Jávea, Spain · in IT since 1995

Stefan Bayer

IT Manager & Project Lead – team leadership, data integration, DevOps, IT regulation (DORA)

In IT since 1995: from software developer through test and project management to leading international IT teams in insurance. Focus areas are data integration, cloud migration, DevOps and regulatory implementation (DORA, BaFin). In my own projects I build software with Claude Code as my coding agent.

Currently availableGet in touch

Most recently IT Team Manager Germany at Markel Insurance SE (04/2025 – 07/2026).

Years in IT
31
Projects & engagements
62
Clients & employers
19
Industries
12
Career at a glance

Timeline

  • Development
  • Testing & QA
  • Leadership (projects, management)
  • Other (support, training, administration)
  • approximate dates
19962000200420082012201620202024
S.1S.13BU.1BUT.7M01M05M04M06M08M09M11M12

1995 – today · 62 entries · click a bar to jump to the project

Employment & engagements

Positions

  1. 02/2018 – 07/2026
    Markel Insurance SE / Markel InternationalInsurance
    1. 04/2025 – 07/20261 year 4 monthsIT Team Manager GermanyMarkel Insurance SE · Employed

      Led software development in Germany with overall technical ownership of applications and servers; additionally project lead for Phinsys Readiness across four countries.

    2. 01/2023 – 03/20252 years 3 monthsHead of European Business TechnologyMarkel Insurance SE · Employed

      Built and led the European IT team (about 8 people in DE, ES, NL), reporting to the CEO and later the CFO; Europe's central IT liaison to Group IT. Team build-up in Germany from 03/2022, permanent role from 01/2023.

    3. 02/2018 – 12/20224 years 11 monthsFreelance IT consultant and project leadMarkel International · Freelance

      Stabilising the new Winsure policy administration system after go-live, data migration and data quality, regulatory reporting (BaFin) and project lead for connecting Germany to central data platforms.

  2. 02/2015 – 12/20172 years 11 months
    Freelance IT consultantSelf-employed · Freelance · Logistics & automation

    Software development and test management for SSI Schäfer warehouse logistics projects (clients including Bosch Tiernahrung, Marks & Spencer, Pacific Brands, Schaeffler). Self-employment continued from 02/2018 with the Markel engagement.

  3. 10/2012 – 12/20142 years 3 months
    Project managerSwiss Post · Employed · Logistics & automation · Postal services

    Project management in the letter centres' continuity management: modernising and virtualising business-critical control systems together with Post IT and suppliers (including Siemens).

  4. 10/1996 – 09/201216 years
    Freelance IT consultantSelf-employed · Freelance

    Software development, architecture, system integration, test and quality management, support and training; clients including BASF, Siemens (logistics and postal automation, e.g. for Swiss Post), ALSTOM, and training courses for Sun Microsystems. Part-time alongside employment at Dr. Tackenberg until 07/1997.

  5. 05/1995 – 07/19972 years 3 months
    Software developerDr. Tackenberg GmbH · Employed · Management consulting
All engagements & projects

Projects

62 projects
Q1 2026 – 07/2026
7 months
Support
Employed

DORA register: 2026 annual update and audit support

Subject-matter expert / coordinator (at the CCO's request)

Markel Insurance SE / Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München

Annual update of the DORA ICT register for submission to BaFin, taken up again at the request of the Chief Compliance Officer. The interim Access solution from the DORA implementation had still not been replaced. In addition, Q1 2026: contribution to the external KPMG audit as the invited project lead of the implementation (presentation of the project approach and the Confluence documentation).

Activities
  • Already in 2025, as part of the ongoing DORA implementation: involvement in audit planning and in incident reporting to BaFin; clarification of the gap analysis and action tracker ahead of the KPMG audit
  • Supported local operations teams and international procurement teams in updating their data
  • Onboarded new owners to the topic
  • Analysed issues surfaced by BaFin's stricter validation of the data packages (old problems newly exposed)
  • Fixed issues in the ICT register – corrected some data myself and requested other corrections from the local operations teams
  • Coordinated the register submission (internal deadline mid-March, final submission end of March 2026)
  • Contributed to the KPMG audit (presentation of the project approach, documentation)

Tools: ICT-Register (MS Access), MS Excel, Confluence

08/2025 – 07/2026
1 year
Project management
Employed

Project lead Phinsys Readiness (European Data Lake)

Project lead

Markel Insurance SE / Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München

The European Data Lake (EDL) collects data from the policy administration systems of four countries (DE, ES, NL, FR) and feeds the central finance system Phinsys (accounting and actuarial). The Phinsys Readiness project secures data quality and delivery processes; it had run for about two years without a dedicated project lead. Taken over at the CFO's request (informally 08/2025, formal project structure from 10/2025); planned completion 08/2026 (with residual risk).

Activities
  • Set up the project structure: weekly country meetings (DE/ES/NL/FR) and data lake catch-ups
  • Planning and status reporting to programme management
  • Risk management: 4 formal risk reports, 2 of them escalated to the sponsor
  • Ensured data transformation and data quality for on-time delivery to EDL/Phinsys
  • 2026: functional analysis for Phase 2B (data flows, premium and claims reporting, data model across Winsure/EDL/Oracle)
  • Established the local data sign-off process with Finance and Actuarial
  • Laid the groundwork for quarterly reporting via EDL and Power BI

Tools: EDL (Azure), Phinsys, Power BI, Oracle, Winsure, Jira, MS Excel

04/2025 – 07/2026
1 year 4 months
Leadership & management
Employed

Head of software development, Germany

IT Team Manager (incl. solution architect, DevOps lead, delivery lead, infrastructure & security owner)

Markel Insurance SE / Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München, Augsburg

Led the German software development team (3 developers) within the operations team; overall technical ownership of the application and server landscape in Germany (policy administration system Winsure, broker portal MarkelNow); reporting to the Operations Manager Germany.

Activities
  • Team leadership: one-on-ones, developer dialogue, stand-ups, onboarding of a junior developer, introduced workload tracking by category
  • Intensive hands-on support and training for team members
  • Agile planning with Jira (weekly story point estimation)
  • Delivery lead: operational responsibility for the team's software delivery (sprint planning, story points, Jira structure, releases)
  • Designed the target architecture for the policy administration system in Lucid (basis for the 2026 modernisation)
  • DevOps: introduced a pre-production environment and test automation (with the international DevOps team), optimised deployment, CI/CD pipeline (proof of concept)
  • Scoped and budgeted the Winsure master update
  • Releases (R48–R77, MarkelNow 5.12), completed the re-import, prepared e-invoicing, launched the claims portal
  • Infrastructure and security: SSL certificate and domain management, GDPR-compliant email delivery via SendGrid (API keys and subusers, DKIM/SPF, HTML templates), permission structures in the central directory service, migration to the new GDV portal, CMPro update
  • CRM forms with Power Automate: technical implementation, ticket automation and integrations with Freshdesk and Jira; handover, training and documentation
  • Quarterly BaFin reports for Finance
  • Editorial ownership of the knowledge base (Confluence)

Tools: Jira, Confluence, Azure, Azure DevOps, Octopus Deploy, Citrix, SendGrid, Oracle, Winsure, MarkelNow, Power BI, Power Automate, Lucid, Freshdesk, ServiceNow

2019 – 07/2026 (quarterly)
Development

BaFin regulatory reporting: claims and premium statistics from Winsure (BerVersV)

Developer / consultant (reporting)

Markel Insurance SE / Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München

Part of Winsure project steering (umbrella engagement as freelancer)

Developed a report for the finance department for BaFin reporting under the German Insurance Reporting Ordinance (BerVersV): two complex, multi-stage query structures on the Winsure Oracle database – a) extraction of claims statistics, b) policy/premium/payment overview for the current year and quarter under German GAAP (HGB). Data basis for submitting the claims statistics (forms Nw 242 and Nw 243) and premium statistics (Nw 607 and Nw 200) to BaFin. Implemented in 2019.

Activities
  • Designed and implemented the multi-stage SQL query structures (2019)
  • Used materialized views to improve performance
  • Quarterly production and delivery of the results to Finance (2020–2026)
  • Automation was initially not an option because of the way the parameters had to be set
  • H2/2025: adapted the policy/premium/payment report to show cyber insurance amounts separately

Tools: Oracle, Toad for Oracle, Winsure, MS Excel

02/2024 – 04–05/2025
1 year 4 months
Project management
Employed

DORA implementation at Markel (project lead)

Project lead

Markel Insurance SE / Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München

Project lead for implementing the EU Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) at Markel in Europe, in close cooperation with the Chief Compliance Officer and the Business Resilience Lead International Operations. Project completed around 04–05/2025.

Activities
  • Data collection together with the local operations teams and the global procurement departments
  • Coordinated the integration of DORA into incident management and company-wide policies
  • Compiled the first lists of potential ICT providers from Finance's invoice data
  • Criticality assessment of around 15–20 ICT providers including subcontractors, capture of spend figures; worked with Legal to add DORA-compliant clauses to existing and new supplier contracts
  • Built the central ICT register: as the ESAs'/BaFin's Excel template proved almost unusable, implemented it as an Access database (with Copilot support) as an interim solution
  • Built comprehensive project documentation in Confluence
  • 04/2025: supported the CCO in submitting the register to BaFin, including required corrections

Tools: MS Access (ICT-Register), MS Excel, Microsoft Copilot, Confluence, ServiceNow

01/2023 – 03/2025
2 years 3 months
Leadership & management
Employed

Central European IT liaison to Group IT

IT manager (Europe ↔ Group IT liaison)

Markel Insurance SE / Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München

Europe's central IT contact for Group IT (USA/UK) – a role held from the start of permanent employment in 01/2023, alongside leading the EBT team. After the European IT team was reassigned to the local operations managers (02–03/2024, owing to a lack of synergies caused by heterogeneous technologies and language barriers), continued as the only cross-country IT function in Europe, as no cross-country IT perspective remained locally.

Activities
  • Initiated and oversaw system updates
  • Supported the security department's disaster recovery tests
  • Organised and oversaw an IT security audit at a software supplier
  • Negotiated the contract termination with the hosting provider after the Azure migration, then resolved incorrect invoices and obtained the data destruction declaration

Tools: Azure, ServiceNow, Jira, Confluence

03/2022 – 03/2025 (permanent from 01/2023)
3 years 1 month
Leadership & management

Building and leading European Business Technology (EBT)

Head of European Business Technology

Markel Insurance SE / Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München, Madrid, Rotterdam, London

Built and led the European IT team (EBT, about 8 people in DE/ES/NL); technical responsibility for the policy administration systems Winsure (DE, C/Oracle/Tomcat), SISnet (ES, Java/MSSQL) and Level7 (NL, Progress); reported first directly to the CEO, later to the CFO; EBT acted as the interface between business/operations and IT/infrastructure. Role in practice from 03/2022 (team build-up in Germany); permanent employment, planned earlier, took effect in 01/2023. From 02–03/2024 the team was reassigned to the local operations managers (lack of synergies); central responsibilities continued afterwards.

Activities
  • Built the team in Germany (03/2022), extended it to Spain and the Netherlands (01/2023)
  • Introduced Jira as the single ticketing system (better overview, predictability, documentation) – completed in Germany and the Netherlands
  • In Spain it remained at the initial stage, as it would first have required migrating from Redbooth and giving the vendor's staff external access, and responsibility for the Spanish team had already been handed over (03/2024)
  • Developed the operating model with Group IT, including RACI matrices for European applications
  • ITIL 4-based process definition (incidents, changes, service requests) and integration into the global IT structure (ServiceNow)
  • Built the technical knowledge base (Confluence) for 3 countries
  • Job postings and budget planning
  • GDPR-compliant automated email delivery via SendGrid (without tracking)
  • Managed the transfer of two developers from the external service provider to Markel
  • Steered initiatives such as the re-import (Winsure→MarkelNow), policy separation and dispatch control, Swiss payment transactions, master data for authorities, BiPRO interfaces and Power BI reports

Tools: Jira, Confluence, ServiceNow, Freshdesk, Azure, SendGrid, Power BI, Winsure, SISnet, Level7, MarkelNow

approx. 09/2023 – 09/2024
approx. 1 year 1 month
Project management
Employed

Cloud migration: moving the German systems to Markel's Azure cloud

Project lead

Markel Insurance SE / Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München

Migrated all German policy administration and satellite systems from an external hosting provider to the company's own Azure cloud (corporate policy: everything within Azure). Documented completion 09/2024.

Activities
  • Project lead working directly with International IT (little involvement of the team)
  • Custom solution for a legacy system that only runs on a VM with an old operating system and Internet Explorer
  • Resolved performance problems on the Citrix servers
  • Migrated a PHP-based broker front end using MongoDB and MariaDB (technologies not supported as standard)
  • DNS migration (Project Munich Phase II)

Tools: Azure, Citrix, PHP, MongoDB, MariaDB, Oracle, Windows Server, VMs

approx. 2022
Development
Freelance

Resolving data inconsistencies between Markel and broker Exali

Consultant / analyst, coordination

Markel Insurance SE / Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München

Part of Winsure project steering (umbrella engagement as freelancer)

There were major data inconsistencies between the systems of Markel and the broker Exali that had to be analysed and cleaned up.

Activities
  • Initial root cause analysis
  • Coordinated cooperation between the external provider (Exali), internal software development and Finance
  • Oversaw the data clean-up

Tools: Oracle, Winsure, MS Excel

approx. 2021 – 2022
Development
Freelance

Groundwork for the European Data Lake (Power BI proof of concept)

Consultant / BI analyst

Markel Insurance SE / Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München

Part of Winsure project steering (umbrella engagement as freelancer)

After the EDF programme failed due to its complexity, demonstrated that the German data was in a reusable state (assumed to apply equally to ES/NL, whose EDF part had been completed). A Power BI proof of concept provided valuable insights into business development and laid the foundation for the later European Data Lake (EDL) and the Phinsys programme.

Activities
  • Data analysis and preparation
  • Designed and built the Power BI proof of concept
  • Presented the results and won over stakeholders

Tools: Power BI, Oracle

02/2018 – 12/2022
4 years 11 months
Project management
Freelance

Winsure project steering (umbrella engagement as freelancer)

Project consultant

Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München

Markel had introduced a new policy administration system. Owing to the ambitious timeline, various problems had arisen that required external support. Umbrella engagement for several individual assignments during the freelance work for Markel.

Activities
  • Project management: advised and supported the project lead
  • Technical support
  • Resolved data problems
  • Introduced a single ticket-based process for managing bugs and changes after data migration and go-live – previously there were only several largely unstructured lists, some with duplicate entries
  • In the absence of a ticket system, based on an Excel list with a matching folder structure in Outlook and the file system
  • Evaluated OTRS together with the internal project lead (introduction was rejected)
  • Freshdesk was later introduced and used for the process
  • Towards the end, managed the transfer of two German developers from the external service provider to Markel (preparation for the EBT role)

Tools: Oracle 12c, MS Excel, MS Word, Toad for Oracle, winsure, Windows Server 2012 R2, MS Outlook, OTRS (Evaluierung), Freshdesk

approx. 2019 – 2021
Project management
Freelance

EDF (Enterprise Data Framework) – connecting the German policy admin system

Project lead (German implementation)

Markel Insurance SE / Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München

Part of Winsure project steering (umbrella engagement as freelancer)

EDF (Enterprise Data Framework): programme to consolidate company data (including National Markets and Wholesale) in a central place – in effect a data warehouse and precursor of the EDL. Project lead for the German implementation: connected the policy administration system (Winsure) to the central EDF platform via an ETL process. The overall programme later failed due to its complexity.

Activities
  • Made design decisions together with stakeholders (mainly Finance and Underwriting)
  • Managed an external developer from the policy administration system vendor
  • Coordinated development and testing with teams in London and India
  • Technical implementation: extraction from the Oracle database, data transfer in CSV and Avro formats

Tools: Oracle, CSV, AVRO, Winsure

approx. 2019
Testing & QA
Freelance

Brexit: separating the European business from the UK branch

Consultant / analyst and test manager

Markel Insurance SE / Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München

Part of Winsure project steering (umbrella engagement as freelancer)

Regulatory separation of the European insurance business from the UK branch as a result of Brexit.

Activities
  • Analysis and advice on the separation
  • Specified the required tests
  • Planned and oversaw test execution, in particular together with Finance

Tools: Winsure, MS Excel, MS Word

approx. 2018
Development
Freelance

Resolving data migration issues after the Winsure roll-out

Consultant / developer (data quality)

Markel Insurance SE / Markel International · Insurance · Remote, München

Part of Winsure project steering (umbrella engagement as freelancer)

After the migration from the legacy system OpenViva to the new policy administration system Winsure, significant data problems were impairing operations.

Activities
  • Missing data: coordinated the follow-up migration of data (so-called time slices) from OpenViva to Winsure together with the Winsure vendor
  • Structural problems caused by setup errors: improved data quality through agreed data corrections
  • Thousands of documents without policy assignment or versioning: smart analysis of Word files with version detection and automatic assignment, implemented in PL/SQL and Visual Basic

Tools: Oracle, Toad for Oracle, Winsure, OpenViva, MS Word

03/2017 – 12/2017
10 months
Development
Freelance

Software development EDZM, Schaeffler

Software developer

Schaeffler · SSI Schäfer IT Solutions · Logistics & automation · Giebelstadt, Kitzingen

SSI Schäfer was commissioned to build the EDZM logistics centre in Kitzingen, consisting of two automated warehouses for pallets and small parts (AS/RS), conveyor systems for pallets, totes and cartons, and various goods-in and goods-out workstations. A warehouse control system (WCS) was developed as part of this.

Activities
  • Implemented the interface to SAP
  • Implemented the storage location search for both warehouses
  • Implemented the conveyor control for pallet goods-out
  • Factory tests and on-site commissioning

Tools: SAP JCo (Java Connector), Oracle 12, MS Excel, Java SE 8, Hibernate, Eclipse, PL/SQL Developer, JIRA, Jenkins

07/2016 – 03/2017
9 months
Testing & QA
Freelance

Test management PACBRA – Pacific Brands

Test manager

Pacific Brands (AUS) · SSI Schäfer Noell · Logistics & automation · Giebelstadt

The Australian retailer Pacific Brands commissioned SSI Schäfer to extend its logistics centre in Melbourne, including a new warehouse control system (WCS). Tests and analysis capabilities were needed to prove correct operation and compliance with the performance requirements.

Activities
  • Test management
  • Test specification for the factory acceptance test (FAT)
  • Introduced and implemented mass tests based on real data from the live installation
  • Extended the in-house plant simulation AntSim with a scripting interface
  • Extracted and prepared runtime data from the production environment
  • Documentation
  • Implemented statistical analyses (export to Excel)

Tools: VNC, Cygwin, sed, grep, PuTTY, Eclipse, PL/SQL Developer, AntSim, MS Excel, Linux, Oracle 11g, Java SE 7, JFreeChart, Apache POI

04/2016 – 06/2016
3 months
Development
Freelance

Software development Marks & Spencer

Software developer

Marks & Spencer · SSI Schäfer Noell · Logistics & automation · Dortmund

02/2015 – 03/2016
1 year 2 months
Development
Freelance

Software development Bosch Tiernahrung

Software developer

Bosch Tiernahrung · SSI Schäfer Noell · Logistics & automation · Giebelstadt

10/2013 – 12/2014
1 year 3 months
Project management
Employed

Project management MHS M0/M1/M2

Project manager

Schweizerische Post · Logistics & automation, Postal services · Schweiz

Swiss Post's continuity management monitors the life cycles of hardware and software. The project created the conditions for modernising the business-critical MHS application (control of the tote conveyor system). To enable low-risk release changes within minimal time windows, a second instance of the existing MHS was commissioned in a virtual environment in every letter sorting centre, a switchover concept with synchronisation was developed and implemented with Post IT and Siemens, and the infrastructure for a new, updated MHS instance was set up in each centre. Duration 14 months, project volume CHF 970k.

Activities
  • Project management
  • Task force to resolve serious problems during commissioning
  • Supported commissioning. Challenge: moving further central applications into separate networks for the switchover concept
  • First fully virtualised business-critical application in the letter sorting centres
  • Replaced several high-performance servers in all three letter sorting centres (separate work order)

Tools: Windows Server 2003, VMware ESXi, VMware vSphere, Oracle 10g, MS Word, MS Excel, Oracle Data Guard, Windows Server 2012, Oracle 11g

07/2013 – 03/2014
9 months
Project management
Employed

Project management BR Hand continuity

Project manager

Schweizerische Post · Logistics & automation, Postal services · Schweiz

Swiss Post's continuity management monitors the life cycles of hardware and software. The project secured the long-term operation of the BRH application (area computer for manual sorting). This required modernising the BRH system environment in all letter and distribution centres and having the supplier Rose Technology adapt the application to new hardware and software. Duration 9 months, project volume about CHF 400k.

Activities
  • Migrated all components in line with Swiss Post's roadmap (operating systems, server hardware)
  • Adaptation of the BR Hand application by the supplier
  • Provided a virtual test system with remote access for the supplier
  • Rollout in 11 centres

Tools: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2012, MS Word, MS Excel, MindManager

10/2012 – 08/2013
11 months
Project management
Employed

Project management MHS continuity planning

Project manager

Schweizerische Post · Logistics & automation, Postal services · Härkingen

Swiss Post's continuity management monitors the life cycles of hardware and software. The project secured the long-term operation of the business-critical MHS application (control of the tote conveyor system). This required modernising the MHS system environment in all letter sorting centres; the supplier Siemens had to make the necessary changes to the control system. The legacy systems had to be replaced without operational disruption. Replacing the physical servers with virtual machines in a VMware vSphere environment was intended to increase resilience while reducing operating costs. Total duration 35 months (02/2013–12/2015), project volume CHF 4.6 million.

Activities
  • Project management: project initiation and the pre-analysis phase, preparation of the concept phase
  • Obtained quotes from internal and external suppliers
  • Clarified public procurement requirements (tender, WTO)
  • Until the project was split (08/2013, followed by project management of MHS M0/M1/M2)
  • From 08/2013, continued as a consultant on the project

Tools: Windows Server, VMware ESXi, VMware vSphere, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Project, MindManager

02/2012 – 09/2012
8 months
Testing & QA
Freelance

DISTRINOVA – further development of Swiss Post logistics (testing)

Testing, test lead, test management

Siemens AG, Konstanz · Logistics & automation, Postal services · Konstanz

Far-reaching changes to the existing system to support delivery sequence sorting with standard letter sorting machines in the letter sorting centres. Quality assurance for the production planning and control system PPS, the process control system PLS and the interfaces to adjacent systems (production data acquisition, master data management).

Activities
  • Specified and ran system and integration tests for internal quality assurance as well as factory and acceptance tests
  • Test automation, further development of the test framework
  • Coordination within the test team (tasks, test systems)
  • On-site commissioning support: test support, problem analysis and documentation. Other: Scrum

Tools: HP Quality Center, PL/SQL Developer, Oracle DB, Borland Enterprise Server, SonicMQ, MS Excel & Word, Wiki

08/2010 – 04/2011 and 07/2011 – 02/2012
1 year 5 months
Testing & QA
Freelance

STIB-BZ, 3rd FSM – further development of Swiss Post logistics (testing)

Testing, test management, documentation

Siemens AG, Konstanz · Logistics & automation, Postal services · Konstanz

Further development to improve the integration of the control components PPS and PLS and to support a third flat sorting machine (FSM). Quality assurance and integration for PPS, PLS and the interfaces to adjacent systems (production data acquisition, master data management, special applications).

Activities
  • Specified and ran system and integration tests for internal quality assurance and factory tests for customer acceptance
  • Test automation, further development of the test framework
  • Test coverage analysis
  • On-site commissioning support: test support, problem analysis and documentation

Tools: HP Quality Center, PL/SQL Developer, Oracle DB, Borland Enterprise Server, SonicMQ, MS Excel & Word, Wiki

05/2011 – 09/2011
5 months
Development
Freelance

Android file browser and security app

Design, implementation, testing

Simple file browser with security features for Android smartphones to hide and securely delete files and folders.

Activities
  • Set up a Bazaar environment
  • Design, implementation
  • Outsourced the graphics
  • Testing on different Android releases

Tools: ADT, AVD, Bazaar (bzr), Eclipse, SQLite, Ubuntu Linux

01/2010 – 07/2010
7 months
Support
Freelance

ADAMS & Steelogistics – product owner and support for power plant construction logistics systems

Module owner/product owner, support, technical maintenance, documentation, training

ALSTOM, Stuttgart · Construction logistics for power plants · Stuttgart

ALSTOM Power Systems uses in-house software to support power plant construction. For the large construction sites of the Ledvice, Westfalen and GKM 9 power plants, Steelogistics manages construction drawings and parts for steel construction and simplifies data exchange with suppliers. ADAMS tracks parts from the manufacturer through transport and interim storage to assembly (barcode scanning with handhelds). Dedicated contacts were needed for communication with the project teams; users were trained and supported, and data frequently corrected.

Activities
  • Support: 1st and 2nd level support, introduction and design of processes, user training, database-level corrections, maintenance of the internal support documentation and the public product documentation (wikis). Product owner (Scrum) for Steelogistics: requirements management, prioritisation of user stories, approval of development releases

Tools: Lotus Notes, Oracle DB, MS Excel & Word, SAP. Sonstiges: Scrum

06/2008 – 12/2009
1 year 7 months
Support
Freelance

REMA – 3rd level support for Swiss Post, integration and commissioning (Eclépens and Härkingen letter sorting centres)

Support, analysis, management, documentation, training

Siemens AG, Konstanz · Logistics & automation, Postal services · Konstanz, Eclépens, Härkingen

Siemens AG provides extensive 24-hour support for the systems it supplied in the large-scale REMA project for 3 letter sorting centres and 6 sub-centres of Swiss Post. The IT Konstanz area covers the process control system PLS, yard logistics HFL, the production planning and control system PPS, production data acquisition BDE, master data management BDM, as well as special applications and interfaces to adjacent systems.

Activities
  • 3rd level support
  • Problem analysis, initiating and monitoring follow-up work
  • Weekly and monthly reporting (project lead and customer)
  • On-call planning and staff scheduling
  • Organised internal training
  • Technical deputy to the project lead
  • Maintained the internal support documentation (wiki)
  • Maintained the customer service hotline application in SAP
  • Trained Post Mail and Post IT staff on release changes and to build up knowledge for taking over 2nd level support. Commissioning support: test support, problem analysis and documentation, task allocation within integration support

Tools: Mercury Quality Center (Testdirector), Altova XML Spy, PL/SQL Developer, Oracle DB, Borland Enterprise Server, SonicMQ, MS Excel & Word, SAP

03/2008 – 06/2008 and 11/2008
5 months
Testing & QA
Freelance

WAND – release change (Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre)

Consulting, testing

Siemens AG, Konstanz · Logistics & automation, Postal services · Konstanz

System tests of a new release of the process control system for the Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre (HWDC), Royal Mail's international mail exchange.

Activities
  • Specified and ran system tests
  • Acceptance tests with the customer

Tools: Mercury Quality Center (Testdirector), PL/SQL Developer, Oracle DB

06/2008
1 month
Training
Freelance

Training course “J2EE Patterns” (SL-500, Sun Microsystems)

Trainer

BOS IT, Berlin / Sun Microsystems · Education & training · Berlin

Four-day Sun Microsystems training course “J2EE Patterns” (SL-500).

Activities
  • Delivered the course as trainer
  • Introduced software developers to GoF design patterns and architectural patterns
  • J2EE patterns with hands-on exercises
  • Overview of anti-patterns
01/2008 – 05/2008
5 months
Support
Freelance

REMA – 2nd level support, setting up 3rd level support, integration and commissioning (Eclépens letter sorting centre)

Consulting, analysis, testing, support, documentation, training

Siemens AG, Konstanz · Logistics & automation, Postal services · Konstanz, Zürich, Eclépens

Siemens AG provides 24-hour support for the systems of the large-scale REMA project; infrastructure and know-how were still partly being built up while further letter sorting centres went live. Assignments in Konstanz, Zurich and Eclépens (CH).

Activities
  • Support: 2nd level (on-site operational support, Zurich), 3rd level (emergency hotline, remote support), problem analysis, initiating and monitoring follow-up work. Support infrastructure: evaluated tools (support and system monitoring), introduced them, documentation and training, SAP call tracking module for hotline reports, wiki as support database. Test support and commissioning: wrote test scripts, prepared and ran on-site integration tests (Eclépens)

Tools: Mercury Quality Center (Testdirector), Altova XML Spy, PL/SQL Developer, Oracle DB, Borland Enterprise Server, SonicMQ, MS Excel & Word, MediaWiki, Wink, SAP

04/2008
1 month
Training
Freelance

Training course “Designing Java Web Services” (DWS-4112-EE5, Sun Microsystems)

Trainer

BOS IT, Hamburg / Sun Microsystems · Education & training · Hamburg

Two-day Sun Microsystems training course “Designing Java Web Services” (DWS-4112-EE5).

Activities
  • Content: web services within a service-oriented architecture (SOA)
  • Java technologies for developing web services
  • Design patterns and best practices, exception handling and security aspects

Tools: NetBeans 5

12/2007
1 month
Training
Freelance

Training course “J2EE Patterns” (SL-500, Sun Microsystems)

Trainer

PC IT, Nürnberg / Sun Microsystems · Education & training · Nürnberg

Four-day Sun Microsystems training course “J2EE Patterns” (SL-500).

Activities
  • Introduced software developers to GoF design patterns and architectural patterns
  • J2EE patterns with hands-on exercises
  • Overview of anti-patterns
12/2006 – 12/2007
1 year 1 month
Testing & QA
Freelance

REMA – integration and commissioning of the Zurich-Mülligen letter sorting centre

Expert for business logic and production control, system integration and testing, representative and contact for Post IT, quality assurance

Siemens AG, Konstanz · Logistics & automation, Postal services · Konstanz, Zürich-Mülligen

Siemens AG, Konstanz, integrated numerous individual systems from different manufacturers into the overall system of the world's most modern letter sorting centre and brought it into live operation. Separate contract from Swiss Post; the entire system has about 400 workstations: 13 km of conveyors, four material handling sorters, a fully automated high-bay warehouse, a manual warehouse for pallets and roll containers, a forklift guidance system, 15 sorting systems, a video coding system, special applications, a truck lock system, and IT systems for process control and monitoring, plant visualisation, production data acquisition and yard logistics.

Activities
  • Designed integration tests, advised and worked in several test teams, prepared and ran acceptance tests
  • Reviewed specifications and their implementation
  • Test evaluations and analyses
  • Solved problems with various trades and suppliers, coordinated different stakeholder groups
  • Quality assurance in a joint team with the customer, data mining in the production data acquisition system
  • Trained and led staff

Tools: Mercury Quality Center (Testdirector), Altova XML Spy, PL/SQL Developer, Oracle DB, Borland Enterprise Server, SonicMQ, MS Excel & Word, Siemens PerfectTracker, MSXSL

09/2006 – 12/2006
4 months
Development
Freelance

WLMP – redesign of data storage and interface

Architecture, software development

Siemens AG, Konstanz · Logistics & automation, Software industry · Konstanz

The interface between two components of the Workload Management Planning application (staff deployment planning) was redesigned to meet new requirements. At the same time, the related data storage in the Java-based component was reworked.

Activities
  • Redesigned the XML-based communication with a complete revision of the schema
  • Requirements analysis, modelling and implementation of the Java part

Tools: Ant, Eclipse, Borland Together Architect, Apache XML Beans, Altova XML Spy

10/2005 – 09/2006
1 year
Development
Freelance

Workload Management Monitoring and Forecasting

Team member (consulting and support)

Logistics & automation, Postal services · Konstanz

Contributed to a monitoring and forecasting system for processes in automated production sites (here: a letter sorting centre). Key topics: volume build-up and reduction, productivity.

01/2006 – 03/2006
3 months
Testing & QA
Freelance

MCA – Mail Center Applications

Quality assurance, requirements management

Siemens AG, Konstanz · Logistics & automation, Software industry · Konstanz

For the control and monitoring of letter sorting centres, Siemens AG brought together a collection of applications and components under the umbrella “Mail Center Applications”, to be marketed as individual products or as a product suite.

Activities
  • Assessed the existing test coverage of individual applications for project and product management to evaluate product maturity
  • Developed and implemented a concept for measuring test coverage in the existing environment
  • Catalogued existing test descriptions and mapped them to customer and system requirements

Tools: Rational Requisite Pro, MS Excel & Word

08/2003 – 10/2005
2 years 3 months
Testing & QA
Freelance

System integrator and domain expert – logistics and automation

System integrator, domain expert

German corporation · Logistics & automation · Konstanz, London

Assignment for a German corporation in Konstanz and London as system integrator and domain expert in logistics and automation. The work comprised designing and running system tests on a very large logistics system, and advising on and supporting on-site operation and integration of the installation. The core of the system was based on J2EE/EJB, with an Oracle database at the lowest level and a Borland application server on top. Data exchange with numerous legacy systems and hardware components as well as more than a hundred workstations and radio terminals.

Activities
  • Designed and ran system tests
  • Advice and support for on-site operation and integration, requiring a quick grasp of complex matters, communication skills and stamina

Tools: Oracle DB, Borland Application Server

08/2003
1 month
Development
Freelance

Web front end

Software development, consulting, architecture

Insurance company, Frankfurt · Insurance · Frankfurt

Built an HTML front end based entirely on a web service, using XML and XSLT, with multi-language support.

Activities
  • Built the web front end
  • Multi-language support

Tools: Browser, Borland JBuilder, XML Spy

02/2003 – 07/2003
6 months
Development
Freelance

Warehouse management system

Software development, consulting, architecture

e-velopment, Hamburg · Software industry, Logistics & automation · Hamburg

Implemented the transport control for a fully automated warehouse: architecture and implementation of message-based communication with the Siemens Dematic material flow computer (MFR) on the J2EE side, transport and business logic with Enterprise JavaBeans, technical documentation.

Activities
  • Architecture and implementation of message-based communication with the MFR (Siemens Dematic)
  • Business and transport logic with EJB
  • Technical documentation

Tools: WebSphere Studio Application Developer 5.0, WebSphere Application Server 5.0, DB2 UDB 8.1, MID Innovator 8.0 (Zielplattformen MS Windows NT Server und OS/400)

10/2002 – 11/2002
2 months
Development
Freelance

Property management system (WYSIWYG display and printing)

Software development, consulting, architecture

Immobilienverwaltungsgesellschaft · Property management

Implemented WYSIWYG screen display and printing. Evaluated XML/XSL for generating HTML and PDF compared with Crystal Reports; XML data export (contracts, property exposés); created style sheets.

Activities
  • WYSIWYG display and print output
  • XML/XSL evaluation
  • XML data export
  • Style sheets

Tools: Visual C++ 6.0, Access 97, Apache Xerces C++

10/2000 – 08/2002
1 year 11 months
Development
Freelance

Intranet application for capturing and maintaining job control data

Software development, consulting, architecture, project management, database design

BASF AG · BASF AG, IT-Dienstleister · Chemicals, IT services

Scheduling of jobs across different systems (programs on SAP, UNIX and NT systems, plus SAP reports), taking dependencies into account.

Activities
  • Took over the application, fixed bugs and developed it further, including refactoring the entire access rights area with database redesign and data migration
  • Introduced EJBs and Avalon components
  • Modernised locking and SAP access. Note: the online help used a reduced version of the DocBook XML standard

Tools: Visual Age for Java 3.5, TomCat 3.2, WebSphere 3.5, DB2, XML Spy, AccessBuilder für SAP R/3, Rational Rose, S-Designor, Visio 2000

02/2002
1 month
Development
Freelance

SAP R/3 integration via ActiveX component (adaptation)

Software development, architecture, documentation

BASF AG · BASF AG, IT-Dienstleister · Chemicals, IT services

Adapted to changed function modules; further developed the previously built wrapper.

Activities
  • Adapted to changed function modules
  • Further developed the wrapper

Tools: DCOM Component Connector, RFC SDK, Visual Basic 5.0, Access 97, Visual C++ 5.0

02/2001 – 04/2001
3 months
Development
Freelance

Documentation system for experiment series

Software development, consulting, testing

BASF AG · BASF AG, IT-Dienstleister · Chemicals, IT services

Documentation system for experiment series; documented test series; “living backup”.

Activities
  • Familiarisation and support

Tools: Visual Age for Java 3.5, TomCat 3.2, WebSphere 3.5, Oracle 8, XML Spy

10/2000 – 04/2001
7 months
Development
Freelance

Intranet application for business planning

Software development, project management

BASF AG · BASF AG, IT-Dienstleister · Chemicals, IT services

Capture of target and actual figures across the corporate hierarchy by sales unit and region; reports at every level (including charts); capture of business reports and outlooks.

Activities
  • Took over the application, fixed bugs and developed it further
  • Including adaptation to server changes and correction of calculation errors in the reporting area

Tools: Visual Age for Java 3.5, TomCat 3.2, WebSphere 3.5, Oracle 8, S-Designor, Rational Rose

10/2000 – 02/2001
5 months
Development
Freelance

SAP R/3 integration via ActiveX component (initial implementation)

Software development, architecture, documentation

BASF AG · Chemicals

Calling SAP function modules from MS Access: feasibility study, development of a wrapper to simplify the interface, prototype.

Activities
  • Feasibility study
  • Wrapper development
  • Prototype

Tools: DCOM Component Connector, RFC SDK, Visual Basic 5.0, Access 97, Visual C++ 5.0

06/2000 – 09/2000
4 months
Development
Freelance

Foundations and architecture for intranet/internet applications (single sign-on)

Software development, architecture

BASF AG · Chemicals

Developed a login servlet with single sign-on (authentication against RACF via JDBC); created standard XSL templates for application web pages. Note: the login servlet was used in at least five applications and was still in production.

Activities
  • Login servlet with SSO
  • Standard XSL templates

Tools: Visual Age for Java 3.5, TomCat 3.2, WebSphere 3.5, DB2

05/2000 – 08/2000
4 months
Development
Freelance

Intranet application for maintaining user data

Software development, consulting

BASF AG · Chemicals

Application allowing group leaders and coordinators to maintain the data of “their” users within set limits. Note: part of BeaSys.

Activities
  • Developed the maintenance application

Tools: Visual Age for Java 3.5, TomCat 3.x, WebSphere 3.5, DB2

04/2000 – 08/2000
5 months
Development
Freelance

Intranet application for business planning

Software development, project management, database design

BASF AG · Chemicals

Capture and maintenance of target and actual figures by region, country, product and product group; capture of competitor data. Note: repeatedly used as a sample application in documentation and for onboarding new staff.

Activities
  • Built the new application together with the end customer

Tools: Visual Age for Java 3.5, TomCat 3.x, WebSphere 3.5, Oracle 8, S-Designor

10/1999 – 05/2000
8 months
Development
Freelance

Reporting tool (complaint handling system)

Software development, consulting, database design, support

BASF AG · Chemicals

Comprehensive analysis of complaints.

Activities
  • Internationalisation and multi-language support
  • Port from 16-bit to 32-bit
  • Further development (including local and central storage of reports, multi-tier data storage concept)
  • Created the installer

Tools: Access 2.0, Access 97, DB2, Oracle, ISM Setup (inzw. Matrix24 Empirium Installer)

08/1999 – 12/1999
5 months
Development
Freelance

Complaint handling system (extension)

Software development, support

BASF AG · Chemicals

Extension of the complaint handling system.

Activities
  • Extended the installer
  • Further development, including switching email delivery to SMTP and address synchronisation with Lotus Notes
  • Provided an internal tool for the hotline, installation and user instruction

Tools: Access 97, Visual Basic 5.0, DB2, ISM Setup (inzw. Matrix24 Empirium Installer)

08/1999 – 09/1999
2 months
Development
Freelance

User administration (complaint handling system)

Software development, support

BASF AG · Chemicals

Developed a user administration module for maintaining users.

Activities
  • Developed the user administration
  • Installation and user instruction

Tools: Visual Basic 5.0, DB2

08/1999 – 09/1999
2 months
Development
Freelance

Master data maintenance tool (complaint handling system)

Software development

BASF AG · Chemicals

Master data maintenance tool for the complaint handling system.

Activities
  • Port from 16-bit to 32-bit, further development

Tools: Access 2.0, Access 97, DB2

02/1999 – 07/1999
6 months
Development
Freelance

Reporting tool (complaint handling system)

Software development, database design, support

BASF AG · Chemicals

Comprehensive analysis of complaints.

Activities
  • Took over the tool, fixed bugs and developed it further

Tools: Access 2.0, DB2, Oracle

10/1998 – 01/1999
4 months
Development
Freelance

Complaint handling system

Software development

BASF AG · Chemicals

Capture of customer complaints and coordination of the handling workflow through to resolution.

Activities
  • Took over the system and developed it further
  • Ported the front end from 16-bit to 32-bit
  • Created the installer

Tools: Access 2.0, Access 97, DB2, ISM Setup (inzw. Matrix24 Empirium Installer)

03/1998 – 09/1998
7 months
Development
Freelance

Property management system (currency and contracts)

Software development

Immobilienverwaltungsgesellschaft · Property management

Currency and exchange rate management (euro introduction); contract creation and management.

Activities
  • Implemented currency and contract management

Tools: Visual C++ 5.0, Access 97

10/1997 – 04/1998
7 months
Administration
Freelance

IT system administration (mechanical engineering)

Administration

Maschinenbau-Unternehmen · Mechanical engineering

Management and maintenance of hardware and software; set-up of the Windows network; administration of the Novell server.

Activities
  • Administration of hardware, software, network and Novell server

Tools: Novell Netware 3.12, Windows 95

02/1998 – 03/1998
2 months
Development
Freelance

Data migration tool for database design changes

Software development

Trenz & Owerfeldt Software GmbH · Software industry, Hospitality

Developed an application that detects differences between the designs of two databases, writes them to a script file and transfers data according to the instructions in that script.

Activities
  • Developed the data migration tool

Tools: Visual C++ 1.x, Access 2.0, Gastrofix (Produkt-Suite)

12/1997 – 01/1998
2 months
Development
Freelance

Back-office system for the hospitality sector

Software development, consulting, database design, reporting, testing

Trenz & Owerfeldt Software GmbH · Software industry, Hospitality

Back-office and inventory management system: report creation; extension of the reporting tool to resolve performance problems; support with the database design; testing.

Activities
  • Created new analyses and reports
  • Reworked existing reports for internationalisation (multi-language support)
  • Documented tests
  • Performance improvements

Tools: Crystal Reports 5.0, Visual C++ 1.x, Access 2.0, Gastrofix (Produkt-Suite)

11/1997
1 month
Development
Freelance

Touchscreen order ticket management for commercial kitchens

Software development

Trenz & Owerfeldt Software GmbH · Software industry, Hospitality

Display, organisation and delegation of order tickets: an incoming order ticket can be stacked or sent to a ticket printer; older tickets move to the foreground and “turn yellow” on screen.

Activities
  • Developed a touchscreen application

Tools: Visual C++ 5.0, Gastrofix (Produkt-Suite)

04/1997 – 10/1997
7 months
Development
Freelance

Property management system (address and permission management)

Software development, consulting, architecture

Immobilienverwaltungsgesellschaft · Property management

Address management; user and permission management.

Activities
  • Implemented address and permission management

Tools: Visual C++ 5.0, Access 95, Access 97

10/1996 – 07/1997
10 months
Administration
Freelance

IT system administration

Administration, training, software development and maintenance

Unternehmen für Maschinenbau & -handel · Mechanical engineering

Improved the performance and availability of the overall system and the order management: migrated the network from ArcNet to Ethernet, upgraded the file server and several workstations, added suitable database indexes. Restructured the Novell network (directory structures, access rights); introduced print servers, automatic backups and virus protection.

Activities
  • Network and system optimisation
  • Fixes and extensions to the order management (reports)
  • Daily liquidity calculation (Excel)
  • User training (Windows, MS Office, especially Excel and Word)
  • Word templates
  • Installation and maintenance of all company software (including DATEV)

Tools: Novell Netware 3.12, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, WfW

05/1995 – 07/1997
2 years 3 months
Development
Employed

Productivity controlling system (V1.2 and V3.0)

Software development, database design, reporting, documentation and trade fair representation

Dr. Tackenberg GmbH · Management consulting

Developed various components of the system: automatic capture and documentation of master data changes with reports, a client manager and the installer. Integration of production data acquisition terminals: design and implementation of the data import interface, drivers for Kaba Benzing and ODA terminals, terminal configuration.

Activities
  • Developed various system components
  • Integration of production data acquisition terminals
  • Trade fair representation

Tools: Borland C++ 4.5, Visual C++ 4.0, Crystal Reports 5.0, Access 2.0, Access 95, MS Setup, Parametrierungssoftware für BDE-Terminals, S-Designor

10/1996 – 05/1997
8 months
Development
Freelance

Order management

Software development, project management, database design

Unternehmen für Maschinenbau & -handel · Mechanical engineering

Hierarchical capture of individual parts with mark-up costing according to REFA; automated creation of delivery notes, invoices and purchase orders.

Activities
  • Built an order management system in C++ covering order entry, costing, delivery, invoicing and purchasing

Tools: Visual C++ 4.0, Crystal Reports 5.0, Access 95

Focus areas

Skills

Leadership & organisation

Leading international IT teams (DE/ES/NL)Hiring & budget planningStakeholder management (finance, actuarial, compliance, Group IT)Vendor & contract management

Project & programme management

PRINCE2 FoundationAgile / ScrumJiraConfluence

Data integration & data quality

SQL / PL/SQLData LakePower BI

Architecture, cloud & DevOps

Cloud migration & legacy modernisationAzure DevOpsOctopus DeployTest automationTest and quality management

IT governance & regulation

DORABaFin regulatory reporting (BerVersV)COBIT

AI-assisted software development

Claude CodeBuilding MCP serversPythonDjango
Foundations

Education & training

  1. 06/2025Leadership Development ProgramTraining · MarkelMentoring, LUXXprofile personality profile with coaching; leadership training
  2. 11/2025DevOps trainingTrainingDevOps practices, CI/CD, test automation; together with part of the team
  3. 12/2025COBITTrainingIT governance framework; aimed at SOX compliance (self-study path from COSO to COBIT)
  4. 2015Continuing education course in project managementCertification · FernUniversität in Hagen
  5. 2014Project communication, goal and results orientationTraining · Project management
  6. 2013HERMES Swiss Project Team Professional (HSPTP)Certification · Project management
  7. 2010TollgateTraining · Project management
  8. 2005PRINCE2 FoundationCertification · Project management
  9. 2001Enterprise JavaBeansTrainingFundamentals, development with VisualAge, deployment to WebSphere
  10. 2000Internet/intranet application developmentTrainingOOA & OOD with UML, OOP with Java (Beans, Servlets & EJBs), architecture, design patterns, HTML, XML/XSL
  11. 1993Computer science studiesStudies · Minor in computational linguistics
  12. 1991Abitur (German university entrance qualification)School
  13. 1988IT internshipInternship · ORBIS GmbH (jetzt ORBIS AG)Fundamentals of SINIX/UNIX, Informix
Also

Study and personal projects

  • OfficeMCP · Personal project

    MCP (Model Context Protocol) server platform that connects mailboxes and cloud storage to any LLM-based assistant.

    Details
    • Email via IMAP/SMTP: multiple accounts with permissions, search, read, reply, forward, drafts, folder and flag management
    • Cloud storage via WebDAV/NextCloud/ownCloud: list, search, read, save, share links; time-limited upload links for file hand-offs
    • Built mainly with Claude Code as coding agent; manual code reviews in VS Code
    MCP (Model Context Protocol)IMAPSMTPWebDAVAI-assisted software development
  • Festival Management Suite (Presentango) · Personal project · Presentango (association)

    Self-developed web application for planning and running a dance festival, with many features for organisers and attendees; volunteer work for the Presentango association.

    Details
    • Built mainly with Claude Code as coding agent; manual code reviews in VS Code
    PythonDjangoAI-assisted software development
  • Knights board game · Studies

    University project in the seminar “Programming in Practice”: a board game implemented as a group project; responsible for the module coordinating the game flow and for implementing the rules.

    C++
  • Secure telephony · Personal project

    Tap-proof, computer-based telephony: class library for the serial interface, transmission protocols and modem control; programming of Sound Blaster cards; DES encryption using the functions of a dongle.

    C++DES
  • “Hotz Language” interpreter · Studies

    Interpreter for the p-machine instructions from the lecture: parsing and executing a program file; simulation of CPU registers, functions and operators; basic debugging aids.

    C++
Languages
German (Native) · Spanish (C2, near-native) · English (C1, business fluent) · French (B1, quick to improve in a French-speaking environment)
Work locations
Across Europe · preferably Spain, Germany, Switzerland · Remote work preferred
Home
Jávea, Spain
Last updated
2 Oct 2026