Internet of Things Experts in Hamburg

• Identified operational improvement opportunities together with production, engineering and management teams.
• Prioritized use cases according to measurable operational value rather than technology availability.
• Developed solutions around production performance, OEE, quality, traceability, reporting and process transparency.
• Translated operational requirements into required machine data, interfaces, information models and application requirements.
• Defined target architectures and integration approaches for heterogeneous brownfield production environments.
• Moved prioritized use cases from workshop and concept stages into concrete implementation projects.
• Coordinated manufacturing, OT, IT and technology stakeholders during implementation.
• Established reusable approaches to scale successful solutions beyond individual machines or pilot areas.

• Building a data integration platform for high, medium, and low voltage assets for contextual analysis of time series with master data from the SCADA control system (IEC 60870 104), INIS, and SAP.
• Responsibility for the architecture and implementation of the solution, as well as sparring partner for the Product Owner.
• Use of Kotlin, Spring Boot, Maven, TimescaleDB, PostgreSQL, liquibase, Elements IoT, Docker, Kubernetes, Grafana, Python, jupyter, and various API gateways.

Public sector, regulated environment with legal deadlines and interfaces to justice, finance offices, and authorities. Took over a software product, condition unknown. The handover reported 89 percent completion.

Description / Results:

Review of the current state showed only two months of remaining runtime until year-end. Stabilized the product base in four weeks, including setup. Process logic proven instead of estimated: 181 workflows with 28 steps each verified against the legacy system.

• Disciplinary and professional leadership of the IT and service team
• Definition and documentation of the Current Mode of Operation (CMO) in Confluence: application landscape, infrastructure, networks, backup & storage
• Development of the Future Mode of Operation (FMO) including process analysis & stakeholder interviews with all departments using BPMN and flowcharts
• Optimization of license management: reduction of ongoing software costs by approx. 17% p.a.
• Introduction and establishment of Jira as the central tool for project and service management
• Introduction and rollout of the HR software MindKey to digitize HR processes
• Introduction of a VoIP solution with Microsoft Teams incl. PSTN connection to replace classic telephony
• Introduction of the production and planning software OptiControl to digitize operational processes
• Rollout of Intune as a Mobile Device Management solution for Windows, iOS and Android
• Build-up of Power BI dashboards for machine park monitoring and financial reporting
• Planning and execution of the IT consolidation of two locations for 170 users
• Introduction of automated penetration testing with Pentera
• Coaching and mentoring the team in agile methods & project management
• Operational support in day-to-day business: administration, incident & change management
• Management of external service providers and assurance of the quality of outsourced IT services
• Responsibility for the IT budget incl. planning and controlling
• Direct reporting line to management with regular management reports on IT KPIs, budget and project status

Freelance work for a large German family office

Built and further developed a modular B2B SaaS platform for professional wealth management and family offices, alongside freelance delivery of production-ready AI, data management, and automation solutions for the wealth management sector.

• Developed an AI governance framework for regulated finance and asset management workflows, aligned with DORA, BaFin-related governance expectations, and data protection requirements, including role definitions, access levels, and decision rules.
• Designed an agentic system with a locally operated open-source language model, including Qwen2.5 via Ollama, for secure querying of an asset database through text-to-SQL-to-text workflows.
• Built AI-supported analysis and reporting capabilities that generate structured answers, tables, and charts from asset data, with domain validation through resolver logic and RAG elements.
• Developed production-grade data import workflows for financial service provider data from CSV, PDF, and API sources, including validation, plausibility checks, and reconciliation with existing asset data.
• Solved the asset matching problem without a cross-system primary key through multi-stage validation rules and human-in-the-loop approvals.

Results:

• Secured EUR 250,000 in SaaS revenue in 2024, exceeding the forecast by 20%.
• Acquired family office clients with EUR 1.6bn in assets under management.
• Reduced manual effort for the largest client by approx. 3 days per month through automated data import and reconciliation processes.
• Reduced operational error risk through structured data validation, multi-stage asset matching, and human-in-the-loop approvals.

I implemented a Zero-Trust architecture for robust, military-grade maritime container mini data centers based on VMware & Tanzu to support containerized GIS workloads for ground forces. The main focus was on securing communications, workload protection, and data access in contested electronic battle environments affected by jamming, interception, signal manipulation, and constantly changing operational conditions. I designed and architected use cases so that every element of workload, identity, and system could continue to operate independently and securely even in degraded or disrupted scenarios. In parallel, I defined the enterprise and solution security architecture with LeanIX, Bizzdesign, and HOPEX as enterprise architecture, repository, and governance platforms to maintain architecture inventory, relationships, traceability, target pictures, and security governance in complex environments. For the architectural designs, I used Sparx Enterprise Architect to describe formal architecture views, interfaces, trust boundaries, and system architecture in both IT and OT environments. IriusRisk was used for threat modeling of the solution to identify architecture-driven risks, derive security requirements, and detect countermeasures and design gaps directly from the solution models. Risk and compliance management was supported with Archer. Architecture decisions, control gaps, and operational risks were translated into controlled governance and auditable compliance measures. For documentation, collaboration, and visual design, I used Confluence to maintain Architecture Decision Records, Security Blueprints, and workflows. I used Lucidchart and draw.io to create design artifacts tailored to stakeholders. I also defined OT security concepts with support from electrical and mechanical engineers in the areas of oil, vehicle onboard systems, rail, power plants, pharma, gas turbines, and nuclear technology. I created the end-to-end OT security strategy, starting with global policy, developed into standards and procedures, and finally aligned with Bell-LaPadula, Purdue Model, SABSA, TOGAF ADM, CENELEC 50701, IEC 62443, and NIST standards. In addition, I worked with engineering team leads to identify critical KBP assets and place them under protective measures that segmented SCADA, PLC, and HMI assets. I drove collaboration between Security, IT, and OT teams to create standardized workflows and use cases for the OT security solution catalog, while integrating Defense-in-Depth and Zero-Trust principles into operational environments. A key part of my work was integrating multidisciplinary engineering, security, and operations stakeholders into a unified security blueprinting strategy and ensuring that architecture, threat modeling, governance, and documentation were technically strong and operationally practical.

• Development and implementation of custom IT solutions for key customers.
• More than 15 years of experience in IT and project management, disciplinary leadership of up to 80 employees.

• Consulting and interim management for portfolio strategy and implementation
• Building transition and monetization portfolio, focus on telecoms
• Business unit transformations (structure, services, roles)
• Executive coaching
• Go-to-market, positioning, and offering logic
• Transferring telecom-specific monetization logics to other industries

• I lead a team of 10 engineers across EMEA split into 2 squads (ingest and query), focused on developing the next generation of logging systems.
• Leading the Loki team in Europe, overseeing the logging solutions at Grafana. I manage a diverse team of engineers, ranging from mid-level to principal, ensuring we deliver top-tier results.
• One of our key achievements has been the successful development and launch of ExploreLogs and AdaptiveLogs.

Expomate platform

• Built a cross-platform exhibitor inquiry management app using React Native and RoR 8, leveraging RESTful APIs, Solid Queue for background job processing, and Devise for authentication on the backend, with Redux and AsyncStorage for state management and local data persistence.

TaskINT platform

• Developed a unified platform for task execution, time tracking, invoicing, client relations, and staff management using RoR 8 and React.js, utilising RESTful APIs, Sidekiq for background jobs, and Zustand for state management and WebSockets for real-time data sync, with 300+ users onboarded across 5 clients.

• Solution for micro-service and frontend solution for the electric grid
• Leading of development teams
• Technologies: React-Native, TypeScript, Kotlin, AWS, Infrastructure As Code, Serverless Architecture, React, NoSQL, GraphQL, Angular, Playwright, Python, ML(Ops), Kubernetes, Docker

AI Strategy, Validation & Implementation for SME and Enterprise

• B2B GenAI Products
• Intelligent Workflows
• Third Party Implementation

• Competency mapping and conversion into a standardized taxonomy for over 100,000 employees.
• Efficiency improvements by job function.
• Assignment of all white-collar employees to nine divisions worldwide within four months.

• Directed a 110-strong global team including data scientists, product managers, sales, operations, and developers
• Led investment and strategic reviews of scale-up ventures to drive profitability
• Developed and implemented portfolio strategy focused on IoT, AI, API platforms, and software products
• Restructured portfolio, eliminating unprofitable products and reallocating 70% of investments and resources to AI and platform development
• Delivered Vodafone’s first internal GenAI projects, enhancing sales and marketing efficiency
• Streamlined innovation strategy, reducing initiatives by 80% to focus on AI product enhancements and network APIs