Heiko Kernbach

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT HEIKO KERNBACH

Driving Enterprise AI Transformation Through Contextual AI Data InfrastructureThe race is on to become an AI-powered enterprise, yet most organizations are stuck in the AI Failure Zone, where powerful models are blind to business understanding. AI needs context, but today’s fragmented data infrastructure loses it.At Arango, I lead our AI Data Platform teams to help enterprises run a Contextual AI Data Infrastructure powered by a unified System of Context. Our platform unifies multi-model and multimodal data and captures essential business meaning with governance, security, and compliance built in. This foundation makes AI more accurate, explainable, scalable, and secure across RAG, GraphRAG, HybridRAG, agentic AI, and more.As one of the founding engineers of ArangoDB, I worked across the core engine, clustering, distributed systems, graph capabilities, and operational architecture. I now use that foundation to shape Arango.AI across GenAI orchestration, GraphML, MLOps, inference infrastructure, connectors, and platform tooling.Inside Arango, I’m building an AI-forward platform organization that augments engineering, ML, and product teams with AI—because the future isn’t human or machine, but humans amplified by AI.My career spans three chapters:1⃣ Engineering FoundationsWork across scripting, frontend, backend, and high-performance C++ systems.2⃣ Distributed Systems & Graph TechnologyContributions across the core engine, clustering, distributed systems, and graph processing.3⃣ AI, ML & Platform LeadershipGraph Analytics, GraphML, MLOps, and GenAI platform architecture, now unified within Arango.AI.Highlights Core engine, clustering, distributed architecture Graph processing and multi-model system development Transition from database to unified AI platform Experience from web development to large-scale systems and ML engineering Leadership across GenAI, GraphML, MLOps, and inference infrastructureCore ExpertiseAI Platform Architecture, GenAI Orchestration, ML Engineering, GraphML, Graph Analytics, Distributed Systems, Kubernetes-Native AI, MLOps & LLMOps, Platform Tooling, Technical Product Leadership.Domain FocusAI/ML Infrastructure, Graph Technology, Distributed Systems, Contextual Data Platforms, Multi-Model Databases, Enterprise AI Adoption.Across engineering, platforms, and AI innovation, my mission is to turn data into contextual intelligence and lead Arango toward its next chapter as Arango.AI.