Philipp A. Baer, Dr.-Ing.
Staff Infrastructure Architect • DevSecOps Engineer • Computer Scientist & Roboticist
Professional Summary
I am a Staff Infrastructure Architect, DevSecOps Engineer, and Computer Scientist (PhD / Dr.-Ing.) with over 15 years of experience spanning medical device software engineering, research lab leadership, and large-scale industrial infrastructure engineering.
Currently, I lead the development of secure, scalable, and highly available build-and-test infrastructures for GE HealthCare, supporting global engineering operations across the US, Europe, and India. My expertise focuses on engineering productivity, security (DevSecOps), software bill of materials (SBOM) management, product vulnerability management according to IEC 62304, and operating massive bare-metal hypervisor/container clusters (Proxmox/Ceph). I have a rich academic and leadership background as a former RoboCup team lead and Research Group Leader at DFKI, representing a continuous track record of technical excellence, public-funded project leadership, and team management.
Core Skills & Technical Expertise
Technical Overview
- DevSecOps & Site Reliability: Continuous Integration (Jenkins, GitLab CI), Threat & Vulnerability Management, Dependency Track, Software Bill of Materials (SBOM / CycloneDX / SPDX), DevSecOps pipelines.
- Systems Architecture & Security: Distributed systems design, secure system engineering, Proxmox VE & Backup Server, Ceph storage clusters, high-speed networking (100 GbE Mellanox backbones), applied cryptography, Proxmox clustering.
- Programming & Shell Scripting: C++, Python, Groovy, Bash, PowerShell (Daily use); C, C#, Rust, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript (Conversant).
- Compliance & Medical Software: IEC 62304 (medical device software lifecycle), software supply chain security, German medical quality assurance (IQTIG compliance), medical coding standards (ICD-10-GM/OPS).
- AI & Machine Learning Infrastructure: Local Large Language Model (LLM) deployment and optimization (Ollama, NVIDIA A4000/A6000/L40S hardware integration).
- Research & Project Leadership: Project acquisition (BMBF, BMWi, DFG, EU), budget responsibility, team leadership, agile methodologies.
Professional Experience
Staff Infrastructure Architect | GE HealthCare
Munich, Bavaria, Germany (Hybrid) | Mar 2023 – Present
Software and Infrastructure Architect focused on global engineering productivity, site reliability, compliance, and cyber resilience.
- Infrastructure Architecture: Architected and operate our high-density Proxmox-based bare-metal engineering infrastructure cluster (AMD EPYC, 1248 physical cores, 100 GbE NVIDIA SN3700C Mellanox backbone) supporting a multi-site global development team (US, Europe, India).
- Security & DevSecOps: Technical leader for products' Software Bill of Materials (SBOM / CycloneDX) generation, integration, and supply chain security. Technical owner of the Automated Product Vulnerability Management system leveraging Dependency Track, DefectDojo, and custom automations.
- Compliance Lead: Owner of the medical device product software architecture documentation and lifecycle compliance according to IEC 62304:2006.
- AI Tooling: Engineered and support localized private Large Language Model (LLM) environments running on specialized NVIDIA GPUs (A4000, A6000, L40S) using Ollama to support secure inline developer capabilities.
- Technologies: Python, Groovy, C++, Rust, Linux, Windows, Proxmox VE, Proxmox Backup Server, Ceph, Dependency Track, CycloneDX, Threat & Vulnerability Management.
Senior Build & Release Engineer | GE HealthCare
Munich, Bavaria, Germany (Hybrid) | Oct 2018 – Feb 2023
Senior Software and Site Reliability/DevSecOps Engineer focusing on global engineering scale and release confidence.
- Infrastructure Engineering: Cohort leader in constructing and maintaining the initial Proxmox cluster (AMD EPYC 512+ cores, Ceph over 100 GbE) for rapid test orchestration and daily builds.
- Tooling & Continuous Integration: Designed robust Jenkins Pipelines and build orchestration engines to achieve ultra-fast, reproducible builds for medical imaging and reporting systems.
- Software Architecture: Assumed technical ownership of legacy component modernizations and automated code scanning workflows.
- Technologies: DevSecOps, Continuous Integration (Jenkins), Python, Groovy, Linux, Proxmox VE, Ceph, Bash.
Senior Software Engineer | GE HealthCare
Munich, Bavaria, Germany | Apr 2012 – Feb 2023
Part of the core engineering team owning ViewPoint—a comprehensive medical reporting, image storage, and workflow software system bridging modality inputs with healthcare information systems.
- Regulatory Software Engineering: Specified and engineered the official German Medical Quality Assurance interface (IQTIG QSKH-RL) under G-BA guidelines, certifying compliance for hospitals nationwide.
- Medical Standardization: Led the implementation of Dimdi/ICD-10-GM/OPS-301 medical coding classification architectures.
- Platform Security: Acted as the technical security lead driving applied cryptography, static and dynamic application security testing (SAST/DAST) integrations, and security requirements engineering.
- Technologies: C++, Python, Windows, Linux, Applied Cryptography, CI/CD, Software Delivery, Requirements Engineering.
Project Coordinator & Senior Engineer | Robotics Equipment Corporation GmbH
Munich, Bavaria, Germany | Jul 2011 – Mar 2012
- Managed and co-designed BioMiC (Bionic Manipulator Control), a €1M+ collaborative research initiative with Festo AG & Co. KG, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
- Formulated neural-control systems and inverse kinematic modelings for bio-inspired robotic arm manipulation.
- Technologies: MATLAB/Simulink, C++, Robot Control, Project Management.
PostDoc | German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH)
Bremen, Germany | Mar 2009 – May 2011
Senior Researcher and founding Head of the Mobility and Manipulation (M&M) research department at the Robotics Innovation Center (RIC).
- Research Leadership: Built and directed a team of 10+ researchers working on field robotics, cooperative robot behaviors, and distributed software control systems.
- Grant Acquisition: Successfully wrote proposals and secured public funding for major R&D programs, including cooperative robotics (IMPERA / BMWi), AI cognition (VirGo4 / BMWi), and medical stroke rehabilitation exoskeletons (CAPIO / BMBF).
- Technologies: C++, Distributed Architectures, Robotics, Research Leadership, Systems Engineering, Budgeting.
Research Scientist | University of Kassel
Kassel, Germany | Dec 2004 – Dec 2008
Academic Researcher and co-founder of the Distributed Autonomous Systems Laboratory (DAS-Lab) under the chair of Distributed Systems.
- RoboCup Team Leader: Founded and led the "Carpe Noctem" Middle-Size League (MSL) robot soccer team. Led the team to 7th place (RoboCup World Championships 2006, Bremen) and 6th place (RoboCup World Championships 2009, Graz).
- Academic Chair: Appointed Tournament Chair of the Middle Size League games at the RoboCup German Open in 2008 and 2009.
- Teaching: Lectured on operating systems, distributed architectures, mobile robotics, and mentored 30+ B.Sc./M.Sc. students.
- Technologies: C#, C++, Distributed Programming, Multicast Network Protocols, Real-time Systems.
Education
Doktor der Ingenieurwissenschaften (Dr.-Ing.) / PhD in Computer Science
University of Kassel, Germany | 2004 – 2008
- Specialization: Distributed Systems, Cooperative Robotics, Software Architecture
- Thesis: Platform independent development of robot communication software (Published, DNB Record)
- Advisors: Prof. Dr. Kurt Geihs, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Kraetzschmar †
- Grade: magna cum laude
- Activities: Founder/Lead of Carpe Noctem RoboCup Team; Kassel Student Workshop on Security.
Diplom-Informatiker (Dipl.-Inf.) / M.Sc. in Computer Science
University of Ulm, Germany | 1999 – 2004
- Specialization: Applied Cryptography, Distributed Systems, Networks
- Thesis: Group Authentication and Encryption in Distributed Environments
- Grade: 1.0
- Activities: Developed mobile robot software for "The Ulm Sparrows" RoboCup team.
Technical Projects & Open Source
Dependency Track Vulnerability Processor (DTVP) | Source Code
- Role: Primary Author & Architect (Active)
- Goal: Developed a production-grade Python tool chain that ingests, filters, and formats Dependency Track alerts for development teams under DevSecOps practices. Reduces noise and helps companies maintain clear records of product security status.
Home Assistant Birthday Calendar | Source Code
- Role: Author & Publisher (Active)
- Goal: Built a lightweight personal details integration for Home Assistant, compiled as a custom HACS component. Integrates directly into localized smart home instances respecting complete privacy from external cloud integrations.
ViewPoint Platform Architecture | Product Link
- Role: Technical Feature Owner & Architect
- Goal: Global ultrasound data management and reporting software.
Selected Publications & Thesis Contributions
- Baer, P. A. (2009). Platform independent development of robot communication software. PhD Thesis, University of Kassel. Published online: Kassel University Press.
- Baer, P. A., Reichle, R, & Geihs, K. (2008). The spica development framework-model-driven software development for autonomous mobile robots. Intelligent Autonomous Systems 10, 211-220.
- Full bibliography is indexable online via Google Scholar Profile.
Professional Training & Certifications
- Presentation Skills – GE Crotonville / GE HealthCare, 2015
- Fundamentals for Software Technologists (FFT.SW) – GE HealthCare, 2014
- Communication and Leadership for Project Leaders – DFKI, 2011
- Professional Project Management – DFKI, 2011
- Time and Self-Management – DFKI, 2011