Open to freelance, contract & embedded engagementsAugust 2026

Jürgen Bonne

Forward-Deployed Product Engineer

Jürgen Bonne

I embed with clients, decide what to build, make the product and technical calls, and stay until it works in production. With twenty years as a technical product and delivery lead, I now use AI to build much more of it myself.

Jürgen Bonne

For most of my career, through my own companies, I have worked directly for clients, with selected development and design teams, and embedded in digital agencies. The industries kept changing: telecoms, loyalty, B2C retail, B2B ecommerce, public mobility, live events and AI. Across them, I did the same job: make the problem clear, surface technical consequences early, turn it into buildable requirements, and take it all the way to production.

Earlier in 2026 I took end-to-end ownership of two AI products, validated in real-world testing with external users. I designed and built the core agent system, learning architecture, knowledge retrieval, multi-tenant infrastructure and several frontends.

This is forward-deployed work: close to the users, close to the systems, accountable for what actually ships. Today I take on freelance, contract and embedded engagements where product decisions, technical decisions and delivery need one senior owner, including AI strategy and implementation.

Selected work

Seven of more than a hundred engagements
2026

Zirkel AI (Agent Systems)

Co-founder & Technical Lead

Stack

  • Core agent system · 17 tools
  • Human-gated learning · memory tiers
  • Python · FastAPI · React · TypeScript
  • Postgres · in-house retrieval · tenant isolation
  • 2,100+ tests · CI-gated
  • Hetzner EU · GDPR engineering

Engagement

  • Co-founder

As the founding team’s sole engineer, I took two product lines from concept to real-world use on one shared platform: a B2B agency platform and a B2C consumer product. I took end-to-end technical ownership, from architecture through implementation and operations.

I designed and built the core agent system, the learning and memory architecture, in-house retrieval with no third-party embedding APIs in the loop, server-enforced multi-tenant isolation, the frontends, integrations and the full infrastructure. Expert corrections only become lasting knowledge after human approval. Every metric and chart a user sees is computed in code and audited. The model narrates results, it never invents them.

Both B2B and B2C approaches went through real user testing, from design-partner feedback rounds to early-user validation. If something shipped or broke on the technical side, it was mine.

2022 — present

mobil.live (KielRegion)

Technical Product Manager & Product Concept Lead

Scope

  • Public mobility service
  • Live since 2022
  • Browser · kiosk dashboards
  • NGSI-LD · GTFS · live ferry positions
  • Cross-organization integrations · multilingual
  • openCode / EUPL

Agency

  • hanseatics rich media

From the start, I shaped the overall concept, information architecture and UX approach, led the design work, and brought hanseatics on board for technical development.

I run the backlog, write acceptance criteria, shape the browser and kiosk experience, test what the development partner ships, and manage releases through go-live. On public kiosks, sessions reset after inactivity so the next person starts from a known state. I also prepared the open-source publication on openCode under the EUPL.

The data comes from mobility and geospatial providers that fail in different ways. Deciding what users see when a source disappears or goes stale is part of the product. GTFS timetables and NGSI-LD context feeds reach the app through adapters we refined with the development partner.

2022 — 2026

DeutschlandCard (Bertelsmann)

Technical Product Manager & Delivery Lead

Scope

  • Large-scale loyalty program
  • Four years, continuous
  • Requirements · QA · releases
  • Nuxt · Magnolia · GraphQL · Elasticsearch
  • AWS · Kubernetes · Cloudflare
  • Sourcepoint consent · Webtrekk · Grafana

Agency

  • deepblue networks

For four years I led delivery within deepblue’s team. I turned product concepts and strategy into buildable requirements, worked through technical consequences with development and UX, managed sprints, and handled go/no-go and rollback decisions for releases.

I configured and maintained the tagging, tracking and consent flows and documented them as the shared reference for all stakeholders. With the development team, I also mapped the full systems architecture across frontends, CMS, microservices and backends.

For the price comparison covering around 28 million products, I aligned backend data models with the UX and set the server-side rendering requirements for indexing and search. To meet accessibility requirements, I designed and prototyped an AI workflow to generate captions for more than 10,000 CMS images.

2024

UNGER.DE (B2C Retail)

Technical Product Manager & Requirements Engineer

Scope

  • Luxury fashion retail relaunch
  • Shopware · custom implementations
  • Figma reviews and sign-offs · Confluence specs
  • Single point of contact
  • QA · hypercare planning

Agency

  • MUTABOR

For the UNGER.DE relaunch, MUTABOR brought me in as the single point of contact between the client’s executive team, the UX designers and the Shopware development studio. I owned the iterative requirements, design alignment and specification process through QA and go-live preparation, including planning for hypercare.

With the design team, I worked through the information architecture and interaction details early on and validated them against Shopware constraints with the lead developer while changes were still cheap. From the off-canvas cart to variant selection, listing and filter states across devices and viewport sizes, I managed the client’s requirements and sign-offs.

2022 — 2023

KNF (B2B Ecommerce)

Technical Product Manager & Integration Lead

Scope

  • B2B commerce MVP
  • TYPO3 CMS · Salesforce commerce & CRM
  • Four organizations · joint acceptance
  • Gated pricing · one-country pilot
  • Requirements · journey testing

Agency

  • MUTABOR

KNF built a B2B commerce pilot in one of its markets for ordering selected sample pumps online. The client set the strategy and goals, MUTABOR designed the experience, and two development partners integrated the TYPO3 website with the Salesforce commerce architecture.

Across the four organizations, I owned the purchase journey from technical concept and requirements through end-to-end testing and joint acceptance. The core challenge was integrating the existing TYPO3 site and the new Salesforce commerce area into one seamless experience. That required custom modules and flows on both sides: login and cart state moved over REST, while pricing appeared only after registration and login.

2016 — 2021

otelo (Vodafone)

Technical Project Manager & Co-Product Owner

Scope

  • Telecommunications
  • B2C digital portfolio
  • Five years, recurring
  • Headless Drupal · React SSR · BFF
  • WebID KYC · PSD2
  • Penetration tests · on-call · releases

Agency

  • deepblue networks

Over roughly five years of repeat engagements, I worked across concept, product and delivery in otelo’s B2C digital portfolio. I led the concept for a headless CMS serving web and native apps from one content system, which deepblue implemented.

I specified and tested interfaces, stayed through releases, held production rights in the CMS, published approved tariff and campaign changes, and joined the on-call rota. I planned and defended maintenance, dependency updates and refactoring separately from feature development. I also translated GDPR requirements into consent specifications across web and apps, and specified, aligned and tested KYC and PSD2 flows with external providers.

2012 — 2014
and 2019

Red Bull Storm Chase (Global Event)

Digital Lead & Platform Delivery

Scope

  • Drupal event platform
  • Red Bull infrastructure · Brightcove
  • Facebook Open Graph app · social login
  • Live coverage · in-production editing

Engagement

  • Direct — Red Bull Media House
  • 2019 — via Big Sexy Pictures

Red Bull Media House commissioned the first Storm Chase platform directly from me. I pitched the concept, led delivery and coordinated a freelance team of developers and designers.

The event sends professional windsurfers into severe storms wherever they occur, with almost no audience on site, so the platform had to act as the venue: registration, spot nomination, community voting, mapping and live coverage. I worked with the developers on Brightcove streaming and the video and social-feed integrations. During the missions, I was the digital lead for live reporting and community management.

I returned for later editions through Big Sexy Pictures, in 2019 as Helicopter Producer.

Capabilities

Proven by the work above
01

Bridge client intent and delivery

Four years at DeutschlandCard turning product intent into buildable requirements across changing systems and teams.
02

From backlog to production

mobil.live has been live since 2022. I still manage the backlog, acceptance criteria, testing and releases with the client and development partner.
03

Clients who come back

Five years of recurring work at otelo and four continuous years at DeutschlandCard, both through deepblue networks, plus a business built largely on repeat engagements.
04

Full product ownership

Twenty years of specifying systems with delivery teams. More recently, I designed, built and operated two AI products end to end.

Systems & technologies

How I work with them

The cases above show these systems in context. Some I have designed, built and run myself. With others I map the current state, specify changes, work through interfaces and stay through release.

Built & operated directly
Python, FastAPI and SQLAlchemy · React and TypeScript · Postgres, pgvector and BigQuery · LLM pipelines · in-house retrieval · conversational commerce · OAuth, multi-tenancy and server-enforced isolation · Hetzner and observability.
Product, content & commerce systems
Nuxt · Magnolia · Drupal · Shopware · WordPress · TYPO3 · LAMP-stack delivery · Elasticsearch · headless content models, taxonomies, permissions and editorial workflows · Storybook and design-system collaboration · Salesforce commerce interfaces.
Data & interfaces
REST and GraphQL · backend-for-frontend layers · versioned API contracts and integration validation · Redis caching · GTFS and NGSI-LD mobility feeds · analytics data flows · external identity, payment, recruitment, mapping and media integrations.
Delivery & operations with teams
AWS and Kubernetes · Docker · CI/CD and environment-promotion paths · staging and production environments · Cloudflare, CloudFront, web-application firewalls, CDNs and caching · release and rollback planning.
Compliance, privacy & accessibility
GDPR consent and data-flow specifications · Sourcepoint, Tealium and Google Tag Manager · cookie and client-storage lifecycle · penetration-test analysis and remediation · PSD2 and regulated identity flows · accessibility as a delivery criterion.
Measurement, testing & improvement
Adobe Analytics, Webtrekk and Google Analytics implementations · A/B and multivariate testing with Optimizely · rapid user testing · Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse · Sentry, Graylog, Grafana and load-test evaluation · acceptance criteria and full-journey validation across browsers, devices and environments.

Career

2004 — present
Jan 2026 — present

Forward-Deployed Product Engineer, Remote worldwide

I continue the client work of my niulabs years under my own name: product decisions, buildable requirements, delivery responsibility. Zirkel AI added hands-on AI systems work, from agent architecture to operations.
Jan 2011 — Dec 2025

Founder & Managing Partner, niulabs GmbH, Hamburg

Fifteen years of technical product, concept and delivery work across B2B and B2C digital services and ecommerce platforms, largely through repeat business.

Brands

  • Vodafone
  • Red Bull Media House
  • DeutschlandCard
  • KielRegion
  • CASIO
  • Beiersdorf
  • Migros
  • OTTO Group
  • KNF
  • UNGER
  • element e

Agencies

  • deepblue networks
  • MUTABOR
  • DOKYO
  • hanseatics rich media
  • k1 digital
  • Big Sexy Pictures
Aug — Sep 2021

Head of Experience Strategy, LionGate AG, München

A short senior role at this established IT partner for digital transformation. It confirmed that my heart beats for hands-on product and delivery.
Apr 2013 — Sep 2014

Lecturer, Digital Branding, Brand Academy, Hamburg

Taught and examined brand management in digital transformation.
Mar 2009 — Dec 2010

Co-founder & Managing Partner, plusminus7 GmbH, Berlin

Built an agency combining digital marketing with business-process work.

Brands

  • Danone
  • Clarins
  • Diageo
  • Universal Music Group
  • MTV
  • Swatch
  • Colgate
Jul 2008 — Feb 2009

Account Manager, Heye & Partner GmbH (DDB / Omnicom), Hamburg

Web marketing and campaign platforms in Heye Digital Lab, where I helped build the new team.

Brands

  • Johnson & Johnson
  • Eckes-Granini
  • Bahlsen
  • Wernesgrüner
  • Volksbank
Aug 2006 — Jun 2008

Project Manager, Act Agency GmbH, Hamburg

Concept, budgeting, and delivery for national and international cross-media campaigns.

Brands

  • ProSiebenSat.1
  • Warsteiner
  • Beiersdorf
  • Unilever
  • Land Rover
  • Samsung
2005

Internship, Digital Media Concepts, Bauer Media Group, Hamburg

Concept work on how established print titles reach digital audiences, in one of Europe’s largest publishing houses.
2004

Internship, Strategic Sourcing, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, New York

Sourcing and supplier work at a major music company during the industry’s move from physical to digital distribution.

Education and international context

1992 — 2006
2002 — 2006
Diplom-Medienökonom (FH), Media Management — BiTS, Iserlohn. Business, media, and technology. Final grade 1.4.
2004
Semester abroad, UNSW Sydney — business and media studies, in English.
2005 — 2006
Partial scholarship — Gertrud-Wichelhoven-Stiftung, awarded for academic performance.
2003 — 2006
BiTSLicht and BiTS.fm — student magazine and campus radio: technical and streaming setup, design, and a board role.
1992 — 2001
Abitur — Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gymnasium, Münster.
1999
Maui Ocean Academy, Hawaii — high school term abroad, completed with a US high school diploma.
1997
St. Michael’s High School, Barbados — high school term abroad.

School in Barbados and Hawaii, a semester in Sydney, an internship in New York, then twenty years of work in Hamburg and Berlin. Based on Ibiza since 2025. Native German, fluent English, basic Spanish.

Get in touch

I am available.

I am not scalable.

I can talk to you.

…to your developers.

…to your designers.

…to your clients.

…to your auditors.

I will say no when scope does not fit the timeline, when ownership is missing, or when engineering is asked to build without clear acceptance criteria. If you only need more hands, I am probably not the right fit. I work best when the gaps need a clear owner.

Solve one problem

Usually one to six weeks: untangle requirements, de-risk a release, diagnose stuck delivery, specify an integration, or prototype an AI workflow.

Embedded in the team

Part-time or interim inside your team, usually remote from CET and on site when useful. Several months or longer.

Thirty minutes is usually enough to see whether I can help.

Email jb@youdots.comIf you’d like to speak, send your number and a good time to reach you.

AI helped me interrogate twenty years of project history to build this profile. The evidence, judgments and final claims are mine.