Fractional CTO | Advisor

Successfully restructured ProSiebenSat.1 Digital and merged with Seven.One Entertainment Group (EUR 3bn annual revenue, MDAX company) to enable Digital Consumer Products strategy for 6k+ employees across DACH (with circa 400 FTEs in Product & Engineering organisation). Acquired JOYN streaming platform (4M unique users) from Warner Bros. Discovery for rapid growth and faced new challenges: a) becoming a key enabler in a German Concern with a vast number of stakeholders, b) FTEs increase from 240 to 400+ and staying efficient, c) connecting offline business (TV) with the online world (digital) while keeping a Customer-First focus.

Responsibilities & Achievements:

• With a capped annual budget of EUR -100M (with planned further -20% optimisation), successfully pivoted to a platform organisation, facilitating the development of consumer products across B2B/B2C and D2C business models and markets in DACH. Decreased Time-to-market and enabled product testing within 3 months (previous 1.5-year cycles), avoiding significant upfront investment.
• Clear goals, strategy, and transparent KPIs allowed the seamless integration of 160+ people from the JOYN organisation without losing efficiency.
• Focus on reusability and modular components enabled quick reaction to the market, increased experimentation, and generated new mid-digit multimillion revenue through Live Interactive shows that connected TV and Digital audiences (EUR 2.5M project budget and 7 months of development).
• Within 6 months, built from scratch and went live with a new Publishing business for Digital News and Sports (one of the significant growth bets for upcoming years) that enables 250+ editors, with a strong focus on multi-tenancy (various countries and different businesses/assets).
• Product on the new tech stack generated +66% YoY unique monthly active users with +60% YoY time spent per day (>2h).

Transformed an automotive e-commerce company into a successful transaction platform for buying used cars online with doorstep delivery and return policy, including additional services like insurance and financing. The key challenge was building automation and integrating a digital supply chain to enable up to 1,000 monthly car purchases and deliveries across Germany.

Responsibilities & Achievements:

• Established 30 FTEs Product & Engineering teams across Germany, Poland, and Ukraine. Utilised modern technologies such as serverless and cloud that enabled the company to increase monthly car sales from 30 to over 400 units (EUR 6M monthly turnover).
• Successfully executed investor playbook during the COVID-19 crisis by scaling the Product and Engineering team back to 8 FTEs to keep the company running until the crisis passed, allowing for continued operation under new management.

Joined AutoScout24 after it was acquired from Deutsche Telekom, embarked on a journey from Data Centre to Cloud, from monolith to microservices, and changed the main technological stack from C# to Scala. As a Scala Lead Engineer, supported company transformation and broke silos between functions, leading to a new role as Head of a newly established OEM division. Key challenges included a) proving the business case for working with OEMs and b) supporting the company's transformation to a new technology stack and way of working.

Responsibilities & Achievements:

• Established a department of 30 FTEs across 3 product engineering teams, unlocking a new 23M revenue business. Took technical responsibility for the Ad business of AutoScout24 and ImmobilienScout24, implementing hybrid operational models for product and project development.
• Hired and developed top talent and mentored individuals to ensure the right capabilities. Secured nearshore and service providers, consultants, and freelancers to meet business requirements.
• Scout24 underwent a successful IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 2015 and is now part of the MDAX of the German Stock Exchange. In 2019, AutoScout24 was sold for EUR 2.9 billion as a valuable digital asset and an essential player in the European market.

Led an international team of 12 members in Travian, a global strategic game available in 56 countries. Introduced Agile methodologies and a "Lean" approach to streamline development, resulting in increased efficiency.

Nuclear industry