Open to remote and hybrid roles · EU and North America

I run IT for remote and hybrid teams, and I build the AI that helps.

IT Engineering Team Lead in Berlin, with 9 years across Canada and Germany. I started on the service desk, so I know which tickets matter and which ones are dangerous. Now I automate identity, devices and support with code, keep auditors happy, and measure whether it all actually works.

See what I do View LinkedIn profile
kris@berlin: ~
Kris Starev's memoji
$ kris --help
Kris Starev — Team Lead, IT Engineering @ Taktile
I run IT for remote and hybrid teams. I started on the
service desk; now I automate it, so help takes minutes.
What I do:
Identitywho can access what, day one to last day
Hardwaredevices from purchase to recycling
SoftwareSaaS apps, licenses and renewals
Vendorscontracts, negotiations and renewals
AI agentsbots that answer and close IT tickets
ComplianceSOC 2, ISO 27001 and TISAX audits
OfficesBerlin · Munich · New York · Iași
Hiring facts:
Based inBerlin, Germany (CET)
CitizenEU + Canada
LanguagesEnglish native, Bulgarian B2, German A1
Worksremote or hybrid
Visasponsorship welcome outside the EU
Status● open to offers
$
9 years
in IT across Canada and Germany, from the service desk to team lead
4 offices
across Europe and the US, plus remote staff, supported by my team
AI-first
IT support: AI agents I built file and close everyday tickets
100 → 450+
employees I scaled IT for at a fast-growing company
100%
of company laptops brought under device management

// every number and fact on this page is real and comes from my own work

// what I do now · Taktile

I own IT for a hybrid company with offices in Europe and the US.

Taktile is a Series C fintech. I lead IT engineering for about 250 people working remotely and across offices in Berlin, Munich, New York and Iași. If I've done something twice, the third time is a pull request.

AI and automation

  • Built AI agents across several platforms that file and close everyday IT tickets
  • Shipped an AI assistant that answers employees' People questions
  • Synced HR data to 200+ Slack profiles every night, with zero manual edits
  • Replaced a paid coffee-chat tool with my own bot: 170+ people, no server, no new vendor
  • Co-own a company goal to cut manual IT effort by 20%

Identity and access

  • Automated the access-request lifecycle, from request to approval to removal
  • Reviewed and locked down 600+ third-party apps connected to Google Workspace
  • Own the hire-to-retire journey: onboarding, moves and offboarding
  • Rolled out SSO across business tools, and help run quarterly access reviews

Security and compliance

  • Own compliance controls, tests and vendor reviews across SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 and TISAX
  • Lead incident response, from containment to post-mortem
  • Rolled out endpoint protection and company-wide data-retention policies
  • Prepare controls and evidence for external audits

Devices and fleet

  • Took the company from no MDM to 100% of laptops managed, in time for the SOC 2 audit
  • Automated patching and security checks across the whole fleet
  • Wrote and rolled out the hardware procurement and disposal policy for every site
  • Built asset inventory for devices outside MDM

Offices for a hybrid company

  • Got a new New York office fully running in two weeks: internet, meeting-room AV, room booking
  • Set up or rebuilt office IT in Berlin, Munich and Iași, including stable high-speed internet
  • Put visitor logs and audit evidence in place in every office
  • Gave an office remote control of its own heating and cooling. Yes, IT does HVAC now

Leading the team

  • Grew IT from one person to two: wrote the hiring brief and ran the technical interviews
  • Added a second time zone with an engineer in New York, so help is there in both European and US hours
  • Built a live IT dashboard so any team can see IT's load and speed without asking
  • Write decision records and policy proposals before big changes

// side projects

Built in public, measured like production.

My side projects run on a made-up test company, Meridian: 230 people, 14 countries, an IT team of three. Its data is fake so I can show you everything. The test results are real.

Featured AI agents · ITSM · Security

Tier0: an AI help desk that knows when to ask a human

A Slack assistant built to answer simple IT questions around the clock. The AI only sorts the request; code checks who you are and writes every reply; anything risky goes to a person.

  • →7 AI models on a sealed, blind test: 0 unsafe actions
  • →Everyday accuracy up from 54% to 89–97% across milestones
  • →Tested against real help-desk attack patterns reported by CISA
  • →1,157 automated tests; every published number checked against raw data
You ask in Slack
Checks it's really you
Your account only
Risky? A person decides
Ticket closed
Next upIdentity · Infrastructure as code

Access-as-Code

"terraform plan" for people. Who has access to what lives in GitHub, every change is a reviewed pull request, and leavers lose access automatically.

PlannedKnowledge · Runbooks

Tier0 learns the playbook

Answering how-to questions from the IT team's approved guides. New guides are drafted from solved tickets, and a person approves each one.

// how I work

Calm systems, written down, measured.

Code, not clicks

Repeat work becomes a script, a pull request or a pipeline. Future me says thanks.

Measure before claiming

I test my own work hard, publish the weak spots, and only quote numbers I can back up.

People approve risky changes

Automation handles the routine. Anything that touches access or security gets a human decision.

Built for remote and hybrid

Decisions in writing, help in minutes, and an office that just works when people do come in.

// git log --career

From the service desk to leading IT engineering.

9 years of IT for remote and hybrid companies, in Canada, the US and Germany. I've done every layer for real, so I design automation around what actually breaks.

  1. Oct 2025 – today · Berlin

    Taktile

    Team Lead, IT Engineering (since Jul 2026) · Senior IT Engineer

    Promoted to team lead within 10 months. Own IT, device management and IT compliance for a hybrid fintech across four offices.

  2. Jul 2023 – Sep 2025 · Berlin

    Leapsome

    Senior IT Operations & Systems Engineer II

    Automated about 40% of user-access tasks with Okta workflows, ran the full device lifecycle for 160+ devices at 99% compliance, and led ISO 27001 and GDPR audits.

  3. Aug 2021 – Jun 2023 · Toronto area, Canada

    Viral Nation

    TechOps Manager · Service Desk Team Lead · Service Desk Analyst

    Three roles in under two years. Scaled IT as the company grew from 100 to 450+ people, and automated more than 60% of manual IT work with Jamf, Intune and UniFi.

  4. Apr 2019 – Aug 2021 · Toronto, Canada

    Coco Group of Companies

    IT Support Analyst

    Supported 1,000+ Microsoft 365 users and set up networks for 60+ locations across North America, with Windows servers and VMware behind them.

  5. Dec 2017 – Apr 2019 · Toronto area, Canada

    KS Tech Services

    Network Administrator & Data Recovery Specialist

    Where it started: small-business networks, and getting back data people swore was gone.

// stack

What I work with.

Identity & access

OktaOkta WorkflowsMicrosoft Entra IDGoogle WorkspaceMicrosoft 365SSO / SAMLAccess reviews

Devices & networks

Jamf ProIru (formerly Kandji)Microsoft IntuneSOTIUniFiVMwareEndpoint protection

Automation & cloud

PythonTerraformPulumiGitHub ActionsAWSREST APIs & webhooksSlack apps

AI engineering

AI agents in SlackClaude APIClaude CodeModel Context Protocol (MCP)Prompt design & guardrailsHuman-in-the-loop approvalsAI evaluation & blind testingOpen models (Ollama)OpenTelemetry tracing

Security & compliance

SOC 2 Type IIISO 27001TISAXGDPRVantaIncident response

Leadership & operations

Hiring & 1:1sVendor & contract managementSaaS managementHardware & software lifecycleIT policyOffice ITAtlassian (Jira, Confluence)LinearClickUp

// verified

Certifications and education.

MSMicrosoft Applied Skills: Develop an agent with integrated toolsMicrosoft · 2026 Sec+CompTIA Security+ ceCompTIA · 2026 AZMicrosoft Certified: Azure FundamentalsMicrosoft · 2023 AWSAWS Certified Solutions Architect – AssociateAmazon Web Services · 2022 Net+CompTIA Network+CompTIA · 2022

Education

Centennial College, Toronto · Advanced Diploma, Computer Systems Technology · graduated with high honours
Seneca College, Toronto · Business Management and Administration

Training and badges

Anthropic Claude Academy · Claude 101 · Claude Code 101 · AI Fluency: Framework and foundations · AI capabilities and limitations
KodeKloud · Pulumi Essentials · Terraform · DevOps · 12‑Factor App
AWS · Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner
Udemy · Google Workspace Admin · Ethical Hacking & Penetration Testing

Building a remote or hybrid IT team? Let's talk.

EU and Canadian citizen: fully authorized to work anywhere in the EU, and open to roles elsewhere with visa sponsorship. Fast replies are kind of my thing.

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