Patrick Döring
C-Level Advisor | Engineering & QA Lead
Experience
C-Level Advisor | Engineering & QA Lead
Freelancer
- Supports companies as a C-level advisor, technical sparring partner, and engineering leader in scaling, structure, and technical excellence
- Over 15 years of experience, including more than 6 years in leadership with teams of 18+ engineers and budget responsibility over €2 million
- Direct collaboration with C-level, product, and compliance
Leadership & Organizational Development:
- Leading international cross-functional teams (18+ engineers) in agile environments
- Experience with Scrum, Kanban, OKRs through hands-on implementation
- Close collaboration with C-level stakeholders
- Strategic input on engineering roadmaps and organizational structures
Engineering Strategy & Developer Enablement:
- Building and rolling out developer productivity tools like GitHub Copilot and Synergizer
- Scaling, redesigning, and strategically advancing the observability architecture (Datadog, Grafana Cloud), including distributed tracing, metric design, SLOs, logging, and cost optimization
- Establishing developer enablement structures: coding guides, QA practices
- Consolidating CI/CD and DevOps toolchains for improved efficiency
People & Culture:
- Mentoring and coaching talents and leaders
- Active role in recruiting and team development
- Performance management and retention (< 5% turnover in scaled teams)
- Designing career paths and competency models in engineering
Lead Engineer
ProSiebenSat.1
- Technical and functional leadership of various projects to increase developer productivity, code quality, and observability
Medien Synergizer – AI-powered workflow platform & prompt engine:
- Led the engineering team (5 members)
- Designed, architected, and integrated Gen AI components with Python/Flask APIs, React/TypeScript frontend, and a visual prompt flow builder
- Integrated private GPT models for GDPR-compliant solutions
GitHub Copilot – Rollout & Developer Productivity:
- Led an AI enablement team (5 members)
- Coordinated the company-wide rollout of GitHub Copilot
- Defined guidelines, workshops, and analytics; hands-on sessions, hackathons, training
- Impact: +25% developer productivity, reduced manual effort, improved code quality
Code Quality Platform:
- Built and managed a company-wide code quality platform with Sonar, Qodana, and Teamscale
- Led an engineering team (4 members)
- Implemented unified coding guidelines, code coverage, quality gates, and feedback loops
- Impact: -35% critical bugs, -25% pull request cycles
Observability Migration – Grafana Cloud:
- Architected and executed the migration from self-hosted Grafana + Prometheus to Grafana Cloud
- Led an engineering team (5 members)
- Consolidated dashboards and alerts, set up ownership models
Observability Architecture – Datadog:
- Consolidated distributed Datadog instances into a central sub-org using Terraform
- Developed a tagging strategy, defined SLOs, SLIs, and error budgets
- Established distributed tracing across microservices
Senior Test Manager
MaibornWolff
IT-Consultant
Sogeti Deutschland GmbH
Quality Engineer
Euro-Log AG
Summary
I support companies as a C-level advisor, technical sparring partner, and engineering leader when scaling, structure, and technical excellence are in demand. I bring over 15 years of experience, including more than 6 years in leadership roles with teams of 18+ engineers and budget responsibility exceeding €2 million, working directly with C-level, product, and compliance teams.
Whether as a C-level advisor, interim engineering lead, or consultant for structural scaling, I work hands-on, remotely, focusing on clarity, impact, and sustainable solutions.
Skills
Leadership & Organizational Development
- Leading International Cross-functional Teams (18+ Engineers) In Agile Environments
- Experience With Agile Methods (Scrum, Kanban, Okrs) Through Hands-on Implementation In Various Projects
- Close Collaboration With C-level Stakeholders
- Strategic Input On Engineering Roadmaps And Organizational Structures
Engineering Strategy & Developer Enablement
- Building And Rolling Out (Developer) Productivity Tools Like Github Copilot And Synergizer To Support Ai-driven Development
- Scaling, Redesigning, And Strategically Advancing The Observability Architecture (Including With Datadog & Grafana Cloud), Covering Distributed Tracing, Metric Design, Slos, Logging, And Cost Optimization
- Establishing Developer Enablement Structures: Coding Guides, Qa Practices, Etc.
- Consolidating Ci/cd And Devops Toolchains For Improved Efficiency
People & Culture
- Mentoring And Coaching Talents And Leaders
- Active Role In Recruiting And Team Development
- Performance Management And Retention (Under 5% Turnover In Scaled Teams)
- Designing Career Paths And Competency Models In Engineering
Languages
Education
Apprenticeship · IT Specialist in Application Development
Certifications & licenses
Cmap Mobile App Testing – Foundation Level
Datadog Fundamentals
Datadog Kubernetes Fundamentals
Datadog Log Management Fundamentals
Deep Learning Nanodegree
Udacity
The 7 Worst Communication Mistakes
Leading Without Direct Authority
ISTQB Certified Tester – Advanced Level, Test Manager
Machine Learning By Stanford University
Coursera
Sre – The Big Picture
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