
Sebastian Schäffer
About
Building Caffeine AI | AI/ML Engineer | ex-CERN
AI/ML Engineer building LLM systems from research to production. Early founding engineer building Caffeine AI, with experience across DFINITY and CERN on agentic workflows, retrieval systems, and scalable AI products.
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Skills
C++
Java
Javascript
Machine Learning
Python
TypeScript
Work Experience
SGS Digital Trust Services GmbH
2021-08 - 2021-09
Security Engineer
Remote
internship
- Executed in-depth penetration testing for a major corporate client's web application, identifying critical security vulnerabilities -Employed advanced penetration tools and methodologies to fortify the security architecture, markedly strengthening the client's defense against cyber threats.
Zühlke Technology Group AG
2022-07 - 2022-09
Software Engineer
Zürich
internship
- Led the deployment of a cutting-edge blockchain initiative for Sygnum Bank. - Worked on the integration of wallet connectivity to decentralized applications (dApps) for enhanced transaction security, utilizing Securosys APIs and WalletConnect to ensure seamless user experiences and system integrity.
Dynatrace
2023-07 - 2023-08
Software Engineer Intern
Remote
fulltime
-Engineered a Java-based optimization resulting in a 50% reduction in API calls, significantly enhancing system efficiency and reliability. -Designed and implemented a Python-based analytics tool for visualizing enterprise zone utilization, which enabled stakeholders to identify underused resources, driving a strategy that cut operational costs.
CERN
2023-09 - 2024-02
Master Thesis Student
Geneva
fulltime
Conducted research in Explainable AI & Natural Language Processing, developing an AI summarization system using Llama2, integrated with an explanation mechanism based on the SBERT model, to produce transparent and efficient summaries of extensive scientific documents, thereby enhancing decision-making efficiency for professionals.
SAP Austria GmbH
2019-07 - 2019-08
Software Engineer
Remote
internship
- Architected a Visual Basic sales forecasting tool that delivered enduring value, evidenced by its multi-year utilization and annual updates at the client’s request, underscoring a sustained improvement in their forecasting capabilities -Crafted advanced Javascript chatbots, enhancing customer engagement, and proactively led customer workshops to tailor solutions to client needs, demonstrating a commitment to customer service excellence
DFINITY
2024-10 -
Machine Learning Engineer
Zürich
fulltime
• First engineer on an internal DFINITY project that later spun out as Caffeine AI. • Fine-tuning large language models (LLMs) to improve code generation performance for low-resource programming languages. • Implementing scalable context engineering pipelines (incl. RAG) to improve retrieval quality and reasoning. • Building benchmarking frameworks for production Al systems.
Caffeine AI
2025-03 -
AI/ML Engineer
Zürich
fulltime
• First employee to build Caffeine AI, a no-code, chat-based application development platform. • Owned LLM optimization for code generation through fine-tuning, evaluation, and production deployment. • Developing agentic and retrieval systems for conversational full-stack workflows. • Implementing multimodal systems for vision, image generation, editing, and speech capabilities.
Academic Experience
TU Graz -
2018.10 - 2021.07
Bachelor of Science, BSc in Computer Science and Business
TU Graz -
2021.09 - 2024.05
Master of Science, MSc in Computer Science