Tom Käsler
Software Architecture · Platform Engineering · Agentic Delivery
I am a software engineer and system architect with more than 15 years of experience across product development, web services, and distributed systems.
I work with teams and founders that need clear technical direction and fast hands-on execution, especially when reliability, scalability, and maintainability matter.
A growing part of my work is helping teams use coding agents as part of actual software delivery. This means creating the technical and organisational conditions around them: sound architecture, clear boundaries, useful specifications, automated checks, reliable deployment paths, and systems that can be understood in production.
The aim is not to automate technical judgement. It is to let product owners and domain experts guide implementation without quietly losing control of quality, operations, or the system as a whole.
Contact: tom@bananastack.net
How I work
- Pragmatic, low-ceremony decisions shaped by the domain, constraints, and maturity of the system
- Clear communication and low-overhead collaboration
- Sound, practical solutions that are worth maintaining
What I help with
- Reviews of existing systems, with concrete direction on what to improve
- Architecture and platform foundations for new and growing products
- Ongoing technical guidance while teams build and operate their product
How I deliver
- System-level thinking combined with hands-on execution
- Systems that are clear enough to evolve, robust enough to operate, and practical enough to ship
- AI-assisted workflows used to increase speed without compromising quality
Languages: Kotlin, Scala, Java, TypeScript, JavaScript, Go
Architectural approaches: Microservices-based architecture, service-oriented architecture (SOA), domain-driven design (DDD), reactive programming, event streaming, DevOps, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC)
Tools: GitLab CI, Docker
Experience
Technical Architecture Consultant, Agentic Delivery — Client: GEDAT Gesellschaft für Datentechnik mbH (TIME JOB)
Independent consulting engagement covering technical architecture and platform engineering for TIME JOB's software development. Helping establish a delivery process in which product owners specify and guide work carried out by coding agents, including technical framing, review, deployment, observability, and operational guardrails.
Software Architecture / Platform Engineering Consultant — Client: Naven Labs GmbH
Independent consulting engagement covering the architecture and implementation of operational applications for interview coordination, tenant management, and CRM and back-office workflows. Responsible for platform and DevOps work, alongside hands-on technical support for project management and delivery.
System Architect — milch & zucker GmbH
Coordination of architectural decisions and technical leadership across the automation platform and product development.
Software Developer / Platform Engineer — milch & zucker GmbH
Design and development of web services for automating application lifecycle processes, including production readiness through automated testing and monitoring. Responsible for independently developing and operating the resulting services.
Co-Founder — Particify GmbH
Design and development of the service-oriented web application ARSnova with regard to availability and scalability. Ensured quality, maintainability, and stability through automated testing. Design and implementation of a payment system including functionality gated behind paid accounts.
Lecturer — Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen
Created and taught computer science courses, including microservices architecture. Supervision of final theses.
Research Assistant — Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen
Support and expansion of the source code management infrastructure, including GitLab CI, and support with DevOps tasks. Taught courses on microservices, concurrent and distributed systems, DevOps, and backend technologies.
Open Source Software Developer — ARSnova
Core Maintainer / Developer of the audience response system ARSnova within a small developer team. Refactoring legacy code and migrating the architecture to a service-oriented system including microservices.