Mainframe Experts in Germany

I continuously expand my expertise in AI and automation. I work with ChatGPT, OpenAI, Manus, Gemini, MS CoPilot, APIs, LangChain, Hugging Face, Manus, TensorFlow, and Auto-GPT, as well as Python-based ML frameworks and MLOps tools, to intelligently transform traditional software development, analysis, and testing processes.

Responsible for the IT operations of a medium-sized mechanical engineering company (approximately 2 000 employees, annual revenue of approximately 400 million euros worldwide). Direct responsibility for 13 employees. At the same time, project manager for an internal carve-out (commercial and technical separation of the two business units worldwide).

Industry: Mechanical and plant engineering

Function: Director IT

• Responsibility for outsourced IT operations; provider management and service management.
• Responsibility for the complete separation of the two business units (applications, SAP R//3, Active Directory, IT infrastructure, ...); project planning and management; selection and management of service providers.
• TiSAX certification for one business unit; budget planning 2025 ff.
• Establishment and structuring of application operations, including the definition of operating models, SLAs/KPIs, and provider management in the SAP environment.
• Preparation of the operating organization for application operations of S/4 Hana (private cloud).

• Building up the Enterprise Architecture department. Preparing the convergence of IT / OT.
• Mapping the global business application landscape (6 countries).
• Concept for a graph model of the application landscape. Storing the results in the open-source graph database Neo4J. Various reports in the database query language CYPHER and the visualization component BLOOM. Automatic generation of IT architecture diagrams.
• Development of an application taxonomy to identify redundant applications.
• Applying Gartner's Software Portfolio Management TIME model (Tolerate, Invest, Migrate, and Eliminate) for portfolio management.
• Enterprise Architecture Governance: establishing architecture guidelines for documenting measures and decisions.
• Process modeling according to Porter (Value Chain).
• Various architecture approvals for change requests and documentation in Architecture Decision Records (ADR).
• Working on the RACI matrix for various processes.
• Working on business capabilities as preparation for a LeanIX rollout.
• Contributing to the concept for IT/OT convergence.
• Establishing architecture guidelines in a very pragmatic corporate culture. Knowledge about applications and responsibilities is spread across the world.

With project PRIZMA, DB will modernize its infrastructure on the one hand, and develop a fail-safe IT landscape on the other hand, which can be restored quickly and securely in case of a disaster.

• Capture current architectures of existing systems as well as methodical consulting and development of target architectures
• Deepen and maintain the building plan / target IT landscape
• Implement technical architecture concepts & architecture descriptions
• Implement migration concepts for updating and further developing the platform and information systems
• Assess submitted improvement suggestions as part of the project
• Capability management: identify capability gaps, develop target visions, and support transformation planning within the enterprise architecture.
• Create a compatibility matrix of the components in use and compare dependencies of specific versions
• Create an IT concept for extending the platform with the following topics: hardware and software requirements, security, licensing, high availability, load balancing, backup & recovery, update strategy, monitoring integration, etc.
• Coordinate with business architects as well as technical architects from the cross-functional architecture area of the PRISMA program for the topics (backup, Active Directory, monitoring, Citrix, and business applications ...)
• Status meetings and alignment of project planning with the Release Train Engineer / Project Manager
• Advise the Release Train Engineer / Project Manager in identifying project risks
• Advise the System Architect Engineers in steering the implementation of the concept
• Implement the IT concept
• Document the infrastructure

Label: MS Project, LINUX, Windows, ORACLE, Java, REST, SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, UML, Enterprise Architect, BPMN, AZURE, AWS, V-MODEL, Micro Service, VisualStudio, SAP S/4HANA, SCRUM(SAFE), ESB (TIBCO), Python, Innovator, LeanIX (TOGAF), Ansible, Ansible Tower, Ansible Automation, ROBOT, SpringBoot

• Definition and implementation of the global strategy for IT site infrastructure products and services, ensuring scalability, security and compliance
• Leadership and development of a high-performing team of IT site management specialists, promoting collaboration and professional development
• Monitoring the quality of IT services for sites and ensuring timely delivery and compliance with company standards
• Central point of contact between Corporate IT, regional IT teams and business stakeholders for site infrastructure topics
• Driving innovation and process optimization in the delivery and operation of IT site infrastructure
• Responsibility for the product lifecycle of IT site infrastructure solutions, from design through retirement
• Management of global demand for IT site infrastructure services and ensuring alignment with IT demand management processes
• Establishment and monitoring of KPIs for service delivery and product performance
• Ensuring compliance with IT security, data protection and regulatory requirements
• Management of supplier relationships and negotiation of contracts for IT site infrastructure services
• Budget planning and cost optimization for IT site infrastructure
• Review, improvement and implementation of ServiceNow processes

NTT Data Center Replacement – €20m

• Strategy & Requirements: Data Center migration and exit strategy for ING Germany, including definition of project scope, objectives, KPIs and comprehensive requirements across cybersecurity, physical security, regulatory and group-wide strategic standards.
• Regulatory & Risk Governance: Regulatory and supervisory requirements, risk assessments, ECB notification and audit-ready documentation, achieving formal sign-off with no material findings.
• Procurement & Vendor Selection: RFP and selection of Data Center providers, migration specialists and secure transportation partners in cooperation with Procurement and in line with ING Group requirements.
• Commercial & Contractual: Complex contract negotiations with selected providers, coordinating Legal, Procurement, Business, Security, Compliance and Senior Management across both organisations.
• Infrastructure & Data Center Delivery: Data Center fit-out and implementation of base technology, including internal networks, external connectivity, cabling and core services, aligned with required security standards.
• Migration & Transition: End-to-end planning and preparation of application and infrastructure migrations, including environment-specific runbooks and coordination with Release Management, followed by handover to the internal ING organisation for execution; migration execution achieved zero unplanned downtime and no customer impact.
• Financial & Program Control: €20m Program budget with governance of expenditure, forecasts, milestones, dependencies and critical paths, maintaining delivery within approved budget and timeline parameters.

• -- ENGLISH Version (Deutsche Version unten) ---

Experience

• Ex-BCG Platinion: 14 years as Manager & Chief IT Architect, leading large-scale IT transformations in complex group structures
• 20+ years of C-level consulting across AI/IT strategy, enterprise architecture, IT organization, transformation, M&A due diligence, project recovery, and interim management
• IT leadership experience with cross-functional, intercultural teams of up to 100+ people
• Hands-on background in software engineering, IT architecture, and project management
• Fortune Europe 500 focus; numerous international projects; SME and start-up experience

Core services:

• IT strategy, enterprise architecture (EAM), target architectures and roadmaps
• PE/M&A/carve-out IT/tech due diligence, asset valuation, cost estimation
• GenAI transformation, process automation, and AI governance
• IT reorganization, target operating model (TOM), agile transformation
• IT governance, development and ITSM process optimization (BizDevOps, SAFe)
• Review and recovery of critical large-scale IT programs
• Planning and steering of transformation programs and IT project portfolios
• IT vendor and platform selection (RfI / RfP)
• Coaching & Interim management

Industries (selection): Insurance, financial services & banking, energy & utilities, telecommunications, retail & consumer goods, logistics, media, industry & engineering, healthcare, professional services

Projects (selection):

• M&A Buy-side IT/Tech Due Diligence of an Acquisition in the Energy Sector (Utility, Smart Home) — AI-augmented with Anthropic Claude

• AI Initiative for LLM-Based Optimisation and Automation of Sales and Billing Processes

• Interim management Enterprise Architecture & group target architecture/roadmap development (METRO)

• Reorganization: Design and introduction of agile IT target operating model at international wholesale group (METRO)

• Design and implementation of agile BizDevOps target operating model (E.ON Grid Solutions)

• Platform/vendor selection for renewal of core insurance solution of start-up (ELEMENT Insurance)

• Establishment of project assurance capability and review/recovery of critical transformation projects (ERGO)

• Enterprise architecture management and development of divisional/solution architectures (Deutsche Post DHL)

• Strategic pricing architecture decisions in digital sales application landscape (E.ON Energie)

• IT due diligence: Architecture evaluation and monetary valuation of IT assets (ProSiebenSAT.1 Media)

• Interim management of group-wide security/compliance programme (ERGO)

• Enabling an application landscape for different sales organizations and product structures (E.ON Energie)

• Realignment of business/IT strategy and InsurTech platform selection (RfI, RfP) (nexible, ERGO Digital Ventures)

• Stabilization/optimization of an agile/SAFe business/IT DevOps landscape transformation (Lufthansa AirPlus)

• Process optimization and design/management of digitization and robotics introduction in power plants (RWE Nuclear)

• BSS target architecture development for fixed/mobile networks convergence (Deutsche Telekom)

• Optimization of IT organization model and methodology in application development and testing (Deutsche Telekom)

• Evaluation of fulfillment of a general contractor agreement for run-off/migration of contract portfolios (ERGO)

• -- DEUTSCHE Version (English version above) ---

Experience

• Ex-BCG Platinion: 14 years of strategy and implementation of large-scale IT transformations in complex corporate structures (Manager & Chief IT Architect)
• 20+ years of C-level-adjacent IT consulting: IT strategy, enterprise architecture, IT organization, transformation, due diligence, project recovery, and interim management
• IT leadership responsibility for cross-functional, intercultural teams of up to 100+ people
• Solid hands-on experience in software development, IT architecture, and project management
• Focus on Fortune Europe 500, numerous international projects; SME and start-up experience

Industries: insurance · financial services & banking · energy · telecommunications · retail & consumer goods · industry & engineering · logistics · media · healthcare

Services (focus areas):

• IT strategy, enterprise architecture (EAM), IT landscape target visions and roadmaps
• M&A/carve-out IT/tech due diligence, asset valuation, and cost estimation
• GenAI transformation, process automation, and AI governance
• IT reorganization, target operating model (TOM), agile transformation
• IT governance, development and ITSM processes (BizDevOps, SAFe)
• Review and recovery of critical large-scale IT projects
• Planning/steering of transformation programs and IT project portfolios
• IT service provider/platform selection (RfI, RfP)
• IT project management (agile, classic, hybrid)
• Coaching & interim management

Projects (selection):

• M&A buyer-side IT/tech due diligence of an acquisition in the energy sector (utility, smart home) — AI-augmented with Anthropic Claude
• AI initiative for LLM-supported optimization and automation of sales and billing processes
• Interim management of Enterprise Architecture and development of group target architecture in wholesale (METRO)
• Reorganization: design and introduction of an agile IT target operating model (TOM) at an international wholesale group (METRO)
• IT reorganization: introduction of an agile BizDevOps target operating model (TOM) at an energy group (E.ON Grid Solutions)
• Platform selection / vendor selection for renewal of the core insurance solution of a B2B2C start-up (ELEMENT Insurance)
• Process optimization, digitalization, and introduction of robotics in power plants (RWE Nuclear)
• Assessment of fulfillment of a general contractor agreement for run-off/migration of life insurance portfolios (ERGO)
• Business/IT strategy and InsurTech platform selection for a digital insurer/start-up (nexible, ERGO Digital Ventures)
• Enabling an energy application landscape for multiple sales units (E.ON Energie)
• Strategic architecture decisions in price management of a digital sales application landscape at an energy group (E.ON Energie)
• Stabilization/optimization of an agile DevOps IT transformation in business travel and payment management (Lufthansa AirPlus)
• Interim management in a group-wide security and compliance program of a global insurer (ERGO)
• Building project assurance capability as well as review and optimization/recovery of critical IT projects in an insurance group (ERGO)
• Building enterprise architecture management and development of domain and solution architectures for a logistics group (Deutsche Post DHL)
• M&A IT due diligence – evaluation and valuation of IT assets in the media sector (ProSiebenSAT.1 Media)
• Development of BSS target architecture and roadmap for fixed/mobile convergence (Deutsche Telekom)
• Optimization of IT governance/organization and methodology in application development and testing at a telecommunications group (Deutsche Telekom)

• IREB Consultant Requirements Engineer
• IREB Ambassador for the Baltics

• Creating interfaces between the legacy platform and the new container solution
• Coordinating required contributions from line units
• Moderating regular status meetings with the software vendor
• Minimally invasive conversion of TWS scheduling from the old to the new platform
• Environment: IBM Mainframe, DB2, CICS, MQ, Red Hat Linux, Oracle, Kubernetes, Kafka, Helm, GitLab, Jenkins

Implementation of anti-money laundering requirements in accordance with AMLA/KYC for an international large bank in Munich

Services provided:

• Clarification of the assignment, definition of the work package structure for the AMLA/KYC implementation project
• AI-supported project planning using my own AI workflow for project management
• Creation of the project management plan
• Resource and capacity planning
• Development of collaboration structures between IT service provider and bank client
• Alignment of responsibilities (RACI matrix)
• Management of 5 project members (core team)
• Project control, project monitoring, project reporting
• Communication management
• Escalation management
• Stakeholder management (11 stakeholders)
• Permanent member of the steering committee
• Project representation internally and externally
• Project reporting, management of decision-making bodies
• Project volume: 506 person-days (development effort)
• Risk management
• Quality management
• Organization and running of workshops

Methods: PMI PMBOK, EVM, GWG, DORA, BAIT, KANBAN, AML, AMLR, AMLA, GWG, KYC

IT environment: JIRA, Confluence, Sharepoint, Kantata Kimble, AI LLM Copilot, ChatGPT, anti-money laundering systems (in-house developments and SMARAGD)

• The customer is undergoing a comprehensive transformation. All SAP ECC landscapes worldwide are being migrated to SAP S/4HANA, with the goal of introducing a standard template worldwide.

• The program also includes the “RISE with SAP” migration and modernization program, which may involve migrating the landscapes of selected country installations to the SAP Private Cloud.

• On the stakeholder side, the program reporting line extends to the company’s executive board and that of the implementation partner.

• Fiserv Germany’s ERP landscape currently includes several non-standard SAP tools and applications that extend the functionality of the ECC environment and can often be integrated into downstream systems. As part of the transition to SAP S/4HANA, it is essential to assess the core functionality, integration points and future viability of these applications in order to determine their alignment with the target architecture.

• The focus of the work is on providing expert advice and assessment to define the scope, strategy and roadmap for transitioning Fiserv Germany’s SAP ECC system to SAP S/4HANA.

• The recommended best practices from SAP are followed and a structured approach is used to ensure a smooth transition with minimal disruption while maximizing business value.

• This assessment forms the basis for a successful SAP S/4HANA transformation and ensures alignment with industry best practices, regulatory compliance and future scalability.

• Migration Strategy Definition – assessment of available transition approaches based on business objectives, technical feasibility and SAP Best Practices.

• Technical Readiness Assessment – conducting a system analysis to assess compatibility, custom code impact, data volume management, integration points and infrastructure readiness for SAP S/4HANA.

• Business Process Impact Analysis – reviewing the latest business process documentation to define the scope and effort required to implement the necessary functions in SAP S/4HANA and to identify opportunities for process optimization.

• Roadmap for Non-SAP Systems and Applications – assessment of third-party and legacy applications regarding their integration with SAP S/4HANA and recommendation of consolidation, migration or replacement strategies.

• Deployment & Implementation Planning – defining a phased approach for implementation, including project schedules, risk mitigation strategies and key milestones aligned with business priorities.

• This transformation takes place in phases: the Discovery phase leads to the Explore phase, which is followed by the Design phase and finally implementation.

• Program management

• Change management

• Requirements management

• Transition management

• Stakeholder management

• Risk management

• Comprehensive coordination

• Close collaboration with development teams to ensure alignment with project objectives
• Assessment of in-scope assets, creation of requirements, and support of the public tender process through the selection of a provider
• Creation and maintenance of UML sequence diagrams to document system interactions
• Extensive use of Agile/Scrum methodology and Spotify model
• Development and implementation of cutover and dress rehearsal plans together with the application managers

• Agile project "PEPSi annual vacation planning MVP Lite" (digitalization project).
• Definition of state transitions for the JUP Lite functionality.
• Creation of user stories for login/logout and registration.
• Quality assurance of the business-side concept.
• Preliminary analysis for the transformation from the old PersPlan to DigiPEP.
• Tools used: Signavio, MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Jira, Confluence, Mural, Miro, Conceptboard, MS Teams, Mattermost.

• Creation and review of test conditions

• Execution of functional tests

• Defect management

• Supplier management

• Team coordination

• Estimation of test effort and reporting

• Test planning

• Further development and new development of integrated schedule systems

• Java web client/Linux server, Oracle Instantclient/Oracle Database Appliance Server, Unix, ESB – Enterprise Service Bus, SQL, TIBCO EMS – Enterprise Message Service/JMS, REST, Impero Guest

• HP ALM / Micro Focus Quality Center, Citrix, JIRA, XRAY, Impero Guest, MobaXTerm, Confluence, Sharepoint, MS-Teams, MS-Office