Milena-Mercedes May
My Ways of Working
Enable and support people
Manage engineering complexity
Teach agile and lean methods and thinking
Facilitate collaboration, especially across disciplines
Create, staff and adjust teams
Advise and coach Engineers on their growth path
Exchange feedback with my peers and managers to grow together
Help others to resolve conflict
Drive a culture of technical excellence
Role model feedback, learning, resilience and people positivity
Full Stack Software Engineering
Although my studies focused on Hardware Development, I chose to build my career in Web Development.Talks, Blogposts and Communities
I love to share my knowledge and have been doing so since 2015 as a speaker and blogger and in my Technical Excellence Workshops.
As a founding member of the Digital Leadership Network, I am also happy to support others to share their knowledge in our online meetups.
Reach out to me if you look for speakers or want to get support sharing your knowledge!
Management and Leadership
During the early years of my career, I have always been keen on reflecting and learning about leadership.
When I transitioned into my first leadership role in 2019, I was ready to apply the theory and have held different leadership roles in different companies since: as a Chapter Lead and Engineering Manager.
As a freelance Software Engineering Manager I now support Leadership with Mentoring and Interim Management.
My Blogs & Blogposts
Growing Excellence Blog
Personal Blog on Technical Excellence, Leadership and Agility in Software Engineering | 2024
Embracing Agile Values as a Tech and People Lead
Blogpost reviewed by Ben Linders | 2022
Agile Leadership Remote
Personal Blog | 2022
My First Workation
Blogpost published with mindmatters | 2019
Gemeinsam. Remote. Arbeiten. | Work. Together. Remotely.
Blogpost published with mindmatters | 2019
Agile Improvements
Personal Blog | 2015-2016
My Workshops & Talks
Software Engineering Leadership Lab
A series of interactive sessions to enhance your leadership skills. Register here.
Between Monolith and Microfrontends
Advantages of a modulithic architecture and how an incremental refactoring can succeed
Talk at Code Talks Hamburg | 2024
Leading with Agile Values
To apply agile practises fluently
Talk at online Digital Leadership Network meetup | 2024
More here
My Work Experience
08-23 - Present | Milena-Mercedes May - growing-excellence.tech
Freelance Software Engineering Manager, remote
Offering
- Leadership Mentoring
- Technical Excellence Workshops
- On-the-Job Training for Software Engineers
- Interim Engineering Management
06-23 - 07-23 | Kaufland e-commerce
Software Engineering Manager, remote
- responsible for the delivery success of two teams in the Order & Buy Area
- managing 10 Software Developers
04-22 - 01-23 | Resourcify
Software Engineering Manager, remote
- created the new position Engineering Manager from scratch
- reorganised the teams
- managed 20 Software Engineers
- hired and contracted Software Engineers
- contracted Agile Coaches to support the teams
- created two new specialised positions: Infrastructure and Software Quality Engineer
- implemented the base for topics like learning and growth under time and budget pressure with a minimum viable approach
03-22 - 04-22 | Resourcify
Lead Engineer, remote
Started into this position, then we quickly discovered that I can provide more value as Engineering Manager
11-19 - 02-22 | MOIA
Chapter Lead Frontend, Hamburg and remote
- responsible for a monolithic React frontend which parts were developed in several cross functional teams
- organised working on cross cutting concerns and decoupling dependencies to make the teams more
autonomous - responsible for the technical backlog
- set the tone for collaborative decision making and prioritization for the Community of Practise
- implemented refactorings of cross cutting concerns
- co-created a Pattern Library in collaboration with two Designers to restore consistency of UI and UX in the frontend architecture and to increase development speed in the long run
- disciplinary responsible for three - later five - Frontend Developers
- hired two Frontend Developers
- facilitated team rotations and personal growth
10-19 - 11-19 | MOIA
Senior Web Engineer, Hamburg
Started into this position, then was promoted to Chapter Lead in the context of a reorganisation
05-14 - 09-19 | mindmatters
Full Stack Developer, Hamburg and remote
- introduced Behaviour Driven Development and a Pattern Library into one project
- contributed to a migration to React in a Backbone / Marionette application
- developed Ruby on Rails and React applications in a team
- coached the client in their role as Product Owner
- increased the test coverage in a Java and Angular application while adding features
- supported Product Owners to reduce the requirements to a MVP in order to meet deadlines
- acted as Agile Coach: facilitated retrospectives for four teams
- established the role of the Agile Coach as a fulltime job in the company
- assisted in hiring, sales meetings and improvements of internal processes
- mentored working students
- implemented a Developer Peer Group for mutual mentoring
- drove introduction of remote work
- created an internal time budgeting tool and managed its further development
- contributed to the company's visibility by writing blog posts and giving talks on conferences and meetups
11-12 - 04-14 | Mondia Media
Java Software Developer, Hamburg
11-10 - 10-12 | ConceptPeople
Software Web Developer, Hamburg
My Education
2007 - 2010 | University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg
Bachelor of Science, graded outstanding ("sehr gut")
Technical Computer Sciences: focused on hardware programming
Thesis: "Development of an EtherCAT Communication Layer for dynamic network configuration for medical X-Ray systems" as a trainee at Philips Medical Systems
"Milena drives decisions and change with much power. All her decisions are backed by high quality sources and based on agile principles."
"It was a pleasure to work with Milena and see how data was collected together with employees on a monthly basis. The feedback was used to derive goals and actions."
"Milena was always able to find excellent solutions for any problems which arose."
I'm based in Hamburg, Germany, love remote work and am a native German speaker.
As I have been working in English speaking companies for years, I offer my services in both English and German.
Reach out to me in the language of your choice!