IT generalist for smaller companies in Germany

What an IT generalist does in a smaller company

An IT generalist is the person who covers several fields that a larger company gives to separate specialists: software, data, servers, the website and the AI tools of the staff. In a smaller company one person holds these fields and has to know where their own knowledge ends.

A generalist takes a task from the requirement to the running system. The same person writes the concept, builds the software, sets up the server and explains the result to management. The task does not pass between four contractors, and each question reaches someone who knows the whole system.

Where I work myself and where I bring in a specialist

I do most of the work in six fields myself. Each field also has work that a specialist does better. I name it at the start.

Field	What I do myself	Where I bring in a specialist	Where my work is described
Software	Concepts, data models, backends with REST APIs, frontends in Angular and TypeScript, the review of code from Claude and Codex	Native apps for iOS and Android	Building software
Data	Databases on MySQL and PostgreSQL, search with Elasticsearch over millions of records, market data over WebSocket and RPC	Statistical forecasts and models trained on your data	Near-real-time search
Servers and cloud	Debian and Ubuntu servers, Docker, AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, monitoring with error notifications, a failover site	A penetration test of your systems	Running infrastructure
Website and shop	Company websites, order funnels and payment connections, conversion optimization, the move from WordPress to a static site	Brand design and photography	Online shops and conversion
AI tools	Claude and Codex in daily work, AI agents with limits at the resource, workshops for staff	Training a language model on your own data	AI agents under rules
Management and contracts	IT budget, providers, the technical parts of contracts, GDPR measures, due diligence documents	The legal review of a contract	Publications, press and committees

The third column is work I hand on. For such a task I write down what the specialist has to deliver, and I work with them until it runs on your systems.

Generalist or specialist: questions for your company

A generalist fits a company whose IT has many fields and little work in each. A specialist fits when one field fills a full position.

Question	If the answer is yes
Does one field, such as security or data analysis, keep a person busy full time?	Hire a specialist for that field.
Do your IT tasks pass between two or more outside providers, and does nobody see the whole?	A generalist can take over the whole of it.
Does management need someone who answers for the IT budget and explains IT decisions?	Look for a generalist with leadership experience.
Do you plan a new system, such as a customer portal or a data platform, and need someone who takes it into operation?	Look for a generalist who builds and runs systems.

Four systems where I worked on several fields, newest first

• For a client I help break up a monolithic application with Claude and Codex. The work has produced more than 300 RESTful API endpoints and more than 8,000 commits. The same project also covered the website’s conversions and search visibility.
• At a Frankfurt fintech, first as Head of Decentralized Finance and Node Operations and then as CIO, I wrote the concept of a market data product and coordinated the teams that built it. I also ran blockchain nodes in data centers and moved them from Azure to another cloud with failover.
• At an insurance company in Frankfurt I planned the web portals of the group and programmed the front end of a contract management portal in Angular. I connected it to the existing CRM and ran the servers on AWS in Frankfurt and London. I discussed the same system with the chief actuary and with marketing.
• For the online shops of Lidl and REWE I programmed front ends, back ends, order funnels and payment connections, and I worked on their conversion rates. At the e-commerce company that built them I was the IT link between management and marketing.

Who I am

I am Michael Wutzke from Frankfurt. I wrote my first programs at 15, in Basic and Assembler on an Amiga, and have worked in IT and media for more than twenty years. My positions ran from developer and project lead to Chief Information Officer. I hold a training authorization from IHK Frankfurt for two IT apprenticeships, application development and system integration. One covers software, the other servers and networks, and my work joins both. I teach practical work with Claude at Claude Hacker House, and I hold certificates from AWS and Scrum.org.