PHP Experts in Germany

• Mendix low-code development / project management
• Managing external resources
• Customer and user management, roles
• Master data entry
• Quote preparation
• Material costing
• Workflows
• Basic CRM functions
• API interfaces (email, SMS, AI chatbot)
• PDF API (.NET development using Aspose.PDF)
• Stakeholder management (dev teams, enorin team, test client)
• Risk management (backend access & sizing, role concepts)
• Testing and staff training
• Creating epics and stories in Confluence
• Jira Scrum planning and management

• 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.

• LLM-based features for automated CO₂e data extraction from unstructured documents (70% reduction)

• Agentic AI pipeline for automated Scope 3 emissions calculation with 150,000+ validated data records

• Smart API workflows for real-time carbon footprint calculations in ERP and ESG systems

• ML algorithms to predict emission hotspots and optimize product design

• Automated data validation pipelines with NLP for quality assurance of CO₂e datasets

• Led a 15-person cross-functional team to develop 10+ AI features

• Strategic product planning and AI roadmap with 35% shorter time to market

• Stakeholder management with DAX companies (40% higher satisfaction, 95% retention)

• On-time project delivery with 95% budget adherence through data-driven backlog management

• Agile methods (Scrum, Kanban) with continuous AI/ML integration (25% team velocity increase)

• Product-market fit for AI features through A/B testing and analytics (60% higher adoption rate)

I founded NovoSign together with two partners. There I am responsible for strategic development and operational management, from the product all the way to the business model.

This experience is especially valuable for my work as an external CDO: I know the product and founder perspective from my own responsibility, not just from consulting projects.

• Deployment and scaling of existing ML initiatives, including demand and cash flow forecasts.
• Building robust monitoring with mlflow for data stability, model performance, and drift detection, as well as implementing additional ML use cases.
• Further development of an Agentic AI chatbot for transparent and easy-to-understand model explanations.

• A digital system made up of special software and hardware components. The overall system replaces the traditional process with job slips and handwritten notes and enables more efficient order intake. Orders and work steps for the violin-making company’s projects can now be recorded, processed and logged in real time directly on the workshop’s touchscreen PC, by mobile phone or on the desktop. This gives customers a more transparent view of the work on their instruments and allows them to track the status and progress of their instrument through their customer account.

Tech stack: next.js, React, Flutter, Dart, Raspberry, Linux, Directus

• Led strategic IT and process consulting projects, streamlined business processes, and aligned IT systems with business goals, resulting in a 20% improvement in organizational efficiency.
• Led international transformation projects using agile and traditional methods, managing a cross-functional team of more than 15 professionals and delivering solutions on time and within budget.
• Developed cloud-based ERP/CRM systems (Salesforce, Infor, Microsoft) for clients, ensuring seamless integration and reducing system downtime by 30%.
• Led large-scale change management initiatives, actively involving stakeholders at all levels and driving the successful rollout of innovative systems in global organizations.
• Led requirements analysis and the tender process for clients, identified cost-saving opportunities, and improved operational workflows.

• Coordination and planning, execution, documentation, and analysis of test cases
• Development of test concepts considering best practices (e.g., test pyramid) with a focus on reliable, automatable test runs
• Implementation and maintenance of test cases according to the test concepts
• Technologies: Citrix Workspace, Shopify, Jira, Xray, MS Teams, MS SharePoint, Confluence, MS Office 365

maturing their API Practices on both, a Business and Technology level. My role encompasses 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, nodejs, typescript, redocly, reactive programming, CDC, golang, gingonic, GitOps, DX (developer experience), stakeholder management, roadmaps, workshops, discovery.

• Overall project planning for resources, budget, costs, license and service contracts, cost optimization and negotiations
• Leading and managing the project team and achieving the project goals
• Leading digitalization projects and their phases such as concept, planning, change and requirements management, configuration, implementation, testing, interfaces, communication and approval
• Conducting planning meetings
• Organizing, planning and conducting team, customer and requirements workshops with up to 50 participants at operational and management level
• Main contact for technical and functional topics as well as project coordination
• Recording and maintaining backlogs (user stories and EPICs) in Jira and turning requirements into user stories and prioritizing them
• Approval and publication of online services in the Wirtschafts-Service-Portal.NRW (WSP.NRW)
• Creating and maintaining project documentation
• Planning and designing the nationwide rollout/reuse as part of the once-for-all principle via WSP/FIT-Connect
• Communication between stakeholders, customers, authorities and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy (MWIKE)
• Work according to the SCRUM method

• 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

As PMO for the key topics of the IT Planning Council for Saxony-Anhalt, I am responsible for monitoring the four funded projects in Saxony-Anhalt with regard to compliance with the funding guidelines, state budget regulations, project standards, scope, and achievement of goals.

• Central PMO for four digitalization and funding projects within the digital strategy of the state of Saxony-Anhalt
• Overall coordination and steering of the projects in cooperation with the ministry, FITKO, and project leads
• Planning, structuring, and tracking of project milestones, dates, and work packages
• Creation and maintenance of project, status, and final documentation
• Establishment and execution of cross-project reporting to ensure transparency and traceability
• Execution of budget and cost controlling as well as support in the financial steering of the projects
• Setup and ongoing maintenance of cross-project risk management including assessment, action planning, and escalation
• Coordination of change management including assessment, planning, and tracking of change requests
• Monitoring of project progress through target/actual comparisons and derivation of optimization and steering measures
• Coordination and communication with all relevant stakeholders via defined contacts
• Support in complying with funding, procurement, and budget law requirements
• Preparation and moderation of status meetings and management reviews
• Ensuring transparent, on-time, and quality-focused project execution across multiple parallel funding projects.

• Situation: Increasing demand for privacy-compliant AI solutions for clients in the KRITIS and mid-market sector that need to analyze sensitive media content (audio, video, documents) without sending data to public cloud LLMs.

• Task: Design, deployment, and secure operation of a fully self-hosted AI infrastructure including a custom-built digital management platform for automated media analysis.

• Action: Architected and implemented a multi-tier platform on hardened Proxmox infrastructure with frontend (Nuxt 3, Vue 3, TypeScript, Tailwind 4), backend (Laravel 13, PHP 8.4, Sanctum), data storage (PostgreSQL 16, MongoDB 7), caching/queuing (Redis 7, Laravel Queue), AI workers (Python 3.11, Whisper, DeepFace, Librosa), scheduling (Laravel Scheduler/Cron), and local LLMs (Gemma, DeepSeek, Qwen, Mistral, LLaMA, Phi) via OpenWebUI with segmented network access, API hardening, and audit logging following BSI recommendations.

• Result: Fully GDPR-compliant, on-premises AI platform with zero data leakage to third parties.

• Task: Overall responsibility as an external Head of Cyber Security / CISO-as-a-Service for the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of ISMS according to ISO 27001, BSI IT-Grundschutz, and NIS2.

• Action: Built and managed Cyber Defense Centers (CDC) with SOC operations, integrated SIEM solutions (Splunk, Graylog), established risk-based vulnerability management (Qualys, Nessus, OpenVAS), and conducted regular infrastructure, application, and physical penetration tests.

• Result: Audit-ready ISMS for multiple clients and a 60% reduction in critical vulnerabilities within 90 days.

• Task: Design and execution of NIS2 assessments and operational roll-out plans for KRITIS operators.

• Action: Developed an online assessment tool for automated identification of individual weakness profiles, implemented ISMS optimizations, penetration testing, awareness programs, GRC suite deployment, and delivered C-level presentations.

• Result: Accelerated the consulting process by 50% and successfully prepared multiple clients for NIS2 compliance.

• Task: Incident commander for crisis response, forensics, and business recovery in ransomware attacks and APT campaigns.

• Action: Coordinated with state and federal police (LKA, BKA), performed forensic analysis (OSForensics, Wireshark, Kali Linux), executed disaster recovery and BCM strategies, and developed BTC extortion response strategies.

• Result: 100% recovery rate within defined RTO windows and sustainable post-incident security architectures.

• Action: Planned, built, and operated a hardened multi-VM infrastructure (Proxmox, 15+ VMs) with web and mail servers, Graylog, OPNsense firewalls, CRM/ERP and LLM instances, network segmentation, DDoS mitigation, automated patch management, and backup strategies.

• Result: >99.5% uptime over 20+ years and zero compromises.

• Action: Designed coordinated phishing campaigns with five levels of difficulty, developed e-trainings and webinars in a PDCA cycle, and led red and blue teams.

• Result: Phishing click rate reduced from 35% to under 5% within three campaign cycles.

Manufacturing intelligence platform with enterprise workflows, RAG, real-time AI assistant features, and multi-repository backend architecture.

• Built and extended production AI/backend services with Django, DRF, FastAPI, GraphQL, Celery, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, and WebSockets across a modular multi-repository platform.
• Contributed to ARIS V2, a real-time manufacturing AI assistant using LangChain, LangGraph, MCP tool orchestration, planning/execution flows, OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Qdrant, and Elasticsearch/OpenSearch-backed retrieval.
• Supported rollout expansion from ARIS V1 in 4 of 17 client production plants to ARIS V2 currently active in 13 of 17 plants, increasing real-world deployment coverage to more than 50% of the client footprint.
• Worked on document-grounded RAG functionality including ingestion, OCR, chunking, embeddings, indexing, retrieval, reranking, and grounded answer generation for industrial workflows.

Stack: Python, Django, DRF, FastAPI, LangChain, LangGraph, GraphQL, Celery, WebSockets, OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Qdrant, Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, Docker.