Senior Engineering Manager · Software Craft Advocate · IoT Tinkerer · IT Nerd by passion
I'm a Senior Manager Software Engineering at DATEV eG in Nuremberg, Germany — leading the Software Engineering Center of Excellence (CoE).
My mission: define engineering standards, shape career paths for developers, and drive a culture of technical excellence across the entire organization.
- 🏛️ 8+ years at DATEV eG — from hands-on dev to engineering leadership
- 🎯 I define role profiles, competency frameworks & career paths for technical talent
- 🧠 I foster knowledge transfer through trainings, workshops & Communities of Practice
- ☁️ Strong background in cloud-native architectures — Spring, .NET, REST, Microservices
- 🤝 Firm believer in Software Craft, Clean Code, Agile & DevOps
- 🏠 Passionate about Home Assistant & home automation
- 🍓 After hours: Raspberry Pi, IoT gadgets, photography, food, wine & gin
- 📍 Based in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany
"IT business is people business."
| Period | Role |
|---|---|
| 🟢 Oct 2024 – Present | Senior Manager Software Engineering — CoE, Engineering Standards & Excellence |
| 🔵 Jun 2023 – Oct 2024 | Senior Manager Flex-Homebase Architecture, Technology & Innovation |
| 🔵 Dec 2022 – Jul 2023 | Manager Flex-Homebase Architecture & Technology |
| 🟣 Dec 2017 – Dec 2022 | Software Engineering Manager — Web Development Competence Center |
| 🟠 Mar 2019 – Apr 2025 | Rollensponsor Software Engineer — Guild Coordinator & Software Craft Community |
Automated smart parcel box controller powered by a Raspberry Pi — because why do things manually when you can automate them? 🤓
A production-grade IoT project with thread-safe state management, MQTT notifications, CI/CD via GitHub Actions, and a full hardware mock mode for development without physical components.
Stack: Python · RPi.GPIO · MQTT · Threading · GitHub Actions
Highlights:
- 🔒 Intelligent door locking after parcel delivery
- ⏱️ 15-minute watchdog with auto-empty cycle & MQTT alerts
- 🧪 Full unit, integration & thread-safety test suite
- ⚙️ Modular architecture with centralized state & timer management
- 🔄 Auto-versioning via Conventional Commits
📷 Beyond the Terminal — @zottelnet
Not everything runs on a CPU. When I'm not pushing commits, you'll find me here:
- 📸 Photography — shooting life through the lens of a Canon EOS 7D
- 🍽️ Food — appreciating good cuisine, one plate at a time
- 🍷 Wine & 🍸 Gin — curating the finer things in life
- 🏠 Home Automation — automating the smart home with Home Assistant, MQTT & Raspberry Pi
- 💡 Tech & Technology — always curious about what's next
The same principles apply everywhere: good tooling, deliberate craft, and knowing when to automate — whether it's a deployment pipeline or your living room lights.
I'm always happy to talk about engineering culture, software craft, cloud-native architecture, home automation, IoT — or compare gin recommendations. 🍸
Feel free to reach out via LinkedIn or check out the creative side at @zottelnet! 🚀
"IT business is people business."