XML Experts in Berlin

• Designed, built, and launched an internal event planning web application used by over 100 department leads for a large event, despite having no dedicated testing phase.

• Ensured smooth, failure-free operation during first production use, leading to the tool being adopted for future events.

• Automated catering calculations and related workflows, significantly reducing email communication and manual computation effort for meal planning.

• Managed deployment and hosting on a Linux server using Coolify, including application setup and runtime operations.

• Hired and guided a communication designer on UX while independently owning all technical decisions and implementation.

• Designed and developed AI-powered document processing solutions using Python, OCR, NLP, and Large Language Models (LLMs) to automate extraction, validation, and classification of financial documents, reducing processing time by 75%.
• Built intelligent multi-stage workflow automation pipelines integrating AI services, machine learning models, and enterprise systems to streamline financial operations and improve data quality.
• Developed reusable AI-driven transformation frameworks capable of processing structured and unstructured document formats (XML, CSV, JSON, TXT, DAT) and normalizing them into unified business schemas.
• Designed and developed Python-based REST APIs and backend services supporting enterprise finance applications and high-volume data processing workloads.
• Built scalable data synchronization pipelines between Oracle CFIN and SQL databases, incorporating machine learning models for cash-flow forecasting and AP/AR anomaly detection.
• Architected and deployed Apache Airflow workflows to orchestrate AI-powered data pipelines, automating end-to-end processing from document ingestion through financial system integration.
• Led the migration of critical enterprise integrations from MuleSoft to Python-based services, improving maintainability, performance, and operational flexibility while preserving complete data integrity.
• Managed the full API lifecycle including solution design, implementation, documentation, deployment, monitoring, and production support for mission-critical financial systems.
• Collaborated directly with finance stakeholders to identify business challenges, define solution requirements, and deliver measurable operational improvements through automation and AI-driven workflows.
• Worked closely with cross-functional engineering and business teams to rapidly iterate on features, improve processes, and drive successful adoption of AI-enabled solutions.
• Provided technical leadership through architecture reviews, technology decisions, code reviews, and engineering best practices across integration and automation initiatives.
• Mentored developers, established coding standards, and contributed to improving software quality, maintainability, and delivery effectiveness across projects.
• Provided production support during critical month-end and quarter-close financial processes, performing root-cause analysis and implementing rapid fixes to ensure system reliability and data accuracy.

• Freelance product owner, scrum master and agile coach in various projects spanning from local agencies to multinational corporations in diverse industries.

• Last projects:

• Adevinta: Technical Project Manager responsible for coordination of several sub-workstreams building the world’s largest classifieds multi-tenant platform.

• Aroundhome (a ProSiebenSat.1 company): Product Manager implementing and verifying on the business side a concept for digital qualification of user requests for matching service providers.

• Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf: Product Manager Mobile advising on and guiding the rebuild of Android and iOS apps.

• Visual Meta GmbH (an Axel Springer company), Berlin: Director Product co-leading the Product & Engineering department together with the Director Engineering.

• Responsibilities at Visual Meta GmbH:

• Define and deliver a 3–5 year horizon product strategy including a product vision & mission connecting to existing company strategy and strategies from adjacent departments.

• Refine an existing OKR process together with OKR master and directors of other departments to increase focus and outcome.

• Support the Director Engineering in creating a platform transformation strategy to transform a monolithic on-premise tech stack into a service-oriented, cloud-based architecture and establish a domain-based organizational setup.

• Accountability for a motivated and talented team of 5 head-level colleagues and 17 operational team members from product management, data and UX/UI design.

• Key achievements at Visual Meta GmbH:

• Defined and delivered a 3–5 year horizon product strategy including a product vision & mission.

• Increased focus within OKR process by moving from 10 company-level objectives to 2 and from several hundred team-level key results to a few dozen.

• Created a career path framework for the product team defining roles and responsibilities from junior to head level positions.

• Support Authorization as a Service initiative for enterprise-scale authorization platform
• Incorporate comprehensive observability solutions into authorization infrastructure
• Provision and manage AWS infrastructure for authorization services
• Mentor development team on AWS and Kubernetes best practices
• Tech Stack: Java/Kotlin, Golang, Python, OPA, Spring Boot, AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, ELK Stack, Prometheus, Grafana

• Add/create test specifications
• Conduct regression tests
• Conduct release tests
• Analyze Jira tickets
• Identify software defects and fix them with C#

• Developed and deployed microservices in Kotlin and Spring Boot, integrated AWS Secrets Manager to secure credentials and decreased network calls using Spring cache.
• Refactored Kafka consumer using Spring Kafka with semaphore-based backpressure to cap records and keep heap memory stable under spikes; switched to batch upserts to cut down on database invocations; added Testcontainers integration tests for Kafka and database to pave the way for future changes.
• Automated the financial reconciliation workflow in Spring Boot (Kotlin) using Spring Scheduler, transactional boundaries, JPA/Hibernate on MySQL, and Flyway migrations, saving the accounts team 16+ hours per week.
• Designed and dockerized payments end-to-end test framework in Robot (Python) with reusable keyword libraries and profiles; integrated with GitLab CI (JaCoCo XML and HTML reports) to accelerate releases and lift code coverage to 80%.
• Implemented end-to-end observability on Datadog by instrumenting services with Datadog APM, correlating metrics and logs, provisioning dashboards, and creating monitors with burn-rate alerts and anomalies to harden reliability and give stakeholders clear visibility.

• IT training in theory and practice for IT specialists in application development and system integration

• Insurance service provider*

Challenge: Business-critical documents were processed through external OCR providers, with ongoing costs, dependency, and data privacy risks for sensitive insurance data.

Implementation:

• Architecture and production implementation of an on-premise OCR solution with full data ownership
• Methods for recognizing document structures as the basis for automated further processing
• ML-, NLP-, and LLM/VLM-based information extraction, especially from invoices and quotations

Success: Replaced external providers: full data ownership, GDPR-compliant processing, and 75% lower recurring OCR costs per year

Used technologies: Python, Docker, Microservices, FastAPI, PyTorch, Torchvision, MongoDB, MySQL

• Optimized the data architecture (medallion) to better decouple processing stages and improve transparency and reproducibility
• Ensured technical quality of data processing in Databricks by introducing schema enforcement, data quality checks and a structured data architecture
• Orchestrated pipelines with Azure Data Factory
• Professionalized and automated the development and deployment process by integrating Git and GitHub Actions
• Led the Data Engineering team (3 members) in a functional role
• Conducted workshops to optimize and stabilize the data platform and the development process
• Collected and prioritized new requests, maintained the product backlog
• Technologies: Microsoft Azure (Data Lake, Data Factory), Databricks, Apache Spark (PySpark), Python, SQL, Git, Confluence, Power BI, Power Apps, Dataverse, MS SharePoint, Mural

Intensive upskilling program to expand into fullstack, AI, and accessibility - preparing for freelance Angular/React projects with Next.js, Redux, and LLM integration.

Key achievements:

React - The Complete Guide (incl. Next.js, Redux): Comprehensive course on React Hooks, Redux Toolkit, React Router, Next.js App Router, React Server Components, Form Actions (React 19), authentication, unit testing, TypeScript integration, and fullstack apps with HTTP requests.

Practical Prompt Engineering Masterclass: Hands-on masterclass on prompt design, chain-of-thought, few-shot prompting, and LLM optimization for AI-powered frontend features like accessibility checks.

Understanding TypeScript: Deep dive into TypeScript types, interfaces, generics, and integration with React/Next.js for type-safe, scalable codebases.

Design Thinking: Methods for user-centered design, ideation, prototyping, and iteration - applied to accessible UI/UX concepts.

Web Accessibility Training Course WCAG 2.1 & 2.2 Compliance: Detailed WCAG 2.1/2.2 guidelines, BFSG requirements, audit techniques, ARIA widgets, and screen reader testing for compliant Angular/React applications.

New skills: Next.js, Redux, TypeScript, prompt engineering, WCAG, design thinking.

• Building and scaling cloud infrastructure on GCP to support a SaaS platform for industrial clients
• Designing and implementing a data-driven DevOps pipeline for streamlined deployment and CI/CD workflows
• Collaborating with Data Science team on MLOps workflow to automate integrated retraining

• Client: Terex Corporation

• Projects for federal networks (NdB).
• CR management, EoL change requests, design and documentation according to ITSCM.
• Data center planning.
• Project management and engineering subproject management.
• Software development for virtual server environments according to BSI.

• Holds an advisory role in this startup on providing guidance on use of AI in product management to use Jira AI
• Working on real-world applications of AI tools like ChatGPT, Visual Studio, Augment, and Synthesia to enhance product management and user communication