Christian Gehlen

CV

Technical Product Manager in R&D environments for telecommunication companies with a strong background in software development.

Experienced in complex telco processes, API-driven systems, and documentation-heavy domains. Comfortable bridging product, engineering, and operations with a pragmatic, hands-on mindset.

Current Role

Technical Product Manager – R&D (Telecommunications)

Nov 2021 – Present

• Product responsibility for Number Portability and related telco processes
• Interface between development teams, stakeholders, and external partners
• Requirements engineering, prioritization, and backlog management
• Technical validation of implementations, APIs, and workflows
• Strong focus on documentation, traceability, and operational robustness

Professional Experience

• Product Manager – Number Portability - Enghouse Networks Gmbh
  • Nov 2021 - Present
• Software Developer - Enghouse Networks Gmbh
  • Nov 2017 - Nov 2021
• Software Developer - XConnect GmbH
  • Sep 2014 - Nov 2017
• Software Developer - sms eSolutions GmbH
  • Oct 2006 - Sep 2014
• Apprentice - Application Development (Fachinformatiker) - MKT GmbH
  • Sep 2005 - Sep 2006

Education

• Fachinformatiker für Anwendungsentwicklung
  • sms eSolutions GmbH / Sep 2005 – Jun 2008
  • Final grade: Good

Certification

• Certified UX Design Specialist
  • XDi - Experience Design Institut GmbH
  • Issued: Apr 2017

Domain Expertise - Telecommunications

• TMF APIs
  • Resource Inventory Management
  • Resource Order Management
• PDA
• MNP / zMRDB
• S/PRI / WITA
• WBCI
• ProKom (DeTeMedien / Phonebook entries)
• TR-AAV
• DRNP

Software Engineering Background

JVM Ecosystem

• Java (JDK 1.6 → JDK 17)
• Apache Karaf
• Apache Camel
• Quarkus
• Maven

Although no longer working as a full-time software developer, I still write code regularly — including unit and integration tests — to validate system behavior and technical assumptions.

Scripting & Tooling

• Python (small tools, automation, helpers)
• Git (treat everything as code)

Operating Systems & Infrastructure

Linux (≈20 years experience)

• SUSE, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch Linux, Manjaro
• Rocky Linux for server environments (private & professional)

Containerization & Runtime

• Docker
• Docker Compose
• Ingress & reverse proxy: Traefik, Caddy

Product & Documentation Tooling

Task & project management

• Jira (past)
• YouTrack (current)

Documentation

• AsciiDoctor (customer-facing documentation as PDF, e.g. ASRI / IFS)
• Markdown (internal & private documentation)
• MkDocs (professional use)
• Hugo (private & public websites)

Strong advocate of Docs as Code approaches and structured, maintainable documentation.

Additional Interests

• Homelab & self-hosting
• Documentation systems & knowledge management
• Terrarium keeping and research on centipedes (see: Scolohub.com)
• DIY projects, gardening, and music
• Living with (and taming) multiple cats