2017 - 2019: VP Platform Engineering, OLX GroupCustomer: OLX GROUP/NASPERS, Berlin (Germany)
Role: Head of Berlin Site
Tasks:Led the global platform organization whose services were consumed by OLX Classifieds all over the world: 40+ countries , 350 million users served via 60+ apps of 17 brands. Scaled platform engineering organization from 60 to 160 OLXers. My responsibilities services included:
- Leveraging ML/AI (image based models, recommendation, fraud, intelligent search) together with the DS team
- Global media/image/voice hosting and processing
- Global Payment Services (Gateways, Integrations)
- Location and map services
- Infrastructure Platform services and tooling, management of the SRE staff
- Trust & safety services (including AI based content and user moderation & fraud detection)
- User engagement, relevance and communication services
- Data Tech (big-data, GDPR, Global BI, product experimentation, data lakes, pipelines and feature stores)
- Introduced OKR framework to the OLX Group including engineering & product, HR and Finance.
2016 - 2017: VP Technology / CTO eJobs & RecruitingCustomer: XING SE, Hamburg (Germany) & Barcelona, Madrid (Spain)
Role: Country Manager Spain
Tasks:Xing is a professional network similar to LinkedIn, active in the German speaking (DACH) countries. During my tenure, it was the market leader in Germany. The company had 3 main pillars: Network, Jobs and News. I was:
- The CTO for the jobs and e- recruitment business both on B2C and B2B. B2B contributed 40%+ of XING's revenue with 10% of the total XING engineering workforce.
- Teams with about 80 employees in Hamburg, Barcelona, Madrid, Timisoara and partially in Zurich. Authority to lead XING Spain (MD).
- Responsible for running and transforming the technology of some entities that joined via M&As
- Supervising The Learning and Onboarding Process and overseeing several tech communities at XING
2014 - 2016: Management of engineering activitiesCustomer: Ideas Engineering GmbH Berlin, Germany
Head of Development and Operations, Site Manager, Wroc?aw (Poland)
Tasks:Lead engineering efforts in the agile lighthouse company of Axel Springer. The organization size varied between 60 and 100 in Berlin and Wroclaw. Operated as a platform builder and a launchpad for several AS companies and apps, such as the Upday news aggregator with 25+ million users in 34 countries.
2012 - 2014: Transformation ? Organizing into an agile, self-responsible unitCustomer: Zanox AG, Berlin (Germany)
Role: Senior Director of Technology and Operations
Tasks:Joined Zanox as a change agent to improve engineering excellence and solve organizational problems and oversaw all engineering and operations teams of Zanox HQ, consisting of 8 teams with 70+ heads. Transformed the organization into an agile and autonomous one, established the first cross functional devops team improving the lead times from weeks to days and hours.
2007 - 2012: Field Engineering and EMEA Technology ManagementCustomer: Microsoft Munich, Germany
Role: Head of Premier Field Engineering / EMEA Technology Manager
Tasks:Supervised a team of 27-30 engineers that provided consulting and services in various areas like Software development, SDLC, Security, Active Directory and ERP. As a regional technology manager, lead a community of 60+ professionals in the EMEA region; provided learning and development programs for technical and soft skill training for employees globally and customers in EMEA. Organized international Microsoft learning and upskilling events for the internal engineers and consultants,, contributed to several IP efforts and the field engineering capability worldwide.
2007 - 2010: Database Management & Operations ? CIAO Commercial Search & Bing!Role: Technical Lead
Tasks:Built and scaled a team for database backend and Site Reliability which was responsible for 6 markets in Europe and for the USA. We belonged to Microsoft Bing! commercial search services
2003 - 2007: Agile transformation and the development of a modern architectureCustomer: Vodafone Düsseldorf, Germany
Role: Technical Project Manager and Backend Architect
Tasks:Contributed to the Agile transformation and modern architecture build of the Vodafone Germany fixed network software. Led technical projects for performance and tuning projects. Provided interdepartmental guidance, best practices trainings for database administration, tuning and quality assurance.
1998 - 2003: Consulting on databases and data systems for government projectsCustomer: Various Banks And Companies
Role: Technology and Systems Consultant, Developer
Tasks:Worked as a database and data systems consultants for governmental projects and investment banks. Trained over 100 software developers and administrators on Sybase products (now SAP Hana), overall database design and implementation of client server architectures, especially the transactional systems.