Dirk Hufnagel

Being a technologist by heart, I help organizations to build great solutions by understanding the business and driving innovation.

I am a technologist by heart and spent most of my career holding roles in this area, working as CTO, Head of Software Engineering, architect, software engineer or technology consultant. I helped develop and design systems, ranging from modern mobile payment systems making our payments much easier via health insurance portals and systems to manage and publish new emissions to airport security systems making our travel a bit more safer.

Short Bio

My name is Dirk Hufnagel and I am Principal Consultant for Financial Services Industries at itopia AG. In this role, I help our clients to develop the best possible solution for their individual needs, demystify the cloud, design sustainable architectures, and support them in making the right decisions to achieve their goals.

Before itopia AG, I had the pleasure to be Principal Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services(AWS), working at the intersection of customers, partners and AWS. As CTO of TWINT AG, I was driving technology and helping to change culture to achieve business goals and strategy, building an innovative product with an agile and empowered organization.

I started and developed my career mainly working in the technology consulting area for companies like ti&m AG, ACG GmbH, or Novatec GmbH, with a strong focus on financial services organizations, holding roles like Software Architect, Senior Consultant or Senior Software Engineer, working with customers, driving innovation and building great products. During an exciting excursion into the airport industry, I also had the opportunity to work for Fraport AG Technical Project Manager and build security relevant airport infrastructure.

Things I learned during my journey

Throughout my career, i had the pleasure to learn some things beyond science and technology. Here are some of the most important insights I gained.

  • It is all about the people. Products and projects rise and fall with the teams building them. Always treat people, on all levels, with great respect and empathy. Help them to grow and reach their goals. Trust and empower them whenever possible. You rely on their knowledge, experience and diverse skills. With a great team, you can reach almost any goal.
  • Technology for the sake of technology is rarely a good approach. Technology is there so solve a problem. Without solving a problem it is just that, technology without purpose.
  • Architecture is mostly about trade offs. You have to learn to trade things for each other and more important, to communicate these trade offs to statkeholders. Clear priorities and well communicated business goals and strategy help to make the right trade off.
  • Right and wrong are often a matter of perspective, especially when it comes to technology and architecture. A clear vision and communication of the business driving factors helps to align your decisions and to go in the right direction.
  • Most decision we make, are reversible. In many cases making a decision is much more important than making the perfect decision. The important thing is, to identify the irreversible decisions and to make them carefully but also, to decide quickly on the rest to move fast.
  • Learning never stops. Being curious, open and able to dive deep into new and complex technologies is key to build trust and develop your skills. You can’t explain things in a simple way if you don’t understand what you are talking about.