Curriculum vitae

Career

• 2011 – Freelance senior software architect — chief architect in tax-administration software since 2012; AI, security and open-source work alongside.
• 2007 – 2011 Steria Mummert Consulting, Public Services — consultant, from 2011 senior consultant. Public-sector Java EE projects, architecture proposals, coaching.
• 2001 – 2007 Software developer at a vendor for banking and real-estate software — cryptographic layer, the IDScript language, copy protection.

Projects, newest first

• 2026 –Founder, architectOpen source

  Torhaus — a secure host for untrusted AI agents

  Framework that runs any AI agent harness in kernel-enforced compartments with default-deny egress, a credential broker and a tamper-evident audit log — designed on the assumption that the model itself may be hostile.

  • Threat model built from the 2026 trojaned-open-weights findings (Cohere/Qwen 3.8, "Model-as-a-Trojan")
  • Compartments (Zwinger) with data classification, typed one-way channels (Schleuse), a broker that never lets a credential reach the model
  • Egress gateway, MCP/tool proxy and model proxy as the single, policy-checked path out

  PythongVisorFirecrackerKubernetesOPAeBPFMCP

• 2025 –Speaker, researcher

  AI security — talk and research on trojaned open-weight models

  One-hour public talk on AI security; analysis of how open-weight models and agent harnesses leak data (training-proxy artifacts, backdoored weights, prompt-injection-to-RCE) and what deterministic controls stop them.

  Open-weight LLMsllama.cppvLLMagent harnessesegress analysis

• 2025 –Architect, developer

  Local AI stack — harnesses, skills and LoRA fine-tuning on own hardware

  Running open-weight models on self-hosted GPU hardware; LoRA fine-tuning for domain tasks; configuring and extending coding-agent harnesses with custom skills and tool integrations.

  LoRAllama.cppvLLMHermes AgentOpenClawClaude CodeKubernetesPodman

• 12/2022 –DeveloperMusic

  Web presence for a music quartet

  Development, hosting, backup and maintenance of a Django/PostgreSQL web presence.

  PythonDjangoPostgreSQL

• 04/2022 –Developer, auditorEnergy

  Redmine plugin suite — development, audit, operation

  Large Redmine plugin for data exchange and data maintenance with external systems; security audit of third-party open-source plugins; operation and maintenance of the Redmine installation; backup and anonymisation of production data.

  • Plugin for bidirectional data exchange with external systems
  • Audit of open-source plugins before deployment
  • Containerised operation (Podman), backup and anonymisation pipeline

  RubyRuby on RailsRedminePostgreSQLDockerPodmanResticJMeter

• 10/2022 – 11/2022DeveloperAutomotive

  Camera-based cataloguing app for automotive parts

  Android app for efficient camera-based inventory of car parts, synchronised with the company's internal IT systems.

  Android SDKJavaPHPMySQL

• 03/2021 – 10/2022Architect, developerGaming industry2 people

  AI-assisted cryptocurrency trading

  Design and training of custom trading models on market data; data pipeline, training infrastructure on CUDA and Colab, evaluation and operation.

  PythonTensorFlowCUDAGoogle ColabPostgreSQL

• 06/2021DeveloperGaming industry

  Qt application port from Windows to Linux

  Ported a C++/Qt application to Linux with a new CMake-based build.

  C++QtCMakeGCCMake

• 03/2021 – 05/2021Designer, developerAutomotive

  Catalogue app prototype (Android/iOS)

  Design and prototype of a cross-platform catalogue app — frontend and backend, OpenAPI contract, high security requirements.

  React NativeSymfonyPHPOpenAPI

• 10/2020 – 06/2021Designer, developer (one-person project)Startup

  COVID mask detector — vision model from data collection to customer app

  AI system that acoustically warns people wearing no mask or a badly fitted one. One-person project — data collection, model design and training, deployment, operation, Gtk configuration UI and web monitoring.

  • Own dataset collected and labelled; model designed and trained from scratch
  • Real-time inference on commodity hardware with OpenCV
  • Customer-facing Gtk configuration app and web monitoring

  PythonTensorFlowOpenCVGtkReactNode.js

• 03/2020 – 04/2020DeveloperFashion-design CAD manufacturer

  Python ↔ C++ bridge for a CAD manufacturer

  Bridge for loading and processing data from Python through a C++ library; supports several Python versions and 32/64-bit architectures; automated tests.

  PythonC++CPython API

• 2012 –Chief software architectTax administration, NRW11+ years · 15+ engineers

  KONSENS — backend platform for German tax administration

  Technical lead for a backend component of KONSENS, the joint software programme of the German federal and state tax administrations — data management, business processes, integration with numerous external systems.

  • Architecture and design authority; coaching a team of 15+ engineers
  • Text-model-driven development with Xtext at the core of the platform
  • Test-driven, with infrastructure as code (Puppet)

  Java EEJBoss EAPXtextHibernateSOAPOracle DBEclipse RCPVaadinMavenGradlePuppetTDD

• 01/2012 – 06/2012Xtext architect, developerEnergy3 people

  Web forms generated from Xtext models

  Interactive ten-page web form with extensive business rules, generated from an Xtext DSL — backend and web frontend.

  JavaXtext 2.1XtendJava EEJSFJBoss 5HibernateOracle DBIntelliJ

• 10/2011 – 12/2011Analyst, developerEnergy2 people

  Software test laboratory

  Web-based Java enterprise solution for managing complex test workflows of software products inside a large corporation; requirements analysis from customer interviews, backend and frontend.

  Java EEJSFJBoss 5HibernateOracle DB

• 12/2010 – 09/2011Web designer, developerStatutory accident insurance4 people

  Message-based workflow system

  Message-based workflow system with multiple sending and receiving parties; web administration UI; Ant-based build tooling and a Python configuration tool.

  JavaOracle ADFJMSStrutsWebLogicAntPython

• 10/2010 – 12/2010Project idea, designer, developer

  Redmine, Git and Gerrit integration for feature-driven development

  Redmine plugin that automates feature branches per issue, monitors them and creates Gerrit review requests from the commits of a selected branch; demo VM with all services preconfigured.

  RubyRuby on RailsRedmineGitGerrit

• 05/2010 – 06/2010Designer, developer

  Rule DSL for task distribution

  Customer-specific rule language for distributing tasks by business attributes — regular expressions, user-defined functions, and DSL-driven tests giving excellent coverage.

  JavaJavaCCEclipse JDT compilerDroolsRocketJ

• 03/2010 – 12/2010Architect, designer, developer

  Java EE framework for asynchronous distributed processing

  Platform for work-package-oriented background processes with several kinds of dependencies, independent of application server and database, cluster-capable, with guaranteed data integrity under unstable infrastructure and comprehensive JUnit coverage.

  Java EEJMSJBoss 5/6WebLogic 10JUnit

• 02/2010 – 11/2010Architect, Java EE coachEnergy3 people

  Electricity meter data acquisition

  Java EE application polling a large number of electricity meters continuously, detecting failed meters and exposing data through a web service — portable across operating systems and databases. Architecture, code review, optimisation and coaching.

  Java EEJBoss 5Web servicesJMSOracle DB 11gMySQL

• 08/2009 – 12/2010Designer, developer, coachStatutory accident insurance5 people

  Statutory accident insurance software — further development

  New use cases, configuration and optimisation for large data volumes, training for the customer's developers, and an optimised development workflow with Eclipse, Git, Gerrit and Redmine integrated by an own plugin.

  Java EEJMSJBoss 5Ruby on RailsGitGerritRedmine

• 06/2008 – 11/2010Project initiator, DSL designer, developerInternal2 people

  Software industrialisation with model-driven development

  Generic rapid-application-development framework on MDA principles — DSLs describing data model and GUI masks, generating persistence, server converters and client mask definitions with business constraints; Maven build and prototype.

  JavaXtext 1.0Java EE 6JBoss 6Eclipse RCPPostgreSQLOracle DB

• 11/2007 –Founder, designer, developerOpen source

  7-Zip-JBinding — Java binding for the 7-Zip compression algorithms

  Platform-independent Java API to the 7-Zip algorithms — JNI-conformant C++ library, archive-format-independent interface, password-protected and multi-part archives, Windows/Linux/macOS in 32 and 64 bit plus ARM, extensive tests on every platform. In production use worldwide since 2007.

  C++JNIJavaC++ metaprogrammingCMakeCTestJUnitGCC

  sevenzipjbind.sourceforge.net

• 07/2007 – 07/2009Team lead, designer, developerStatutory accident insurance2.5 years · 40 people

  Statutory accident insurance software — new development

  Integrated case-management system for statutory accident insurance — multi-tier JBoss architecture, Eclipse RCP client, analysis of the legacy system (Centura, PL/SQL) and migration. Team lead, persistence tier, base components, document generation, UML-based code generation, integration of signature and ECM systems.

  Java EEHibernateAspectJJBoss 4/5Eclipse RCPEnterprise ArchitectANTLROracle DB 11gPL/SQL

• 11/2006 – 07/2007Team lead, designer, developerBanking, real estate software2 people

  Copy protection with hardware-bound licences

  Copy-protection system with licences bound to hardware — cryptographic design of the encryption scheme, licence number format and generator, time-limited and perpetual licences; licence generator and protection component.

  CC++Crypto++Windows WMI APIOLEVisual Studio

• 07/2002 – 01/2007Designer, developerBanking, real estate software4 years · 2 people

  IDScript — a general-purpose scripting language

  New version of a company-proprietary language for customer-specific processes — rule sets, workflows, document generation and PDF form evaluation. New syntax and language constructs, high-performance parser, bytecode and runtime, standard library, C ↔ script bridge, generic OLE binding (Word, Excel), plugin interface, bytecode encryption, old-to-new syntax converter, Eclipse RCP-based IDE, LaTeX documentation.

  • Parser, bytecode compiler and virtual machine built from scratch
  • Bidirectional C ↔ script bridge and generic OLE automation
  • Eclipse RCP IDE and full language documentation

  CC++OLEEclipse RCPJavaLaTeXVisual Studio

• 07/2001 – 07/2002Designer, developerBanking, real estate software

  Cryptographic layer for transparent access to encrypted files

  Security component for transparent en-/decryption of files from C/C++ — analysis and integration of existing cryptographic routines; flexible architecture supporting several ciphers with automatic detection behind a stdio-like interface; console tool for manual en-/decryption.

  CC++Crypto++Visual Studio

• 1999 – 2000Author

  Unix-like real-time operating system (educational)

  Self-developed kernel — memory management, boot, scheduler and the fundamental boot-related drivers, in assembler and C on the 386 protected mode.

  x86 assemblerWatcom C386 protected mode

• 1998 – 1999Author

  DOS virus techniques and a matching antivirus (study project)

  Studied infection, stealth and self-modification techniques of DOS viruses by writing proof-of-concept specimens in an isolated lab, then wrote an antivirus that detected and removed them.

  x86 assemblerDOS

• 1997 –Designer, developer

  PIC microcontroller projects — assembler, C++, Bluetooth LE

  Microcontroller work since 1997 — PIC in assembler, later XC8 C++ and Arduino; an IoT device with a Toshiba PAN1762 Bluetooth 5.0 module; an own simulator for firmware testing.

  PIC assemblerXC8 C++ArduinoBluetooth 5.0 (Toshiba PAN1762)simulator

• 1997Participant

  Programming competitions, Russia

  1st place in the Moscow programming competition; first tier (4th of about 100) in the national round.

  Pascal

Skills timeline

Education & awards

• 2001 – 2007

  Diplom-Informatiker, TU Dortmund — focus area Sicherheit und Verifikation (security and verification), minor in physics, overall grade sehr gut (1.5).

• 2018 – 2019

  Deep Learning Specialization (deeplearning.ai, five courses) and Reinforcement Learning (Coursera).

• 2019 –

  MIT 18.650 Statistics for Applications (online).

• 2011

  Certified SOPERA Developer and Administrator (SOA platform).

• 1997

  Programming competitions, Russia: 1st place Moscow; first tier (4th of ~100) in the national round.

Talks & publications

• 2026 AI security — Public talk, 1 hour · Threat models for open-weight models and agent harnesses, and the controls that hold when the model cannot be trusted
• 2015-03 Automatisierte Tests, die Spaß machen — Enterprise-Applikationen mit Xtend und Embedded DSLs effektiv testen — Eclipse Magazin 3.15 · article
• 2015-11 Writing tests with Jnario — Eclipse DemoCamp Bonn · 20 min, German
• 2014-11 Write scalable enterprise application tests with Xfactory — Eclipse DemoCamp Bonn · 20 min, German
• 2014-10 Write cool scalable enterprise application tests with Xtend & embedded DSLs — EclipseCon Europe, Ludwigsburg · 35 min, English
• 2014-06 Pay your taxes with Xtext — Eclipse DemoCamp Kassel · 20 min, German
• 2014-05 Pay your taxes with Xtext — a case study — XtextCON, Kiel · 30 min, English
• 2013-12 Boost JUnit tests with Xtend — Eclipse DemoCamp Frankfurt · 20 min, German
• 2013-11 Boost JUnit tests with Xtend and JMockit — Eclipse DemoCamp Bonn · 20 min, English
• 2013-06 Test-driven development with Jnario — Eclipse DemoCamp Bonn · 20 min, German
• ongoing xtextcasts.org — Screencasts on Xtext and language engineering · xtextcasts.org

Languages & beyond code

English (fluent), German (near-native), Russian (native), Hebrew (intermediate), French (beginner).

Unicycling — 26-inch touring unicycle, ultimate wheel, volunteer coach at a high school. Diving (AOWD), kung fu, skiing and snowboarding, chess, pool billiard.