Jan Helwich - Technical Co-Founder

Q: Where is Jan based?

Jan is based in Berlin, Germany .

Q: What languages does Jan speak?

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

Q: How many years of experience does Jan have?

Jan has at least 24 years of experience. During this time, Jan has worked in at least 7 different roles and for 9 different companies . The average length of individual experience is 3 years and 8 months . Note that Jan may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

Q: What is Jan's latest experience?

Jan's most recent position is Technical Co-Founder at Telemarie UG .

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

In recent years, Jan has worked for Telemarie UG and Zalon by Zalando .

Q: Which industries is Jan most experienced in?

Jan is most experienced in industries like Information Technology (IT) , Fashion and Apparel , and Retail . Jan also has some experience in Telecommunication , Education , Media, and Entertainment and Publishing .

Q: Which business areas is Jan most experienced in?

Jan is most experienced in business areas like Information Technology (IT) , Product Development , and Strategy and Planning . Jan also has some experience in Project Management and Research and Development (R&D) .

Q: Which industries has Jan worked in recently?

Jan has recently worked in industries like Fashion and Apparel , Retail , and Information Technology (IT) .

Q: Which business areas has Jan worked in recently?

Jan has recently worked in business areas like Information Technology (IT) , Product Development , and Project Management .

Recommended expert

Berlin, Germany

Experience

Jul 2021 - Present

4 years 8 months

Technical Co-Founder

Telemarie UG

Technical Leadership & SW Architecture: Conducting trade-off analyses for technology stacks and leading the design and implementation of the software architecture, including mobile and backend solutions. Facilitating Event Storming workshops for DDD and software architecture.
Strategic Direction & Organizational Development: Playing a key role in defining the strategic direction of the product and organization, exploring new models such as steward ownership.
Lean Startup & Agile Development: Introducing Lean and Agile principles, implementing lean prototypes, and ensuring adherence to Lean Startup processes, iterative development from product/solution fit to product/market fit.
Team Building & Collaboration: Facilitating workshops, retrospectives and future workshops to collaboratively develop tactics and strategies.
Technologies: Flutter, JS/TS, React, Google Cloud, Firebase, Android, iOS.
Organizational Methods: Lean startup, lean canvas, lean agile, event storming, retrospectives.

Jan 2015 - Jun 2021

6 years 6 months

Delivery Lead

Zalon by Zalando

Product Launch & SW Development: Implementation using Scala Play Framework, Postgres and AWS. Expanded the architecture to adapt to evolving business requirements, incorporating a microservices strategy.
SW Development Leadership: Led the delivery teams on the path from 0 to ~€50M in revenue, collaborated with the business on technically critical decisions and introduced cross-functional teams.
Technical Leadership & Architecture: Responsible for the overall application and system architecture, including the microservice strategy, AWS, Kubernetes and Docker.
Technologies: Scala, Akka, Scalaz, Scalatest, Play2, Postgres, AWS (EC2, Lambda, RDS, Route53, CloudFront, S3), Kubernetes, Grafana, NewRelic/AppDynamics.
Organizational Methods: Adopted and promoted Lean and Agile methodologies, facilitated event storming workshops for clear goal alignment.

Jan 2013 - Dec 2014

2 years

Technical Co-Founder

Get2play GmbH

Technical Leadership & SW Architecture: Responsible for implementing the platform and leading the development.
Strategic Direction & Organizational Innovation: Playing a key role in defining the strategic direction of the product and organization.
Lean Startup & Agile SW Development: Supporting the introduction of Lean and Agile principles, implementing lean prototypes, and ensuring adherence to Lean Startup processes, iterating from product/solution fit to product/market fit.
Technologies: Play2, Scala, JavaScript, WebAudio, jQuery, Heroku, AWS (EC2, S3, Media Services), Mixpanel, MongoDB.
Organizational Methods: Lean startup, lean canvas, event storming, retrospectives.

Apr 2011 - Dec 2012

1 year 9 months

Software Developer

Parship

Software Development & Architecture: Developed new features for the online matchmaking platform and the new mobile web application.
Refactoring Legacy Modules: Overhauled legacy modules and migrated them to an object-oriented (OO) architecture to improve performance and maintainability.
Build & Deployment Automation: Implemented build and configuration management tools to enable continuous deployment and improve the development lifecycle.
Team Collaboration & Code Reviews: Worked closely with team members to ensure code quality and conducted peer reviews to maintain high development standards.
Technologies: Java, Microservices.
Organizational Methods: Agile development, Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment, Code reviews.

Aug 2009 - Mar 2011

1 year 8 months

Software Developer

Edict E-Gaming

Implemented an admin and back-office client for an online casino application.

Dec 2008 - Aug 2009

9 months

Freelance Consultant and Developer

Heitcon3 and creations media

Software development and consulting.

Jan 2007 - Nov 2008

1 year 11 months

Germany

Senior Development Consultant

Steria Mummert Consulting AG

CRM web application for a large telecommunications provider: architecture, design, implementation.
Local broadcaster: team lead and development.

Dec 2004 - Jan 2007

2 years 2 months

Germany

Technology Consultant

Accenture Technology Solutions GmbH

Billing software for a large German telecommunications provider: team lead, architecture, design, development.

Aug 2001 - Mar 2004

2 years 8 months

Research Assistant

University of Hamburg

Implementation of an autonomous agent within an AI research project.

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 Information Technology (10.5 years), Fashion (6.5 years), Retail (6.5 years), Telecommunication (4 years), Education (2.5 years), and Media and Entertainment (2 years).

Information Technology

Fashion

Retail

Telecommunication

Education

Media and Entertainment

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 Information Technology (21 years), Product Development (17.5 years), Strategy (6.5 years), Project Management (6.5 years), and Research and Development (2.5 years).

Information Technology

Product Development

Strategy

Project Management

Research and Development

Summary

I am a passionate software engineer, manager and architect with 20 years of experience in projects and companies of all sizes. My strengths include excellent communication skills, strong analytical abilities and facilitation skills. I take great pleasure in applying my knowledge of agile and lean methods to work closely with management and teams to sustainably increase the company's value creation. I am known for my creative, unconventional thinking, my strategic foresight and my consistent prioritization.

In leadership roles I advocate concepts like Lean Agile, strong value focus, Servant Leadership, self-organization and cross-functional teams.

Skills

Software Development Methods And Philosophies

Agile Methods, Lean Startup
Requirements Analysis (E.g. User Story Mapping)
Strategic And Tactical Ddd (E.g. Event Storming), Clean Architecture
Clean Code, Solid/cupid, Tdd, Devops
Oop, Fp, Event Sourcing, Cqrs
Mob Programming, Pair Programming

Technologies

Flutter, Kotlin, Scala, Java, Js/ts
Aws, Google Cloud
Postgres, Mysql, Firebase, Mongo
Docker

Languages

German

Native

English

Advanced

Education

Oct 1997 - Jul 2004

University of Hamburg

Diploma in Computer Science · Computer Science, minor in Business Administration · Hamburg, Germany · 1.4

Aug 1993 - Jun 1996

Technical High School G16

High School Diploma (Abitur) · Hamburg, Germany

Profile

Created

September 2025

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Frequently asked questions

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

Where is Jan based?

Jan is based in Berlin, Germany.

What languages does Jan speak?

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

How many years of experience does Jan have?

Jan has at least 24 years of experience. During this time, Jan has worked in at least 7 different roles and for 9 different companies. The average length of individual experience is 3 years and 8 months. Note that Jan may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

What roles would Jan be best suited for?

Based on recent experience, Jan would be well-suited for roles such as: Technical Co-Founder, Delivery Lead, Software Developer.

What is Jan's latest experience?

Jan's most recent position is Technical Co-Founder at Telemarie UG.

What companies has Jan worked for in recent years?

In recent years, Jan has worked for Telemarie UG and Zalon by Zalando.

Which industries is Jan most experienced in?

Jan is most experienced in industries like Information Technology (IT), Fashion and Apparel, and Retail. Jan also has some experience in Telecommunication, Education, Media, and Entertainment and Publishing.

Which business areas is Jan most experienced in?

Jan is most experienced in business areas like Information Technology (IT), Product Development, and Strategy and Planning. Jan also has some experience in Project Management and Research and Development (R&D).