---
aliases: ["Katja Mueller"]
Is A: Person
Tier: "3rd 🥉"
Tags: ["Podcast Guest"]
---
# Katja Mueller

VP of Engineering at a large German enterprise software company, leading a multi-year legacy modernization initiative to migrate core systems from monolithic Java applications to a cloud-native microservices architecture. Katja joined the podcast to discuss the technical and organizational challenges of legacy modernization at scale, covering topics from strangler fig patterns to convincing executive leadership to invest in infrastructure that does not directly generate new features.

## Notes

- Extremely pragmatic about the realities of enterprise modernization; no idealism about big-bang rewrites
- Shared a compelling case study of a partial migration that delivered business value while keeping the old system running
- Her experience managing a 150-person engineering organization through a multi-year transformation provided rare insight into the human side of technical change
- German directness made the conversation efficient and packed with actionable takeaways

## Collaborations

- [[24q3-podcast-season-2]] — recorded episode on legacy modernization in enterprise
- [[topic-team-leadership]] — discussed engineering leadership during large-scale technical transitions
- [[procedure-podcast-guest-outreach]] — connected through European engineering leadership network
