I am a technical leader specialised in cloud computing platforms, having worked with AWS since 2011. Today I channel that experience into Eskahlay, a software consultancy I founded to build open-source, decentralised technology for communities whose safety depends on owning the tools they use — LGBTQ+ people and other marginalised groups in particular.
Career: 15
Director
Northsky Social Cooperative
Mar 2025 - Present
Eskahlay.com
Full-time · Remote
Jul 2026 - Present
Eskahlay is a software consultancy building open-source software with a focus on digital safety for LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized communities. We build on the AT Protocol, in the open, so the tools we make can be maintained and operated by the people they serve without dependence on an organization.
Providing consultations/workshops on topics around LGBTQIA+ and marginalized identities, developing community focused technology, digital safety, and data protection.
Consulting for organizations around architecture, security posture, and team guidance is also available
AT Protocol
Head of Platform
Enmacc
Munich, Bavaria, DE
Sep 2024 - Present
AutoScout24
Munich, Bavaria, DE
Jan 2024 - Sep 2024
• Manage team responsible for critical core infrastructure platform products such as Kubernetes cluster, Shared Networking, and Frontend Composition
• Plan goals and initiatives with engineering/product management within platform engineering leadership team
• Develop long term vision for infrastructure domain of platform engineering
• Collaborate with Tech leadership and engineering teams to identify opportunities for improvement in platform products
AutoScout24
Munich, Bavaria, DE
Sep 2021 - Jan 2024
• Coordinated M&A Platform tech integration processes with 2 CTOs of +80 organizations
• Worked with acquisition to bring "platform as product" and establish platform processes for 45+ engineers org
• Established process to measure developer satisfaction with platform products and utilised feedback to establish data driven quarterly product improvements
• Performed architecture reviews of data engineering products and systems
• Re-architected EMR cluster to provide 50% reduction in presto query times while reducing costs +$20k/year
• Acted as product owner for internal cost tracking product to map out improvements to stabilize AWS and product cost analytics pipelines
• Manage relationship between Autoscout24 and AWS •Planned and led organization wide AWS cost reduction effort across 30+ teams, reaching EOY 15% spend reduction target
TIBCO Software Inc.
Munich Area, DE
Dec 2016 - Sep 2021
• Design and architect solutions for TIBCO products and solutions
• Work with product management to develop cloud strategies
• Develop tooling and frameworks with Terraform, Troposphere and Jenkins to enable Engineering and Operation teams
• Led several tech organizations on developing cloud native features and distributed applications
• Perform security audits of product infrastructure
• Architect and deploy Multi-Cloud solutions across AWS/Azure
• Streamline compliance audits by developing security framework for assessing production readiness by unifying audit framework and reducing audit frequency necessity.
• Manage DevOps incubator virtual teams
• Develop/maintain Slack bot integrations and serverless CI/CD solutions
Bake This - English Improv Theatre
Munich Area, DE
Jan 2016 - Feb 2018
Performer with Munich's first English speaking theatre improvisation group.
Nordcloud
Jul 2015 - Dec 2016
Cloud Migrations / Systems Integration / Cloud Infrastructure Design / DevOps
• Design and architect solutions such as Service Discovery for customers on AWS
• Assist customers in migrating docker based architectures to the cloud
• Educate customers on AWS best practices and Infrastructure as Code
• Design and implement PCI compliant environments in AWS
• Work with customers to redesign their on-premise architecture for the cloud and create hybrid solutions
• Plan and execute lift and shift migrations to the cloud
• Implementing Build/Deployment pipelines for the cloud
• Promoting DevOps culture within companies to reduce time to market of new features
• Design and implement resilient self-healing environments on AWS
• Develop python deployment tools and write puppet modules to enforce configuration state
• Extensively working with Linux based systems
Tibco Spotfire
Dec 2011 - Jun 2015
Operations Support / Systems Integration / DevOps
• Build out infrastructure on AWS
• Work with product management to develop cloud strategies
• Create and maintained development pipelines for Spotfire Engineering and developed escalation processes with Spotfire Support
• Work closely with Engineering Directors and Architects to develop cloud architecture to enhance product offering
• Leverage Jenkins/Salt to automate deployment of environments within AWS
• Lead a global cloud ops team of 6 engineers across USA, Europe, and India to plan and execute projects
• Identify critical bugs and work with engineering to develop and deploy hotfixes
• Migrate critical production environment from Rackspace to Amazon AWS
• Train groups within TIBCO on cloud architecture (covering support, engineering, and professional services)
Tibco Spotfire
Aug 2010 - Dec 2011
Mix of Desktop Support, Server Administration, and the usual duties of being the IT department for an office.
Siemens Information Systems Ltd
Jun 2010 - Aug 2010
Monitored Xbox Live infrastructure
Swype Inc.
Jun 2010 - Aug 2010
Provided software and language testing for Swype software across a variety of devices. Wrote test plans and provided usability feedback.
Alaska Airlines
Feb 2009 - Apr 2010
• Provided second-tier support to all company divisions
• Overhauled IT Help Desk website by reworking ASP.NET pages to reduce load times and simplify cosmetic changes
• Reworked IT Request forms workflow by surveying managers and directors
• Wrote batch and VB scripts to provide tools for optimizing workstation performance to field support technicians
• Performed remote in-depth malware removals
• Worked with held desk staff on team projects
• Maintained Outages notification web application and worked with multiple IT departments to update outage response policy
• Awarded Extra Mile award for exceptional customer service by Director of IT Customer Service
Pemco Corporate Computer Services
Sep 2008 - Jan 2009
• Provided tier-1 support to corporate customers
• Supported internal customer applications
• Restructured Hummingbird Document Management Repository
• Worked with Telecom group to support phone system switch-over for call centers
Insightful Corporation
Sep 2006 - Nov 2007
• Provided desktop support to Seattle office and remote staff
• Performed administrative functions such as active directory management
• Built-out secondary active directory domain for testing including SQL 2005 database servers, Exchange 2003 servers, application servers
• Inventoried IT storage room then worked with Directory of IT to identify assets for donation
• Worked with local charity group to donate retired hardware
• Setup inventory system for tracking company assets
• Worked with network and system administrators to create and configure Windows Server 2003 VMs inside VMware ESX for deployment
As organisations grow, they need to be more nimble which leads to a desire to simplify, whether for developers or business. We typically see organisations stumble through accelerating development, implementing DevOps before pivoting to SRE.
They copy what other organisations have done by implementing a Cloud Center of Excellence or adopting other models for merging development and operating functions. Eventually as the challenges around "You build it, you run it" become clearer a platform emerges.
But how do these chaotic transformations lead to this convergence? Whether your platform serves developers or customers the foundational concepts heavily align. In this talk we'll look at the ways platforms emerge and the key considerations necessary for one to succeed. As we go through time to understand how convergence happens we will examine carcinisation and what elements of it can help us understand how organisations converge on a similar approach.
