Kotlin 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.

Built an international e-commerce platform for a multi-vendor marketplace for digital assets from scratch. Designed and operated cloud native architectures at enterprise scale.

• Designed and operated a highly scalable microservice and serverless architecture
• Built the complete cloud infrastructure with Terraform + AWS CDK in AWS
• Provisioned ECS/EKS clusters (Fargate), Application Load Balancers (reverse proxy), and Lambda functions
• Observability & tracing with CloudWatch, DataDog, Prometheus, and Grafana
• End-to-end setup with DataDog (formerly AWS CloudWatch), Prometheus, and custom Grafana dashboards
• Integration of advanced metrics (including ORM mapper) and distributed tracing with Jaeger
• Robust backup and disaster recovery strategies
• RDS Postgres backups and hourly snapshots
• Read-only, asynchronously synchronized replicas with automated master failover in emergencies
• Minute-level rollback capability through versioned Docker images on ECS and Git-based CI/CD pipelines
• Created CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions for automated multi-stage deployments (Dev, Testing, Prod)
• Integrated Stripe for international payment processing
• Built a marketplace payment system with multiple parties and payout routines
• Used Algolia for high-performance real-time search of digital assets on the platform
• Federation of services with GraphQL and Hasura
• Later migration to GraphQL Mesh
• Test Driven Development (TDD) - unit, integration, and E2E testing with Jest, Vitest, and Playwright
• Used Next.js / React for modern frontend applications in the nx monorepo
• Enterprise security architecture & access control
• Integration of JWT tokens with Auth0, OAuth, OIDC, IP guards, BOLA protection, and secret vaults
• Authorization concepts with RBAC, ABAC, and native Postgres Row-Level Security (RLS)
• Built internal microfrontends with Retool for fast prototyping and operational business processes

Technologies: ABAC, AWS CDK, AWS CloudWatch, AWS ECS, AWS EKS, AWS Fargate, AWS RDS, AWS S3, Algolia, Auth0, DataDog, Docker, GitHub Actions, Grafana, GraphQL, GraphQL Mesh, Hasura, JWT, Jaeger, Java, JavaScript, Jest, Kotlin, Kubernetes, Monorepo, Next.js, OIDC, Playwright, Postgres, Postgres RLS, Prometheus, RBAC, Redis, Retool, Serverless, Stripe, Terraform, TypeScript, Vitest

• 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

Digitalization of real-world locations using 3D/LiDAR scans to make spatial data usable for AI applications and derive concrete use cases and prototypes from it.

• Digital capture of real-world locations as a basis for faster planning and analysis
• Browser-based access to 3D data for easier use and coordination
• Conversion of spatial data into concrete use cases, prototypes and AI training scenarios
• Planning basis for urban development and other digital applications of the future

Keywords: LiDAR, 3D scan, AI, use cases, AI training, prototyping, Python, web development, data models, architecture

• 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.

• Ride-sharing and bus platform, live and fully functional. Backend with Spring Boot 4.1 on Java 21, PostgreSQL with Flyway, and Testcontainers integration tests. Hosted in my own AWS account (ECS Fargate, ALB, ECR, IAM Least-Privilege) with CI/CD via GitHub Actions and OIDC federation without static credentials. Development fully AI-supported with Claude Code, including custom skills and project-specific memory. Spring Boot · Java 21 · PostgreSQL · Flyway · Docker · AWS ECS/ALB/ECR · CI/CD · GitHub Actions · Claude Code

• Training AI models, evaluating images and text UI/UX, turning the provided data into insights through OpenAI Feather as part of the machine learning workflow

Technologies: OpenAI Feather

• Development and optimization of the RTL+ frontend application for SmartTV and set-top box platforms with React and Next.js.
• Key role in the technical coordination of developers within the team and in coordinating implementation.
• Central interface to adjacent teams to simplify development processes and improve cross-team alignment.
• Improved frontend performance, stability, and rendering behavior on low-powered devices in a restricted runtime environment.
• Implemented a frontend testing strategy with Jest, React Testing Library, and Playwright.
• Implemented accessibility improvements according to WCAG 2.2 and WAI-ARIA.
• Integrated Didomi Consent Management as a contribution to increasing ad monetization on streaming platforms.
• Used AI-supported engineering workflows with Cursor for structured implementation, refactoring, and faster problem solving.

Technologies used: React, Next.js, TypeScript, JavaScript, GraphQL, Apollo Gateway, Zustand, Tailwind CSS, Styled Components, React Testing Library, Playwright, Jest, HTML5, CSS3, AWS Lambda, EC2, CloudFront, S3, GitLab CI/CD, NX, Cursor

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

• Focus: system architecture, cloud-native platforms, microservices, API design
• Product: Pflege-Pfad is a digital matchmaking platform that connects relatives of people in need of care directly with verified care services and caregivers - without an agency and without ongoing fees.
• Business analysis & process design:
• Analysis of the German care market and identification of the key pain points of both target groups.
• Modeling of the core business processes: registration, verification, care request, application, placement, and rating.
• Definition of the business model as a freemium/premium model with optional contact unlocking.
• Creation of user stories and requirements documentation for relatives, care services, and administrators.
• Design of trust and quality assurance mechanisms with document upload, admin review process, and rating system.
• Coordination with stakeholders and validation of product decisions with potential users.
• Technical implementation:
• Design and implementation of the entire platform architecture as a solo developer.
• Design and implementation of a REST API with Spring Boot and Kotlin, including JWT-based authentication.
• Development of the frontend as a single-page application with Angular 17.
• Implementation of the AWS infrastructure with EC2, RDS PostgreSQL, S3, CloudFront, and IAM.
• Document upload with AWS S3 via presigned URLs for verification of care services.
• Email notifications via Resend API.
• AI-supported care service search via OpenAI API.
• Implementation of complete user flows such as registration, login, password reset, and placement process.
• Building an admin panel for user and care service management as well as analytics.
• CI/CD with GitHub Actions and containerized deployments with Docker.
• End-to-end tests with Playwright.

Technologies: Kotlin, Spring Boot 3, Spring Security, JWT, JPA/Hibernate, PostgreSQL, Angular 17, TypeScript, RxJS, AWS (EC2, ECS, S3, CloudFront CDN, RDS PostgreSQL, IAM), nginx, GitHub Actions, Playwright, Maven, Git, OpenAI API, Resend API, Docker, Scrum, i18n (DE/EN/TR), Kiro, feature-flag architecture.

• Designing the audit logging framework
• Implementing APIs for developers to integrate in their codebase
• Implementing ingestion pipeline, database query layer and UI for browsing the audit events
• Improving stability and reliability of the backend system

Development and evolutionary further development of a highly available, cloud-native microservice and integration architecture for dealer and retail processes in the Porsche Car Configurator.

Responsibilities

• Development of Java-/Kotlin-based backend, API, and integration components (Spring Boot)
• Integration of internal and external systems via REST/OpenAPI, GraphQL, Apache Kafka, and AWS SQS (synchronous and asynchronous)
• Implementation of stable, high-performance communication and data flows in a cloud-native platform architecture
• Processing of structured data formats (JSON, Protobuf, GraphQL schemas) based on existing API patterns
• Performance optimization of distributed microservices with reduced response times and higher operational stability
• Technical tests (unit, integration, and API tests) as well as error analysis in production-like environments
• AWS Infrastructure as Code with Terraform and AWS CDK
• CI/CD automation (build, test, and deployment pipelines) with GitHub Actions
• AI-supported feature implementation (GitHub Copilot Agent)

Label: Kotlin, Java 25, Spring Boot 4, Protobuf, TypeScript, AWS, Terraform, CDK, Apache Kafka, AWS SQS, REST/OpenAPI, GraphQL, JSON, PostgreSQL, Docker, GitHub Actions, Maven, Gradle, JUnit, Mockito, Testcontainers

• Designed, built, and launched an internal event planning web application used by over 100 department leads for a large event, despite having no dedicated testing phase.

• Ensured smooth, failure-free operation during first production use, leading to the tool being adopted for future events.

• Automated catering calculations and related workflows, significantly reducing email communication and manual computation effort for meal planning.

• Managed deployment and hosting on a Linux server using Coolify, including application setup and runtime operations.

• Hired and guided a communication designer on UX while independently owning all technical decisions and implementation.

• Led discovery phase and POC for Shopware to Shopify Plus migration across EMEA markets, evaluating platform suitability, technical architecture, and multi-brand/multi-country capabilities against business requirements.
• Designed reference architecture for Shopify Plus implementation incorporating headless front-end patterns (Vue.js, Nuxt.js), CMS integration (Magnolia), and Azure middleware (APIM, Functions, Logic Apps, Service Bus) for 11 EMEA markets.
• Defined migration strategy analyzing data mapping, cutover approach, and zero-downtime deployment patterns using Varnish caching, GitOps pipelines, and CI/CD orchestration across six vendor teams.
• Architected multi-tenant Shopify Plus governance model with centralized admin, localized storefront customization, and compliance controls (GDPR, data residency).
• Prototyped AI-driven search optimization (LLM.txt, JSON-LD) for product discoverability in Google AI results, demonstrating post-launch performance opportunities.
• Defined EMEA expansion roadmap for 15+ markets through C-level strategic workshops, identifying phased rollout, market-specific configurations, and resource requirements.
• Tech Stack: React, Nuxt.js, Vue.js, Magnolia CMS, Shopware, Shopify Plus, Azure (APIM, Functions, Logic Apps, Service Bus, Front Door), Varnish, SAP, MS Dynamics, Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions, PostgreSQL, Kafka