About me
Experience
- Worked literally full stack, from embedded controllers to cloud native micro services, from Desktop/Mobile to Web, shipping to and maintaining in production since 2003.
- Navigated ambiguous requirements to develop effective solutions, as well as recruited and lead teams within volatile early startup environments.
- Proven success in agile, cross-functional, geographically distributed teams, fostering both async and sync workflows in large organisations.
Highlights
- Published Understanding Transformers Using A Minimal Example, an article visualizing the inner state of a large language model built from scratch.
- Supported development of Wikidata Embedding Project implementing semantic search on Wikidata's terabyte scale dataset at Wikimedia Deutschland.
- Spoke about Semantic Search and RAG on a FOSS stack, discussing the state of open source in the LLM ecosystem on the Wikimedia Hackathon 2024 in Tallinn.
Work
Contributed to the software stack powering Wikidata, adapting it for self-hosting by external organizations. Navigated a large codebase grown over 20 years and a complex community structure.
In a cross-functional team alongside medical professionals and UX designers, contributed full-stack (backend, frontend, DevOps) to dotbase, an Electronic Health Record system for Charité Berlin and other hospitals. Developed and maintained features within its microservice architecture.
Contributed full-stack development (backend, frontend, DevOps) to a social network for education professionals. Also served as Co-Product Manager, shaping the product design in a dynamic startup environment.
Developed educational content, managed technical infrastructure, and led workshops (remote and on-site) for diverse groups on topics including programming, game design, robotics, and film production.
As an early engineer, contributed to the full technology stack design and implementation during growth from 5 to 700 employees. Led the embedded firmware team, developing software for 50,000+ solar home systems. Recruited, trained, and managed culturally diverse, remote teams, and assisted with company setup in Rwanda and Tanzania.
Developed tools and libraries for 3D computer graphics applications, supporting multiple platforms and multi-touch input devices. The software facilitated various student and staff projects, including my master's thesis.
Developed websites and custom desktop applications for various clients as a self-employed software engineer during university studies. Collaborated with designers and other developers.
Contributed to two generations of the full technology stack (web, desktop, mobile frontends; backend; embedded firmware) of a GPS vehicle tracking and fleet management system.