CV

Education

• Bachelor of Computer Science, Universität zu Lübeck, Germany
• High school diploma, Gymnasium Carolinum, Germany

Professional interests

Software Engineering, Frontend Development, AI, LLMs, React, Next.js, MUI, Payload CMS, Typescript, Cloud Technology, Algorithm Design, UI/UX Design

Personal interests

Playing the Piano, Reading and Learning, Italian and Asian Cuisine, Haute Cuisine, Boardgames, Basketball

Software Architect, Staff Software Engineer

UNiDAYS (01.05.2022 - now)

• Spearheaded the transition from a legacy monolithic system to a modern, scalable architecture

  • Addressed transition challenges through strong communication, frequent feedback, and cross-team consensus
  • Implemented automated testing, reducing bugs and accelerating feedback loops
  • Transformed frontend workflow from a bottleneck to a driver of infrastructure and backend development
  • Collaboration across 4 Engineering Teams and across all departments (Product, Design, QA, Commercial, Marketing, SEO, Delivery, Localization)

• Led initiative for a new Frontend from PoC to production

  • Tech stack: TypeScript, ReactJS, Next.js, and MUIPerformance improvements:

    • 5x faster First Contentful Paint (FCP)
    • 4x faster Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
    • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) reduced from 0.25 to 0
    • 80% reduction in JS errors
    • 20% improvement in SEO

• Led initiative for a new Content Management System from PoC to production

  • Tech stack: TS, ReactJS, Payload CMS, MongoDB, Express.js, GraphQL, REST
  • Massive improvement in productivity: features now take days instead of months
  • Much more cost-effective than alternatives like Contentful
  • Role Based Access Control
  • Page Builder
  • Translation Management System
  • Import/Export

• Enhanced Test Automation and Static Code Analysis

  • Implemented Jest, E2E with Playwright, Eslint, Prettier
  • Introduced HTML & CSS Validation
  • Integrated Lighthouse CI and Axe Accessibility testing

• Improved CI/CD pipeline

  • Increased deployments from 2 to 20+ per day
  • Reduced deployment time from 60+ minutes to 15 minutes
  • Decreased manual steps from 9 to 2

• Fostered team growth and development

  • Instituted regular one-on-one meetings and weekly working groups
  • Provided resources for continued education and professional development
  • Contributed to high retention rate with no developer turnover during tenure

• Actively participated in recruitment

  • Interviewed candidates to ensure alignment with technical needs and cultural values
  • Contributed to strategic team growth and expertise enhancement
  • Developed structured interview process

Expert, Software Engineering

Shop Apotheke Service GmbH (01.02.2021 - 30.04.2022)

• Led the architecture group focused on optimizing software performance and maintenance.
• Conducted extensive mentoring, pair programming, and code reviews.
• Enhanced application architectures using React, NextJS, Material UI, and Redux.

Senior Frontend Engineer

Facelift Brand Building Technologies (01.06.2019 - 31.01.2021)

• Architected and optimized the Angular frontend.
• Performance Optimization and Testing (Unit & e2e)
• Received the Facelift Style Award for outstanding contributions
• Angular, AngularJS, redux, GraphQL, NgRx

Senior Software Engineer, Vice Lead Engineering, Lead Frontend

EatSmarter (01.12.2015 - 31.05.2019)

• Managed project planning, led the redevelopment of frontend and oversaw moving to AWS.
• Oversaw architecture of both frontend and backend systems.
• Led comprehensive performance optimization and testing across the testing pyramid.
• React, Next.js, Material UI, GraphQL.

Web Developer, System Administrator

Transfermarkt (20.01.2014 - 30.11.2015)

• Sole responsibility for the development of the forum (which made up about one-third of the total traffic).
• Performance optimization as well as unit & E2E tests, build tooling.

Mathematics Tutor

Schülerhilfe (01.09.2010 - 31.12.2013)

• Teaching in classes with 5 students.
• Taught and motivated students with learning difficulties from grades 7 to 13.
• Special exam preparation for middle school and high school diploma.

Side Business

(01.12.2004 - now)

• Software Development
• Consulting

Conferences

• NextJS Conf 2020-2023
• EnterJS 2020
• React Berlin 2019
• Codetalks 2015

Online Courses

• Udacity Frontend Web-Developer Nanodegree
• Coursera Learning how to learn

(Some of the) Books I Have Read

Code Complete, Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship, Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, Working Effectively with Legacy Code, Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, High Performance MySQL, High Performance Web Sites, Even Faster Web Sites, Soft Skills, Don't Make Me Think, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Never Split the Difference, Originals, Give and Take, Rapid Development, Head First Design Patterns, Head First Software Development, Head First JavaScript Programming, How to Win Friends & Influence People, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, The Design of Everyday Things, The Art of Clear Thinking, Deep Work, The Pragmatic Programmer, Atomic Habits, The Happiness Advantage, Homo Faber, Growing a Business, Clean Architecture, Software Engineering at Google, Fundamentals of Software Architecture, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Noise, River Out of Eden, Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, Algorithms to Live By, The Phoenix Project, Numbers Don't Lie, Loonshots, Factfulness, So Good They Can't Ignore You, Originals, Triggers, Soft Skills, Rapid Development, The Idea Factory, Up the Organization, The Alchemist, The Black Swan, Ego Is the Enemy, Deep Work, Creativity, Inc., The Personal MBA.

mzt1.com

mzt1.com (October 11, 2018 - present)

A personal initiative to explore and demonstrate advanced web technologies, designed and developed entirely independently.Some of the topics include: Performance, Redux (persist, migrations, thunk, freeze), Route based code splitting, Tree shaking, Serverless, Dynamic JavaScript loading, Internationalization, Infinite scroll, Drag and drop, Static Site Generator (SSG), Headless CMS, Testing (Testing Pyramid, Jest, Cypress, Code Coverage, Date mocking, etc.), Authentication, Various charts and graphs, Storybook, Bundle analyzer, date-io, ESLint, Babel, AWS, DynamoDB, Payload CMS, Mongo DB Serverless, OpenAI API, etc.Developed a unique ChatGPT adapter for Payload, enabling CRUD operations via AI-driven function calls. Implemented a translation management tool using ChatGPT for context-aware translations, enhancing international accessibility.Implemented Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) on top of Payload CMS to ensure secure and role-specific access to the system.

EYS - Empower Your Self

empower-your-self.de (April 2, 2017 - present)

• Improvement of self-efficacy expectations
• Reduction of self-doubt
• Reduction of exhaustion and anxiety

Developed in collaboration with a psychologistBuilt around a sophisticated Redux store (at one point it was ported to react-native and back).Provides valuable psychological tools and resources aimed at improving users' mental health and stress management. Successfully field-tested with clients, receiving positive feedback for its effectiveness in boosting self-efficacy and reducing anxiety.