OpenTofu Experts in Germany

Cloud Journey Kickoff on STACKIT

• Helped the client kickstart their cloud journey on sovereign EU STACKIT platform.
• Bootstrapped IAC & GitOps architecture with Opentofu and ArgoCD.
• Setup platform fundamentals for a fresh, holistic cloud experience: Kubernetes, external secrets, certificate management, gateway API, DNS & routing, observability basics.

Procure Ai builds a procurement platform with tools to optimise purchasing and supplier management, delivering real-time analytics, cost-saving insights, and automated workflows. A common data model integrates and enriches data from multiple ERP and e-procurement systems including Ivalua, SAP, Coupa, WPS, and Jaggaer.

06/2025 – TODAY:

• Architecting and building a new AI-native procurement platform with document intelligence, an agent orchestration layer using Mastra and LLM-based workflow automation across supplier, intake and category management use-cases
• Shipped agentic engineering workflows across the development team, enabling LLM-assisted code generation and review automation, measurably reducing cycle time on repetitive development tasks
• Migrating the Design System from Material UI to shadcn/ui with Tailwind, improving consistency and reducing frontend build overhead
• Staying hands-on across frontend, backend and AI features while the engineering team grew from 10 to 20+ engineers: hiring, onboarding, 1:1s and mentoring

06/2020 – 06/2025:

• Joining as the first engineer after the two founders; shaping platform architecture and product vision from scratch in close collaboration with the CTO, growing the platform to serve 10 enterprise customers
• Leading fullstack feature development on the core procurement platform, with focus on Analytics, Search, and Autonomous Negotiations use-cases: defining MVP scope, aligning technical decisions to customer outcomes, and cutting work that wasn't delivering value
• Challenged a field-based configuration request for Autonomous Negotiations and instead built a node-based rule builder matching how category managers think in conditions and branches; later reused across other workflow and decision configuration use-cases
• Designing and implementing multi-tenant authentication and fine-grained authorisation based on organisational units
• Architecting and building a multi-tenant Admin Application for managing customer installations across environments, covering configuration, feature flags, and i18n
• Creating and maintaining a custom Design System built on Material UI, used across the full product
• Setting up and maintaining CI/CD pipeline and full QA suite (linting, unit, integration, and e2e testing)
• Architecting and implementing a multi-environment release process using Helm and Helmfile; owning infrastructure as code across AWS and Azure
• Researching and piloting new tools and frameworks; making build-vs-buy decisions to balance velocity, cost, and long-term maintainability
• Grew the engineering team from 4 to 10+ engineers, mentoring engineers and building a culture of ownership, code review and iterative delivery

Technologies: TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Node.js, Fastify, GraphQL, GraphQL Codegen, GraphQL Mesh, GraphQL Yoga, Hasura, Apollo Client, REST, CubeJS, PostgreSQL, Prisma, Elasticsearch, Meilisearch, Typesense, Kafka, Avro, Karapace, Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, OpenTofu, Helm, Helmfile, GitLab CI, Keycloak, Better-Auth, OpenFGA, Nx, Vite, Vitest, Playwright, Testing Library, Storybook, Chromatic, Material UI, shadcn/ui, Tailwind, React Flow, recharts, i18next, Backstage, Grafana, Sentry, Zod, Claude Code, Codex, Mastra, Vercel AI SDK, Vercel AI Elements, AWS, Azure

• Short description: Lead a group-wide project to establish standardized cloud governance for Microsoft Azure, including policies, security and compliance controls, automation, and cost and operations control while preserving the autonomy of decentralized business units within regulatory boundaries.

• Tasks and activities:

• Overall responsibility for the design, setup, and implementation of an enterprise-wide cloud governance structure (Azure), incl. target picture, roadmap, and operating model.

• Management of internal and external stakeholders (C-level, IT, Security, Compliance, Cloud Architecture, DevOps) incl. decision-making and escalation management.

• Planning and facilitation of workshops on cloud strategy, governance principles, and the design of areas such as Identity, Connectivity, and Platform Management.

• Definition, implementation, and rollout of cloud policies (Azure Policy / custom policies), security standards, and compliance requirements (including GDPR, ISO 27001, BSI C5).

• Building a cloud governance framework aligned with the Azure Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF), incl. landing zone and guardrail concepts.

• Introduction of automation solutions for governance, security, and cost control (policy/control automation, IaC, CI/CD-based control mechanisms).

• Implementation of cloud security and compliance monitoring mechanisms as well as continuous improvement processes.

• Establishment and operationalization of FinOps in an enterprise environment (central and decentralized FinOps teams), incl. cost management strategies, reporting, and guardrails.

• Integration of governance policies into DevOps processes (e.g. CI/CD principles for security and compliance checks, GitLab Runner concept in spokes, GitLab CI/CD for CAF landing zones).

• Implementation of access concepts incl. RBAC design and "break glass" mechanisms (emergency access) as well as certificate automation (ACME / step-ca).

• Achievements:

• Created a unified, auditable governance and control set for Azure (policies, standards, compliance mapping) and thus laid the foundation for scalable cloud usage in a regulated environment.

• Established repeatable automation for governance, security, and cost control (IaC + CI/CD), reducing manual effort and implementation risks.

• Improved operational and decision-making capabilities across central and decentralized units (clearer roles, responsibilities, escalation paths, balance between autonomy and group requirements).

• Significantly increased workload compliance for lift-and-shift migrations.

• Technologies used:

• Microsoft Azure Policy, custom policies.

• Terraform, OpenTofu, Terragrunt.

• step-ca (ACME).

• Entra ID.

• Azure Firewall.

• Azure networking, hub-and-spoke architecture.

• Azure vWAN (evaluation).

• Azure Front Door, Azure Application Gateway.

• Azure ExpressRoute.

• Azure Key Vault.

• NetBox.

• GitLab (on-premises).

• Infrastructure, concepts used:

• Cloud shared responsibility model.

• Hub-and-spoke connectivity / central shared services (from a hub-spoke context).

• Central governance with decentralized delivery (business unit autonomy with guardrails).

• Methods used:

• Scrum.

• Stakeholder management (C-level to engineering).

• Cloud governance, Azure Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF).

• DevOps, CI/CD.

• Cost and FinOps approaches: tagging/chargeback models, budget/alert concepts, reserved instances/savings plans vs. on-demand scenarios, sensitivity analyses.

• RBAC, "break glass" concepts.

• ACME / certificate automation.

• GitLab Runner concept in spokes, GitLab CI/CD pipelines for CAF landing zones.

• Built and further developed an AWS landing zone based on Terraform / OpenTofu (multi-account structure, IAM baselines, network and security standards)
• Designed and operated platform-oriented AWS architectures to standardize infrastructure and operations processes
• Built and operated Kubernetes-based platforms (EKS) as a shared runtime environment for application teams
• Established GitOps-based deployments with Argo CD and FluxCD
• Developed and operated central CI/CD platforms (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Jenkins)
• Enabled development and project teams through reusable platform building blocks
• Introduced and implemented FinOps structures (AWS Cost Explorer, CUR + Athena, Infracost, Grafana dashboards)
• Built and operated central observability platforms (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, Alertmanager, CloudWatch)

• Drive migration of enterprise authorization platform from Styra DAS to open-source OPA via Skipper (Zalando's Golang-based ingress proxy) integration
• Optimise k8s resources and integrate native Prometheus metrics with OPA
• Migrate from internal monitoring solution to Prometheus CRs + Dash0

Tech Stack: Java/Kotlin, Golang, Python, Spring Boot, AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, OpenTofu, Prometheus, Grafana

• Led client projects end-to-end — from scoping and cloud strategy to sprint planning and stakeholder alignment
• Planned and implemented secure Azure Landing Zones using Infrastructure as Code
• Developed governance frameworks and cloud security controls tailored to enterprise environments
• Executed cloud readiness assessments and managed cloud migration initiatives from evaluation to handover
• Facilitated client workshops and agile ceremonies (sprint planning, backlog refinement, standups)
• Built internal Cloud Competence Centers to foster knowledge sharing and best practices across teams
• Development of a general Cloud Service Portal

• Identification of requirements (legal, organizational, and technical)
• Design of solution architectures
• Evaluation of concepts and technologies
• Preparation of decision templates
• Architectural Decision Records (ADR)
• Coordination of implementation
• Review of implementations
• Documentation

• Responsible for Openshift/Kubernetes on-prem administration and developer support.
• Developed URP infrastructure automation with Python, Ansible, Kustomize and ArgoCD, Argo Workflow/Events stack.
• Wrote smoke and load tests for URP infrastructure utilizing Python, Kustomize and ApplicationSets.
• Helped to set up and deploy URP infrastructure in Google Cloud, GKE.
• Set up monitoring for URP and ArgoCD stack with Splunk Cloud.
• Performed system administration tasks across RedHat Linux, Kubernetes/Openshift, ArgoCD, GitLab, Bitbucket Enterprise, Kafka and MongoDB.

• Bootstrapping a CloudOps team and building a multi-cloud provider backend for a low-code Internal Developer Platform (IDP) with env zero

• Introducing user story mapping, ADRs, milestones, and backlog management

• Designing and developing core APIs, setting up CI/CD pipelines, OpenTofu/Terraform scripts

• Representing and communicating the team with third-party stakeholders (e.g. env zero)

• (Cross-)team coaching on DevOps, software design, Terraform, Golang, and agile practices

• General CTO responsibilities (architectural design, operational setup, external runtime product evaluation, investor buy-in, regulatory compliance).
• Software development oversight (implementation on deep-dive-in) plus workflow design.
• Product co-ownership.
• Tech/tools/frameworks: proprietary software (Java, JavaScript), Kubernetes, Postgres, MiniIO, Ollama (internal), several xAI API (external), OpenTofu (Terraform), Keycloak, Kafka, Prometheus, ELK Stack, GitHub, GitHub Workflows, Argo CD, ISO 27001, BSI-ISM, EU AI Act.

• Setup and operation of a multi-cluster AWS EKS platform for banking workloads with a unified network and security architecture across 45 AWS accounts.
• Developed and standardized a unified AWS network and security architecture for 45 AWS accounts, enabling consistent governance, connectivity, and compliance for enterprise customer environments.
• Developed and operated a multi-cluster AWS EKS platform to support production workloads, significantly improving scalability, availability, and operational reliability.
• Implemented a GitOps deployment model using ArgoCD and Helm, enabling fully automated, auditable deployments and reducing manual release errors.
• Automated infrastructure provisioning using Terraform and Terragrunt at scale, reducing environment setup time by up to 70% and eliminating configuration drift.
• Established enterprise-grade backup and disaster recovery strategies using Velero and AWS Backup, ensuring reliable multi-cluster recovery and business continuity.
• Introduced Rancher as a self-service Kubernetes platform, accelerating developer onboarding while maintaining centralized security and governance.
• Designed and implemented detailed AWS IAM concepts (roles, policies, trust relationships) to enforce the principle of least privilege for access to accounts, workloads, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Developed AWS Lambda-based pre-provisioning workflows for databases, automating initialization, configuration, and access setup to support secure and consistent application integration.
• Delivered consistent, high-quality results as part of a 5-person AWS Solutions Architecture team, resulting in three consecutive contract renewals.

• Provide end-to-end software and architecture support to clients across finance, manufacturing, energy, and insurance sectors
• Collaborate with customers to understand complex business requirements and deliver scalable, future-proof solutions
• Design, implement, operate, and continuously improve software systems using modern technologies and cloud platforms
• Support the full solution lifecycle – from technical conception, system architecture, and development to deployment and operational readiness
• Act as a trusted technical advisor, bridging business and engineering teams to deliver high-impact solutions
• Lead architectural decisions with a focus on maintainability, cost-efficiency, security, and scalability across both cloud-native and on-premises environments

Conceptual design and implementation of a modular customer portal based on Laravel.

The focus was on defining a maintainable system architecture with broad use of Domain-Driven Design principles (within the Laravel architecture), introducing automated quality assurance processes (test strategy, CI integration), and preparing an auditable operation (logging, traceability of changes) in an AWS-based infrastructure, taking IT security standards according to NIST and process requirements according to ISO 9001 into account.

Achievements:

• Analysis and structuring of business requirements in close coordination with stakeholders
• Documentation of the system architecture and infrastructure incl. change and release management
• Design and implementation of an interface for integrating SAP systems
• Planning and implementation of automated tests for quality assurance
• Implementation of security and compliance requirements, including SBOM generation, software license management, and QA processes
• Technical consulting and support for the internal IT team
• Introduction and establishment of AI-supported development processes (Spec-Driven Development), including AI-readable specifications, integration of AI instructions into the development environment, and training developers for productive use

Technologies and tools: SAP, Docker, ddev, PHP 8.4, Laravel, Filament, C4 Model, Architecture Decision Records (ADR), Mermaid, PlantUML, Spec-Driven Development, Claude, GitHub Copilot, Codex

• Designed and operated a GitOps-based Kubernetes platform, migrating services from AWS ECS to Amazon EKS.
• Built automated CI/CD pipelines for container build and deployment using GitLab CI, Helm, and Argo CD.
• Developed reusable Helm charts for Kubernetes resources (Ingress, Services, Secrets, HPA, ExternalDNS).
• Provisioned and managed EKS (Fargate and EC2) using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform / OpenTofu).
• Implemented OIDC-based authentication and authorization (Okta) for secure access to Kubernetes and Argo CD.
• Improved container security by migrating services to distroless images.
• Implemented logging, monitoring, and observability to ensure system reliability and performance.
• Automated cloud cost optimisation using Python (Boto3), achieving approximately 45% cost savings.
• Led migration of AWS infrastructure to IaC, reducing configuration drift and deployment issues.
• Produced technical documentation and operational runbooks, supporting internal engineering teams.