Authors
Our Team
Executive Vice President Digital Engineering
Dr. Alexander Nyßen has specialised in Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), model-based development and the integration of engineering tools since 2003. He supports companies in successfully introducing and sustainably establishing model-based methods and tool landscapes for the development of complex cyber-physical systems. In strategic product management, he is responsible for itemis ANALYZE and itemis SECURE, with a focus on requirements traceability, functional safety and cybersecurity.
Principal Software Engineer
Andreas Mülder is Principal Software Engineer at itemis, responsible as technical project lead for itemis CREATE. Since 2007 he has been developing tools for platforms such as Eclipse, Visual Studio Code, Cloud and Web — with a focus on language engineering, domain-specific languages, simulators and code generators, as well as the integration of generative AI into production-ready tools. He shares his knowledge in blog posts on language engineering and AI-assisted tool development.
Principal Engineer
With over 20 years of experience in software development, including 9 at itemis as a Principal Engineer, Arne Deutsch has accumulated deep technical knowledge across diverse projects — particularly in the Java ecosystem, tool development and the migration of legacy systems. He has contributed as a committer to both Xtext and Operaton, led team projects and worked on-site with clients. For the past two years, he has been focusing on agent-assisted software development processes.
Principal Engineer
Axel Terfloth is Principal Engineer at itemis AG with a focus on model-based and model-driven development of technical and embedded systems, and Product Owner of itemis CREATE (formerly YAKINDU Statechart Tools). Since 2001 he has been working on model-driven software development — since 2006 at itemis, where he supports customers in introducing and extending model-based development methods and builds the necessary tools and tool integrations. He has spoken at numerous professional conferences and published academic articles on these topics.
Principal Systems Engineer
As Principal Systems Engineer at itemis, Benjamin Alders focuses on MBSE, Functional Safety, ASPICE, and the use of Agentic AI to optimize systems engineering workflows. Drawing on more than 14 years of experience on both the OEM and supplier sides, he provides well-founded guidance to companies introducing and optimizing model-based systems engineering (MBSE) as well as developing tailored, AI-driven solutions.
Head of Artificial Intelligence
Christoph Hess is Head of Artificial Intelligence at itemis and has been specialising since 2021 in the technological evolution from classical machine learning algorithms to the integration of autonomous AI agents into complex enterprise environments. He analyses how organisations can deploy AI strategically and writes about autonomous agent systems, AI architectures and the practical integration of AI into enterprise processes.
Executive Vice President Digital Engineering
Dirk Leopold bridges complex engineering requirements and cybersecurity standards in the automotive and IoT domains. As a driving force behind itemis SECURE, he has deep expertise in Threat Analysis and Risk Assessment (TARA) and “Security by Design” methodologies. As a speaker, he focuses on how standards like ISO/SAE 21434 and the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) impact the future of connected products. He is co-founder and president of CRAIG, an online community supporting the introduction of the CRA across Europe.
Principal Software Engineer & IT Consultant
Florian Antony is Principal Software Engineer and IT Consultant at itemis. His focus is on software architecture, security engineering and traceability for complex development environments. With many years of experience in automotive and technology projects, he supports companies in implementing the ISO 26262 and ISO/SAE 21434 standards as well as in developing sustainable tool and platform solutions.
Principal Engineer & Team Lead
Gunther Bachmann is a Principal Engineer & Team Lead at itemis AG and has been with the company since 2013, focusing on software architecture, development methodology, and functional programming. With over 30 years of experience in software development across countless projects in a wide variety of industries — some of which he led as project manager, nationally and internationally — he has built up both deep technical and organizational expertise.
Executive Vice President Cloud & Enterprise
Holger Schill is Executive Vice President Cloud & Enterprise at itemis. Since 2008, he has shaped the domain for modern cloud solutions, automation and AI agents, successfully delivering dozens of client projects. The author of numerous publications shares his expertise through training sessions, as a speaker at international conferences, and as a long-standing committer on the open-source project Eclipse Xtext. He is currently focused on the strategic simplification of complex systems.
Product Owner
Jens Bühl is Product Owner at itemis and has specialised in cyber security engineering and model-based threat and risk analyses since 2019. He is actively involved in the standardisation of the openXSAM exchange format within the Automotive Security Research Group (ASRG). His focus is on the automation of security processes and the protection of complex cyber-physical systems in accordance with ISO/SAE 21434 and IEC 62443.
Founder and CEO
Jens founded itemis AG more than twenty years ago and has led the company as its CEO ever since. His conviction: software engineering is not billable hours, but a craft. He stands for well-rehearsed, motivated teams, dependable delivery and a politics-free, honest way of working together – especially when a project gets tough. That idea still carries itemis today: from a small specialist to the reliable partner you still enjoy working with years later.
President, itemis Inc.
Jonathan Mohring is the President of itemis Inc. in the US. Prior to itemis, he spent over 20 years at Honda, Chrysler, and Daimler in Europe and the US driving innovation in the areas of engineering IT, software automation and data strategy. As President of itemis Inc., he is responsible for all operations and customers in North America. Jonathan holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toledo and an MBA in Technology and Innovation Management from the University of Stuttgart.
Principal Software Engineer
Karsten Thoms is Principal Software Engineer at itemis with more than 20 years of experience. He is an expert in language engineering and Eclipse-based technologies, and is active as a contributor in open-source projects in the Java and Eclipse ecosystem. Alongside his customer work, he drives development of Operaton — the free, open-source alternative to the Camunda 7 platform for Java-based BPM processes. He regularly shares his knowledge as a speaker at international conferences and as an author for German software magazines.
Principal Expert
Dr. Klaus Birken is Principal Expert at itemis, focusing on custom modelling tools and variant management. After a decade as a software architect in the infotainment domain, he has been shaping projects around model-based tools and DSLs (primarily with JetBrains MPS) since 2012, sharing his knowledge as a conference speaker. His current focus is on the value-creating connection between AI agents and model-based development.
Sales Director
As Sales Director, Lennart is the first point of contact for companies looking to tackle their digital future and complex development processes. He is responsible for sales across the entire itemis portfolio and sees himself as a strategic bridge-builder: his strength lies in listening to where customers are struggling and matching their requirements with the right expert teams. He values open, straightforward communication at eye level and ensures that initial ideas quickly turn into viable projects.
Principal Engineer & Consultant
Dr. Patrick Könemann is Principal Engineer and Consultant at itemis and has specialised in model-driven software development, tool development and integration since 2011. He holds a doctorate from the Technical University of Denmark and brings 15 years of experience in the automotive domain and 5 years in the medical domain, serving as a project lead, software architect and requirements engineer. He also has extensive expertise in UML tools — particularly Enterprise Architect — as well as Eclipse, VS Code and AI in the development process.
Senior Software Developer
Philipp Riegger is a Senior Software Developer at itemis, specialising in cloud-native architectures, full-stack development and microservices. He supports enterprise clients in designing and implementing modern web applications — from backend architecture with Java and Spring Boot through React and Angular frontends to containerised deployment pipelines with Kubernetes and Docker. His work combines software craftsmanship with pragmatic cloud engineering for regulated industries.
Quality Manager & Technical Writer
Rainer Klute is Quality Management Officer at itemis, responsible for the company’s certifications. As a Technical Writer with years of experience as a software architect, he combines technical depth with a keen sense for clear and accessible documentation – he maintains the documentation for several itemis products and reviews numerous texts as an editor before publication. He also serves as Data Protection Officer of itemis AG.
Software Engineer
Robin Herrmann has been working as a Software Engineer at itemis in Lünen since 2018. He holds a master’s degree in information and electrical engineering and is especially interested in the development of embedded systems. His focus is on advancing itemis CREATE to further improve its support for embedded development — from modeling state machines to generating code for microcontrollers. He writes about his hands-on experience on the itemis blog.
Content & Communication Lead
Sandra Wagener is Content & Communication Lead at itemis. She has been with the company since 2012 and has specialised in recruiting since 2016. She advocates for a good candidate experience, fair and transparent application processes and the meaningful use of AI in recruiting. She writes about these topics on the itemis blog, as well as about modern work culture, collaboration in teams and the future of work.
Senior Systems Engineer
Sebastian Ruppel is Senior Systems Engineer at itemis with a total of 10 years of experience in systems engineering. His focus is on empowering clients to semi-automatically verify their systems against functional safety, cybersecurity and other quality requirements — including projects based on ISO 26262 and IEC 61508. In doing so, he combines systems engineering methodology with tool-supported analysis and verification workflows.
CTO/CIO
Dr. Stephan Eberle is CTO/CIO of itemis AG, driving the company’s transformation into a product-driven, AI-enabled organisation. With more than 25 years of experience at the intersection of software innovation and engineering, he focuses on auditable, deterministic AI for regulated industries such as automotive, healthcare, and defence. He led itemis to ISO 27001 and TISAX certification in 2025, and to ISO 9001 certification in 2026. Stephan holds a PhD in Engineering from the University of Stuttgart.
Guest Authors
Prof. Patrick Mäder
Guest Author
Professor of Software Engineering, TU Ilmenau
Patrick Mäder is Professor of Software Engineering at the Technische Universität Ilmenau. He has been working on software engineering topics in both industry and academia for almost 15 years. Today, his research group combines machine learning and traditional software engineering techniques to intelligently support software developers and other project stakeholders in creating better software systems.