David Fernández Esteban

Software Department Manager | Strategy. Operations. Governance.

Rhein-Neckar Metropolitan Region

About

Heading the Software Engineering Department with accountability for a €28M portfolio, 35 engineers and 4 external partners across Application, Platform and Governance. After initially serving as Principal Technical Lead, I scaled into department-wide strategy, delivery ownership and organisational leadership. My leadership style is pragmatic: clear strategic direction, defined standard operations and decisions grounded in real engineering understanding that fit realistic financials, people and product. In parallel, I serve as Co-Managing Director of Paluv UG, building aviation software around integrated avionics and resource planning.

Experience

  • Managing Director at Paluv
    Feb 2026 - Present · 5 mos

    Building aviation software products: an integrated avionics copilot IoT and a resource-management planning platform for aviation operations. • Drive product and engineering strategy across design, research, implementation direction, go-to-market, customer pre-selling and aviation-network development. • Coordinate freelancers and technical execution while covering the engineering and operations strategy.

  • Engineering Department Manager at ACE Auto Club Europa E.V.
    Jul 2022 - Present · 4 yrs

    Accountable for the Software Engineering department across Application, Platform and Governance, covering a €28M portfolio across five product streams in a dynamic agile-first, ITIL-aligned environment and reporting to the board. • Set engineering direction across architecture, data governance and delivery operating model, defining board priorities into practical product and platform execution. • Lead 35 engineers and 4 external partners, shifting delivery away from maintenance-contract dependency towards clearer internal ownership, product accountability and engineering standards. • Reshaped the organisation´s digital portfolio cost base by simplifying architecture, consolidating vendor structures, unifying technologies and reducing dependency on long-term maintenance contracts.

  • Expert Software Engineer & People Lead at Zühlke Group
    Jun 2021 - Jul 2022 · 1 yr 2 mos

    Led the IoT & Data-AI team, balancing people leadership, technical consulting and delivery ownership across 15 engineers and 8 parallel projects. • Delivered technology strategy, go-to-market and platform consulting for clients including Aurora Science GmbH and STIHL GmbH.

  • rindus | We create technology (Málaga, Andalucía, España · On-site)
    • Scrum Master
      Mar 2019 - Jun 2021 · 2 yrs 4 mos

      - Drove the first successful project expansion by pitching and securing stakeholder buy-in for a real-time monitoring solution covering field equipment and workforce operations. - Owned and led the new monitoring project end-to-end, from concept and architecture through implementation and rollout into production. Managed two teams at Sonnen GmbH: software (+4 members) and hardware (5 members), while coordinating DevOps operations and coaching the client's Project Manager and Product Owner.

    • Senior Software Engineer
      Jan 2019 - Jun 2021 · 2 yrs 6 mos

      Development of photovoltaic, battery and virtual power plant technology systems for main client Sonnen GmbH (a Shell Deutschland GmbH subsidiary). Tech Stack: Embedded C++, Python, Mqtt, Canbus, Gitlab, DevOps, Docker, RPI, CI/CD, FastApi, Vue, TinyDB, MongoDB, Asyncio, Multithreading, WebSockets, CRUD.

  • University Professor at Academias Unitec
    Jan 2018 - Jun 2021 · 3 yrs 6 mos

    Total students: +130 Professor for university groups in the engineering branch for a prestige academy for the following cross cutting concerns: OOP, AOP, Architecture, Java, Python, Data-Structures, C++