Professional Positions
09/2022 – present
Team Lead Requirements Engineering
Gothaer Solutions GmbH in Cologne, Germany
Establishment and disciplinary as well as professional leadership of a new team for the development of requirements engineering excellence. My team and I are responsible for the governance of the requirements management process. In this context, we have developed and anchored a requirements management policy within the organization, based on the regulatory requirements for IT in the insurance sector (BaFin/VAIT). Furthermore, we have created and implemented a comprehensive competence development concept for requirements engineers. We also offer project services, thus creating a continuous feedback loop between operational project work, governance, and competence development.
05/2020 – 08/2022
Senior Enterprise IT Architect
Gothaer Systems GmbH in Cologne, Germany
Enterprise and Solution Architect in a large program for the introduction and integration of a new policy administration system. Establishment of architecture management for a team of IT, business, and product architects. In my operational role as the leading IT architect, I created architecture roadmaps and drove various architecture decisions in the interdisciplinary architecture and development team, as well as accompanied the implementations.
Within the central Enterprise Architecture team, I significantly contributed to the conception of a blueprint for the modernization of the company-wide integration architecture. A core concept was Event-Driven Architecture with Kafka as the key technology and Domain-Driven Design as the method for deriving software design. In this context, I guided the communication for implementation with solution architects and developers and, as the leading IT architect, designed solution architectures in projects that aligned with the objectives and accompanied the development.
Additionally, I led a company-wide Community of Practice for IT architecture.
12/2017 – 05/2020
Lead IT Architect and Lead Requirements Engineer
Deutsche Post DHL in Bonn, Germany
Establishment and scaling of a software development approach following SCRUM. Defining the constraints for the application architecture and architecture decisions in close coordination with software architects. Regular requirements analysis, backlog management, and intensive xchange and mediation between product owners, domain experts, and DevOps teams.
Creation of tenders for specialized components, conception of integrations, and management of development. Consultation as an Agile Coach for IT project managers and product managers at the corporate level within the context of efforts towards Agile Transformation.
Setting up an IT project on site in Japan as part of a joint venture between Deutsche Post DHL and Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. Consultancy services included: Definition of business and IT architecture, specification of technical requirements, setting of framework parameters for the IT project, consultancy on requirements management and development processes, recruiting of a locally-based IT project manager in Japan.
07/2012 – 12/2017
IT Architect und Requirements Engineer
Deutsche Post DHL in Bonn, Germany
Creation of architecture blueprints for the development of new IT systems and their embedding in the application landscape.
IT architecture and requirements analysis in various IT projects within the „Innovation“ business area, aiming to implement and evaluate new business models in IT as quickly as possible.
Examination of the IT organization, IT architecture, and requirements management and development processes of target companies within the context of national and international M&A projects.
Development of a situation-appropriate IT governance concept in a direct reporting line to the SVP.
08/2010 – 07/2012
Business Architect
Deutsche Post DHL in Bonn, Germany
Further development of the Enterprise Architecture Management method.
Development and prescription of methods and tool usage for software engineering in a significant strategic transformation program in the parcel business area.
04/2010 – 08/2010
Intern Business Architecture
Deutsche Post DHL in Bonn, Germany
Development of process modeling conventions and a concept for the extension of an existing Enterprise Architecture Framework.
09/2003 – 08/2007
Entrepreneur
Own Company: Mensch+Technik GbR in Cologne
Leading the own company together with my father. Software development, web design, and seminar instruction for C/C++, Java, PHP, MySQL, Macromedia Flash, HTML, Visual Basic, VBA for Excel.
Education and Studies
| 2018 – 2022 | PhD (Dr. phil.) University of Münster |
| 2012 – 2015 | Business Informatics (M. Sc.) FernUniversität in Hagen |
| 2011 – 2013 | Master of Business Administration (MBA) Royal Docks Business School, London Grade: With distinction |
| 2007 – 2010 | Business Informatics (B. Sc.) University of Applied Sciences Cologne Extra-curricular 6-month internship in Business Architecture department at Deutsche Post DHL within the regular study period |
| 2006 – 2007 | Insurance Specialist (BWV) Provinzial AG With the aim of deepening expertise within the context of independent work for the development of an IT financial advisory system |
| 2004 – 2006 | University of Applied Sciences Entrance Qualification Abendgymnasium Köln |
Further Education (a selection only)
2024 ISTQB® Certified Tester
2024 Certified SAFe® 5 Architect
2023 IREB® Certified Professional Requirements Engineering
2022 SAFe® for Architects
2022 Basics of Java Spring Boot
2021 Story Telling for Architects
2021 Apache Kafka – Event Streaming with Java
2021 ISAQB® Training Reduced maintenance costs through evolutionary improvement
2020 ISAQB® Training Domain Driven Design
2018 Agile Software Projekt Management
2017 ISAQB® Certified Professional for Software Architecture Foundation
2014 Certification PRINCE2® Foundation
2011 Service Oriented Architectures
2005 Sun® Certified Java Programmer