Bastian Bahl IT Solutions
BBITS provides CTO and CISO leadership as a service, with the hands-on engineering to carry every decision into production: AI systems, cloud platforms, and secure software.
01 / Leadership
Most companies do not need a full-time CTO or CISO. They need the judgment of one, a few days a month, with real accountability. That is the core of what BBITS offers.
Senior technology leadership for companies that need it now, not after a six-month executive search. Clear strategy, sound architecture, and an engineering organization that delivers.
A security program proportionate to your size and risk, run by someone who has owned security under BaFin and FCA supervision and passed Big Four IT audits. Policies that are practiced, not filed away.
02 / Delivery
Strategy only counts when it ships. Every engagement can include the implementation itself, delivered by the same person who made the recommendation.
LLM features, agent workflows, and automation pipelines built for production: evaluation, guardrails, and cost control included from the first prototype.
TypeScript across the stack. React and Next.js frontends, Node.js backends, clean APIs, and the test coverage to change them safely later.
Deployment pipelines, infrastructure as code, and observability on Vercel, AWS, and container platforms. Problems surface in CI, not in front of your customers.
Audits, threat modeling, and hardening for systems that are already running. An independent technical review when a decision is too expensive to get wrong.
03 / Approach
The first deliverable is always a clear picture of the problem, the constraints, and the risks. Code comes after scope, never before.
Critical paths get tests before they get implementations. That is what makes the second year of a system as fast as the first month.
Input validation, secret handling, and least privilege are part of the definition of done, not a hardening phase that never happens.
Working software every week. Small commits and short feedback loops instead of a big reveal at the end of the quarter.
04 / Stack
A representative selection, not an exhaustive list. Chosen for longevity, ecosystem strength, and the hiring market, not for novelty. Your next engineer should be able to pick up the codebase without a treasure map.
05 / About
BBITS is run by Bastian Bahl, who has spent fifteen years in regulated fintech: from developer to Head of Technology and Deputy CTO, building and operating trading platforms and financial data systems supervised by BaFin, the FCA, and the MFSA.
He has owned IT operations and security through the scrutiny that regulated companies live with: yearly IT audits with EY, KPMG, and Deloitte, the IT audit for a stock market listing, and membership in the UK FCA's Cyber Coordination Group. He has built and led international engineering teams across Germany, the UK, Malta, Portugal, Canada, and Pakistan, working daily across time zones and languages, and has sat on risk committees and change advisory boards.
That background shapes everything here: technology decisions framed in business terms, security treated as an engineering discipline, and a strong preference for proven, reliable systems over impressive demos.
Engagements are deliberately direct: no account managers, no handoffs, no junior staff billed at senior rates. You talk to the person who makes the call and writes the code.
06 / FAQ
A CTO as a Service gives you senior technology leadership without a full-time hire. Also called a fractional or interim CTO, the role covers technology strategy, architecture decisions, technical due diligence, building and mentoring the engineering team, and reporting to founders, boards and investors. Typically a few days per month on a retainer.
A CISO as a Service owns your information security program without a full-time hire. That means security strategy and risk assessment, compliance readiness for DORA, NIS2, ISO 27001, SOC 2 and GDPR, reviewing policies and documentation with a written gap analysis, preparing audits, and planning incident response.
Companies that need the judgment of a CTO or CISO but not a full-time one: startups after their first funding round, small and mid-sized companies without an in-house security function, and regulated firms in finance and fintech that have to be audit-ready.
Yes. That includes reviewing existing documentation and policies against DORA and NIS2 requirements, a written gap analysis naming what is missing, and support in closing those gaps. The same approach works for ISO 27001 and SOC 2.
Either as a retainer with a fixed number of days per month, or as a fixed price for a clearly defined project. The scope determines the price, so the first step is always a conversation about your situation. Ask for a quote at info@bahl.io.
BBITS is based in Obernkirchen in Lower Saxony, Germany, and works remote-first with clients across Germany, the DACH region and Europe, in German and English. On-site days are possible by arrangement.
One person is accountable from strategy to code. No account managers, no handoffs between teams, and no junior staff billed at senior rates. The person who makes the recommendation also implements it.
07 / Contact
Whether you need a fractional CTO, a security program that holds up to an audit, or a system built and shipped: write a few lines about your situation. You will hear back personally.
info@bahl.io