Ferdinand Linnenberg

Senior Software Engineer

📧 ferdinand@linnenberg.dev · 📍 Cologne, Germany

🔗 LinkedIn · 💻 GitHub · 🌐 linnenberg.dev

Profile

Senior Software Engineer with over 4 years of expertise in Industrial IoT and Cybersecurity. Currently at STACKIT (Schwarz IT). Previously core developer at UMH Systems GmbH from the start - responsible for building the entire platform.

• Expert-level knowledge in Go (1.5M+ lines in production)
• Specialization in scalable infrastructures for industrial automation and open-source platforms
• Co-inventor of a patent for secure IoT communication (US20250279900A1)
• End-to-end product development: Frontend, backend, databases, deployment, customer support
• Team coordination together with the CTO

📍 Location: Cologne, Germany · Remote

Work Experience

Senior Software Engineer

STACKIT (Schwarz IT) · Remote · since 03/2026

Software Engineer

UMH Systems GmbH · Aachen/Cologne · 11/2021 – 12/2025

• Core developer from the start – Built entire platform from ground up with CTO
• Team coordination together with the CTO
• Development of the United Manufacturing Hub open-source platform (1.5M+ lines of Go code)
• Architecture and implementation of microservices for industrial automation
• Integration of industrial protocols (Kafka, MQTT, OPC UA)
• Full-stack development: Cloud SaaS platform (Management Console) with SvelteKit and Go
• End-to-end responsibility: Frontend, backend, databases, deployment, customer support
• Co-inventor of a patent for secure IoT communication (US20250279900A1, filed 2022)
• Community management and technical blogging (8+ articles)
• Technologies: Go, TypeScript, Kubernetes, Docker, PostgreSQL, TimescaleDB, Grafana, Node-RED

Werkstudent (Student Worker)

UMH Systems GmbH · Aachen · 07/2021 – 11/2021

• Supporting development of Industrial IoT solutions
• Backend development and testing
• Contributing to open-source projects

Education

Bachelor in Cybersecurity (not completed)

Saarland University · 10/2016 – 11/2021

• Focus: IT Security and Information Security

Bachelor in Media Informatics (not completed)

HTWK Leipzig · 10/2014 – 10/2016

• Focus: Computer Science and Digital Media

Abitur (General Higher Education Entrance Qualification)

CJD Braunschweig Christophorusschule · 07/2014

• Final Grade: 2.9
• Advanced Courses: Computer Science, Biology, English

Skills

Programming Languages: Go (Expert), Rust (Advanced), TypeScript/JavaScript (Advanced), Python (Advanced), Lua (Advanced), C/C++ (Basic)

Container & Cloud: Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, Cloudflare, Heroku, Proxmox, Fly.io

Industrial Protocols: Kafka, MQTT, OPC UA, IO-Link, Beckhoff ADS

Web Development: SvelteKit, Tailwind CSS, Next.js, React, Gin, Rocket, tRPC

Databases: PostgreSQL, TimescaleDB, CockroachDB, SQLite, Redis, DragonflyDB

DevOps & Tools: GitHub Actions, Drone CI, Git, CI/CD, Prometheus, Grafana, Node-RED, Sentry, Tailscale, WireGuard, WebAssembly (WASM)

Languages: German (Native), English (Fluent)

Projects

United Manufacturing Hub (Core Platform)

Open Source · Primary Work Project · since 07/2021

• Enterprise-grade Industrial IoT platform for factory data collection and management
• 1.5M+ lines of Go code in production · Edge-to-cloud deployment
• Active open-source community
• Technologies: Go, Kubernetes, Docker, TimescaleDB, Kafka
• github.com/united-manufacturing-hub

Benthos-UMH (Protocol Converter)

Open Source · Work · since 11/2021

• Specialized Benthos fork for manufacturing protocol integration
• OPC UA, IO-Link, Beckhoff ADS
• ~15K lines of protocol implementation · Data extractor for UMH (Industrial → Kafka)
• github.com/united-manufacturing-hub/benthos-umh

Management Console (Cloud SaaS)

Proprietary · Work · since 06/2022

• Cloud platform for managing distributed UMH instances
• 40K+ files in monorepo · SvelteKit frontend, Go backend
• Staging + production deployments · E2E testing with Cypress

Other Projects

Personal · Open Source · ongoing

• DN42 network setup (BGP, WireGuard, DNSSEC) · ASN: AS4242420257
• WebAssembly TLS implementation with Rust (rust-wasm-tls)
• Personal website (linnenberg.dev)
• 100+ public GitHub repositories

Patents & Awards

Patent: Secure IoT Communication

US20250279900A1 (Pending) · Filed: 2022

• Co-inventor with Jeremy Theocharis · UMH Systems GmbH
• VPN-free secure IoT/IIoT communication using cryptographic certificates
• Hardware Security Module integration · FIPS 140-2 compliant
• Original filing: DE102022109649.1A (2022-04-21)
• Patent Details

Technical Blogging: 8+ technical articles on learn.umh.app as UMH Instructor (Article Overview). Topics: Performance optimization, infrastructure deployment, protocol integration