Jun 2022 – Nov 2024 · 2 yrs 5 mos · Berlin, Berlin, Germany · Remote

• Acted as the CTO’s right hand with responsibility for the technical health, security, and long-term evolution of a Ruby on Rails platform in a regulated domain.
• Worked across teams to define architectural standards, led critical initiatives around authentication, authorization, and compliance, and combined strategic system stewardship with hands-on work in sensitive areas of the codebase.
• The platform supported a rapidly growing customer base with strict data protection requirements. My focus was scaling the system safely: reducing architectural risk, hardening critical paths, and ensuring that growth in traffic, data volume, and organizational complexity did not outpace system stability.

Feb 2021 – May 2022 · 1 yr 3 mos · Ottawa, Ontario, Canada · Remote

• Backend lead in a cross-functional team that built and launched Linkpop.com, reaching more than 10 million visitors in its first month.
• In addition to product development, I contributed to operational readiness through incident detection and triage rotations and supported org-wide initiatives such as mentoring and hiring.

Nov 2019 – Jan 2021 · 1 yr 2 mos · Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany · Remote

• Built, operated, and evolved core Ruby on Rails applications with strong end-to-end ownership.
• Designed and implemented an internal event/message bus with authorization and validation, supported external partners building integrations, and helped grow the engineering team during an early scaling phase.

Jun 2018 – Oct 2019 · 1 yr 4 mos · Wildpoldsried, Bavaria, Germany · Remote

• Tech Lead for backend systems in a rapidly scaling energy and IoT environment.
• Led API development handling large volumes of near-real-time data and acted as Technical Product Owner for backend APIs consumed by mobile apps, web clients, and enterprise integrations. Strong focus on scalability, reliability, and clear interface contracts.

Oct 2016 – May 2018 · 1 yr 7 mos · Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany · Remote

• Built and led the development team for a marketplace platform handling large financing volumes.
• Designed a REST API with consistent authorization, error handling, and testing patterns; delivered white-label products; and guided architectural evolution toward a more modular Rails/React setup with cloud integrations.

Nov 2015 – Sep 2016 · 10 mos · Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany · Remote

• Owned technical direction and delivery in a distributed startup team.
• Refactored a prototype into a production-grade Ruby on Rails system, introduced agile practices, and migrated infrastructure to the cloud. Combined engineering leadership with hands-on system building.

Dec 2013 – Jul 2015 · 1 yr 7 mos · Melbourne, Victoria, Australia · On-site

• Worked on one of the world’s largest Ruby on Rails e-commerce platforms.
• As Technical Lead, redesigned revenue-critical transaction flows, participated in on-call operations, and contributed to security hardening and incident response under real-world load and attack scenarios.
• The platform processed millions of financial transactions per month and operated under constant high traffic, providing deep experience with performance bottlenecks and failure modes in large-scale Rails systems.

Apr 2011 – Nov 2013 · 2 yrs 7 mos · Berlin, Berlin, Germany · On-site

• Babbel’s first Lead Software Developer during rapid growth.
• Responsible for backend architecture, API design for mobile clients, and the evolution of a large Rails monolith. Introduced code reviews and testing practices while scaling the platform to tens of millions of users.

Jun 2007 – Mar 2011 · 3 yrs 9 mos · Berlin, Germany · On-site

• Early career across multiple startups and ventures with strong ownership responsibility. Built and operated Ruby on Rails applications end-to-end, designed APIs and integrations, and carried business responsibility as a founder and managing partner.