About Me
I've been in software since the 90s — as a programmer, a SCRUM pioneer, a CTO, and now as Senior Director running a 350-person engineering unit at Dynatrace. My team builds the tooling and infrastructure for 2,000+ engineers. The job is mostly about people and structure. The engineering background is why it works.
My path here wasn't a straight line. I started writing code, fell into SCRUM in 2003 when it was still the weird new thing, ran engineering teams for in-game commerce serving Riot Games and Rockstar, took a CTO seat at an Austrian scale-up, and spent time as a freelance coach. Every stop taught me something about what makes engineering organisations actually work — and what doesn't.
The through-line across 20+ years: build the systems and teams that let engineers do their best work.
Still Googles for the regex. Still trusts the team.
My timeline
SCRUM
First time got in touch with SCRUM in 2003 while I was working as Programm Manager for QPass. Took my first SCRUM master course with Boris Gloger in Manchester 2004.
SCRUM Master
Next to my role as Programm Manager I took over the responsibility as acting SCRUM Master for two teams and I've been working with them until 2007.
Freelancing Software Engineer
During my freelancing software engineering time I've worked with different frameworks and for different clients where I've also trained teams on using SCRUM and Extreme Programming practices to improve quality and turn around time. One of my clients during this time frame was 'fatfoogoo'. A company focusing on in-game commerce, which I've joined as fulltime employee in 2009.
Director Engineering - fatfoogoo / Digital River
During my time at the in-game commerce market leader, 'fatfoogoo', I've conducted an agile transition. Establishing SCRUM for two partly remote teams. We delivered time critical initiatives for our clients, which included Riot Games, Pokemon, Rockstar Games and arena.net.
CTO - durchblicker.at
Started an agile transition with the help an external partner where we started off with one SCRUM team and built out a second one after a couple of months. One of my other responsibilities was attracting new talent for our teams.
Freelancing Business Agility Coach
Worked with small and medium-sized companies to support their journey toward business agility, helping teams find the practices that actually worked for them.
Director Software Engineering - Dynatrace
Joined Dynatrace to build and lead the engineering team behind the Dynatrace HUB — the platform's extension and app ecosystem. Built the team and the product from the ground up.
Director of Engineering - Dynatrace
Scope expanded beyond the HUB to include Platform Engineering. Running multiple teams, responsible for the tooling and infrastructure that the rest of engineering depends on.
Senior Director Software Engineering - Dynatrace
Leading the unit responsible for the tooling and infrastructure that Dynatrace engineers depend on. Also working out how AI fits into a developer platform — building it in rather than bolting it on.
Some of My Principles
- If there was a production incident, write a proper Post Mortem
- Meetings start on time, have an agenda - issued days before - and meeting minutes are taken and shared afterwards. Always!
- The people closest to the work usually know best — ask them first
- Watch the baton, not the runner. Focus on outcome, not on output
- Metrics are indicators, not answers. Use them to ask better questions, not to close conversations.
- If you don't like how your team lead operates, say so directly. Feedback is how leaders get better — withholding it helps no one.