Vincenzo Kenk - Interim IT Department Head IS NSS (Contractor)

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Brunnthal, Germany

Experience

Aug 2023 - Mar 2024

8 months

Munich, Germany

Interim IT Department Head IS NSS (Contractor)

Bitmarck Beratung GmbH

Managed a team of 16 internal and 8 external staff in IS NSS, split into Netze and SEC subteams across Munich, Frankfurt, Essen and Hamburg, responsible for infrastructure management for 52 health insurance clients nationwide and internal IT services for BMB.
Key focuses included recruiting, building and further developing the Netze and SEC teams, partner and vendor management, IT project and service management, and introducing and updating IT standards and processes.
MAJOR ORGANIZATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS:
Restructured IS NSS (Netze/SEC) focusing on backlog prioritization and daily operations to ensure IT operations in BMB’s LAN/WAN (incident, major incident, change, problem and request management).
Updated job profiles and created a revised operations admin concept.
Recruiting new internal and external staff, conducting interviews, candidate selection and onboarding.
General team management (one-on-one meetings, skill matrix, daily standups, biweekly team meetings, preparing personal goals/OKRs, participating in technical meetings for internal projects).
Improved staff productivity (implemented jump host structure in new tiering model, beta-tested laptops with Palo Alto Prisma Access Agent).
Established knowledge and competency management for IS NSS (internal knowledge base, training plan for day-to-day and new projects).
Revived key interface topics with frontdesk, backdesk, request fulfillment, ITK team, Netze/SEC team in Hamburg, and the VOIP “ALL IP” partner.
Improved project processes around “Managed WAN” and “ALL IP (VOIP)” (coordinated ISP migrations to Versatel, vendor management, resource management, project management, attendance at client meetings).
Enhanced CMDB–Asset Management processes (re-examined IS NSS technical requirements, data model definition, asset lifecycle management, defined responsible persons and their operational tasks as per the operations admin concept).
Improved IT monitoring processes (reviewed IS NSS technical requirements, resumed customer monitoring tasks with Isarflow, defined responsible persons and their operational tasks per the operations admin concept).
Managed vendors for WAN and VOIP.
Attended CAB meetings (change approval board, approval and quality management role for IS NSS changes, planned maintenance weekends).
Participated in department and division head meetings.
MAJOR TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS:
Cisco ESA project (led SEC team: resource management, escalation point for blockers, project plan, status meetings).
Cisco ACI project (led Netze team: resource management, escalation point, project plan, status meetings).
Safe Garden project as a step toward Cisco ACI (led SEC and Netze teams: resource management, blockers escalation, project plan, status meetings).
Various smaller internal projects (led as department head: focus on meeting project goals, weekly status meetings).
Technologies / Products Used: Cisco, Checkpoint, Palo Alto, autonomous systems (route coupling), Isarflow, NetFlow, DWDM, DDI, TUFIN, Cisco ESA, Cisco ACI, F5, Nautobot, Zabbix, JIRA, Confluence, IET (ticket system)
Methods Used: ITIL4, PRINCE2, incident & change management, problem management, CMDB, Kanban

Nov 2022 - Jul 2023

9 months

Bonn, Germany

Interim IT Director Enduser Services (Contractor)

Simon Kucher & Partners

Disciplinary responsibility for 30 staff in Enduser Services, split into IT Incident Management, Lifecycle Deployment, and 2nd Level Advanced Support across USA, EU, and APAC, supporting 1st and 2nd level requests from ~3,000 Simon & Kucher employees at 50+ locations in 27 countries.
Other tasks included recruiting, developing team leads for Incident Management, Deployment, and Advanced Support, procurement and IT purchasing, partner and vendor management, IT project and service management, and updating IT standards and processes.
MAJOR ORGANIZATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS:
Restructured Enduser Services (org chart review, recruiting, updated job profiles, role descriptions).
Developed team leads (built competencies, regular 360° reviews focusing on workload, personal goals, knowledge growth, feedback).
Staff development and retention (regular 360° reviews).
Built knowledge and competency management (internal and cross-team training plans, reviewed KEDB content and format).
Created custom performance and resource management indicator concept for Incident Management, Deployment, and Advanced Support.
Developed service portfolio for those areas.
Established IT service standards and processes (reviewed and assessed maturity of existing standards, docs, processes with versioning and approvals).
Designed global procurement concept for all client devices with Bechtle (pricing agreement, portal, logistics, OS & software deployment, lifecycle management).
Defined interfaces and collaboration with ITOPS, IT-SEC, and HR.
Acted as interim IT team lead for the USA team (first contact, escalation level).
MAJOR TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS:
Launched new ticket system “TopDesk” (use case creation, review, testing, improvement initiatives at go-live and future releases) as stakeholder for Enduser Services.
Managed changes to existing on-prem deployment platform “Matrix42” (upgraded support to premium, planned major version update, defined CMDB role for client devices, designed OS & software deployment for coworking sites without local IT) as change manager and architecture consultant for Lifecycle Deployment.
Rolled out “modern deployment 2.0”—cloud-based OS and software distribution for client devices (gathered and reviewed technical requirements addressing procurement logistics and coworking challenges, improvement topics for go-live and releases) as architecture consultant for Lifecycle Deployment with Autopilot ID.
Technologies / Products Used: Windows Client OS, TopDesk, Matrix42, M365, Autopilot ID (formerly SCCM/Intune)
Methods Used: Custom indicator concept, incident & change management, ITIL4, PRINCE2, service portfolio, support desk, KEDB, Kanban, OKRs, problem management, process reviews, IT purchase management, ticket KPIs

May 2022 - Oct 2022

6 months

Munich, Germany

Interim IT Infrastructure Team Lead (Contractor)

IU Group N.V.

Lead the internal IT operations for IU Group, with disciplinary responsibility for 11 staff.
Other tasks included team training, IT structuring, cost management, overseeing outsourcing partners, IT project and service management, and introducing IT standards.
MAJOR ORGANIZATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS:
Stabilized and restructured Infrastructure department (identified org strengths/weaknesses, skill/resource gaps; reorganized into specialized teams; defined skill and role profiles; team building and growth).
Milestone planning for infrastructure modernization (identified technical challenges, prioritized network, WAN, WLAN stability; phased out legacy tech; planned investments short-, mid-, and long-term).
Created rollout blueprints for new locations (national and international).
Identified core competencies and tasks suitable for outsourcing.
MAJOR TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS:
Designed technology and org concept for a growing IU.
Developed hybrid data center plan based on Equinix EBC.
Introduced technologies with a 5-year perspective.
Technologies / Products Used: Windows & Linux servers, Cisco (switches, firewalls, DNA, ISE, Meraki), Ansible, Azure, GCP, AWS, Equinix EBC, OKTA, JIRA, Confluence
Methods Used: ITIL4, PRINCE2, incident & change management, service portfolio, KEDB, Kanban, OKRs, problem management, IT purchase management (tenders), ticket KPIs

Jun 2020 - Apr 2022

1 year 11 months

Munich, Germany

IT Department Head

ILF Beratende Ingenieure GmbH

Managed IT operations for ILF Germany and its German branches, with disciplinary responsibility for 10 staff.
Other tasks included team training, IT structuring, cost management, overseeing outsourcing partners, and introducing IT standards.
MAJOR ORGANIZATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS:
Structured IT and introduced ITIL4-based IT service management for better resource and project planning.
Developed the team and training to broaden responsibilities.
Cost management and IT service chargebacks for clients and partners.
Partner and product management to shape IT strategy.
Introduced and consolidated IT standards and processes for greater efficiency and fewer errors.
Established quality controls for IT services (definition of done, lessons learned, customer approval after delivery).
Set standards for connecting additional ILF branches in Germany (location blueprint, hardware/software standards, standardized requirements questionnaire).
Standardized request management (questionnaire, IT shop, cost management, project method standards).
MAJOR TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS:
Data center relocation to reduce rent costs.
Gap analysis for second data center to ensure business continuity after outages.
Renewed network infrastructure at Munich headquarters.
Deployed Commvault Backup/Restore as a future-proof company-wide solution (including Exchange Online and MS Teams data).
Implemented Docusnap as CMDB and automated documentation tool for audit readiness and efficient documentation.
Azure AD Guest Management for external project partner collaboration.
Microsoft 365 mailbox migration and Office 365 upgrade, plus decommissioning on-prem assets.
Technologies / Products Used: Windows Server OS, Cisco, HP, VMware, Azure, ManageEngine, SharePoint Online, M365, NetApp, Commvault, Docusnap, GTT (SIP telephony), Power BI
Methods Used: Custom indicator concept for cost chargebacks to ILF Holding, ITIL4, PRINCE2, incident & change management, service portfolio, support desk, KEDB, Kanban, OKRs, problem management, process reviews, IT purchase management, ticket KPIs, balanced scorecard

Sep 2019 - Feb 2020

6 months

Munich, Germany

Interim Team Lead (Project Management / Service Delivery)

Adesso as a Service GmbH

Led project management and service delivery teams for Big Data clients (7 staff).
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:
IT service management for a mid-sized client and a large enterprise.
Reviewed service portfolio and updated client documentation.
Launched improvement initiatives in ITSM (processes, documentation, monitoring, restore, DevOps, automation).
Introduced a project framework.
Implemented new team processes (Kanban, know-how transfer, operator of the week).
Technologies / Products Used: Linux servers, GCP, Zabbix, PostgreSQL, JIRA, Confluence
Methods Used: ITIL4, ITSM, incident & change management, service portfolio, KEDB, Kanban, problem management, process reviews, ticket KPIs, customer service reporting and SLA management

Jan 2019 - Jul 2019

7 months

Munich, Germany

IT Operations Team Lead

Mytheresa.com

Managed IT operations and KPI reporting with a team of 12.
Other focuses included recruiting, building and developing the team, procurement and IT purchasing, partner and vendor management, outsourcing partner oversight, IT project and service management, and updating IT standards and processes.
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:
Expanded ITOPS team from 8 to 12 successfully.
Created service portfolio and team assessment.
Ran services on AWS (S3, MSSQL, Glacier archiving, external DNS via Route53 plus X-Forward to Akamai CDN).
Introduced ITIL standards.
Implemented a project framework.
Launched a new cloud-hosted intranet platform.
Technologies / Products Used: Windows & Linux servers, AWS, Akamai, Fortinet, VMware, MS-SQL, baramundi
Methods Used: ITIL4, PRINCE2, ITSM, incident & change management, service portfolio, KEDB, Kanban, OKRs, problem management, process reviews, ticket KPIs

Jul 2014 - Dec 2018

4 years 6 months

Munich, Germany

IT Operations Manager

Fidor Solutions

Led internal and external staff and oversaw outsourcing partners (6 staff).
Main point of contact for IT operations and KPI reporting, plus admin of Windows, Linux and macOS systems.
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:
Introduced ITIL.
Rolled out a project framework.
Connected Dubai office with location standards (LAN, WAN, switching, routing, firewall, security, software asset management).
Relocated the Fidor Factory in Berlin.
Migrated components to O365/Azure cloud.
Deployed Office IT Security stack (“COSA”).
Designed a business continuity plan for Fidor Bank.
Linked foreign offices to Munich HQ.
Technologies / Products Used: Windows & Linux servers, Azure, VMware, HP, Sophos, ManageEngine, CoSoSys, N-central, JIRA, Confluence
Methods Used: ITIL3, PRINCE2, ITSM, incident & change management, service portfolio, KEDB, Kanban, problem management, process reviews, client IT security (BSI baseline)

Jan 2012 - Jun 2014

2 years 6 months

Munich, Germany

Senior Windows Administrator

AutoScout24

Developed concepts and project plans, worked on infrastructure projects, and maintained documentation.
Actively shaped process changes, performed root-cause analyses and fixes, and implemented infrastructure projects in authentication, email, and AD-DNS.
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:
Consolidated five Active Directory forests under the “Risk Assessment Program as a Service (RaaS)”.
Deployed a compliance-compliant email archiving solution.
Introduced single sign-on between Active Directory and Linux environments (Unix attributes).
Implemented a new patch management solution.
Technologies / Products Used: Windows Server, Active Directory, Group Policy, BatchPatch, VMware, Heilig & Schubert (email archiving), PRTG
Methods Used: ITSM, Kanban, incident & change management, service portfolio, KEDB, problem management, Microsoft RAP/RAAS

Jan 2009 - Dec 2011

3 years

Munich, Germany

IT Communication Engineer

Computerlinks AG

Focused on troubleshooting and technical support for hardware and software configuration and installation.
Also handled internal IT operations and 2nd level support administration for ~20 global locations.
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:
Migrated central IT services from Novell (eDir, GroupWise, Novell clustering) to Microsoft (Hyper-V, Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint).
Administered XEN environment.
Rolled out mobile device management solution (BlackBerry).
Upgraded and managed Citrix from version 4.x to 5.x.
Introduced and maintained company-wide video conferencing.
Technologies / Products Used: Novell NetWare, DirXML, Windows & Linux servers, Hyper-V, XEN, Citrix, Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint, BlackBerry, Polycom, backclick
Methods Used: ITIL3, ITSM, incident & change management, service portfolio, KEDB

Jul 1998 - Dec 2008

10 years 6 months

Munich, Germany

System Administrator

Caceis Bank

Handled server installations and administration, back-office products, standard office apps, and banking software, plus system maintenance.
Also managed internal IT operations and 2nd level support.
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS:
Deployed single sign-on between Novell eDir and Microsoft AD (DirXML).
Rolled out a 4-node Novell cluster.
Introduced VMware virtualization (v3.5).
Deployed EMC SAN with VMware integration.
Relocated and moved data center for FMSB.
Technologies / Products Used: Novell NetWare, DirXML, Windows & Linux servers, VMware, EMC SAN, Citrix, Active Directory
Methods Used: ITIL3, ITSM

Summary

Strong skills in both technical and disciplinary leadership of staff, with many years of theoretical and practical experience in IT operations and administration, IT project management, IT service management and delivery, implementing IT processes and standards, and managing IT service providers.

Languages

German

Native

English

Advanced

Croatian

Advanced

French

Elementary

Education