VPN Experts

• 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

Creation of concepts for M365 implementation, especially Tenants, EntraID, EntraConnect and ExchangeOnline, taking BAS standards into account (mandatory baseline security requirements) in the project "Concept M365" with the aim of transferring the concepts to the M365 environments of Bitmarck and then handing them over to the customer.

• Creation of a current-state analysis of the existing M365 environments as well as the on-premises environments and the BAS standards.
• Creation of concepts for the topics Tenants, EntraID, EntraConnect and ExchangeOnline taking the BAS standards into account
• Design and implementation of an automated solution for creating standardized M365 tenants based on Microsoft M365 DSC (Desired State Configuration)
• Transfer of the concepts into the M365 environments
• Creation of detailed technical documentation

• Operation and further development of the network and security infrastructure.

• Monitoring, analysis and resolution of network and security incidents.

• Cross-department collaboration with other specialist teams for operations, further development and reporting.

• Firewall vulnerability analysis.

• Firewall rule approvals.

• Troubleshooting IP communication issues in the network and firewall infrastructure.

• Security-critical IT infrastructure, processing of personal data, compliance with legal regulations.

• Products: Palo Alto Networks Firewalls, Cisco ACI, Checkpoint Firewalls, F5

• Technologies: SDN, SDWAN, Cisco EPIC, Cisco ACI

• Technical management of parallel rooftop PV projects (Type A/B) from project planning through construction to completed plant certification
• Analysis of project requirements based on on-site inspections, planning reviews and evaluation of tender and project documents, and preparation of the findings for the internal planning department
• Derivation of work packages and milestones for each project, including structured filing in the client’s project documentation (SharePoint)
• Coordination of the planning phase between planning, procurement and executing trades
• Preparation of specifications and bills of materials as the basis for preparing quotations, and monitoring the timely submission of offers
• Coordination and monitoring of the construction phase, including schedule tracking and ensuring implementation in line with the plans
• Preparation and continuous updating of project schedules and project budgets across all projects
• Tracking of milestones, work packages and project progress, as well as early documentation and escalation of schedule and budget deviations to the overall project management
• Preparation of technical analyses of existing and planning data for each plant as the basis for the entire certification process
• Review, verification and compilation of all certification-relevant evidence: technical data sheets, manufacturer approvals, component documentation, test reports, type certificates and simulation results
• Assessment of the completeness and compliance of manufacturer documentation with applicable standards, identification of missing evidence, and requesting and tracking missing documents from manufacturers and installers
• Preparation and technical review of declarations of conformity for the grid connection of the plants
• Preparation of complete plant certification documentation for Type A/B in accordance with the applicable VDE application rules, the grid operators’ technical connection requirements (TAB) and the requirements of the certification bodies
• Review and documentation of protection concepts, as well as definition of the certification scope for each plant in technical coordination with the grid operators
• Submission of documents to grid operators and accredited certification bodies, follow-up on queries through final approval, and deadline management across parallel procedures
• Management of interfaces between the client, manufacturers, installers, grid operators and certification bodies, as well as complete project documentation with status overviews, communication logs and approval documents

Project: Process optimization & IT support in an insurance broker office.

Project activities:

• Analysis of processes and definition of requirements
• Consulting for the implementation of a cloud solution (soho)
• Installation and verification of new infrastructure HW
• Cloud installation & configuration
• Definition and creation of use cases
• Performing user acceptance tests (UAT)
• User training / training
• IT support (cloud, PC, server, printer, network)

Label: Insurance, infrastructure, configuration, training, support

• 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)

• Error analysis and fixes including performance optimization of the in-house developed platform API
• Change and incident management in day-to-day operations
• Responsible for compliance with security and compliance requirements
• Vendor management for software development and maintenance
• Planning and execution of migration of legacy services to a cloud native platform

Role in the project: project staff, implementation team

Used skills: requirements analysis, IT service and application management, IT operations, error analysis and performance optimization, software maintenance and lifecycle management

Project environment: Cloud Native Platform (Kubernetes, Crossplane, AWS, ArgoCD, Grafana)

As project manager for the Odoo implementation at a small company, I was responsible for designing, implementing, and training a fully integrated CRM and accounting system. Through structured requirements analysis, precise data migration, and targeted change management, I was able to complete the rollout in just eight weeks. The project led to a significant reduction in manual tasks, faster business processes, and increased real-time transparency.

Main Responsibilities

Requirements analysis and process mapping Configuration of Odoo modules: CRM, Sales, and Accounting Data migration (Excel/CSV → Odoo) and quality control Creation of workflows, automated email rules, and dashboards Conducting training sessions and providing support after go-live Project coordination (budget, schedule, stakeholder communication)

Key Achievements

Full implementation of the Odoo suite within the set timeframe (8 weeks) 30% reduction in accounting time and 25% acceleration of the lead-to-sale flow 100% customer satisfaction after go-live, based on survey results Successful migration of 100% of existing master data without data loss Establishment of a sustainable support infrastructure (3-month post go-live support)

Impact

Improved decision-making through real-time dashboards and automated reports Increased efficiency and cost savings (≈ €8,000/month) Scalability for future growth (additional modules can be integrated seamlessly) Strengthened sales and finance departments through seamless process integration

This summary highlights how I created concrete and measurable value for the company through structured project work, technical expertise, and targeted training.

• Development and introduction of operations processes
• Preparation of complete documentation packages (including incident management and operations support) to meet compliance requirements
• Introduction of a workshop on IaC (Infrastructure as Code)
• Technical consulting for the project security concept (ISMS)
• Installation and operation of Kubernetes clusters on AWS, on-prem, and Azure
• Hybrid cloud architecture design (on-prem, Hetzner, AWS)
• Analysis and troubleshooting of incidents and system outages
• Network adjustments for firewall rules, gateways, OpenVPN settings, and IPsec tunnels (pfSense)
• Technical consulting on Bitbucket, Jenkins, and GitLab CI/CD pipelines
• Consulting on Ansible deployments and infrastructure automation
• Consulting on building a scalable system in the cloud (AWS / Azure)
• Technologies / Tools: Ansible, Terraform, AWS, Azure, VPN, pfSense, Jenkins, Bitbucket, Kubernetes, GitLab Runner, ISMS, Golang, Prometheus, Grafana, S3, Lambda, RDS, ECS, Cognito, OIDC, Harbor, MinIO, Postgres, Redis, Keycloak, Ceph, Proxmox, CloudFormation, PostgreSQL, Flux CD, Hetzner, IONOS, Sonatype Nexus Repository, Entra ID, Dex IdP, Pulumi

Task:

• Design and build a proof of concept (PoC) for a future-proof virtualization platform, taking secure system architectures into account
• Assess the current state of existing infrastructures and develop selection and evaluation criteria for the right OS virtualization platform
• Carry out the requirements analysis and then create and prioritize tickets in the ticket system
• Complete and continuously update a tool evaluation matrix based on PoC results
• Support team knowledge building through clear documentation of the approach and results in Confluence
• Enterprise analysis of existing hardware (creating different BoMs)

Technologies: Vmware, Vmware Aria Operations, Osism, Canonical OpenStack, FishOs, Linux, Terraform, Ansible, Confluence, Alma

• 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.

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

Rollout of printers and PCs

• Effective management of external service providers to ensure smooth operations.
• Planning and implementation of a global rollout for 150,000 clients.
• Carrying out a comprehensive risk analysis, including overall risk, site-specific risks, and security risks.
• Successful consolidation of two existing ServiceNow systems to optimize service management.
• Close coordination with program management to achieve the project goals.

• Creation, maintenance and hardening of Kubernetes clusters employing Ansible and ArgoCD
• Keywords: Ansible, AWX, Kubernetes, NetApp, Prometheus, CI/CD ArgoCD, SSO, Fluent-bit, HAProxy, Calico, Keycloak, oauth2-proxy, SealedSecrets, kubeseal, Aqua kube-bench, CIS-Benchmarks, Aqua Trivy operator