stefan.girlich

Tech enthusiast  |  Engineer  |  IT consultant

I'm Stefan, a dedicated IT professional with a deep passion for a broad range of technologies and over ten years of experience working as an engineer, solution architect and consultant in various organizational contexts and industries.

I am currently looking for new freelance or full-time opportunities as a Technical Lead or Principal Engineer. Find out more about me below, and don't hesitate to reach out!

What I do

Design

Scalable digital solutions start at the drawing board

Build

Mobile and web apps, backend services, cloud infrastructure

Deliver

Agile workflows, powered by automated CI/CD

Explore

Prototyping pragmatic solutions to unusual problems

Lead

Enabling crossfunctional development teams to excel

Consult

Technical advisorship for digital products and strategies

What drives me

Technology

Technology has fascinated me since I was a child. Human-centered user interfaces, home automation, machine learning, gaming, connected mobility, digital art, XR, IoT, ... — they all enable me to understand and hack a complex world.

Ownership

I live and think in projects; and in any of these projects I strive to take on responsibility for achieving and maintaining excellent quality, alone or in a constant exchange with like-minded individuals.

Impact

I contribute to purposes that are aligned with my personal values. On a small scale, this means building convenient user experiences; on a larger scale I want to help solve burning issues like climate change and all forms of social inequality.

Professional career

  • Technical Lead
    Freelance
    2023 – now

    Helping startups build scalable technical solutions

    • Defining data government models, threat modeling frameworks, and implementation roadmaps
    • Evaluating and implementing technical solutions in collaboration with product owners and external domain experts
    • Introduction of agile design and development processes including automated quality assurance and deployments
  • Technical Lead
    Otterspace GmbH
    2022 – 2023

    Building on-chain reputation systems for decentralized communities

    • Technical leadership for Next.js/Express web stack and team of four frontend and backend engineers
    • Collaboration with product and UX designers on developing a design system based on Atomic Design methodology
    • Agile project management and process design along value chain, spanning requirements specification, implementation, and deployment
  • Founding Tech Lead
    getmykey GmbH
    2021 – 2022

    Holistic responsibility for technical product design and infrastructure for a digitized key and locksmith services start-up

    • Conception and implementation of cloud-native IT architecture including backend services and web frontend applications
    • Implementation of computer-vision-based procedures and tooling for individual key shape recognition
    • Implementation of machine-learning-based prototypes and 3D training data generation pipelines for automated key blank recognition
  • Principal Engineer
    BCG Platinion
    2018 – 2021

    Thought leadership and capability building for a new design and engineering cohort in a global business consulting context spanning various industries

    • On- and offsite technical consulting and project management in digitization projects for multinational enterprise clients
    • Team leadership for a cohort of 30 design and engineering specialists of different technical backgrounds
    • Implementation of engineering infrastructure, strategic roadmap and processes, including more than 100 conducted engineering interviews
  • Lead Android Developer
    Iconmobile GmbH
    2016 – 2018

    Technical team leadership and consulting for IoT development projects for automotive, health and home appliance clients

    • Team leadership for a cohort of 10 native Android engineers including shaping of processes and best practices for software development
    • Hands-on implementation of native Android and full-stack web projects
    • Technical consulting and on-site project management for automotive clients
  • UX Specialist
    Klopotek AG
    2015 – 2016

    Global technical leadership for a leading publishing software company’s streamlined web frontend applications

    • Conception of standardized web user interface components
    • Optimization of collaboration processes for a remote product team of ten
    • Hands-on implementation of features for publishers in the web platform
  • Senior Android Developer
    Unister GmbH
    2014 – 2015

    Co-leadership for development teams and native Android application development for a leading German travel and flight search

    • Agile leadership for eight designers, mobile app engineers and QA testers
    • Mentoring and technical reviews for junior engineers
    • Development of native Android apps like “Fluege.de” and “Ab in den Urlaub” with more than 1.5m total users
  • Software Developer
    YOC AG
    2012 – 2014

    Team management and development for a leading mobile adtech company and premium ad network

    • Technical leadership for a team of six iOS and Android engineers
    • Developing a component for rendering display ads in native Android apps
  • Full-Stack Web and Mobile Developer
    THE BRETTINGHAMS
    2011 – 2012

    Development of web and mobile applications for SME clients

    • Development of full-stack web apps, native apps and 3D experiences
    • Responsible for internal server administration and backup automation

Education

  • Bachelor of Science
    Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin
    2009 – 2011

    Media informatics studies (B. Sc.) spanning rich-media application development and IT fundamentals, finishing with a bachelor's thesis and Android-based software prototype for a web API for camera-based head position tracking

  • First personal website
    2001

    Essentially an early type of blog capturing my random teenage thoughts, also containing sections for album and PC game reviews and inside jokes at my local school

  • First PC
    1993

    This is how it all began. 16 MHz, 4MB RAM, MS-DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1 — endless fun.

  • Born
    1987

Technical skills

Platforms and frameworks

  • React, React Native
  • Vue.js
  • Angular
  • Android SDK
  • Node.js / Express
  • Pandas, numpy
  • OpenCV
  • Keras, Tensorflow
  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • Hasura, GraphQL
  • PostgreSQL, MySQL
  • MongoDB
  • Azure
  • AWS
  • Git

Programming languages

  • HTML, CSS/SCSS, JSX/TSX
  • TypeScript, JavaScript
  • Kotlin, Java, Groovy
  • Python
  • BASH

Topics and concepts

  • Continuous deployment
  • Cloud-native architecture
  • Infrastructure as Code
  • Machine Learning
  • IoT
  • Linux server administration
  • Cybersecurity
  • Digital media production
  • 3D modeling and animation

Management and conceptual skills

Topics and concepts

  • Agile team management
  • Engineering cohort strategy
  • Engineering mentorship
  • Public speaking
  • Tech/IT consulting
  • User interface design

Methodologies

  • Scrum
  • Kanban
  • Design thinking

Languages

  • German
  • English
  • French
  • Spanish

Tools

  • Jira, Confluence
  • Miro, Sketch, Figma
  • PowerPoint

Contact

Feel free to get in touch! I'm always happy to hear about new opportunities, talk tech or receive feedback about this website. The codebase for this website is open source and you're free to use it; see the GitHub repository for more information.

Skill scores

High-level theoretical knowledge

Basic practical experience from online tutorials or personal experiments

Practical experience from one real-world project

Advanced practical experience and mentorship in various settings

Expert-level hands-on skills as well as mentorship and consulting skills