01
Player-coach, not passenger
I join architecture reviews, flag design risk early, and step in where delivery pressure threatens engineering quality. I don't manage from a distance and review at the end.
Technically closeEngineering Leadership · Netherlands · Consulting & Full-Time Opportunities
I build teams that ship complex things reliably.
18 years in software — moving between hands-on architecture and team leadership depending on what the work needs. I stay technically close, build the structures that protect quality under pressure, and create environments where people can do their best work.
18+Years in software
6+Years in leadership roles
35Engineers led at peak
30%Efficiency gain on $50M programme
Currently: Independent Consultant at Axis Tech Consulting — interim leadership & delivery advisory, following 6+ years of program leadership at Collins Aerospace.
Operating model
How I work, not just what I've done
Leadership that stays close to the work, creates clarity before urgency, and leaves teams stronger than I found them.
Selected work
Programmes that changed something
Complex, high-stakes transformation delivered across teams, borders, and technical domains.
First-ever global MES implementation — built from the ground up
Led delivery of a $50M paper-to-digital programme with no prior MES foundation at site. Partnered with iBaseT (MES ISV) on Solumina platform integration, designed end-to-end execution, coordinated 40-person delivery team across US, Europe, Asia.
30% efficiency gain · global delivery model · US, Europe, Asia
Platform scaling for an organisation that doubled in size
Drove platform consolidation, AWS and Azure migration supporting post-merger growth from 40,000 to 80,000 employees. Coordinated across architecture, infrastructure and business teams to deliver unified cloud foundation.
Unified infrastructure live day one · new workstreams opened internally
Walmart's first mobile-compatible e-commerce platform
Stepped into a technical leadership gap on a live project — took ownership of direction for a 7-member team, drove React and responsive design adoption, and delivered a production-ready platform ahead of schedule.
First mobile platform for client · team self-taught React on a live project
Engagement models
Ways to work with me
Three ways to bring this experience into your organisation — depending on what your teams need and for how long.
01
Full-time leadership
Own an engineering org end-to-end: hiring, delivery, culture, roadmap. Best fit for teams building long-term technical and people capability.
Long-term capability02
Interim / fractional leadership
Step into a gap — a departed manager, a stalled programme, a team scaling faster than its structure. Defined engagement, embedded like a full-time leader.
Embedded gap-fill03
Delivery & transformation advisory
Shorter, focused engagements: cloud/DevOps modernisation, platform consolidation, or diagnosing why a programme is stuck. Advisory-only or hands-on, depending on scope.
Focused engagementsWhat I believe
Lessons earned over 18 years
Across projects, products, programmes, teams, challenges, and deliveries.
01
On quality
Quality doesn't slip under delivery pressure.
It slips when there's no structure to protect it. Build the structure before the pressure arrives.
02
On culture
Psychological safety is an engineering output.
Engineers grow when they feel safe to take risks, not when they're told to. It shows up in how early risks get raised and whether people speak up when something is wrong.
03
On translation
That translation is a leadership job.
The best technical decisions happen when engineers and business stakeholders speak the same language. It works in both directions.
04
On legacy
A team's capability is the most durable thing you can build.
Programmes end. Platforms get replaced. The engineers you've developed carry what they learned into every team after you.
05
On AI
Adopt AI with judgment, accountability, and engineering discipline.
AI is changing how software is built, but not what great engineering requires. The challenge isn't adopting AI — it's adopting it responsibly. This site itself is one small example — built AI-assisted, reviewed and shaped by hand.
Capabilities
Leadership range, grounded in engineering
Engineering leadership
- Team development
- Technical leadership
- Architecture reviews
Delivery
- Global programmes
- Operational excellence
- OKR & Roadmap
- Continous Improvement
Cloud & Deployments
- AWS
- Azure
- Platform consolidation
- DevOps
- Kubernetes
Product & agile
- SAFe
- Customer-embedded delivery
- Digital transformation
AI
- GitHub Copilot
- Claude
- Responsible AI adoption
- Automation
Technical foundations
- Java
- JavaScript
- .NET / Xamarin
- ReactJS
- Angular
- Android
Current focus
What I am building, learning, and exploring right now
01In progress
Building AI systems to lead AI-enabled teams
I'm building a local AI knowledge assistant from first principles — not to create another chatbot, but to understand the engineering decisions behind retrieval, AI-assisted development and responsible AI adoption.
02A2 → B1 in progress
Learning the language is part of joining the culture
Relocating to the Netherlands isn't just a career move for me. I'm actively learning Dutch and investing time in understanding the culture, because building trust and leading teams starts with genuine connection.
03Ongoing
Mentoring engineers and technology professionals and managers
I mentor on ADPList — mostly around: career guidance, career transitions into management / engineering leadership focus. It's the same "build people, metrics will follow" belief from my management experience.
04Completed
Building the business side of engineering leadership
Used the transition between roles to formalise skills that sit alongside technical delivery — SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager certification, cloud-native architecture fundamentals, and finance literacy for technology leaders,and deeper PMO/delivery-tooling fluency (ClickUp Expert certification) to support consulting and interim engagements.
In their words
What my teams and peers said about my work
Combined from farewell messages from my last role and recommendations over the years, these are the qualities that came up most often.
- calm
- approachable
- inspiring
- composed
- mentor
- trusted her team
- patient
- always there
- kind
- positive influence
- role model
- genuine
- never in a bad mood
- warm
- irreplaceable
- gave importance to wellbeing
- lasting impact
- cheering everyone on
- shadow leader
- redefined what a manager is
- support from day one
- encouragement a true gift
- women hero leader
- deeply missed
- patiently guided every single time
- brought positivity to the org
- Leadership qualities
- Personal qualities
- Impact
- Quoted lines
Contact
Let's talk about the work
Based in the Netherlands, currently working as an independent consultant — and open to the right full-time role.
Full-time roles
Senior Engineering Manager / Director-level roles where I can build teams, own delivery, and lead through growth or transformation.
Consulting & interim engagements
Available through Axis Tech Consulting for interim engineering leadership, delivery transformation advisory, and engineering org design. Project or fractional, defined scope or open-ended.
Peer conversations
Always happy to talk engineering culture, AI adoption, or leading teams in a new market. These are worth having regardless of what's next.