I’m an experienced software developer, architect and engineering manager from Berlin, currently working for img.ly.
I studied Computer Science at Dortmund Technical University. In my diploma thesis in 2009 I developed the concept for a client/server web development framework based on JavaScript, outlining a potential future that has since become widespread reality with the advent of Node.js and recent technologies like Rails Turbo and React Server components.
I took my first steps into software development with PHP3 and Java around 1998. Since 2004 I did mostly serverside development in Ruby on Rails, have slowly shifted my attention more and more towards the front-end and singe-page applications.
In recent years I have concentrated on enabling others and using my experience to lead and supervise cross-functional projects and teams. At the same time I have become more involved in broader business and management topics.
Software development does not happen in a vaccuum. I believe strong tech leadership is only possible with both a credible background in engineering as well as empathy for and understanding of other aspects of businesses.
Work Experience
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Staff Engineer at img.ly 08/2021 - today
The Creative Engine is a Photo and Video Design engine written in C++ and deployed to Webassembly, Kotlin/Android and Swift/iOS.
As a senior member of the UI and platform teams I am responsible for our React UI architecture, connecting a synchronous UI event loop to the asynchronous entity-component system of the Creative Engine.
I advise on the developer experience of our public API, combining the requirements of three different platforms against the capabilities of a C++ based architecture and ensuring conceptual consistency.
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Engineering Manager at Klarna 10/2020 - 07/2021
Competence lead for a six person team within the Consumer Banking domain, responsible for the integration of the Klarna Bank Account into the wider Klarna ecosystem.
Development of an engineering process framework for ensuring compliance with the PSD2 Major Incident Reporting requirements across all teams within the domain for the launch of the Klarna Bank Account.
Technical oversight for the development and maintenance of the PSD2 Open Banking API. Extensive cross-domain product exploration for integrating the Klarna Bank account into Klarna Payments.
Mentoring, coaching, and promoting our engineers towards two promotions within 10 months.
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Tech Lead at Small Improvements 12/2017 - 09/2020
Leadership and mentoring of one of our dev teams. Coordinating development and business projects across teams throughout the organization. Thanks to my previous experience, I was able to painlessly introduce Typescript into a codebase of considerable size and age. Supervision of all work in the Meetings feature. Introduction and maintenance of an automated billing system. Connected all our billing and payment systems into our data warehouse and was able to assist our accounting department uncover thousands of dollars of unrealized revenue.
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Front-end lead at Talon.One 01/2016 - 11/2017
Development of a React and Typescript based frontend to our promotion engine, including a visual expression tree editor. Architecture of the front-end application, development of a system for generating consistently and strongly typed API definitions that drove back-end, front-end and documentation.
I helped develop a strictly typed domain-specific programming language that would allow customers to assemble complex rules in a simple and approachable way. Implemented in Go, the typechecker and compiler were deployed in the the back-end app as well as cross-compiled to Javascript to drive the rule builder in the front-end.
Maintenance of our Kubernetes cluster and PostgreSQL databases.
Training and mentoring junior developers in software development basics and front-end Javascript/Typescript with React in particular.
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Open Source Evangelist at HitFox Group GmbH (now IONIQ) 05/2015 - 12/2015
As part of the TechDev department of HitFox, I was responsible for coaching of teams, development of processes and internal consulting in frontend technologies. For juniors and trainees going through our HitFox Academy, I developed and mentored the front-end course.
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Front-end lead engineer at Contentful 11/2012 - 04/2015
Development of a cloud based content delivery infrastructure.
Lead engineer for the AngularJS based front-end. At the time, single-page apps and frameworks were just taking off, and the decision to go with AngularJS allowed us to develop a user interface of considerable complexity with ease. Code was shared between front-end and back-end, and all editor screens of the content admin interface were capable of live collaboration with multiple users, by integrating the ShareJS platform with our back-end and AngularJS.
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Development and project management for 9elements GmbH 12/2007 - 10/2012
Development and supervision of several projects in Ruby on Rails, HTML5/JavaScript and Flex.
Working as a hired freelancer during my studies, employed since 10/2009.
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An interactive HTML5-based presentation tool for telling stories about global economic dynamics. Developed in BackboneJS, Coffeescript with a Rails backend for Bertelsmann Stiftung.
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Google Map Toolkit
Interactive Widget for Deutsche Telekom to display availability of data networks and points of interest in Germany. Highly customizable, developed in CoffeeScript on the front-end and Ruby on Rails with a PostgreSQL database for spatial data management in the backend.
Drop-in compatibility with 3rd-party websites was a requirement.
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BP Sales Presenter
For the european sales teams within BP I led the development of a presentation tool, developed in Adobe Flex 4.5. The tool used a sophisticated client-server architecture with offline-capable and bandwidth-efficient data syncronization, complex permission system and a localization in 8 languages.
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General Freelance work 2004 - 2009
Several projects for customers not explicitly listed here.
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Student assistant at ISF, Dortmund University 03/2007 - 12/2007
Development of FEM software in C++/OpenGL