Gherkin Experts in Germany

Maturing their API practices on both a business and technology level. My role covers strategy, architecture, developer advocacy as well as hands-on software engineering, enabling both technical teams and business leadership to adopt and act on API-centric principles effectively. Coincidentally, we also establish GitOps, DX and platform best practices with this project.

Highlights:

• Aligning executives with the initiative by clarifying strategy, replacing misconceptions and myths with facts, clarifying the value of existing assets and enabling informed decision-making
• Formulating a way forward for API Lifecycle Management at OTTO
• Driving platform progress and fostering developer engagement by hands-on engineering work towards strategic goals

API Lifecycle Management, Team Topologies, Organizational Evolution, Regulatory, Platform Advocate, Developer Platform, Communities of Practice, Terraform, Kotlin, Kafka, Kong, WSO2, Apigee, Gravitee, Backstage, AsyncAPI, OpenAPI, API Design, AWS, React, Node.js, TypeScript, Redocly, reactive programming, CDC, Golang, Gin, GitOps, DX (developer experience), stakeholder management, roadmaps, workshops, discovery.

• 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

CRM and revenue platform managing billing and subscription workflows.

• Scaled payments infrastructure across data products, direct debit expansion and automated abuse prevention, generating $416K in annualized operational savings ($8K/week) by eliminating redundant gateway calls.
• Owned backlog and sprint execution for autonomous checkout abuse detection pipelines, designing real-time risk guardrails and velocity heuristics that blocked card testing attacks.
• Architected enterprise billing migrator user stories and data reconciliation mechanisms, achieving zero-downtime subscription state transitions and cutting $60K in infrastructure overhead.
• Expanded European direct debit (SEPA) payment capabilities, managing cross-squad API dependencies and automated webhook error-handling to eliminate checkout friction.

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

• Complete greenfield rebuild across the whole stack — built AI-native: backend in Go and NestJS, PostgreSQL (CNPG) on K3s with GitOps/Terraform; frontend on Angular 22, zoneless.
• Orchestrated coding agents (e.g. Claude Code, Cursor) across the entire lifecycle — architecture, implementation, testing, reviews, documentation — driven by Specification-Driven Development (SDD).
• “Bruno” — LLM commentator persona backed by RAG and MCP for a personality that stays consistent across all generations (match previews, post-match reports, his own virtual bets).

Angular 22 (zoneless, without Zone.js), Claude Code, Claude Code Skills, CNPG, Cursor, Design Tokens (Spec for Code), Docker, Gherkin, Git, GitLab, GitOps, Go, Google Gemini, Grafana, Hetzner Cloud, K3s, Keycloak, Kubernetes, Lighthouse, LLM Integration, Model Context Protocol (MCP), NestJS, Node.js, NPM, Playwright, PostgreSQL, Prometheus, RAG, REST, Specification-Driven Development (SDD), Structured Outputs, Terraform, TypeScript, Vitest

Technologies: Java 25, Selenium, Insomnia, SSO, Gitlab, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, Jira, IntelliJ, Nexus, Oracle, MariaDB, SpringBoot, Grafana, Concept Board, Vue.js, OpenApi, Kotlin. Implementation, maintenance, and enhancement of automated end-to-end regression tests for UI and API interfaces. Appropriate and targeted test automation involving multiple software products, including Java-based Windows applications. Automation of business processes with Selenium, reset jobs, and DB import jobs, as well as creation of test concepts, test case descriptions, and structured defect reporting.

• Shifted roles from Business Analyst to Project Manager: steering delivery instead of gathering requirements.
• Led the make-or-buy decision and presented it to the Group IT management.
• Provided functional input for procurement contract negotiations, followed by sprint-based partner management.
• Evaluated the low-code platform OutSystems against the complete requirements catalog.
• Transferred the requirements catalog to Jira: ten epics, more than 140 issues, and acceptance criteria in Given-When-Then notation.
• Assessed three implementation partners.
• Implementation is progressing in sprints based on the delivered backlog.

Methods and approaches: Make-or-buy assessment, user stories with Gherkin, sprint management, migration planning

Enterprise systems: OutSystems, SAP S/4HANA, PCM, Snowflake, IBM Planning Analytics (TM1), Jira

Technologies and tools: Python, Microsoft Excel, Claude (Anthropic API)

• Creating a test concept and test strategy
• Planning and organizing user acceptance tests
• Coordinating test execution with business units during releases
• Guiding and coaching business units in writing user stories with acceptance criteria in Gherkin format
• Conducting training on test case creation
• Generating test reports and managing approvals/releases
• Setting up the test approach in Zephyr and Xray
• Planning and coordinating automated tests and regression tests
• Technologies and tools: Jira, Confluence, Zephyr for Jira, Xray, Microsoft Teams, ServiceNow

• Introduction of Agile-CCPM in an IT project agency with a focus on PHP-based content management systems.
• Preparation and facilitation of workshops to establish a cross-agency multi-project management system.
• Coordination and support of the agency partners.
• Coaching of the methodological framework.
• Collection, evaluation, and use of organizational metrics to plan next steps.
• Environment: OKR, CCPM, Agile Coaching, Agile Planning, Agile Metrics, Workshops, Facilitation, Change Management, JIRA, Zoom, Slack, Miro.

• Analysis and optimization of business processes in financial accounting
• Customizing in SAP FI (e.g. company codes, chart of accounts, payments)
• Integration with other modules such as CO, MM, SD
• Consulting on legal requirements (e.g. GoBD, UStG)
• Support with month-end and year-end closing
• Creation of test plans (system test, integration test, UAT)
• Definition of test cases (e.g. postings, payment runs, dunning runs)
• Selection of suitable test data and scenarios
• Manual testing of posting processes (e.g. customer invoice, payment run)
• Validation of automatic postings (e.g. for MM credit memo)
• Checking interfaces (e.g. to subsystems or non-SAP solutions)
• Documentation of defects in the test tool (e.g. Jira, ALM)
• Analysis and feedback to developers or the customizing team
• Retest after bug fixes
• E2E tests with SAP Solution Manager (SOLMAN)
• Use of tools such as SAP CBTA or Micro Focus UFT

• Responsible for accurate posting of monthly payroll and payments in 15 EMEA countries, including special topics such as company cars and benefits in kind, and reconciliation of balances for period close.

• Act as the interface between Finance, HR and Treasury, providing support for processes and developing solutions.

• Developed an application to automate preparation of booking lists for SAP, saving the team several hours per month and significantly reducing error rates.

• Tasks:

• Point of contact for all payroll inquiries

• Account reconciliation and harmonization

• Pre-close controls

• Improvement and establishment of existing and new processes

• Skills: financial accounting, payroll, Python

• Tools: SAP, ATAQ, MS Excel, IntelliJ IDE, MS Power Automate

• Interim Product Manager for ainavio GmbH: developing AI powered E-Commerce product data annotation software with an international/cross-functional SCRUM team (agile, product discovery, user centered).
• Requirements Engineer at ZEISS: analysis and specification of requirements for process software within high-technology hardware production.
• Product Manager for PlanYou Business Process and Task Planner: transforming the product from an outdated on-premise solution to a modern, scalable cloud native SaaS application.
• Technologies: ChatGPT/OpenAI API, Azure DevOps, Confluence, Draw.io, Miro, Figma, Polarion, Scrum, JIRA

• data integration for SAP marketing applications Emarsys and SMC
• processing data from SAP applications for email delivery
• event-driven architecture with around 50 microservices for processing several million messages per day during high season
• development of a marketing campaign management tool (frontend Angular, backend C# ASP Web API)
• support for the Product Owner in communication with stakeholders and creation of epics, stories, and tasks