About me

I am a Full-Stack Developer & Solutions Architect from Germany.

I have been building web apps, websites, APIs & web services for 15+ years professionally and many more years because it's cool. 😎

I use JavaScript, Python, PHP, HTML & (S)CSS.

Having used a wide range of technologies, I currently focus on Single Page Apps & Progressive Web Apps working with the React.js eco-system & GraphQL APIs (Apollo Server/ Hasura).

I enjoy designing software solutions using AWS cloud services.

For the last 8 years I have been working as Head of IT at ajando (as of 2021 Alex & Gross), building marketing & sales solutions and custom web apps for enterprise customers like Canon, SAP, unify or E.ON.

I have spent a lot of time working with Wordpress, building themes, plugins, environments & tools to optimize development, deployment & hosting on AWS.

Frontend

React.js, SPA, PWA, Wordpress

I am a fan of the React.js eco system and use it for everything from simple website modules, quick MVPs to complex Single Page Apps.

I am familiar with JEST & React Testing Library, as well as Cypress for E2E-testing.

I have worked with Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS, Bulma & Material UI. I mostly prefer the BEM conventions over a thousand utility classes & like styled components in JavaScript Apps.

I use webpack & Gulp.js to optimize, build & bundle code & assets.

I have quite a history with Wordpress, building custom Themes, Plugins & development environments.

Backend

GraphQL, REST, JavaScript, Python, PHP

I have worked with a variety of different technology stacks, but most of the time it boils down to a selection of:

GraphQL-API: Hasura GraphQL engine, Apollo Server, Graphene-Python
REST-API: Flask RESTful, SQLAlchemy, Marshmallow, Express.js
Databases: MySQL/ MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB
File storage: S3
Features, Services & Jobs: AWS Lambda functions (Node.js/ Python)
Decoupling: Amazon MQ (Apache ActiveMQ), SQS, SNS
Multi purpose: Django, Wordpress

I try to embrace serverless technologies & cloud services unless there is a good reason not to.

For more traditional web-hosting stacks I have worked a lot with nginx as a web-server/ reverse proxy, but it seems to become a seldom case.

Cloud & AWS

Architecture & a lot of 3-letter services

5+ years of experience in designing scalable, resilient & cost effective web services on AWS
Hands on experience with EC2, ECS, Lambda, ELB/ALB, VPC, RDS, DynamoDB, S3, CloudFront, IAM, SQS, SNS, Amazon MQ, Cloud Watch, Amplify, Cognito, ElastiCache, Route 53
CI/CD Tools: CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, Serverless Framework, Terraform, Ansible
Containerization: Docker

What drives me?

Solving real-world problems with technology

Although technology is fun for its own sake, I really enjoy to explore the mechanics & challenges of different markets & industries. 10 years back I would have never thought that I knew something about the expansion of fibre optic networks in rural areas or about precision farming. I am very grateful that I can work on different projects that allow me dive into all these completely different fields.

And of course I enjoy the spirit of all the great people I have the pleasure to work with, who bring projects to life with entrepreneurial thinking, coffee and stupid jokes. ☕️😜

When I am not in front of a computer...

The Intersphere, Surfing, Outdoor sports

I play guitar in a band called The Intersphere. This has been a huge part of my life since 2006.
Go check them out on Spotify or one of our channels or hit the play button.

I love surfing🏄‍♂️, but since I live in Germany I cannot go too often. I like to go jogging, hiking and things that feel like the opposite of sitting as often as I can.

I enjoy Raspberry Pi projects that involve hardware like sensors & engines & 🤖 robotics stuff.

I am a fan of Southpark and think I have a Southpark reference for most situations in life. 😂