owner for the existing ERP landscape and ensuring business continuity

ERP Transformation: reorganizing and supporting the ERP migration as a Project Manager; Phase 1 (financial accounting) live since October 2025

Operational Core (ERP): establishing dedicated teams for ERP Support, Feature Development, and ERP Migration

Modern Workplace: initiating the transition towards a Microsoft 365-based cloud workplace environment

Integration: establishing a dedicated team to drive integration and connectivity initiatives

Warehouse Operations: building a cross-functional team to support logistics and warehouse-related capabilities

Maintenance & Operations (M&O): introducing a dedicated team for system engineering, security, stable operations and continuous improvement

AI Initiatives: identifying and promoting practical Artificial Intelligence use cases across the IT department

As Interim Head of IT for a German medium-sized industrial distributor, I am responsible for 31 IT employees and lead the digital and organizational transformation, reporting directly to executive leadership. I took over an IT department with almost no basic structures – no clear roles, processes, documentation or ticket system – and with significant technical debt that tied up most of its capacity. Introduced agile principles and ways of working in the IT organization and transformed the traditionally structured IT department into cross-functional Scrum and Kanban teams focused on transparency, collaboration, and customer value delivery.

Redesigned the entire IT organization by establishing a modern operating model, introducing new roles such as Product Owner, Scrum Master and Solution Architect and strengthening the organization through strategic hiring and targeted capability development. Recruited and onboarded Agile Coaches to accelerate the transformation and personally managed and coached Scrum Masters as well as IT department leaders to foster servant leadership, self-management and a culture of continuous improvement.

Aligned IT-internal planning across eight teams to three Flight Levels based on Klaus Leopold (strategy, coordination, team), laying the foundation for later company-wide portfolio management. Consolidated the backlog of more than 10 workstreams and prioritized it by business value and cost of delay. Introduced a ticketing system to increase transparency and enable data-driven decision-making, flow-based work management, and greater accountability at all levels.

Established and supported multiple cross-functional teams, including the Operational Core (ERP) domain with dedicated streams for Support, Feature Development and ERP Migration, as well as teams responsible for Warehouse Operations, Maintenance & Operations (M&O) including system engineering and security, Modern Workplace, Data Quality and integration initiatives. Worked closely with Agile Coaches to support team development, remove impediments, and continuously improve delivery effectiveness.

Acted as Interim Product Owner for the operation and enhancement of the existing ERP landscape while supporting the ERP migration as a Project Manager. Reorganized the project organization and had the already negotiated contract with the implementation partner realigned with a focus on approach and overall responsibility; Phase 1 (financial accounting) has been live since October 2025. Collaborated with the selected implementation partner to design and establish the project organization and target operating model for the ERP transformation, introducing agile delivery structures and ways of working. Facilitated the alignment between business, IT and the external vendor and played a key role in negotiating the contractual framework and delivery model to ensure a sustainable foundation for the transformation program.

Initiated the strategic modernization of the workplace environment through the adoption of Microsoft 365 cloud capabilities, establishing the foundation for enhanced collaboration, scalability and future digital services.

Launched AI initiatives to identify practical business use cases and promote the responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence across the IT department. Encouraged self-management and empowered teams to take ownership of decisions, delivery and continuous improvement.

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 business applications that enable non-technical employees to solve business problems independently
• Implementation of nine business applications with Single Sign-On (SSO) and Azure PostgreSQL integration on Hetzner Linux servers

Techstack: Python, Streamlit, Anthropic SDK (Claude), Azure, Linux, PostgreSQL, MS SQL, Angular

• Analysis of existing microservice structures and integration into the event-driven architecture
• Design and implementation of prototypes
• Introduction of structured workflows and integration into a solid testing strategy
• Team: Small specialized team (3-5 people) from analysis through implementation readiness
• Documentation of architectural decisions and definition of interfaces
• Integration of the event-driven pipeline into the existing landscape
• Technologies: Kafka, Docker, Microservices, Event-Driven Architecture, Java, Liquibase

• Strategic planning, detailed technical preparation and operational management of an email gateway migration in a security-critical government environment.
• Preparation of the technical specification and development of technical concepts and migration approaches in line with BSI requirements.
• Technical requirements management with business units, information security and operations.
• Coordination of external service providers, integrators and implementation partners; maintenance of project plans, milestones, resources, risks and dependencies.
• Regular reporting to project management, the program environment and internal stakeholders.

The client operates a SaaS platform for managing rail and intermodal transport (Rail-Flow Transport Management Platform).

For two of its customers, it was looking for a 3-month project management replacement. Both customers offer rail and intermodal transport services. Implementation progress differs: one customer is already live and wanted its Phase 2 enhancements implemented; the other customer is implementing its MVP and entering an intensive testing phase.

As part of the assignment, project management was taken over, including management of the internal development team (offshore Turkey).

• Took over complete project management for 2 customer projects, including the roles of Product Owner and Co-Scrum Master
• Managed agile implementation teams consisting of business analysts, implementation consultants, developers (offshore) and QA staff
• Ensured compliance with and further development of project governance
• Planning and rollout management: creation and maintenance of project and rollout plans as well as coordination of role assignments with the client’s management
• Requirements and change management: management of contractual requirements, bugs and changes
• Customer and project communication: organization and moderation of status meetings and steering committees
• Identification of project risks, initiation of countermeasures and escalation
• Ensured correct and timely invoicing for project services together with Finance

Methods: Scheduling (forward- and backward-based), including milestone planning, structured interviews, multi-project management (in English)

Tools / Technologies: Jira, Confluence / Atlas, Claude (Skills, Artifacts), MS Outlook

• Introduction of a new digital product to the Chinese market as part of a global growth strategy.

• Point of contact and coordinating interface between central product management, local Chinese teams and international stakeholders.

• Management of the entire program to coordinate complex digital projects.

• Successful market launch of a digital product in China (including successful certification for the Chinese market).

• Balancing local requirements with global priorities while taking tax and regulatory requirements into account.

• Introduction of a new way of working to improve collaboration and coordination across locations.

• Development and implementation of a scaling strategy for the digital business model in China.

• Use of Jira, Confluence, Miro, Scrum, agile working, SAFe.

• Project language: English.

• Development of scalable backend applications with C#/.NET and Java
• Design and implementation of distributed microservice architectures
• Development and integration of REST APIs for industrial applications
• Development of modern web applications with React, Angular, and TypeScript
• Implementation of MQTT-based communication solutions
• Integration of industrial protocols such as OPC UA and Modbus TCP
• Development of batch, process control, and HMI components
• Containerization and deployment of applications with Docker
• Conducting code reviews and supporting architecture decisions
• Close collaboration with Product Owners, QA, and interdisciplinary teams
• Analysis of business requirements and implementation of technical solutions
• Further development of existing software architectures with a focus on maintainability and performance

Technologies: C#, .NET, ASP.NET Core, Java, C++, React, Angular, TypeScript, Vue.JS, MQTT, OPC UA, Modbus TCP, Docker, GitLab, MariaDB, MySQL, Linux

Two parallel workstreams: (1) Tech Due Diligence for acquisitions and portfolio companies. (2) AI strategy certification and AI governance consulting.

• Tech assessments for PE/VC acquisitions: code reviews, architecture analysis, scalability assessment
• Tech assessment frameworks and integration roadmaps for portfolio companies
• TÜV SÜD certification program: AI governance, EU Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act)
• Strategic AI roadmap development for mid-sized companies

Results:

• Delivered several tech DD reports for investment decisions
• Developed integration roadmaps for portfolio companies
• TÜV SÜD “AI Strategy & Application Expert” (expected 31.12.2026)

• Claude Code subagents, MCP, Pydantic V2, pytest, bandit

• Designed and shipped 3 specialized agents that hand work down a line: a research agent writes a cited implementation spec, a coding agent builds the modular code and its tests, a review agent ranks findings by severity and applies the fixes. Each handoff is a structured document, so no stage depends on another agent's context window.

• Connected the research agent to an academic-research MCP server (Semantic Scholar, ArXiv, Hugging Face Hub, citation snowballing) so every reference traces to a tool result rather than the model. Gated commits behind ruff, mypy, pytest and bandit, required human sign-off before installs and commits, and persisted session state on disk so long runs survive a context reset.

Design, development, and market launch of digital products and platforms – from strategic alignment and agile implementation to Go-to-Market and Go-Live, integrating AI into processes and products

• Planned and developed a CPU monitoring application for monitoring system performance and resource utilization.
• Designed and implemented a Spring Boot backend providing a REST API for processing and exposing monitoring data.
• Developed the React frontend for presenting monitoring information in a clear and user-friendly interface.
• Integrated PostgreSQL for persistent storage and management of application data.
• Containerized the application and its services using Docker Compose.
• Automated infrastructure provisioning and deployment using Terraform on AWS.
• Structured the application as a modern, maintainable system using REST-based communication between frontend and backend.
• Designed and developed a secure, scalable CPU monitoring architecture (cpu-watcher) with a dedicated collector application that streams monitoring data to the backend, reducing direct exposure of system resources.
• Designed a secure cloud infrastructure with the database isolated within a private network and OIDC-based authentication.
• Implemented Infrastructure as Code with Terraform and integrated version-controlled CI/CD pipelines to automate testing, infrastructure changes, and application deployments.
• Designed and implemented the frontend delivery architecture using AWS CloudFront.

Stack: Spring Boot · React · PostgreSQL · REST API · Docker Compose · Terraform · AWS

• Functional management and further development of a team of 28 IT employees (internal & external) in the areas of HelpDesk / HelpLine, RHEL (Red Hat), MUREX (trading system & applications), SAP basic operations
• Management of external service providers (including FI-TS for SAP basic operations)
• Personnel, resource and budget planning for the IT department and projects
• Introduction and establishment of regular communication formats (regular meetings, team and cross-departmental meetings)
• Ensuring application operations in a hybrid environment (Windows / Linux with database and web/application servers)
• Support for transformation projects to modernize the application landscape (e.g. DevOps approaches)
• Building and introducing digital IT procurement for hardware & software (e.g. with DELL)
• Development and management of the „IT Operations DOS" department based on the company strategy
• Preparation of management reports & decision papers on IT projects, optimization potential and automation opportunities
• Representing the department in Rentenbank committees and ensuring regulatory compliance (BaFin §44, DSGVO, BSI, MaRisk)

Non-custodial staking and digital-asset infrastructure for Web3 wallets, exchanges, and institutional custodians

Advised the COO on delivery for staking and digital-asset infrastructure serving institutional custodians, exchanges and wallets across regulated markets.

• Ran the company-wide KPI and OKR process across the organisation, raising company-wide OKR achievement from 50% to 65%.
• Designed and implemented OKR/KPI frameworks enabling structured quarterly delivery cycles and executive-level execution visibility.
• Defined, documented and improved the P2P governance and operating processes across programmes and operations.