Freelance Consultant |
Utopia Refraktor
Founder
& CEO; 2012–present
⯈ Established and have continuously operated a corporate entity
including execution of the office of its sole Executive Director, as a
legal basis for conducting freelance and consulting projects; reduces
administrative overhead for clients and safeguards observance of their
compliance practices
Senior Search and AI Engineer
| CredCore
Remote,
freelancer; 2024–2025
⯈ Developed a legal tech search engine to search a collection of
AI-enhanced corporate credit-related legal documents, thus accelerating
the acquisition of expertise by in-house domain experts and improving
the accuracy of their deliverables
Senior Data Scientist and AI
Engineer | Jurelei
Remote, proprietary; 2022–2024
⯈ Developed an AI to create audio learning materials for law
students.
Senior Backend Engineer |
DuckDuckGo
Remote,
freelancer; 2018–2022
⯈ Developed backend logic for a web search engine with 100M+ daily
search requests, safeguarding user retention and reducing fraud-related
slippage
⯈ Autonomously developed improvements based on natural
language processing, improving relevance and increasing engagement and
ad revenue
⯈ Deployed releases regularly, working closely with site
reliability engineers and taking responsibility for end-to-end
integration of search engine improvements and DevOps, safeguarding
system stability, and avoiding incidents
⯈ Conducted mathematical
modelling & simulation of data anonymity, reporting directly to
C-suite executives, thus strengthening data governance and enabling the
privacy promise to users at the core of the brand
Data Science Consultant |
Telefónica Germany
Munich
(onsite), freelancer; 2017–2018
⯈ Developed a text mining solution for quality assurance in network
operations, utilizing ticket data in a geospatial and technical context,
thus reducing recurrence of network incidents
⯈ Integrated
heterogeneous data sources and delivered results through dashboards and
batch reporting, thus strengthening accountability and reducing manual
research effort
Machine Learning Subject Lead
| Flowminder
Remote,
freelancer; 2016–2017
⯈ Created geospatial visualizations and models from call data records to
support humanitarian aid in a conflict zone, increasing situational
awareness and logistical efficiency
⯈ Implemented data preprocessing
and ingestion, enhancing analytical accuracy and reducing
time-to-insight
Elasticsearch Expert |
Eurofunk
Remote,
freelancer; 2015–2016
⯈ Architected & engineered a search engine setup with strong
delivery guarantees based on Elasticsearch for an emergency operations
centre software, improving fault-tolerance.
Member of the Steering
Committee | insightTourism
(FFG)
Remote, scientific; 2013–2016
⯈ Developed and implemented a technique based on natural language
processing for valid-demand analysis in tourism in the context of a
publicly funded science project
Data Science Consultant |
Upper Austrian Insurance
Corporation
Remote, freelancer; 2015
⯈ Performed predictive analysis of customer segments with regard to
payment irregularities, reporting directly to the C-suite of an
insurance company, thus establishing a lighthouse project promoting
evidence-based management
⯈ Implemented the data preprocessing,
developed the mathematical model, and presented the findings
autonomously, thus freeing up highly contested executive focus
Senior Search Engineer |
Juju
Remote, freelancer;
2012–2015
⯈ Defined KPIs collaboratively with the CEO of a jobs search engine and
developed them into a terabyte-scale a/b testing infrastructure,
increasing click-through rate and profitability
⯈ Implemented
several improvements based on natural language processing, supporting
user retention and driving engagement
Technical Project Leader |
Traktoro
Remote, general
contractor; 2013–2015
==>
⯈ Enabled market introduction of a search engine in the domain of used
land machines by managing a team consisting at times of 6 developers,
contributing to the client’s success and fully satisfying their
requirements
220hr Dr Bergmair + 700hr Junior Devs
Cloud Computing • Linux • Programming • Python • Data Engineering • NoSQL • MongoDB • HTML • CSS • RabbitMQ • Celery • Search Engineering • Solr • DevOps • Bash • stakeholder management • requirements management • REST
Theklatur GmbH, not having any software engineering resources of their own, contracted my company Utopia Refraktor for the design and implementation of a search engine website from the ground up. I conducted this project, coordinating a team of 5 junior developers as well as a number of subcontractors over a period of 6 months and implementing critical parts of the system myself. <==
Senior Data Scientist |
Panopticom
Remote,
proprietary; 2012–2013
⯈ Brought an internet media observation platform to market, taking
end-to-end ownership of architecture & selection of the tech stack,
implementation, ongoing DevOps, and continuous improvement, winning over
customer revenue
Algorithmic and Quant Trading
Strategist | Goldman Sachs
London (onsite), employment; 2010–2012
⯈ Defined KPIs pertaining to the high-frequency equities trading
business collaboratively with stakeholders, increasing alignment between
traders, strategists, and management
⯈ Implemented them into a
business intelligence & analytics infrastructure, reducing time
spent on ad-hoc analysis
⯈ Improved & adapted it continuously
and took ownership of related DevOps, eliminating analytics-related
distractions and friction
⯈ Supported management in deriving
actionable insight, improving profitability
Member of Scientific Staff | Software Competence Center Hagenberg
Hagenberg (onsite), internships; 2004–2008
⯈ Assisted in Data Science research and drafted funding applications in
one of Austria’s largest Data Science-related research facilities (2x
internship, 1x freelancer)
Software Engineer | IBM
Linz (onsite), internships; 1999–2006
⯈ Contributed to data-intensive system integration projects, focusing on
software engineering and data integration for enterprise solutions (5x
internship, 3x freelancer).
casual lecturer, Machine Learning for Natural
Language Processing
University of Malta; 2014
⯈ Designed and delivered a course on Machine Learning for Natural
Language Processing, managing all aspects from content selection to
creation of learning materials, lecture delivery, and examination.
Ph.D., Computer Science (Natural Language
Processing)
University of Cambridge; 2006–2010
⯈ Thesis: Monte Carlo Semantics: Robust Inference and Logical Pattern
Processing with Natural Language Text; Awards: DOC fellowship of the
Austrian Academy of Sciences, EPSRC DTA studentship, honorary Cambridge
European Scholar
M.Phil., Computer Speech, Text, and Internet
Technology
University of Cambridge; 2005–2006
⯈ Awards: EPSRC studentship, Cambridge European Bursary
B.Sc., Computer Studies
University of
Derby in Austria; 2003–2004
AI System Architecture and LLM Applications
MIT Professional Education; 2024
Sales Development Training: Selling
Actively
IHK Centre for Professional Development; 2024
Specialization on Large Language Model
Operations
Duke University via Coursera; 2024
Interaction Design
Interaction Design
Foundation; 2023–2024
Certified Data Protection Officer and
Auditor
TÜV Süd, TÜV Rhineland; 2021
Certified Bookkeeping Assistant
WIFI
Linz; 2015
Filmmaking Foundations
London Film
Academy; 2010
Level 3 Certificate in Securities &
Derivatives
Chartered Institute for Securities &
Investments; 2007