About
Hi, I'm Timo Zuther
I run the AI platform team at Sixt as an Engineering Manager. On the side, I build websites and apps as a freelancer.
- Based in
- Germany, working remotely
- Experience
- 15+ years
Out of thin air
Building something out of thin air
This is the part I like best. A handful of half-formed ideas with no shape at all, and then the moment they lock into something you can actually build.
Scatter
Half-formed ideas, drifting. No shape yet, no order, nothing to hold on to.
Converge
Constraints arrive: a deadline, a budget, someone who has to use it. The ideas stop drifting and start pulling toward each other.
Crystallise
One structure locks into place. Not the prettiest idea in the cloud, but the one you can actually build on.
My story
I was 14 when I wrote my first lines of Java. The syntax was not the interesting part. What got me was realising that with a laptop and enough stubbornness you could make something out of nothing, and that nobody had to give you permission first.
At 15 I published my first Android apps on Google Play. Before I had a job, they had been downloaded more than 30,000 times. That was the first proof that something I made on my own could be useful to people I would never meet, and I have been chasing that feeling since.
After a technical high school I did a dual study programme at HPE, which is where I first ran into machine learning. Then came DXC Technology and Munich Re, and now Sixt, where I am Engineering Manager for MLOps and AI Services and look after the platform our ML teams build on.
The apps have passed 100,000 downloads in total. At Sixt I lead a team of ML engineers. As a freelancer I build websites, brands and apps, mostly with Flutter, Firebase and Next.js.
The two halves are less different than they sound. A model pipeline at Sixt and a website for a small business need the same things from me: understand the actual problem, build the simplest thing that solves it, and leave it in a state other people can run.
Key achievements
100k+ app downloads
The first 30k came from apps I built at school
2013-Present
Team leadership
ML and MLOps engineers at Sixt, with direct reports since 2025
2022-Present
15+ side projects
Apps, websites and tools, built alongside the day job
2013-Present
How I work
New tools, boring foundations
I try new things early, but what holds the project up should be the dull, proven part.
Your problem first
What I would enjoy building matters less than what you need. Sometimes that means a smaller project than you asked for.
Still learning
Half of what I use today did not exist when I started. Reading and trying things is part of the job.
Code someone else can own
Plain, tested and written down, so the next person, or you, can pick it up without me.
Get in touch
Working on something?
A finished brief and a rough idea both work. Send me a message and we'll find out whether I can help.