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Hi, I am Olaf Ngo

Olaf Ngo

Senior Cloud Enablement & FinOps Architect at OBI Smart Technologies

I maximize the ROI of complex multi-cloud architectures by integrating FinOps across the entire engineering lifecycle. With a proven track record of achieving up to 30% cost optimization in previous engagements and leading global transformation programs, I possess the technological and organizational expertise to transform cloud spending from an unpredictable cost center into a highly efficient business driver. As a certified FinOps expert and FOCUS analyst, I create the necessary transparency and governance so that engineering teams can take ownership of costs without sacrificing the speed of innovation.

FinOps Certified Practitioner
FinOps FOCUS Analyst
Certified Azure Solution Architect Expert
GCP Associate Cloud Engineer
The Open Group Certified: TOGAF® 9 Certified
Azure DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ400)
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
Hard Working

Skills

Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing

Worked with most of the major clouds such as Azure, GCP, SAP BTP, AWS, and Aliyun

IT Architecture

Experienced with designing and executing solution architectures.

FinOps
FinOps

Experienced management and optimization of Cloud costs by managing a Cloud CoE and applying the FinOps framework

Dashboarding / Reporting

Building and assembling dashboards for financial reporting using Looker Studio, PowerBI and Apptio BI

Infrastructure as Code
Infrastructure as Code

I can write OpenTofu/Terraform, Cloudformation and Azure RM templates and apply a modular approach for reusability and scale.

Containerization
Containerization

Writes and transforms applications into cloud-ready compute on containers. Be it Docker, Compose or Kubernetes, I have seen and used it all.

Linux Virtualization
Linux Virtualization

Using as the main operating system for servers and container workloads. Capable of managing Linux systems and KVM based hypervisors (e.g. Proxmox).

Kubernetes
Kubernetes

Capable of deploying, managing application on Kubernetes. Experienced deploying Kubernetes applications and clusters (AKS, EKS, GKE, RKE2, K3S, RHOCP)

Git
Git

Experienced with git-based development with different branching, merging strategies and CI/CD strategies. Mostly, use GitLab. Also, have experience in working with GitLab.

Vietnamese

Mother language

German

De-facto mother language as I’m born and grew up in Germany

English

business fluent, worked in many international contexts

Korean

Studied Korean in exchange semester. Passed TOPIK level 3 exam (2011)

Chinese

Learned Mandarin during university and went to Summer School. Passed HSK level 3 exam (2009)

Experiences

1
OBI Smart Technologies

Jul 2024 - Present

Cologne (full remote)

OBI is an European home improvement and DIY retailer. Their mission is to become the no. 1 destination for Home and Gardening. We achieve this by a smart combination of unique cross-channel experiences tailored to our customers, backed by a state-of-the-art tech stack. OBI Smart Technologies is the tech unit of OBI and 100% part of the OBI Group.

Datacenter and Cloud Infrastucture - Senior Designer

Nov 2025 - Present

Responsibilities:
  • Gather and analyze requirements for a modern private and edge Cloud deployment
  • Work with experts in the domains of Storage, Hypervisor, Backup and Automation to design a blueprint for the new private cloud
  • Active participation in POCs with different vendor stacks (e.g. Nutanix, Cisco/VMWare and AWS)
  • Discussions and explorations with different vendors (e.g. AWS) in the feasibility of a multicluster stack deployment at scale
  • As technical platform owner, lead the handover of the landing zone to the team after a large organizational restructuring
Cloud Department - Senior DevOps Engineer for FinOps and Cloud Enablement

Jul 2024 - Nov 2025

Responsibilities:
  • Implementation of the FinOps framework - final selection of the tool provider, manage the engagement with the ISV and within a time frame of 3 months to implement the tool for OBI. Results : successfully implemented the FinOps framework by creating 100% visibility of cloud costs across all major platforms, increasing our savings plan coverage rate to > 85%, reduced total costs by 20-30% (reservation and savings plans) vs. baseline, increased resource tagging to 95%. This approach was also confirmed by our cloud partners in regular QBRs
  • Governed and rewrote the Cloud Policy from 2022 to match new reqirements - a binding document for all users of the cloud accounts and guiding document for the internal auditing.
  • Takeover and redesign of the Azure Landing Zones. Worked with Microsoft on improving the resiliency and closing best practice gaps for the platform.
  • Design and implementation of the GCP Landing Zone. Managed the engagement with Google PSO.
  • I am guiding teams on their cloud journey according to best practices on Cloud including cost optimization with FinOps.
  • When I’m not doing field work, I work on the multi-cloud strategy and consult our platform team to run a better cloud platform product by improving the developer experience and platform consistency. I am also responsible for the overall FinOps strategy and implementation at OBI, including the integration of our cloud platforms into our existing processes and tools. I work closely with our financial stakeholders to ensure that we have a clear understanding of our cloud costs and can optimize them effectively.
Henkel AG & Co KgaA

April 2020 - June 2024

Düsseldorf

Henkel is a multinational, global leader in the adhesives and consumer products industry and part of the DAX40. Iconic brands such as Persil, Loctite, Pritt, Schwarzkopf and Syoss belong to the portfolio.

Program Lead Hybrid Cloud

April 2021 - June 2024

Responsibilities:
  • Project leader for the Skywalker Program (10 internal FTE, budget > 5M USD)
  • Business Case Management of the entire ramp-up and transition into the new cloud operating model
  • Management of the migration of workloads into the new setup
  • Participation and support in vendor negotiations for a multi-million contract renewal of a public cloud provider
  • Definition of a workload placement strategy across all platforms
  • Build up of the Landing Zones for GCP with team and PSO, RedHat OpenShift Platform with team and Red Hat Consulting
  • Several RfPs for selection of hardware partner in Private Cloud and implementation partner for landing zone build
  • Roadmap definition of the Hybrid Cloud Program over the next 5 years
  • Stakeholder management and project communications via Townhalls, migration round tables, developer team sessions in the Berlin dx Hub and liaising with partners
  • Part of the dx Global Infrastructure Leadership team since 05/2023
  • Passed IDC assessments and receeived strong annual review results; nominated as Hi-Po of the department
SPARC program - DevOps Team Lead

March 2020 - May 2021

Responsibilities:
  • Architectural and development lead of Henkel’s yet largest custom TPM implementation, 5 internal FTE, more than 4000 devlopment PD
  • Counterpart to the external development and architecture team, guidance of up to 50 developers in peak phase of first release cycle
  • I have set development standards, introduced CI/CD and package / artifact management into the program
  • Management of the entire SAP BTP landscape and all HANA cloud instances (up to 1 TB) using HANA Cockpit and other tools from the BTP stack.
Senior Cloud Solutions Architect

April 2020 - June 2024

Responsibilities:
  • Participation in the redesign and improvement of the Azure Landing Zone for enhancing developer experience with a partner
  • Architectural Consulting and support of teams, initiative and workloads moving into the Cloud (mainly Azure) in the area of document management, industrial IoT, marketing site hosting, tooling for SHE
  • Platform and solution consulting on Google Cloud to redesign a native information portal for technical data sheets (tdx)
  • Worked on internal initiatives to improve the documentation (Cloud Docs), approaches (use of IaC across the platform) and fostering enablement of members of the Community of Practice.
  • Founding member of the Cloud Architecture Team.
2
3
Bayer Business Services GmbH (100 % Bayer AG)

October 2017 - March 2020

Leverkusen, Germany

Bayer is a global life sciences company consisting divisions for RX Pharmaceuticals, OTC Consumer Pharma and Crop Protection and Seedss business

Cloud Solution Architect

Jan 2019 - March 2020

Responsibilities:
  • Worked in a stream of the Postmerger integration of Monsanto’s IT into Bayer
  • Worked as key infrasteructure architect in Global API Management Platform project, where we introduced the existing API Management solution form Monsanto into Bayer’s landscape and integrating it with SSO and Identity Processes.
  • Supported 2 use cases from HR IT and Crop Science to use API proxy and publish the data catalog initiative
Platform Manager (SAP Cloud)

October 2017 - March December 2018

Responsibilities:
  • Integration of SaaS-based predictive maintenance solution (Asset Intelligence Network) into the CropScience ERP system
  • Led the tender RfP process outsourcing of entire SAP platform with 4 contestants and an internal team of 10 members (inkl. 1 FTE for PMO). I gathered the requirements for the new hosting platform and brought the RfP up to management decision before final awarding
  • Management of the global SAP Cloud Platform accounts and support of the SAP Platform Lead Architect
IBM Global Business Services

July 2015 - September 2017

Düsseldorf, Germany

IBM is a global IT services firm focusing research, IT outsourcing (GTS) and business consulting (GBS) services.

Senior Application Architect (SAP Cloud)

July 2015 - September 2017

Responsibilities:
  • Enterprise Applications, SAP Platform & Technology Practice
  • Development Lead for a global ERP template (5 FTE, 3M USD budget)
  • Technical Lead for a B2B solution based on Hana Cloud Platform & Offshore-subproject lead for 6 FTE (Backend, Web, 1M USD budget)
  • Key Solution Architect for several bid activities
4
5
BearingPoint GmbH

2012 - 2015

Düsseldorf, Germany

A business and IT consulting firm, based out of KPMG Consulting and Anderson Consulting.

Senior Technology Consultant

2012 - 2015

Responsibilities:
  • Project Lead for a SAP ERP/BW release upgrade and HANA migration project - got promoted to Senior IT Consultant.
  • Project Management for GRC implementation (Security Weaver)
  • PMO for a large SAP transformation/carve-out program - got promoted to IT Consultant.
  • Worked with mainly with manufacturing and utilities clients
  • Worked on different initiatives in the CoE for SAP HANA
  • Started as IT Analyst - worked on SAP NetWeaver and Enterprise Portal / WCMS solutions as internal trainer
Vodafone D2 Germany GmbH

Oct 2008 - Jan 2009

Düsseldorf, Germany

Vodafone is a global mobile services provider.

Intern

Oct 2008 - Jan 2009

Responsibilities:
  • Worked in the Marketing Department for Consumer Data (MCD) and elaborated on the marketing strategy for young people (under 28)
  • Supported the Senior Managers in the go live of a hero device and bundled tariff
  • Worked on lots of sales data usage reporting for a weekly JF through mastering Excel and PowerPoint and ThinkCell
6

Education

University of Hannover, Faculty of Economics and Management
2005-2011
Diploma in Business and IT Management, Institute for Information Systems Research
Publications:
  • Mobile Edutainment and Game Based Education to Enrich Mobile Learning (2011)
  • SAP Learning Portal (2009)
Yonsei University, Korea
2012-2016
Exchange Semester, fall 2010 cohort
CGPA: 3.8 out of 4
Taken Courses:
Course NameTotal CreditObtained Credit
Management Information Systems43.75
Supply Chain Management43.8
Korean Language 143.5
Extracurricular Activities:
  • Volunteering as German class teacher
  • Participation in student clubs
  • Extracurricular culture classes (cooking, historic site visits)
Tongji Unversity
2011
Summer School, summer 2011
Taken Courses:
  • Urban Development and Chinese Language
Extracurricular Activities:
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Klaus Groth Schule
1996-2005
Abitur (High School diplome / A-Level equivalent)