How I support you

Engineering Management

I’m happy to support your engineering organization with either hands-on, interim engineering management up to director and VP levels, or consulting on specific challenges you’re facing. I have a background in agile leadership and I’m very interested in understanding team dysfunctions and resolving them to optimize for real customer value. My experience spans from hyper-growth environments to long-lived teams, each with their own specific challenges.

Techniques: Team Topologies, Reverse Conway Maneuver, Dynamic Reteaming, Measuring what Matters

Open Source

Whether you want to build effective open source policies, create or reshape an OSPO, or want to understand what an effective contributing back strategy should look like, I’m interested in supporting you along the way. I’m experienced in creating and managing effective FOSS programs (including the Fellowship Program at the German Sovereign Tech Agency and in leading the Sovereign Tech Fund), as well as being on the advisory board for FOSS funds like the Nominet Open Source DNS Fund.

Techniques: Program Management, Design Thinking, FOSS Advocacy, Program Evaluation, Community Building

Supply Chain Security

I’m sure you’re dealing with hundreds or thousands of FOSS dependencies in your tech stack, like most organizations. While there are plenty of tools to manage vulnerabilities, there is still little insight into the consequences of the upcoming Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) for most digital products sold on the European single market. I believe the CRA is an opportunity for both FOSS consumers and the maintainer community, and I’m happy to support you in developing this understanding and in shaping effective strategies for sustainable CRA compliance.

Techniques: Risk Management, Dependency Analysis, Compliance Strategies, Stakeholder Engagement

Book a meeting with me to discuss how I can support you.

Experience

Over the last 15 years, I have gathered experience in various roles within software engineering, from software development to architecture, team leadership, engineering management and Open Source strategy. Below is a summary of my professional experience.

Head of Sovereign Tech Fund & Program Manager

Sovereign Tech Agency, 2023 – 2025

Started as a Program Manager, involved in investment decisions and project management for major Open Source projects, like OpenSSL, rustls, curl, Apache Maven, jUnit, Open Street Map, systemd, Samba, yocto and many more. Designed, implemented and managed a successful Fellowship program for Open Source maintainers. Took over the lead for the Sovereign Tech Fund team, consisting of 6 colleagues, steering strategic decision making and execution. Speaker on various FOSS and engineering conferences, contributed to major global events like the UN Open Source week. Member of the Expert Group of the European Commission for the implementation of the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).

VP Engineering & Engineering Manager

Staffbase, 2019 – 2023

Started as the first Engineering Manager, grew the engineering team from 30 to 170 people in three time zones. Responsible for the technical roadmap and global engineering excellence goals. Supported the acquisition process of four companies (tech & engineering due diligence, post-merger integrations). Embraced agile mindset and servant leadership, mentoring and coaching of various leadership candidates from diverse backgrounds. Managing the budgeting process with headcount planning, forecasting and working with external partners. Responsibility for the Application Security team, including monitoring of third party dependencies and vulnerability management.

Senior Software Architect

T-Systems MMS, 2012 – 2019

Team coach of the engineering team with 13 colleagues. Software architect and technical project lead within complex projects. Customising of social business and intranet applications for various enterprise customers, development of assets and products.
Deep technical and business understanding of major intranet solutions on the market (like Jive, COYO, O365 and Staffbase).
Active member of the T-Systems and Telekom internal engineering community, mentor and event host for various hackathons, co-organizer of developer events with about 500 attendees, member of the advisory board (DevDay Dresden).
Technologies: Java Enterprise, Spring, Struts, PostgreSQL, Build Management, CI / CD based on Jenkins, DevOps with Docker Swarm and Kubernetes, using cloud platforms like Azure and Open Telekom Cloud

Software Developer

Qualitype AG, 2008 – 2012

Core developer of forensic products and laboratory management, introducing CI/CD pipelines.
Technologies: Java Enterprise, Eclipse RCP, Hibernate, JBoss AS, PostgreSQL, Birt/Jasper Reporting, Maven Build Management

Education

TU Dresden & BA Dresden, Dipl.-Inform.(BA), 2001 – 2008

Imprint

Angaben gemäß § 5 DDG:
Mirko Swillus, Tannenstraße 2, 01099 Dresden
Vertreten durch: Mirko Swillus
Kontakt: E-Mail mirko(at)swillus.eu
Verbraucherstreitbeilegung / Universalschlichtungsstelle: Wir nehmen nicht an Streitbeilegungsverfahren vor einer Verbraucherschlichtungsstelle teil und sind dazu auch nicht verpflichtet.