👋 Hello, I'm Sascha Link

This phase marks a deliberate realignment for me. After deciding to leave the automotive industry and corporate structures behind, I reassessed my core values, professional goals, and my long-term perspective.

The desire for fulfilling work, ownership, and creative freedom moved to the forefront.

Out of this process came the founding of my own software studio to bring my ideas to life independently.

I moved to CARIAD via a corporate secondment. As a newly founded group software unit, the organization faced high expectations, with ADAS as one of the strategically critical core areas. The project environment was in constant flux and subject to multiple organizational changes.

Over time, I deliberately evolved my role, took on responsibility as team lead and Scrum Master, and contributed my experience as an architect within Systems Engineering.

After several years, I increasingly felt that the conditions and way of working were less and less fulfilling for me personally. I ultimately used the Volkswagen Group downsizing as a chance for a clean cut.

Moving to Audi was a major step for me both professionally and personally, including a relocation to Bavaria. I consciously stepped into new structures, different rules of the game, and a significantly more complex environment. Taking responsibility for architecture topics in infotainment and working at the intersection of internal stakeholders, suppliers, and service providers was challenging and instructive.

At the same time, my own development work was limited and largely focused on supporting tooling in the context of protocol specification, such as scripts, VS Code extensions, and automation.

Only the later switch to the small, growing team Strategisches Autobahnmodul in the ADAS area brought me back closer to hands-on development and a stronger sense of impact.

Despite the opportunity to move to an OEM, I consciously chose to join nordsys. My goal was to reorient myself technically and get closer again to hands-on work in smaller structures. The focus was on navigation systems and on automotive research and development.

Even though I felt very comfortable within the team at nordsys, my strong network in the corporate world led to this phase being comparatively short, and I chose a new technical challenge at Audi.

In my main job, my focus increasingly shifted toward knowledge sharing and technical responsibility. To stay close to hands-on development, I started freelancing on the side. During this time, I delivered a wide range of software projects and deliberately experimented. The financial aspect was never the priority; it was about learning, practice, and craftsmanship.

The acquisition of c4c by in-tech significantly changed the structures and opened new development opportunities for me. I consciously took the chance to assume more responsibility and grow both technically and in leadership. During this time I learned a great deal about people management, team development, and accountability. At the same time, my project environment increasingly shifted away from small and medium-sized companies toward automotive series projects.

Building my own team and establishing a new domain is, in hindsight, among the most defining experiences of this phase.

From today’s perspective, joining c4c engineering marked the start of one of the most fulfilling phases of my professional life.

The company culture suited me very well, and my foundation in software development was already solid at that time. During this phase, I deepened my knowledge and deliberately built new skills, especially in object-oriented software architecture, design patterns, and the consistent integration of testing into the development process — including practical TDD.

This development was supported by a wide variety of projects, many different clients, short project cycles, and frequent context switches. That dynamic significantly advanced me both technically and personally, and sharpened my view of different solution approaches.

Starting my career in a small, interdisciplinary team was a great stroke of luck in retrospect. I benefited greatly from working closely with experienced colleagues and learning directly from them.

Because of the small team size, every single person mattered, so alongside software development we shared responsibility for a broad range of product-relevant tasks. This time played a major role in helping me develop early on into a generalist.

Early in my career, I was able to take on training responsibilities and pass on my knowledge to apprentices as well as in courses — an experience that deepened my own understanding and sharpened my technical perspective.

I started my Applied Computer Science studies without a master plan — and got lucky 🍀

After initial doubts about whether this was the right path for me, my enthusiasm for software development quickly took hold. That enthusiasm has stayed with me to this day and forms the foundation of my professional journey.