Kristof Ringleff
Solution Architect (Contract / Fractional) - integration, modernisation, and reliability
My speciality is helping organisations design, build, and operate reliable production systems. With 15+ years of experience I convert leadership decisions into complex engineering execution. My work powers commerce in 160+ countries, focusing on reliability, scale and ease of use.
Cloud & Infrastructure
Languages & Frameworks
E-commerce & Platforms
How I
Help
I translate business goals into technical designs that hold up in production - and stay close to delivery to make sure the solution lands.
Solution & Platform Architecture
End-to-end designs that are extensible, upgrade-safe, and practical to operate.
Modernisation & Legacy Transformation
Evolve existing platforms safely - reduce risk, simplify complexity, and improve maintainability without a full rebuild.
Technical Strategy
Make decisions under real-world constraints, align stakeholders, and translate intent into buildable plans.
AI Introduction
Integrate AI where it genuinely helps - safely, with clear outcomes, and without unnecessary complexity.
What
Clients Say
I contacted Kristof as we needed a way to charge a fee on orders depending on payment method. He understood the problem immediately and provided a clean solution that worked perfectly for our setup.
Ellen, Director, international retailer
We are using Kristof's software for quite a few years now. They work reliably and the quality is consistently high.
Sebastian, Director Architecture & Strategy, digital commerce agency
I will definitely recommend your software to our subsidiaries, I've never seen such a perfectly coded extension and excellent support.
Eduard, Full-Stack Developer, German consortium
Proven
Track Record
Founder & Director - Fooman
2008 – Present | Auckland, New Zealand
Architecture, product leadership, and platform delivery at global scale
Founded and led a product-focused software company serving ecommerce businesses worldwide. With a lean team, I took full ownership of solution design, delivery, and product decisions - balancing technical direction with real-world trade-offs.
- Architectural Strategy: Architected and evolved a portfolio of production software products used by merchants in over 160 countries. Prioritised upgrade-safe design and long-term maintainability to reduce technical debt for end-users.
- Platform Leadership: Collaborated directly with Magento as a Technology Partner, influencing ecosystem standards and best practices.
- Resilient System Design: Designed solutions that survived major platform upgrades, ensuring customer stability during significant architectural shifts.
- Team Leadership: Led and mentored a distributed team spanning development and support, establishing high standards for code quality, documentation, and sustainable delivery.
- Operational Ownership: Owned full-cycle outcomes, including support models and incident response, creating direct feedback loops that informed future architectural decisions.
Previous Technical & Operational Experience (2001 – 2008)
- Creative & Production Specialist | Telegistics: Managed technical delivery and operations for the "Skinit" business unit of Telecom (now Spark).
- Merchandising Co-ordinator | Telecom: Coordinated large-scale merchandising logistics for retail outlets across New Zealand.
- Compositor & 3D Artist | q-bus Mediatektur (Germany): Delivered technical 3D animation and compositing, including high-profile media displays at CeBIT for Telekom.
- Web Developer | Freelance (Germany): Provided client-facing web development solutions for institutions including the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
Case
Studies
Serverless SaaS Re-Architecture & Compliance Migration
Project: Fooman Connect - Xero Integration Platform
Role: Lead Architect / Principal Engineer
Serverless SaaS Re-Architecture & Compliance Migration
Project: Fooman Connect - Xero Integration Platform
Role: Lead Architect / Principal Engineer
Context & constraints
- Mandatory migration from legacy API authentication to OAuth 2.0
- Requirement to achieve Verified App status
- Fixed external deadline, zero service interruption tolerated
- Existing decentralised extension model no longer viable
Delivery & outcome
- Full re-architecture delivered in under 8 weeks
- ~89% reduction in monthly infrastructure cost
- Horizontal scalability with no capacity planning
- Achieved Xero Verified App status
Architecture & implementation
- Designed a centralised, serverless, event-driven architecture on Amazon Web Services
- OAuth 2.0 flows implemented using managed identity services
- Secure token storage using encryption with KMS-backed key rotation
- Stateless compute via AWS Lambda behind API Gateway
- High-throughput, low-latency persistence using DynamoDB
- Frontend delivery via CloudFront with automated CI/CD using AWS Amplify
Legacy Platform Modernisation & Subscription Billing Migration
Project: E-commerce Platform Upgrade & Domain Migration
Role: Lead Architect
Legacy Platform Modernisation & Subscription Billing Migration
Project: E-commerce Platform Upgrade & Domain Migration
Role: Lead Architect
Constraints
- Zero SEO impact across a 15-year domain history
- Migration of active subscriptions without revenue disruption
- Legacy platform upgrade alongside billing provider replacement
Outcome
- No loss of organic traffic
- Seamless migration of all active subscriptions
- Improved frontend performance and maintainability
- Reduced long-term architectural risk
Architecture & execution
- Designed phased migration strategy with explicit rollback points
- Comprehensive 301 redirect mapping to preserve search equity
- Introduced React-based frontend consuming a GraphQL API
Platform Ecosystem Architecture & Product Governance
Project: Multi-Product Portfolio
Role: Founder / Chief Architect
Platform Ecosystem Architecture & Product Governance
Project: Multi-Product Portfolio
Role: Founder / Chief Architect
Scope
- 18+ products
- 200k+ downloads
- Used by enterprise brands including Nespresso and Panasonic
- Deployed in 160+ countries
- Product lifecycles exceeding 10 years
Results
- Sustained 5-star average ratings across the ecosystem
- Long-term customer trust driven by reliability and upgrade safety
- Platforms capable of evolving without breaking mission-critical deployments
Engineering strategy
- Defined a battle tested engineering framework across the portfolio
- Standardised CI/CD pipelines and Docker-based local environments
- Designed upgrade-safe, plugin-oriented architectures resilient to major platform changes
- Strong backward-compatibility guarantees to protect customer operations
Industry Recognition
International conference speaker (2016–2019) on extensible platforms, dependency management, and reliable delivery at scale, including Magento Imagine (US), Magento Live (UK & AU), and European industry events.
During this period, I was recognised as a Magento Master (2016–2018) - 1 of only 20 worldwide, reflecting sustained technical leadership and contribution to the platform ecosystem.
This experience now informs my work as a Solution Architect: designing extensible platforms, guiding teams through safe modernisation, and embedding delivery confidence into complex systems.
Industry
Recognition
Why Work
With Me
- Low Overhead: Senior-level impact with minimal ramp-up time.
- Practical Approach: I don't build tech for tech's sake; I build to solve business problems.
- Clear Communication: I translate between deep-tech engineering teams and non-technical stakeholders.
- Proven reliability: Code running in production worldwide with minimal tolerance for downtime.
- Deep experience: 15+ years across architecture, systems design, and production delivery.
Let's Solve Your
Technical Challenges
I am currently open to contracting and advisory roles where experience and judgment enable me to make an immediate, practical impact.