mobile.de CTO departs after 11 years to advise on AI strategy.

David Gebhardt, former CPTO of mobile.de, left the company at the end of August after 11 years to work as an advisor, board member, and investor. Gebhardt cited the rapid evolution of AI and a perceived gap in board-level technical expertise as key drivers for his departure. During his tenure, he scaled the Product & Tech organization from 150 to approximately 400 to 450 people, including nearshore teams in Bosnia and Serbia. He also voluntarily split the CPTO role, creating a separate CPO position to handle increased complexity from multiple business lines and AI transformation. Gebhardt noted that under previous owners like eBay and Ade Winter, the company’s focus shifted from pure tech stack to investment efficiency, cloud spend, and SaaS optimization. He believes his experience in navigating ownership changes and AI integration fills a specific market gap, stating that he understands the private equity context behind such shifts. mobile.de is currently seeking an external CTO, with an internal interim setup in place to manage the transition.