NIS2 Experts in Cologne
matched in minutes from over 15,000 CVsHire experts who translate the NIS2 Directive into practical security controls, supplier risk processes and incident reporting workflows. FRATCH connects you with vetted, available freelancers whose experience fits your regulatory and operational needs.
Meet FRATCH Experts in Cologne, who have recently used NIS2
Nikolaus B.
Last position:
Information Security, IS-Governance & Crossfunctional Governance at ZĂĽrich Beteiligungs-AG (Deutschland)
- Conducted security assessments for supplier qualification, business unit onboarding, and ongoing reviews of service providers and partners (Ongoing Assurance).
- Assessed technical and organizational measures (TOMs) against GDPR and information security requirements.
- Handled security reviews and approval processes in the Global Approval Navigator (OneTrust).
- Advised business units and IT on information security, security requirements, and risk-appropriate measures.
- Supported the development of SOC/SIEM processes and tools as part of the ISMS in line with ISO/IEC 27001.
- Analyzed cyber threats and coordinated security objectives and measures to address Security Findings with the SOC team.
- Monitored and assessed current security advisories and security-related metrics (KPIs).
- Reviewed, assessed risks, and approved exception requests (Security Exceptions).
- Independently analyzed and handled Security Events and supported the handling of security incidents.
- Planned and supported awareness initiatives to strengthen security awareness.
- Created, implemented, and reviewed information security policies and standards.
- Conducted protection needs analyses and gap assessments to identify security gaps and risk deviations.
- Defined and reviewed technical and organizational risk treatment measures.
- Advised on Third Party Governance with consideration of DORA, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27005, ISO/IEC 42001, and BCM in line with ISO 22301.
Jens R.
Last position:
Platform Architect & Senior Developer at Direct client, industrial measurement technology, medium-sized company
- Technical leadership across hardware, firmware, and software teams; scope: hardware/firmware team (4 people) and leadership group (5 people)
- Consolidated and documented a product family that had grown over more than 15 years and aligned it with CRA compliance — from the bare-metal I/O module to the cloud interface.
- Provided the most important customer product with the essential requirements and architecture documentation within two months — for a firmware landscape that had grown over more than 15 years. It now supports the customer’s modernization strategy.
- Established a monthly reporting line to the supervisory board and executive board within three months: nine meetings since 12/2025. The report itself is versioned and built from the CI pipeline; it is based on automatically collected activity and release data instead of assessments.
- Built a container-based CI/CD infrastructure from scratch: cross-compilation, host tests, and documentation builds in one continuous pipeline.
- Introduced declarative QA gates for DevOps and development artifacts — from the start using lefthook instead of pre-commit, executed in a dedicated container image.
Technologies used: arc42, req42, tpo42, docToolchain, PlantUML, ArchiMate, C4 model, ADR, C, C++ (GTest), CMake, Bare Metal (ARM Cortex-M3/M7), OCI containers, Jenkins, lefthook, Prometheus, Grafana, SBOM, CRA, OPC, SCADA, PLC integration, IPv6 migration, Zero Trust, Sociocracy 3.0, Cynefin
Pierre G.
Last position:
Ansible Automation, Windows Third Level Support at DB InfraGO AG
- PRISMA project
- Ansible automation
- Windows third-level support for Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2013, Windows 2016, Windows 2019
Halil O.
Last position:
Senior Cloud Operations & DevSecOps Engineer (Azure / Terraform / CI-CD) at KfW Bankengruppe
Regulated environment within a German banking group (approx. 8,500 employees, hybrid cloud strategy).
Responsible for operating, provisioning, and continuously securing business-critical platforms – including a GenAI chat application, a big data/AI platform, and data science workspaces based on Azure Virtual Desktops and VMs. Ownership of Azure DevOps projects for ShaiHulud and React2Shell, as well as BSI alerts – Security Operations improvements across the SDLC.
Deployment responsibility for the GenAI chat application, big data/AI platform (BDAI), and data science workspaces (AVD/VM-based) in the respective landing zones.
Deployment & release management: end-to-end responsibility for deploying portal and service applications across multiple Azure landing zones, including technical approvals, compliance with development team deployment guidelines, and ensuring ITIL-based change and release processes via ServiceNow.
Azure landing zones & network architecture: design, provisioning, and operation of Azure landing zones for 3-tier web applications with enhanced network segmentation, VNet peering, hub-and-spoke architectures, private endpoints, and firewall integration across separate subscriptions and tenants.
Azure DevOps governance & operations: ownership of the Azure DevOps organization, including projects, repositories, and CI/CD pipelines; implementation of governance requirements such as branch policies, approval gates, permission models, and audit-ready operating structures.
Infrastructure as Code (Terraform): design, implementation, and operation of a modular Terraform architecture for standardized cloud infrastructure deployment, including state management, provider versioning, reusability, and policy-as-code approaches.
CI/CD pipeline engineering: design, operation, and optimization of complex YAML-based CI/CD pipelines with multi-stage deployments, template standardization, self-hosted agents, integrated secret management, and automated quality and security checks.
Git migration & platform consolidation: planning and execution of repository and pipeline migration from Azure DevOps to GitLab CI/CD, including automated scripts, full Git history transfer, pipeline porting, and platform consolidation.
Container & platform operations (AKS): operation and security assessment of containerized workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service, centralization of on-premises container registries for ACR.
OpenShift (OCP) security reviews: security assessment of code baselines, build pipelines, and deployment processes for on-premises OpenShift clusters with critical applications, and derivation of specific hardening recommendations.
Shift-left security & DevSecOps transformation: introduction of a company-wide shift-left approach for early security integration in development and deployment processes, enabling developers to perform self-led security checks and sustainably reduce vulnerabilities before production (IDE integrations, pre-commit hooks, local scanners).
Software supply chain security: analysis and mitigation of supply chain risks in NPM- and Yarn-based applications through dependency audits, CI/CD pipeline hardening, token rotation, and restriction of risky build and lifecycle mechanisms.
Frontend & framework security (React / Next.js): security assessment and coordination of critical vulnerability remediation across platform applications and web frameworks, including coordination and complementary technical mitigations with all teams following BSI alerts.
Software composition analysis (SCA): introduction and operation of automated vulnerability scans for container images, pipelines/artifacts, and third-party dependencies, including SBOM exports within CI/CD pipelines.
SAST/DAST integration: design and piloting of static and dynamic application security tests in close collaboration with security architecture and development teams, for continuous improvement of code and runtime security, and establishing operational acceptance tests.
Artifact & registry consolidation: analysis and consolidation of all package and container repositories for service applications and AKS workloads, aiming for a centralized, secured registry strategy with centralized vulnerability scanning and governance.
Dependency-Track & SBOM strategy: advising the compliance board on introducing a central SBOM and vulnerability management platform to increase enterprise-wide dependency transparency and accelerate CVE response capability.
CI/CD pipeline hardening: security analysis and cleanup of the existing pipeline landscape by removing unused pipelines, improving secrets hygiene, implementing least-privilege principles, and isolating build agent environments.
Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) optimization: analysis and tuning of existing Azure WAF rules (OWASP Top 10 Core Rule Set, DSR/SDC, custom rules) to defend against known vulnerabilities and exploit patterns, including reducing false positives and improving threat detection.
Documentation & stakeholder communication: creating and maintaining technical documentation, runbooks, and architecture overviews in Jira and Confluence, as well as active knowledge transfer between operations, development, security, and compliance stakeholders.
Serdar C.
Last position:
Consultant at Freelance
- ISO 27001 implementation & audit readiness
- NIS2 & DORA compliance support
- Interim / fractional CISO services
- IT risk & controls (ITGC, SOX, COBIT, BAIT)
- M&A and IT due diligence for startups/ventures
- Business continuity management (BCM, ISO 22301)
- Cybersecurity framework development (NIST, ISO, BSI)
- GRC tool advisory (Archer, ServiceNow)
Valeri M.
Last position:
Associate Partner - Information Security Consulting at Insentis GmbH
- Improvement of the Information Security Management System (ISMS) based on ISO 27001, NIS2, DORA, B3S, TISAX and BSI IT Baseline Protection
- Conducting comprehensive gap analyses to identify gaps and derive action plans according to the above standards and regulations; management and KPIs
- Data Loss Prevention strategy and implementation using MS Purview
- Vulnerability and patch management, security monitoring
- Risk analysis and threat modeling using the STRIDE methodology
- Development of vendor risk assessments, implementation of risk classifications, conducting supplier assessments and implementing technical monitoring solutions (e.g. Security ScoreCard)
- Securing cloud environments (AWS and Azure); expertise in CSPM/CNAPP (Wiz), cloud migration, secure CI/CD pipelines, container security and best practices in AWS, Azure and Office 365
- Application security: penetration testing, DevSecOps, OWASP, pre-commit hooks, key and secret management, IDE plugins, static source code analysis, dependency checks, container scanning, vulnerability management, CIS benchmarks and compliance
- Security assessment and hardening according to CIS benchmarks and cloud conformity in AWS, Office 365 and Azure
Thomas U.
Last position:
Senior Consultant / PM Infrastructure Services & Workplace Migration at Freelance
- All Windows clients are managed in a hybrid, central AD
- Client standardization
- Implementation of information security policy requirements
- Development of new infrastructure services delivered as a managed service by a new provider
- New IT platform is a central and secure directory service
- M365 Azure AD
- MS terminal services
- Zscaler
- M365 cloud for workplace management
- PaaS / SaaS is procured through a new provider
Fabian F.
Last position:
OT Security Champion Europe at FCS Flock Consulting Services
- Conducted OT security assessments at European manufacturing facilities
- Analyzed and improved IT security processes and infrastructure
- Revised SOC processes in conjunction with the internal SOC team
- Conducted OT incident training and tabletop exercises
- Facilitated C-level workshops to align European OT security strategy
- Evaluated regulatory changes related to NIS2 and their relevance to the client
Phil E.
Last position:
Principal Cybersecurity Consultant at SC&E Advisory GmbH
- Development of compliance products
- Senior Cybersecurity Consultant: NIS2: impact assessment, obligations, action planning, roadmaps
- NIS2 · DORA · CRA
- Design of ISO 27001 ISMS implementation project on a fixed-price basis
- Governance consultancy in M&A situations
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Statistics of experts using NIS2
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
16 years (Germany: 21 years)
Position duration
1.7 years (Germany: 2 years)
Positions per freelancer
17 (Germany: 16)
Top business areas
Information Technology, Project Management, Quality Assurance
Top industries
Information Technology, Professional Services, Healthcare
Certification focus areas
Information Technology, Audit, Quality Assurance
Bachelor's degree or higher
50% (Germany: 83%)
Master's degree or higher
33% (Germany: 45%)
Certifications per freelancer
8 (Germany: 7)
Most common languages
German, English, Turkish
Speak two or more languages
100% (Germany: 95%)
Based on our profile pool as of 29 Oct 2026.
Daily rate distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of experts in this technology in Cologne are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows the share of experts charging within that range.
Average rates of experts in Cologne using NIS2
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Calculated based on our freelancers’ daily rates as of 29 Oct 2026. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
NIS2 experts industry focus
See which industries our matched freelancers work in most often — every figure is calculated live from the freelancers on FRATCH.
- Information Technology (100%)
- Professional Services (67%)
- Healthcare (56%)
- Manufacturing (56%)
- Energy (44%)
- Banking and Finance (44%)
- Insurance (44%)
- Government and Administration (33%)
Please note that freelancers can work across multiple industries, so percentages overlap.
About the technology
What NIS2 covers
NIS2, the Network and Information Security Directive 2, is an EU cybersecurity framework for organisations in essential and important sectors. It raises expectations for risk management, incident handling, business continuity, supply-chain security and leadership accountability. Companies must turn regulatory duties into working controls, evidence and repeatable processes.
Where it applies
NIS2 affects organisations such as energy providers, transport operators, healthcare groups, digital infrastructure providers, public administration bodies and selected manufacturers. Its relevance depends on the organisation’s sector, size, services and role in critical supply chains. Specialists help clarify scope and connect legal interpretation with the systems that keep operations running.
Delivery and tooling
Professionals working with NIS2 commonly connect governance with technical and operational practice:
- Map services, assets, dependencies and critical business processes
- Assess risks across infrastructure, applications, suppliers and facilities
- Define incident response, recovery and reporting procedures
- Establish access control, vulnerability management and logging requirements
- Prepare policies, evidence registers and management reporting
They may work with GRC tools, SIEM platforms, vulnerability scanners, identity systems, ticketing workflows and cloud security controls. The right tooling depends on the organisation’s existing environment and audit obligations.
When companies need help
Freelance expertise is useful when a company must interpret NIS2 requirements, assess its current maturity or coordinate a programme across security, IT, legal, procurement and operations. It also helps during a merger, cloud migration, supplier review, audit preparation or major incident response. Cologne-based organisations may benefit from on-site workshops, while distributed teams can complete much of the work remotely with clear access and documentation rules.
Skills that matter
Strong NIS2 specialists combine cybersecurity risk management with governance, privacy awareness and clear business communication. They understand network and endpoint protection, identity and access management, secure development, backup and recovery, vulnerability remediation and third-party risk. They can distinguish a written policy from a control that is implemented, monitored and supported by evidence.
Choosing a specialist
Look for professionals who can show how they translated NIS2 obligations into prioritised actions, accountable owners and measurable evidence without relying on generic templates. Ask how they handle incident classification, supplier dependencies, executive reporting and gaps between policy and practice. For work in Cologne, confirm whether German-language stakeholder communication, local workshops or remote collaboration across international teams is required.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to the questions that come up most around NIS2.
NIS2 is used to improve cybersecurity risk management and resilience across organisations that provide important or essential services. It covers areas such as incident response, supply-chain security, access control, business continuity and management accountability.
The NIS2 Directive is an EU legal framework with obligations for covered organisations and their leadership. ISO 27001 is a certifiable information security management standard that can help structure compliance, but certification alone does not prove that every NIS2 duty has been met.
A strong NIS2 specialist usually combines regulatory interpretation with cyber risk assessment, incident response, supplier assurance and business continuity. Useful technical knowledge includes identity management, vulnerability management, logging, cloud security and secure system design.
The right level of experience depends on the organisation’s scope, complexity and current security maturity. A gap assessment may need a focused compliance specialist, while a broad implementation programme calls for someone who can coordinate governance, technical controls, suppliers and executive decisions.
NIS2 work can often be delivered remotely through interviews, document reviews, workshops and evidence tracking. On-site sessions in Cologne may still be valuable for critical facilities, stakeholder alignment, asset validation and discussions involving sensitive operational details.
A NIS2 gap assessment should identify applicable obligations, existing controls, missing evidence, ownership gaps and practical priorities. It should result in an actionable roadmap rather than a generic checklist, with dependencies, risk context and clear next steps.
Ask the professional to explain how they have connected regulatory requirements with operational controls and evidence. Quality work shows clear reasoning, realistic priorities, precise documentation and the ability to communicate with technical teams, management, procurement and legal stakeholders.
Network and Information Security Directive 2 assignments vary widely between sectors and organisations. Freelancers should clarify the client’s regulatory scope, decision owners, available documentation, technical environment, language expectations and whether the work concerns assessment, implementation, incident readiness or ongoing governance.
The average hourly rate of freelancers in Cologne, Germany who have used NIS2 in their recent projects is 134 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 1,074 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers in Cologne, Germany who have used NIS2 in their recent projects, 50% hold at least a Bachelor's degree and 33% hold at least a Master's degree.
On average, freelancers in Cologne, Germany who have used NIS2 in their recent projects have 16 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 1.7 years.
The most common languages among freelancers in Cologne, Germany who have used NIS2 in their recent projects are German (100%), English (100%), and Turkish (22%).
The most common industries among freelancers in Cologne, Germany who have used NIS2 in their recent projects are Information Technology (100%), Professional Services (67%), and Healthcare (56%).
The most common business areas among freelancers in Cologne, Germany who have used NIS2 in their recent projects are Information Technology (100%), Project Management (100%), and Quality Assurance (78%).
Main locations of FRATCH Experts, who have recently used NIS2
Our freelancers and interim experts are at home across the DACH region — available on-site in the major business hubs or fully remote. Choose a location to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.
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FRATCH CEO
