GRC Experts in Germany

• 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.

• Industry: mechanical engineering, vehicle manufacturing
• Regulations: Data Act
• Project focus: data governance, legally compliant use of machine data, data platforms
• Assigned by: CFO, platform product owner

Successes/Results (early phase):

• Compliance support for the setup of an internal standardized data usage platform based on Databricks.
• Created the basis for the legally compliant and effective use of machine data, including:
• Technical: gap analysis and closing of gaps in the segmentation and maintenance of collected machine data.
• Technical: consideration of data flows from the platform to users and third parties.
• Organizational: drafting and finalizing the required data usage agreements.

• WiNOWiG enhancements (digitalization & organization)
• Project management for the WiNOWiG project (regulatory offenses)
• Process optimization and coordination

KEY PROJECTS

Since 05/2023 | Bank | Senior Cyber Security Consultant (external)

• Advising and guiding the system owners in creating and further developing IT security concepts
• Coordinating and tracking the remediation of findings from reviews and audits
• Advising on the implementation of regulatory requirements for information security

10/2023 – 02/2024 | Fintech | Project Manager (external)

• Project management to close various audit gaps in the field of information security
• Conceptual design and implementation of an information security management system based on ISO/IEC 27001
• Creation and further development of ISMS documents and processes

To achieve savings and optimize compliance, apps were restructured in line with the mappings in identity management, restrictions were defined and, above all, costs resulting from overuse were reduced. Communication with stakeholders, validation of authorizations with users and technical implementation in the SAP FI/CO and Sourcing & Procurement modules created significant added value for the group. This also included the corresponding documentation for the auditors.

• Transition strategic business development: product before customer in <4 months instead of 10
• Transition strategic business development: development cost reduction to plan: 40% (-250 k EUR)
• Executive mentor & coach for CEO & CPO: CEO too busy to improve - portfolio, company structure and strategy
• Executive mentor & coach for CEO & CPO: PO→CPO transition to take over full product responsibility for Lohnpulse
• Interim CIO: scouting / onboarding / handover of general contractor service providers to CPO
• Interim CIO: transition from MVP to a fully operable product by the CPO

Industry: Finance/Insurance

• Sparring partner for the data protection team
• Taking over tasks from the data protection backlog
• Updating data protection processes
• Updating TOMs
• Revising template documents (including DPA, data protection guidelines)
• Conducting audits (authorization concept, software development)
• Taking over tasks from day-to-day operations
• Processing data protection reports
• Conducting DPIA and TIA
• Reviewing data processing agreements
• Designing and delivering trainings
• Standard Data Protection Model
• AI and data protection

Result: Successfully supported the data protection team, worked through the data protection backlog, and delivered trainings successfully

Strategic consulting for the development and strengthening of ISMS structures (ISO 27001 / BSI IT-Grundschutz), including onboarding, gap analyses, and preparation of the IT organization for DORA requirements (ICT third-party risk) and NIS2 compliance. Auditing compliance requirements in a regulated environment.

• Head of the group-wide, international, and cross-functional IT Governance & IAM department within the central IT division of a large French-German private banking group. Disciplinary management of around 30 employees at five different locations within the group (Frankfurt, Paris, Tunis, Saarbrücken, Düsseldorf). Head of IT committees and key role in direct communication with management, the supervisory board, external stakeholders, and regulators.
• Definition and establishment of a state-of-the-art IT strategy process and related IT governance structures for the group's IT department with more than 600 employees (testified by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority and the ACPR) and successful process run.
• Establishment of a new future-oriented process framework for IT and necessary governance structures (process squads) for the continuous improvement of IT processes with regard to new regulatory requirements (including DORA, EU AI Act, etc.).
• Establishment of stringent processes to close a historical backlog of findings (> 100 IT findings, 40 overdue findings in 2022) from internal and external auditors (WP, ACPR, BaFin). Successful reduction of stock of overdue findings to 0 at the end of 2025.
• Supporting more than 20 IT audits per year and establishment of regulatory monitoring processes. Introduction of ServiceNow to revolutionize regulatory change and IT compliance processes with advanced AI functionalities.
• Realignment of IT control processes in conjunction with the newly established ICT risk function under DORA and the three lines of defense concept using the TopEase GRC solution.
• Reduction of the application landscape, by systematically analysing the purpose with application and business owners, identifying duplicates while implementing a One-Tool Strategy throughout the group. Successful reduction of one third of the application landscape within the CMDB.
• Onboarding of all group applications into One Identity's group-wide IAM solution, as well as operation and further development of the solution in connection with segregation of duties (SoD), role-based access management (RBAC), etc.

• Delivery of various end-customer projects in server and network infrastructure on time, in quality, and within budget.
• Project 1: Firewall renewal, replacement of an ASA firewall with a Fortinet firewall at an automotive supplier.
• Project 2: Migration of file services from dedicated servers at 5 branch locations into a central managed file service, including DHCP, directory, and print services, as well as decommissioning of the old domain controllers.
• Project 3: Renewal of the network infrastructure at the headquarters and branch locations of a logistics company and transition of the LAN, WLAN, and firewall environments into a managed network service.
• Project 4: Network renewal, replacement of the core and access switches at the headquarters of a medical technology company and transition into a managed network service.
• Project 5: Firewall renewal, replacement of an ASA firewall with a Fortinet firewall for a city.
• Environment: ASA and Fortinet firewalls, Cisco network components, ITSM Heat/Ivanti, Confluence.

• Situation: Increasing demand for privacy-compliant AI solutions for clients in the KRITIS and mid-market sector that need to analyze sensitive media content (audio, video, documents) without sending data to public cloud LLMs.

• Task: Design, deployment, and secure operation of a fully self-hosted AI infrastructure including a custom-built digital management platform for automated media analysis.

• Action: Architected and implemented a multi-tier platform on hardened Proxmox infrastructure with frontend (Nuxt 3, Vue 3, TypeScript, Tailwind 4), backend (Laravel 13, PHP 8.4, Sanctum), data storage (PostgreSQL 16, MongoDB 7), caching/queuing (Redis 7, Laravel Queue), AI workers (Python 3.11, Whisper, DeepFace, Librosa), scheduling (Laravel Scheduler/Cron), and local LLMs (Gemma, DeepSeek, Qwen, Mistral, LLaMA, Phi) via OpenWebUI with segmented network access, API hardening, and audit logging following BSI recommendations.

• Result: Fully GDPR-compliant, on-premises AI platform with zero data leakage to third parties.

• Task: Overall responsibility as an external Head of Cyber Security / CISO-as-a-Service for the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of ISMS according to ISO 27001, BSI IT-Grundschutz, and NIS2.

• Action: Built and managed Cyber Defense Centers (CDC) with SOC operations, integrated SIEM solutions (Splunk, Graylog), established risk-based vulnerability management (Qualys, Nessus, OpenVAS), and conducted regular infrastructure, application, and physical penetration tests.

• Result: Audit-ready ISMS for multiple clients and a 60% reduction in critical vulnerabilities within 90 days.

• Task: Design and execution of NIS2 assessments and operational roll-out plans for KRITIS operators.

• Action: Developed an online assessment tool for automated identification of individual weakness profiles, implemented ISMS optimizations, penetration testing, awareness programs, GRC suite deployment, and delivered C-level presentations.

• Result: Accelerated the consulting process by 50% and successfully prepared multiple clients for NIS2 compliance.

• Task: Incident commander for crisis response, forensics, and business recovery in ransomware attacks and APT campaigns.

• Action: Coordinated with state and federal police (LKA, BKA), performed forensic analysis (OSForensics, Wireshark, Kali Linux), executed disaster recovery and BCM strategies, and developed BTC extortion response strategies.

• Result: 100% recovery rate within defined RTO windows and sustainable post-incident security architectures.

• Action: Planned, built, and operated a hardened multi-VM infrastructure (Proxmox, 15+ VMs) with web and mail servers, Graylog, OPNsense firewalls, CRM/ERP and LLM instances, network segmentation, DDoS mitigation, automated patch management, and backup strategies.

• Result: >99.5% uptime over 20+ years and zero compromises.

• Action: Designed coordinated phishing campaigns with five levels of difficulty, developed e-trainings and webinars in a PDCA cycle, and led red and blue teams.

• Result: Phishing click rate reduced from 35% to under 5% within three campaign cycles.

Support for Internal Audit:

Conducting an audit of the data protection officer and data protection management:

• Preparing an audit program based on the audit field concept
• Requesting the necessary audit documentation
• Carrying out control testing based on the audit program with the following focus:
• Reviewing the relevant PPS processes
• Reviewing the data protection mission statement, data protection policy, and data protection management concept
• Conducting audit interviews with the data protection officer
• Preparing the audit documentation
• Training a junior auditor in the methodology of Internal Audit
• Coordinating the audit documentation with the head of audit

• Capture and analyze stakeholder needs to define clear requirements and make sure the new website meets user expectations.
• Took on the role of Product Owner to lead the development team, set priorities, and monitor implementation progress.
• Coordinated the implementation of Optimizely as the new CMS, including adapting and integrating all required features to ensure a smooth user flow.
• Ensured the successful integration of features within the Condor lifecycle, such as flight booking, check-in, and other relevant services, to create a complete user experience.
• Actively communicated with stakeholders to gather feedback and make adjustments during the development process, continuously improving the user experience.
• Planned and carried out tests to ensure the quality of the implemented features and that all requirements were met.
• Methods used: Agile methods, SCRUM, SAFe
• Tools used: Optimizely, Jira, Confluence
• Result: Significant improvement in user experience, optimized booking and check-in processes, and a stronger digital presence for Condor in the market.

(parallel to freelance work)

• Setup and leadership of ESG, Internal Audit, and Risk Management for a listed company
• Setup and leadership of a CSRD / EU Taxonomy project including sustainability reporting
• Analysis and implementation of all relevant ESG product compliance regulations, including the introduction of ESG software
• Introduction of enterprise risk management and an internal audit system