Alexander Rühe

Data Engineer / Backend Engineer

contact@aruehe.io my blog
/in/alexanderruehe
alex-ruehe

About Me

7 years of experience in designing, developing, and operating data processing platforms with a focus on speed and scalability in challenging environments both on-prem and in AWS.

As a Backend Engineer, Data Engineer and technical lead, I have successfully architected, built, and operated secure products across various domains, such as

  • Visitor flow analysis in retail stores using WiFi signals
  • Mobility data analysis derived from anonymized IMSI data
  • Vehicle sensor data processing

I have also multiple years of experience in stakeholder management, documenting architecture, technical interviews and mentoring. Always interested in exploring new domains and specializations and a big fan of learning by doing.

Experience

Volkswagen Group

Senior Data Engineer / Technical Lead 02.2023 - Present
Technologies: Python, AWS, Angular, (My)SQL, Terraform, AWS CDK, Jenkins, Kubernetes, Go, Bash

As technical lead I am currently responsible for overseeing the development of our internal measurement data platform.

  • Designed an architecture to migrate slow legacy processes from on-prem into the cloud, reducing the processing time by at least 50%
  • Supported building the ingestion layer for autonomous driving (AD) data from ID.Buzz AD
  • Added new features to improve usability experience of platform for users
  • Acquired and onboarded new brands
Data Engineer 04.2021 - 01.2023
Technologies: Python, AWS, Angular, (My)SQL, Terraform, AWS CDK, Jenkins, Kubernetes, Go, Bash, Visual Basic

Continued to work on the internal measurement data management platform

  • Planned the architecture for an Analytics Workbench using AWS SageMaker to empower business departments
  • Implemented multiple parts of the workbench infrastructure leveraging AWS CDK
  • Designed and rolled-out a new data ingestion process using AWS DataSync
  • Migrated a small part of an on-prem legacy conversion process to AWS
  • Supported research projects with development support

Languages

German - Native

English - Professional

Skills

Programming

  • Python - SQL - Bash

    • AWS

  • CDK/CloudFormation - DataSync - EC2 - ECS - EventBridge - Lambda - RDS - S3 - SageMaker - SQS - Step Functions - VPC

    • Frameworks & Libraries

  • Angular - boto3 - Flask - Pandas - SQLAlchemy

    • Tools

  • Atlassian Tools - Git - Jenkins - Kubernetes - packer - terraform

    • Education

    TU Berlin

    Berlin, DE
    Msc. Computer Science
    2013 - 2017 | Grade: not completed

    Study Focus: Intelligent Systems

    TU Braunschweig

    Braunschweig, DE
    Bsc. Mathematics
    2007 - 2012 | Grade: 2,2

    Major: Graph Theory, Minor: Computer Science

    Alexander Rühe

    Data Engineer / Backend Engineer

    contact@aruehe.io my blog
    /in/alexanderruehe
    alex-ruehe

    Experience

    Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles

    Data Engineer 02.2020 - 03.2021
    Technologies: Python, AWS, Angular, MySQL, Terraform, Jenkins, Kubernetes, Bash

    Worked in a team that develops and operates an internal measurement data management platform running in AWS for the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand.

    • Built infrastructure and event-driven pipelines in AWS using Terraform
    • Developed new AWS Lambda functions for KPI calculation using Python
    • Expanded Flask API and Angular frontend for data access
    • Collected stakeholder requirements for new features
    • Operated the platform (deployment, monitoring, user management)

    Minodes - A Telefónica NEXT Company

    Backend Developer 05.2017 - 12.2019
    Technologies: Python, PostgreSQL, Cassandra, Jupyter Notebooks, Airflow, C

    My main task was to design and implement an API and a data processing pipeline to receive and process WiFi signals for location analysis in compliance with the GDPR.

    • Extended the logger hardware to encrypt data directly at the source
    • Extended existing APIs for receiving and processing the encrypted data
    • Integrated a new interface with which statistics on the encrypted data could be created in compliance with the GDPR
    • Developed of a new REST-API to provide KPIs for customers

    Other tasks were maintenance / expansion of the existing ETL jobs in Airflow and customer support for hardware problems/diagnosis

    Backend Developer (Internship) 05.2017 - 08.2019
    Technologies: Python, PostgreSQL, Cassandra, Jupyter Notebooks, Airflow, C

    The Minodes GmbH developed a Wifi-based analysis tool to evaluate customer flows at trade fairs, markets and in department stores (“in-store analytics”) and make these available to customers (retailers, event organizers). This tool was later combined with IMSI data from the Telefonica network.

    During my internship, my tasks consisted of getting to know all the backend services and implementing simple bug fixes and feature tickets. Furthermore, I dealt with small tickets related to the hardware that was installed in stored to record the Wifi signals.

    Bosch

    Voluntary Internship in R&D 05.2013 - 09.2013
    Technologies: C++, ROS, Gazebo

    During my voluntary intership I implemented a navigation module for an autonomus vehicle in C++ for the Robot Operating System including simulation using Gazebo. Additionally I also wrote multiple test classes for some internal libraries that provided mathematical functions.