# Phil Diegmann > Hands-On Software Engineer & Coach · TypeScript · React · Python · SQL · LLM workflows ## Profile Software engineer with a PhD in Information Systems. From 2008 to 2017 I built production software, largely freelance and alongside my studies, and led a small development team. Since then I have built the data pipelines and tooling behind my research on how human and AI actors work together in software development, mostly in TypeScript and Python, and I still write code every week, most recently a SolidJS web application for LLM-assisted feedback. In parallel I have coached people for years: more than 86 bachelor’s and master’s theses supervised through regular 1:1s and structured feedback, student development teams coached through agile projects, and practitioner courses for Zurich Group Germany. I am looking for a role in which most of my time goes into designing, building and shipping production frontend code for complex business data, and the rest into helping other engineers grow. ## Technical skills - **Languages:** TypeScript / JavaScript and Python (primary working languages); SQL. Previously: Java, C#/.NET. - **Frontend:** React, SolidJS, Tailwind CSS. Built FeedForward, a SolidJS web application with a BPMN modelling workbench, an instructor review console and an admin UI with diff-before-import. Taught React and Tailwind CSS in a two-week crash course and coached student teams in building working prototypes. - **Coaching and mentoring:** Supervised 86+ bachelor’s and master’s theses since 2015 through regular 1:1s, written feedback and final assessments, favouring guidance on method and worked examples over ready-made solutions; onboarding, code reviews and pairing for the developers who joined my team; coaching of student development teams; design and delivery of practitioner courses. - **Engineering practice:** Git workflows; automated quality gates for human- and agent-written code (tests, ruff, mypy strict, hk git hooks); uv; mise; Scrum and agile project management with GitLab (sprints, epics, boards). - **AI and LLM systems:** Daily work with Claude and other LLMs, including coding agents and local open-weight models; LLM-as-judge pipelines with validation against human expert ratings; prompt and rubric design; human-in-the-loop feedback workflows. Statistical and network modelling (relational event models, SEM); text mining. - **Data and backend:** PostgreSQL, SQLite and document databases; REST and platform APIs (GitHub, GitLab, Jira); scraping and data acquisition; multi-source extraction, cleaning and reconciliation pipelines; pseudonymisation for linking datasets without re-identification. - **Infrastructure:** Linux, Docker, Kubernetes (self-run Talos cluster across home nodes and a cloud VPS), Authentik as identity provider for single sign-on, Cloudflare Tunnels and Workers, networking and DNS, SOPS/age secrets management. ## Experience ### Researcher (Tenure-Track Senior Researcher) University of Bremen, Germany, 04/2023 – present - Built FeedForward, an LLM-assisted formative feedback web application for my business process management course (Bun, SolidJS, Drizzle/SQLite): a BPMN workbench for students with deterministic pre-checks, an instructor console to confirm or reject AI-suggested findings, and a release gate so that no feedback reaches students unapproved. First live course run in winter 2026/27. - Build and run the data infrastructure for my research: Python and TypeScript pipelines that pull GitHub, GitLab and Jira data through platform APIs, reconcile it across sources and load it into event sequences for statistical models. - Built a metrics tool that analyses student teams’ GitLab repositories for course assessment (Python; uv, ruff, mypy strict, hk git hooks). - Building a pipeline in which LLM judges annotate a dataset of BPMN process models against task text, generated rubrics and reference solutions; the judges are validated against human expert ratings before their labels become fine-tuning data for a fast grading model. - Leading the trace-data collection and quantitative analysis in an industry study of how AI coding tools affect developer productivity and satisfaction; designed the pseudonymisation scheme that links survey responses to the partner’s Jira and GitLab data without re-identifying individuals. - Sole owner of six English-taught courses, including project courses run on GitLab with agile workflows, in which I coach student teams through sprints, reviews and peer feedback; co-founder of the Business Innovation & Transformation (bit) Institute. ### Coach and Academic Expert University of Cologne Business School × Zurich Group Germany, 2023; 2024 Co-designed and delivered practitioner courses on digital product development, business process management and agile methods. ### Postdoctoral Researcher; Research and Teaching Assistant University of Cologne, Germany, 09/2017 – 03/2023 - Capstone Project (agile software development): coached student teams through building working prototypes; designed and ran a two-week crash course in modern web development (React, Tailwind CSS) for them. - Owned the data collection and preparation pipeline for a study of task allocation and release cycles in open-source software development, and contributed substantially to interpreting the findings on developer habits and behaviour (MIS Quarterly, 2024). - DFG-funded project DigiAct on digital actors in healthcare (with KIT and University Hospital Cologne); drafted most of the successful renewal proposal. Visiting lecturer at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (remote, 2020–2022). - Database Systems: taught SQL and relational databases. Moved both courses to flipped online formats with digital assessment; both formats were kept after the pandemic. - Central contact for industry partners: led the acquisition of four fellowships (partners included the insurer Gothaer, EY, and BCG Platinion) and co-secured €30,000 for a student digital lab. ### Software Developer and Agile Trainer (self-employed) Cologne, Germany, 08/2012 – 12/2017 - Led the migration of a proprietary B2B task-management and location-tracking application from Windows Embedded CE to Android, rolled out to several hundred devices; as the team grew from myself alone to four developers, I onboarded the new developers, reviewed their code and paired with them, and introduced Scrum in the development organisation. - Web and mobile application development for further clients (e.g., FRJSH GmbH & Co. KG); agile coaching for small and medium-sized companies. Part-time alongside my studies, about 20–25 hours per week. ### Student Developer University of Cologne, Germany, 02/2011 – 02/2014 Web and iOS development for an e-learning platform. ### Software Developer Webergy Internet Software AG, Lindlar, Germany, 04/2008 – 02/2011 Designed and built web-scraping and data-acquisition applications that fed a price-comparison platform. ## Projects - **Self-hosted platform.** Kubernetes (Talos) cluster spanning home nodes and a cloud VPS, with Authentik SSO, CoreDNS/Blocky DNS, Cloudflare Tunnels and Workers, and SOPS/age-encrypted configuration. - **EV trip planner.** Route planner with OSM/GraphHopper routing, elevation and weather data, a physics-based energy model and charging-stop optimisation (OR-Tools, NetworkX). In progress. - **Energy data integration.** Collector that pulls consumption data from my electricity provider’s (Ellevio) API into SQLite; Home Assistant integration for the energy dashboard in progress. ## Education ### PhD (Dr. rer. pol.), Information Systems 2021 University of Cologne, Germany. Dissertation on psychological safety in agile software development teams. ### M.Sc. and B.Sc., Information Systems 2010–2015 University of Cologne, Germany. Scholarship holder of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes). ## Selected research and recognition ### Journals - MIS Quarterly (2024, with Lindberg, Schecter, Berente, Lyytinen) - Project Management Journal (2021, 2017) ### Recognition - Best Paper Award, HICSS 2020 - Best Paper Award, IRWITPM 2015 ### Editorial - Six-time associate editor at ICIS, ECIS and WI ### Metrics - 26 publications, 936 citations (Google Scholar) ## Languages - German (native) - English (fluent, my working language in teaching since 2017) - Swedish (learning) - French (basic)