Staff Engineer AI & Backend @ Hygraph | 14+ Years Building Scalable Systems
I build backend infrastructure and AI-powered products that scale. From microservices serving millions of e-commerce customers to AI agents processing qualitative data at scale, I focus on pragmatic solutions that deliver real impact.
Backend architecture, AI/ML integration, and technical leadership. I've spent a decade moving from junior dev to staff engineer, leading teams, shipping features, and mentoring engineers along the way.
Right Now:
- Leading AI initiatives at Hygraph - building MCP servers and AI agent workflows
- Architecting GraphQL-to-SQL translation for query optimization
- Infrastructure as Code with Pulumi across multi-region AWS deployments
- Speaking at conferences and teaching through live coding sessions
Staff Engineer AI & Backend (2024-Present)
- Leading AI Labs: built production AI workflows for content translation, SEO, summarization
- Developed MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for LLM-CMS integration
- Many thousands of commits across microservices platform in a private monorepo
- Token usage tracking and cost optimization across multiple LLM providers
Engineering Lead - Core (2022-2024)
- Led globally distributed GraphQL CMS infrastructure
- Edge caching for complex GraphQL queries (1000s of lines)
- Aurora v2 migration and cost optimization across Go/TypeScript/Rust services
- Built on-call rotation and incident management processes
- Coached team members into senior roles
Engineering Lead - Developer Experience (2021-2022)
- Scaled engineering department during rapid growth
- Shipped beloved Components feature (now core product feature)
- Facilitated department-wide improvements and onboarding
Staff Engineer
- Mass data ingestion and automatic insight extraction
- AI-powered customer journey mapping at scale
- Focus on preventing wasted human effort through intelligent automation
IT Consultant & Systems Architect (2020-2021)
- Global architecture team for major automotive manufacturer
- Unified e-commerce platform across brands, channels, countries
- Solution architect and sales engineer closing enterprise deals
Product Owner & Systems Architect (2018-2020)
- Customer interface for 2-3 teams
- Requirement engineering and stakeholder management
- Continued technical and architectural consulting
Systems Architect (2018)
- Multi-team coordination for major DIY e-commerce platform
- Autonomous leadership in complex environment
- Kicked off my technical leadership journey
Software Developer (2014-2018)
- Complex microservice environment serving millions
- Led team and gained stakeholder management experience
- Found my home in Go, started teaching and giving talks
- Transitioned from Java to Go ecosystem
Junior Developer (2012-2014)
- Android indoor navigation with WiFi fingerprinting
- Foundation in Java & Spring ecosystem
Languages & Core: Go (Golang), TypeScript/Node.js, SQL, Rust (production experience)
Backend & APIs: GraphQL, Postgres, REST, Temporal, Kafka, Elasticsearch, Redis
AI & LLMs: OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Amazon Bedrock, MCP, token optimization
Infrastructure: AWS, Pulumi, Docker, Kubernetes, Varnish, CDNS (Cloudflare, Fastly), Edge Compute, Aurora, multi-region deployment
**Frontend: (not my specialty, but i like to be able to work end to end) ** React, Next.js, Remix, TypeScript
Notable Contributions:
- loginsrv - JWT login microservice (1.9k+ stars)
- Multi-provider OAuth2 authentication
- Widely used in production systems
Teaching & Content:
- go-intro-course - 1-day Go workshop for teams (8 stars)
- go-web-course - Practical web development in Go
- pragmatic-jamstack-starter - Next.js + Strapi production template
My GitHub Philosophy: You'll see lots of experimental repos here. I learn by building, ship fast, and iterate. Some projects are polished, many are explorations. That's how I stay sharp on new tech.
I love sharing knowledge through talks and live coding:
- Hygraph AI Labs - "Build an AI Agent with TypeScript and MCP" (2025)
- API Conference 2022 - "Choosing a GraphQL Provider" (Berlin)
- The State of Kafka and Go
- Why Go? - Introduction to the language
- Database Bottlenecks - Performance optimization
- Microservice Quality - Architecture patterns
- Reactive Go & Serverless Go
Production Metrics:
- 14+ years from junior to staff engineer
- Many thousand commits to production microservices
- Led teams through 2+ major architectural migrations
- Coached multiple engineers into senior roles
- Built systems serving millions of users
Technical Leadership:
- Led AI Labs from concept to production features
- Architected GraphQL-to-SQL translation engine
- Global infrastructure for multi-region deployments
- On-call rotation and incident management
- Customer interviews and solution design
What Makes Me Different:
- Started as apprentice, earned Staff Engineer through shipping
- Balance technical depth with business impact
- Teach and mentor while building
- Comfortable from database to deployment to LLM integration
I thrive where technical excellence meets pragmatic delivery:
- Staff/Principal Engineer or Technical Lead roles
- Companies building developer tools, infrastructure, or AI products
- Scaleups (Series A-C) with real technical challenges
- Teams that value both shipping and mentoring
Ideal environment:
- Backend infrastructure is a competitive advantage
- AI/ML integration is core to the product
- Developer experience matters
- Architecture decisions balance speed and quality
- 🌐 dinodino.cloud
- 🐙 GitHub
- 📍 Bonn, Germany | Remote-friendly
"I love efficient and simple solutions!" That's been my north star for a decade. You'll see it in my code, my architecture decisions, and how I lead teams.