Software architecture
Designs from the user interface down to data storage, with reasoned trade-offs, documented and verifiable.
Built fast is a long way from built to last.
I am a freelance lead developer and software architect. For more than 15 years I have worked full stack, focusing on architecture, IT security and accessibility.
I use agentic coding and AI tools productively and guide teams in adopting them. The result: systems with clear architecture, reliable tests and clean reviews – pragmatic, collaborative and agile.
- Nuremberg, Germany
- Remote across Europe (CET), occasionally on site
Where I focus
Areas where I bring the most experience to projects.
DevSecOps
Security in architecture, process and operations.
AI-assisted development
AI-assisted development with guardrails and reliable tests.
Technical leadership
Leading teams, enabling them and carrying them through difficult phases.
My own products
Built and operated with agentic tools since May 2025.
Quizzerei
- Leisure and entertainment
- since 2025
- Development and operations
Quiz web app with an MCP server for AI assistants. A nightly scan finds security vulnerabilities; an agent fixes them autonomously.
Gapistry
- Market research
- since 2026
- Architecture and development
Agentic pipeline that derives evidence-backed market gaps from publicly voiced problems. A language model classifies and scores autonomously, measured against a manually curated gold standard.
Projects from practice
A selection. Clients and products are confidential, so this lists sector, period and role.
Platform for labour market profiles
- Public sector
- 2024–2026
- Lead developer, DevSecOps and full stack
Platform for managing labour market profiles of skilled workers from abroad. Built within a year and tested in production ahead of time through a dark launch, so go-live passed without production issues. Full-stack development plus responsibility for the delivery pipeline, infrastructure as code and operations. Development team of nine within a programme of around fifty people.
Product landscape on Kubernetes
- Public sector
- 2022–2024
- Lead developer, 10–14 people
Migrated four products with around twenty containers from Apache Mesos to Kubernetes via a dark launch. 99.8% availability despite legacy systems with maintenance windows, decoupled via Kafka where possible. Weekly deployments with quality and security checks. Alongside that, full-stack development, onboarding and technical leadership of the team.
Nationwide online appointment booking
- Public sector
- 2019–2022
- Lead developer, full stack
After two failed predecessor projects by other teams, the first successful attempt: pilot, MVP and step-by-step nationwide rollout, extended with video and phone appointments during the pandemic. Requests routed by a stateless Camunda engine that business users could configure themselves. Full stack with Angular and Spring Boot, with a focus on accessibility.
Replacing a legacy application landscape
- Public sector
- 2017–2019
- Lead web developer
Moved the portal-wide search, the client's first product to leave the monolithic legacy systems, into microservices on Apache Mesos; further products followed the same path. Built a multi-tenant feedback component as a web component, later configured for further applications of the client. Test automation as a mandatory part of the pipeline, full stack with Angular, Node.js and Spring Boot.
E-commerce platform for hotel bookings
- Travel and e-commerce
- 2017–2019
- Full-stack developer
Development, maintenance, migration and search engine optimisation of a booking platform. Full stack with AngularJS and ASP.NET MVC, end-to-end tests with Cypress, operations on Azure Cloud Services.
Mobile hotel booking
- Travel and e-commerce
- 2016–2017
- Lead developer and team lead
Responsible for architecture and quality of the mobile booking platform, leading up to ten people. Tested hypotheses in fast A/B tests and evaluated them statistically, raising the conversion rate by more than 10% overall.
Applications for market research
- Market research
- 2013–2015
- Software architect
Responsible for software quality and the architecture of the web front ends. Coaching, coordination and advice for near-shoring teams. Front-end development with EmberJS and ASP.NET following the V-model.
Testimonials
Robert brings a perfect blend of professionalism and humanity
Robert played a decisive part in the team's success
Robert fully internalised and lived the lead role
Robert brings strong technical expertise and always puts the domain first
There is an incredible amount to learn from Robert: vast knowledge that he keeps building on
Field notes
Architecture docs without drift: arc-steward
Why architecture documentation drifts at AI speed - and how an agent skill can keep it in sync with every pull request.
