Alexander Willer - Freelance Head of Development / Strategy Consultant

Q: Where is Alexander based?

Alexander is based in Hamburg, Germany .

Q: What languages does Alexander speak?

Alexander speaks the following languages: German (Native), English (Advanced) .

Q: How many years of experience does Alexander have?

Alexander has at least 16 years of experience. During this time, Alexander has worked in at least 10 different roles and for 8 different companies . The average length of individual experience is 2 years and 7 months . Note that Alexander may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

Q: What is Alexander's latest experience?

Alexander's most recent position is Freelance Head of Development / Strategy Consultant at LabMaker GmbH .

Q: What companies has Alexander worked for in recent years?

In recent years, Alexander has worked for LabMaker GmbH , BitSelect Systems GmbH (own company) , and SSW-Trading GmbH .

Q: Which industries is Alexander most experienced in?

Alexander is most experienced in industries like Manufacturing , Professional Services , and Government and Public Administration . Alexander also has some experience in Banking and Finance and Information Technology (IT) .

Q: Which business areas is Alexander most experienced in?

Alexander is most experienced in business areas like Product Development , Production/Manufacturing , and Project Management . Alexander also has some experience in Quality Assurance (QA) , Procurement and Purchasing , and Information Technology (IT) .

Q: Which industries has Alexander worked in recently?

Alexander has recently worked in industries like Manufacturing , Professional Services , and Banking and Finance .

Q: Which business areas has Alexander worked in recently?

Alexander has recently worked in business areas like Product Development , Procurement and Purchasing , and Production/Manufacturing .

Recommended expert

Hamburg, Germany

Experience

Nov 2022 - Apr 2023

6 months

Berlin, Germany

Freelance Head of Development / Strategy Consultant

LabMaker GmbH

Consulting on a variety of open science hardware projects in electronics, mechatronics and optoelectronics
Comprehensive system analysis and DFM optimization of an innovative open hardware miniaturized two-photon microscope
Collaboration with scientists from renowned academic institutions to align the client's work optimally
Manufacturing coordination with local and international partners for PCB assembly, CNC machining and optics
Process analysis for product design, production planning/execution, product lifecycle and product data management
Coaching staff from all departments on requirements that complex technical products place on business processes
Development of a comprehensive PLM & PDM concept tailored to the needs of development and manufacturing
Encouraging intensive and direct cross-departmental exchange to identify improvement potentials
Planning shop floor layout improvements with the production team and supporting the implementation process
Efficient onboarding of two new English-speaking colleagues in technical product management and development
Ad-hoc and in-depth training of staff in using software tools like KiCad or Autodesk Inventor
Advising on long-term development into a scalable, stronger partner in the open science hardware community

Mar 2022 - Present

4 years

Hamburg, Germany

Automation & Mechanical Engineering Developer / Managing Director

BitSelect Systems GmbH (own company)

Establishing the structural foundations for PCB manufacturing, specifically in component management
Designing and building a pick-and-place machine based on a SCARA industrial robot
Assembling, testing and commissioning the pick-and-place machine, planning and making necessary adjustments
Software integration of the machine with OpenPnP, customizing and extending the Java-based software
Evaluating additive manufacturing methods (FDM, HP MJF, SLA, SLS) for producing complex mechanical parts
Development, manufacturing and testing of electronic assemblies
Planning and execution of extensive procurement (around 40 individual orders)

Oct 2021 - Mar 2022

6 months

Hamburg, Germany

Freelance IT-Administrator

SSW-Trading GmbH

Rollout, operation and debugging of infrastructure and services on AWS using Terraform and Kubernetes/EKS
Technical support for test trading in new markets in collaboration with the development team
Quick diagnosis and resolution of trading disruptions, sometimes as part of on-call duty
Further development of various processes around Microsoft 365 (especially Exchange, AAD)
Analyzing existing system configurations and mapping them into Ansible playbooks
Creating and revising documentation for processes and infrastructure
Designing and implementing an onboarding guide to convey the technical aspects of the trading systems
Working in an agile team integrated into existing processes for work package management

Apr 2021 - Oct 2021

7 months

Hamburg, Germany

Electronics Developer / Managing Director

BitSelect Systems GmbH (own company)

Identifying demanded key features for a new retro-gaming electronics product in the consumer segment
Feasibility study and preliminary planning for implementing key features and design aspects
Schematic and PCB development of a tightly integrated multi-board system
Supply chain analysis of required components considering the cost sensitivity of a consumer product
MCAD co-design to achieve a highly compact form factor without compromising other product features
BOM management, component sourcing and design adjustments to address the challenging component market situation
Finalizing the design, generating production data and manufacturing initial prototypes

Feb 2020 - Dec 2020

11 months

Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany

Freelance IT Solution Architect

Landesvermessung und Geobasisinformation Brandenburg (LGB)

Designing, implementing and documenting a high-availability database solution for a statewide geo-portal
Reviewing and improving a configuration management system
Long-term stand-in for the lead Linux administrator as well as diagnosing and fixing issues
Coordinating upgrades and modifications in heterogeneous staging environments
Supporting departments by evaluating and implementing technical requests
Developing and presenting a strategic outlook for introducing a container-based microservice architecture

Feb 2014 - Feb 2020

6 years 1 month

Hamburg, Germany

Embedded Systems Developer

Schäfter + Kirchhoff GmbH

Product concept development, feasibility studies, and specification creation
Development of systems with multiple high-speed, high-density PCBs under tight mechanical/thermal constraints
Design for Manufacturing and coordination of prototype production with EMS providers
FPGA and embedded software design, architecture planning & implementation
Hardware/software tooling evaluation, workflow development, and introduction of DevOps tools and processes
Project planning of custom optical measurement systems in the field of electromechanics and drive technology
Leading challenging development projects
Technical leadership of two English-speaking team members

Jun 2013 - Jun 2013

1 month

Hamburg, Germany

Software Development Intern

Neusoft Technology Solutions GmbH

Development of an OpenGL-based map data viewer in C# as part of a test evaluation framework
Integration of the map data viewer into the main branch of the software

Aug 2011 - Jan 2014

2 years 6 months

Hamburg, Germany

Apprentice IT Specialist for System Integration

atrias personalmanagement GmbH

IT administration in a mixed Linux/Windows environment
Diagnosing and resolving network and application issues
Improving processes and infrastructure
Implementing the UC solution Microsoft Lync
Supporting the migration of all IT systems to DIS AG
Developing software for simplified creation of job postings according to corporate identity
Developing a mobile version of the company website

Jul 2010 - Jul 2011

1 year 1 month

Hamburg, Germany

Mechatronics Production Technician

Schäfter + Kirchhoff GmbH

Assembling electronic and mechanical modules
Initiating process improvements to increase production efficiency and product quality
Supporting custom special projects

Feb 2010 - May 2010

4 months

Quickborn, Germany

Electronics Technician in Special Machine Construction and Automation Technology

RaTec Strahlenmesstechnik GmbH

Designing a printed circuit board for a detector pulse simulator to test radiation detectors
Evaluating CANopen-based I/O modules
Installing and programming a PLC-based door speed limiter for extremely heavy doors
Assisting assembly in special purpose equipment construction

Industries Experience

See where this freelancer has spent most of their professional time. Longer bars indicate deeper hands-on experience, while shorter ones reflect targeted or project-based work.

Experienced in Manufacturing (11.5 years), Professional Services (3 years), Government and Administration (1 year), and Banking and Finance (0.5 years).

Manufacturing

Professional Services

Government and Administration

Banking and Finance

Business Areas Experience

The graph below provides a cumulative view of the freelancer's experience across multiple business areas, calculated from completed and active engagements. It highlights the areas where the freelancer has most frequently contributed to planning, execution, and delivery of business outcomes.

Experienced in Product Development (13 years), Production (11 years), Project Management (6 years), Quality Assurance (5 years), Procurement (4.5 years), and Information Technology (3.5 years).

Product Development

Production

Project Management

Quality Assurance

Procurement

Information Technology

Skills

Core Competencies

Embedded Systems (Arm, Fpga, C/c++, Rtos)
Cloud Technology (Linux, Devops, Containers, Iot)
Pcb Design (Altium, Kicad, Hyperlynx)
Mechatronics (Cad, Motion Control, Optoelectronics)

Personal Success Factors

Creative, Resourceful Problem Solving
Persistence Until A Solution Is Found
Fast Grasp Of Abstract Concepts
Targeted Communication With All Audiences

Information Technology – Networks

Ethernet Standards
Layer 2 Infrastructure
Link Aggregation, Mlag
Vlan
Layer 3 Topology
Static Routing
Firewalls, Nat
Ipv6 Basics
High Availability
Load Balancing
Dns
Network Troubleshooting

Information Technology – Services & Technologies

Virtualization
Containerization
Software-defined Storage
Hyperconverged Infrastructure
Microservice Architecture
Service Discovery
Metrics, Monitoring, Alerting
Log Collection
Configuration Management
Web Servers And Apis
Message Queuing
Rdbms, Tsdb
Vpn
Pki
Reverse Proxies

Information Technology – Linux Distributions

Debian / Ubuntu
Centos / Fedora
Arch Linux
Proxmox Ve
Vyos
Pfsense
Freepbx
Raspbian
Openwrt

Information Technology – Linux Software

Qemu
Virt-manager
Libvirt
Docker
Docker Compose
Podman
Kubernetes
Consul
Ansible
Saltstack
Puppet
Zfs (Zol)
Ceph, Rbd
Iet, Scst (Iscsi)
Smbd
Nfs
Networkmanager
Open Vswitch
Rsync
Dm-crypt
Smartmontools
Fio
Iotop
Ncdu
Ip
Iptables
Firewall-cmd
Ethtool
Tcpdump
Traceroute
Iperf / Iperf3
Sshfs
(C)fdisk / (C)gdisk
Dd, Ddrescue
Dig
Systemd
Grub2
Ssh
Bash, Zsh
Tmux
Atop
Htop
Bind
Cups
Haproxy
Freeipa
Node-red
Mosquitto
Cups
Apache2
Tomcat
Node.js
Postgresql
Pgpool
Mariadb
Influxdb
Prometheus
Telegraf
Grafana

Development Tools

Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio
Vim
Eclipse
Git
Gitlab
Gcc
Doxygen
Confluence
Jira
Wireshark
Mqtt.fx
Latex
Pgadmin 4
Mysql Workbench
Draw.io

Microsoft Products

Windows 7, 8, 10
Server 2008 R2, 2016, 2019
Remote Desktop Services
Active Directory
Dns / Dhcp
Hyper-v
Exchange
Print Services
Office

Other Software

Vmware Esxi
Vmware Vcsa
Splunk
Checkmk

Programming And Scripting Languages

Python
Shell Scripting
C#
Javascript
Html/css
Perl
C/c++
Assembly
Tcl
Systemverilog
Mathematica
Mitsubishi Melfa-basic Iv

Hardware – Electronic Assemblies

Circuit Design And Layout
Pcb Design
Power & Signal Integrity
Thermal Design
Mechanical Integration
Emc
Design For Manufacturing
Smt Assembly
Eda Library Management
Bom Management

Hardware – Protocols And Interfaces

Spi
Sdio
I2c
Rs232/422/485
Lvds
Axi4
Pcie
Xaui
Miim
Ethernet
Can
Canopen

Hardware – Technologies

Microcontrollers (Stm32, Avr, Microblaze)
Fpgas (Xilinx, Altera, Lattice)
Lpddr3 Ram
Smps
Adc/dac

Hardware – Simulation And Measurement

Circuit Simulation
Signal Integrity Simulation
Oscilloscope
Spectrum Analyzer
Logic Analyzer
Protocol Decoder
In-system Debugging
Data Acquisition

Hardware – Eda / Cad Tools

Altium Designer
Mentor Hyperlynx
Kicad
Autodesk Eagle
Saturn Pcb Toolkit
Ltspice
Rowley Crossworks
Xilinx Vivado
Intel Quartus
Yosys
Autodesk Inventor

Languages

German

Native

English

Advanced

Education

Mar 2015 - Jul 2017

Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg)

Electrical and Information Engineering · Hamburg, Germany

Feb 2012 - Jul 2014

G18 Vocational School

Technical college entrance qualification · Hamburg, Germany

Aug 2011 - Jan 2014

G18 Vocational School

IT specialist for system integration · Hamburg, Germany

Profile

Created

June 2025

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Frequently asked questions

Do you have questions? Here you can find further information.

Where is Alexander based?

Alexander is based in Hamburg, Germany.

What languages does Alexander speak?

Alexander speaks the following languages: German (Native), English (Advanced).

How many years of experience does Alexander have?

Alexander has at least 16 years of experience. During this time, Alexander has worked in at least 10 different roles and for 8 different companies. The average length of individual experience is 2 years and 7 months. Note that Alexander may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

What roles would Alexander be best suited for?

Based on recent experience, Alexander would be well-suited for roles such as: Freelance Head of Development / Strategy Consultant, Automation & Mechanical Engineering Developer / Managing Director, Freelance IT-Administrator.

What is Alexander's latest experience?

Alexander's most recent position is Freelance Head of Development / Strategy Consultant at LabMaker GmbH.

What companies has Alexander worked for in recent years?

In recent years, Alexander has worked for LabMaker GmbH, BitSelect Systems GmbH (own company), and SSW-Trading GmbH.

Which industries is Alexander most experienced in?

Alexander is most experienced in industries like Manufacturing, Professional Services, and Government and Public Administration. Alexander also has some experience in Banking and Finance and Information Technology (IT).

Which business areas is Alexander most experienced in?

Alexander is most experienced in business areas like Product Development, Production/Manufacturing, and Project Management. Alexander also has some experience in Quality Assurance (QA), Procurement and Purchasing, and Information Technology (IT).

Which industries has Alexander worked in recently?

Alexander has recently worked in industries like Manufacturing, Professional Services, and Banking and Finance.

Which business areas has Alexander worked in recently?

Alexander has recently worked in business areas like Product Development, Procurement and Purchasing, and Production/Manufacturing.

What is Alexander's education?

Alexander attended Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg) for Electrical and Information Engineering.

What is the availability of Alexander?

The availability of Alexander needs to be confirmed.

What is the rate of Alexander?

Alexander's rate depends on the specific project requirements. Please use the Meet button on the profile to schedule a meeting and discuss the details.