Oliver Kirst-AI & Automation Architect
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Experience
Founder & AI Automation Architect
Zerobits
Zerobits is my vehicle for AI-powered automation and custom software development with a clear principle: AI solutions that reach production, not pilot stage. I design and build the systems myself - from first concept and architecture through implementation to deployment and operations.
My focus is on replacing repetitive, manual work with reliable automation and connecting disconnected tools and data sources into one dependable overall system.
Selected work:
- Design and implementation of LLM-based agent systems and RAG pipelines (Anthropic Claude, Mistral, MongoDB Atlas Vector Search + RAG)
- Workflow orchestration for long-running, fault-tolerant business processes using Temporal (temporal.io): saga patterns, event-driven architecture, retry and compensation logic, connecting third-party APIs and internal services into automated end-to-end processes
- Full stack product development: SaaS architecture on Kubernetes, TypeScript/React/NestJS, admin tooling with refine.dev and MUI
- AI-assisted development workflow as standard practice to deliver production software at a fraction of traditional timelines
- Full stack product development: multi-tenant SaaS architecture running on Kubernetes, backend with NestJS/Node.js and Python, frontend with TypeScript, React and Next.js, admin tooling with refine.dev and MUI, CI/CD with GitHub Actions
One of these projects is a product I own and operate - free of any NDA restrictions. I'm happy to demonstrate it end to end.
Head of Product Development
EPG Ehrhardt Partner Group
Responsible for leading and managing a diverse talent pool with 40+ skilled developers, logistic experts and product managers based in Germany, Dubai and Pakistan.
Overseeing 4 products and their team leads who report directly to me:
- EPG ISS: A meta platform with a single endpoint to connect to multiple carriers, such as DHL and UPS
- EPG Timesquare: A reporting platform for visualizing all relevant warehouse data and statistics
- EPG TMS: A transport management system as a new cloud only SaaS product
- EPG One App: A mobile app to execute and document workflows
Responsibilities:
- Building a new product team that develops a cloud version for the international shipping system (EPG ISS) with team members from Germany and UAE (Dubai), including the fully remote recruitment process as well as on site onboarding in Dubai
- Providing technical support for all software and architectural challenges within the different product teams
- Driving forward the agile transformation within the company, and helping teams to adapt the Scrum framework
Head of Product Development
Modix GmbH
Responsible for a team of 8 software architects and developers with the main task of refactoring and improving existing software features.
- Introduced and implemented a refactoring project to build client websites faster with modern tools and web frameworks
- Took over the responsibility of components for a mobile app and a web analytics solution with the team
Head of IT Operations
Modix GmbH
Responsible for a team of 4, including external administrators. Improved the existing server infrastructure and introduced private and public cloud computing.
- Made physical server infrastructure more reliable by implementing highly available hardware (physical load balancers, multiple web servers, MySQL DRBD active/ passive master, multiple MySQL slaves)
- Migrated production data from a local data center in Koblenz to a new data center in Düsseldorf
- Improved and maintained a 24/7 monitoring solution (Nagios / Centreon)
- Took over leadership of inhouse IT
- Introduced an on-premise office private cloud using ESXi
- Introduced Citrix XenServer for private cloud hosting
- Introduced automatization software (Puppet) to manage physical and virtual servers
- Installed and maintained Atlassian Jira & Confluence
- Built virtual Amazon AWS instances in China, Singapore, Ireland and the USA to improve availability in other countries
- Introduced infrastructure as a service (IaaS) for AWS instances (using terraform)
Head of Software Development
Modix GmbH
Responsible for a team of 5 developers.
Invented and developed a multi-tenant content management system in PHP (LAMP stack) to manage client websites (HTML, CSS, etc.) and user content (Modix CMS).
- Wrote a HTML template language (MDX template language) based on PHP and regular expressions (RegEx)
- Wrote a plugin architecture to maintain different content modules by different team members
- Introduced a vehicle management solution as a module to the CMS
- Implemented a functionality to host client websites with individual content under the same HTML code base
- Wrote a parser and lexer to dynamically convert template data queries into native SQL
- Introduced CVS as VCS (later SVN)
Head of Software Development
Summertime Media Design, later Modix GmbH
Developed basic dynamic content management features (news page, guestbook, etc.) for websites with a team of 3 developers.
- Developed application scripts in PHP 3
- Collected experiences with streaming media (Real Player and Real Media) to stream local events online
- Assembled server hardware to host websites and streaming media at a CoLocation in Koblenz
- Configuration, monitoring and maintenance of servers
Self employed
Zerobits
Provided web design and scripting solutions for local companies.
- Development of an eShop solution for local distributors
- Hosted an own eShop for hardware distribution
Industry Experience
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Experienced in Information Technology, Transportation, Media and Entertainment, and Retail.
Business Area Experience
See which departments and functions this freelancer has contributed to most.
Experienced in Information Technology, Product Development, Operations, and Project Management.
Summary
I solve problems instead of just building software. With 25+ years of engineering experience and a background as Head of Product Development leading teams of 40+, I now focus on AI-driven automation that reaches production, not pilot stage: LLM agents, RAG pipelines and workflow orchestration, built end to end with TypeScript, Python, LangGraph, Temporal and Kubernetes.
My strength is covering the whole chain myself, from concept and architecture to deployment and operations, and speaking both languages: management and code.
I'm looking for projects around AI integration, intelligent automation and platform architecture, whether hands-on delivery, technical leadership or advisory.
Skills
- Ai
- Leadership
- Mentoring
- Agile Frameworks
- Devops
- Programming
- Product Development
- Cloud Infrastructure
- Process Optimization
- Logistics
Languages
Certifications & licenses
Red Hat Certified Engineer
Red Hat Certified System Administrator
Statistics
Experience
Global Experience
Expertise
Qualifications
Profile
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