# Experience: DevOps Engineer — Vizrt
## July 2017 – May 2018 | Bergen, Norway

### Cross-Position Section

**Career arc framing:** Vizrt was Dennis's only international role outside DACH — a Norwegian broadcast technology company (customers: CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera). He worked embedded in the Coder (software engineering) team, not a standalone QA/test team — his scope covered Python/C++ backend development, automated test suite development, and CI/CD pipeline integration with quality gates. The DevOps title reflects this full scope: engineering + test automation integrated into the delivery pipeline. The reference from Team Lead Raymond Hilseth explicitly states he "exceeded expectations" with "little to no supervision." Resigned voluntarily to return to Germany.

**Title flexibility:** Use "DevOps Engineer" as primary. For roles where CI/CD is the key signal, emphasize pipeline integration; for roles where software engineering is primary, emphasize backend development. Do NOT reduce to "Test Automation Engineer" — the role was broader.

**CL framing:** "At Vizrt in Bergen, I worked as a DevOps engineer embedded in the core software team — developing distributed video transcoding backend components in Python and C++, building the automated test suite for A/V streaming, and integrating tests and quality gates into the CI/CD pipeline. The reference from my team lead confirms I operated with minimal supervision and exceeded expectations throughout."

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### Achievement VZ-1: Distributed Video Transcoding Backend

**Source:** thiessen_cv_master_profile.md
**User's role:** Primary developer
**Status:** Shipped to production

**Context:** Vizrt's broadcast software requires a distributed backend for real-time video transcoding. Dennis engineered backend components in Python and C++ as part of the Coder team — contributing to the core transcoding pipeline used by global broadcast customers.

**Bullet variants:**
- **2L:** Engineered distributed video transcoding backend components in Python and C++ for Vizrt's broadcast platform (customers: CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera), contributing to the core A/V processing pipeline as part of the software engineering team.
- **3L:** Developed Python and C++ backend components for Vizrt's distributed real-time video transcoding system, used in live broadcast workflows by major global media organizations including CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera; contributed to the core A/V pipeline within the Coder (software engineering) team, operating with high autonomy under minimal supervision.
- **1L:** Developed Python/C++ distributed video transcoding backend for Vizrt broadcast platform (CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera).

**Key skills:** Python, C++, distributed systems, A/V streaming, backend engineering
**ATS keywords:** Python, C++, distributed systems, backend engineering, streaming
**Reframing notes:**
- Staff/Senior DE: include as Python/C++ breadth signal; frame around distributed systems
- ML/AI: LOW — omit or condense
- Platform/Infra: include as distributed backend signal
- All roles: customer name-dropping (CNN, BBC) adds credibility to the role's scale

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### Achievement VZ-2: Test Automation + CI/CD Quality Gates Integration

**Source:** thiessen_cv_master_profile.md, thiessen_zeugnis_vizrt.md, user clarification
**User's role:** Primary developer
**Status:** Deployed / operational

**Context:** Dennis built integration and unit test suites for Audio, Video & Streaming in Python AND integrated them into the CI/CD pipeline with quality gates — ensuring automated checks ran on every build and blocked releases that failed quality thresholds. This is the DevOps angle: not just writing tests, but owning the quality gate mechanism in the delivery pipeline.

**Bullet variants:**
- **2L:** Built automated integration and unit test suite for A/V streaming (Python) and integrated quality gates into the CI/CD pipeline, shortening the feedback loop for new features and bug fixes while improving release quality of Vizrt's broadcast software.
- **3L:** Developed a comprehensive automated test suite (integration and unit tests in Python) for Vizrt's Audio, Video and Streaming components, and integrated these tests as quality gates into the CI/CD delivery pipeline — blocking failing builds, reducing time to market, and improving release-over-release reliability of broadcast software deployed to global media customers including CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera.
- **1L:** Built Python A/V test suite and integrated quality gates into CI/CD pipeline for Vizrt broadcast platform.

**Key skills:** Python, test automation, integration testing, unit testing, CI/CD, quality gates, A/V streaming, DevOps
**ATS keywords:** test automation, Python, CI/CD, quality gates, integration testing, DevOps
**Reframing notes:**
- Staff/Senior DE: pair with VZ-1; frame as "DevOps ownership of test pipeline"
- Data Platform/Infra: include for CI/CD quality gate signal
- ML/AI: LOW — omit
- All roles: CI/CD integration angle elevates this beyond pure test writing — always use this framing

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## Position Summary

| Achievement | ID | Priority for DE | Priority for Analytics | Priority for ML/AI | Priority for Platform |
|-------------|----|-----------------|-----------------------|--------------------|----------------------|
| Video Transcoding Backend | VZ-1 | MED | LOW | LOW | MED |
| Automated Test Suite | VZ-2 | MED | LOW | LOW | LOW |

**Note:** Vizrt is typically the 4th position on a 2-page resume and may appear as a condensed single bullet combining both achievements. Use 2L variants when space allows; condense to 1L if page-limited.
