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Hey there! 👋

I’m Alexander Lill – and I wear many hats (sometimes all at once).

I’m an AI Engineer at the appliedAI Initiative, where I design agentic AI solutions using LLMs and orchestration frameworks.

I’m a Software Engineer who’s been building systems since my apprenticeship in 2007, from embedded satellite software to modern web applications.

I’m a Productivity Researcher finishing my Ph.D. at the University of Zurich, where I study how developers work and build AI-powered tools to make them more productive.

And I’m a Space Enthusiast who helped build software for the MOVE-II satellite and worked at the European Space Agency.

My Journey

I started my career with an apprenticeship as a Computer Science Expert at a hospital in Ingolstadt, learning the fundamentals of system administration and software development. I earned my Bachelor’s (2015) and Master’s (2018) degrees in Computer Science, both with distinction, from universities in Bavaria.

During my master’s at TUM, I became Lead Software Engineer for the MOVE-II CubeSat – a student-built satellite that launched in December 2018 and operated for almost 7 years in orbit! I led teams, defined architectures, and brought agile practices to space software development.

After graduation, I joined the European Space Agency in the Netherlands as a Trainee (2018-2020), working on Mission Control Systems and helping improve the onboarding processes for early-career engineers.

Since 2020, I’ve been a Ph.D. student at the Human Aspects of Software Engineering Lab at the University of Zurich, supervised by Prof. Thomas Fritz. My research focuses on developer productivity, and I’ve supervised 10+ students through their theses while publishing at top conferences like ICSE and CSCW.

Now, as an AI Engineer at appliedAI, I’m bringing together everything I’ve learned – software engineering, research, and a passion for building tools that help people work better – to create enterprise AI solutions that actually make a difference.

What Drives Me

I’m passionate about leveraging technology to improve people’s lives. Whether it’s building satellites for space missions, creating AI tools that help developers be more productive, or contributing to open source projects, I love solving complex problems and making an impact.

Explore the tabs above to learn more about my different roles and interests – each perspective tells a different part of my story!