About Karel
Hands-on CTO, Chief Architect and Senior .NET Engineer with 27+ years of international experience designing and building cloud-native platforms on Microsoft Azure, leading high-performing engineering teams, and driving Agile and DevOps transformations at scale.
Proven track record across start-ups, consultancies and large enterprises delivering complex Azure / .NET solutions, modernising legacy platforms, and implementing CI/CD and product-centric, Agile ways of working. Comfortable operating from strategy and architecture down to code, regularly contributing as a C#/.NET developer and Azure engineer while leading teams.
Looking for full-time or contract roles such as Hands-on CTO, Chief Architect, VP of Engineering, Principal Azure/.NET Architect, or Azure DevOps Lead.
Dutch
Native or bilingual
English
Native or bilingual
French
Conversational
Can work on-site
London (up to 50km)
Experience
- Carecircle Technology LtdCTO, Architect, Developer & Co-founderMEDICALFebruary 2021 - Today (5 years and 4 months)London, United KingdomOwn the technology vision and roadmap for a global healthcare platform, combining strategic direction with hands-on architecture and development.Architect, configure and build a cloud-native, Azure-based platform, including security, data, integration and observability.Lead distributed front-end and back-end engineering teams (~10 engineers) in Romania and Ukraine, establishing engineering standards and ways of working.Implement and coach Scrum-based delivery, emphasising empirical product management, clear backlogs and technical excellence.Key Achievements:
- Architected and implemented the entire back-end infrastructure on Microsoft Azure, using services including (but not limited to) Cosmos DB, Azure Function Apps, Azure Foundry (Open AI), Search AI (vectorisation of various data sources), API Management, AAD B2C, Front Door, SignalR & Notification Hubs, GitHub & Azure DevOps.
- Developed production back-end APIs and business logic in C#/.NET, primarily using Azure Functions.
- Implemented full-stack DevOps with Azure DevOps and GitHub, enabling true CI/CD with reliable and repeatable deployments to production at any time.
- Tax Systems UKChief ArchitectDIGITAL AND ITDecember 2023 - July 2025 (1 year and 7 months)Staines-upon-Thames, United KingdomLed the cloud-native architecture of the firm's SaaS tax platform on Azure, aligning product and technology roadmaps.Collaborated with product, engineering and operations to ensure scalability, performance and compliance.Key Achievements:
- Streamlined and standardised the API strategy and implementation, improving consistency and reusability across services. Set up an internal engineering architecture group to govern standards, patterns and platform evolution.
- AvanadeUK/LLCGlobal Agile and DevOps Lead (Senior Director)TECHFebruary 2002 - May 2018 (16 years and 3 months)London, United KingdomAccountable for creating and implementing Avanade’s global Agile and DevOps vision and strategy, centred on Microsoft technologies and Azure DevOps.Led a global team of ~50 Agile and DevOps coaches & engineers across five geographies; managed a $2m+ yearly programme budget.Key Achievements:
- Led a world-wide organisational transformation that facilitated entrance into new markets, ingraining Agile and DevOps into the company DNA – developed the first strategic partnership with Scrum.org, boosting capabilities to 5000+ trained and certified practitioners and developed 15% of the worlds’ Professional Scrum Trainers.
- Created and delivered a comprehensive training curriculum ranging from deep dive 5-day Agile development to 1 or 2-day Scrum/Kanban foundational courses for executives and delivery leads. Delivered 100+ training courses globally as Professional Scrum Trainer. This included locations like China, Australia, Malaysia, US, Canada, Europe, South Africa, India, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.
- Implemented an enterprise Agile framework with Scrum at its core to support Avanade’s global consulting force and its clients.
- Successfully coached Avanade’s marketing organisation to adopt Agile globally. This led to Avanade being finalist for ITSMA’s Excellence Awards in the Increasing Marketing Agility to Maximize Impact category.
- As part of Imagine 2020, an internal transformation program enabling Avanade to be the leading digital innovator, designed and implemented a framework for the top 200 executives (including CxO) to work in a more Agile way. This included implementing Scrum at scale (Nexus), establish effective product ownership for all Imagine 2020 initiatives and adoption of Agile tooling such as Azure DevOps and MS Teams.
- Co-inventor of Avanade’s .NET development frameworks (Avanade Connected Architecture & Enterprise Library) developed in co-operation with Microsoft and Avanade’s engineering group in Seattle.
Recommendations
Be the first to recommend Karel
Help this freelancer shine by sharing your experience working together.
These freelancer profiles also match your criteria
Agatha Frydrych
Backend Java Software Engineer
4.7
(3)
2
Baptiste Duhen
Fullstack developer
4.6
(4)
5
Amed Hamou
Senior Lead Developer
4
(2)
7
Audrey Champion
Web developer
4.3
(3)
4
Education
- Bioscience Engineering, MasterGhent University1994Bioscience Engineering, Master
- Latin-Mathematics(High School) Royal Atheneum1989Latin-Mathematics