Hi there! 👋
I’m Dirk, a 25-year-old AI & Platform Engineer from Bavaria, Germany.
I design AI infrastructure, build developer platforms, and help enterprise customers modernize their systems.
When I’m not working on tech, you’ll probably find me at the gym or making music.
My career path wasn’t always a straight line — curiosity is what got me here.
🎮 It all started with Minecraft (and a bit of chaos)
I was around 14 when I hosted my first server — not for a company, but for my friends and me to play Minecraft.
Since lag wasn’t an option, I had to make sure everything ran smoothly.
My brilliant plan? Run the server on my own PC.
CPU and RAM were fine — network access, not so much.
(Pro tip: giving your friends the IP 127.0.0.1 to join your server won’t work 😅)
After some trial and error, we pooled our pocket money and rented a small cloud server.
That’s when I became the “server admin” by default — editing config files, installing mods, and troubleshooting performance issues.
Back then, I barely understood half of what I was doing.
But I loved every minute of it.
🎯 Finding focus: From training to ownership
A few years later, I began my IT training at a small software company.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that “working in the tech industry” often means dealing with outdated systems, such as trying to install Windows 10 on (unsupported) 2010 iMacs. (Spoiler: it didn’t go well.)
Midway through my training, I took a risky step: I changed companies.
If I didn’t pass the new probationary period,
I would have lost 1.5 years of training — with no credits or shortcuts under the German apprenticeship system.
Looking back today, I’d probably have found some kind of workaround, and it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. But in that moment, it felt like there was only one thing:
Pressure.
And that pressure changed me.
I stopped drifting and started to focus — not just on getting my work done, but on becoming really good at it.
For my final project, I containerized our software stack and built a Docker Compose framework that reduced deployment time from three days to one hour.
That was my first real taste of platform engineering — and I wanted more.
🛠️ Next challenge: Datacenter, Kubernetes & reliability
Right after finishing my training, I was thrown into the deep end:
I took over responsibility for both our Kubernetes clusters and the entire datacenter.
With guidance from an experienced external partner, I learned infrastructure best practices, automation strategies, and how to keep critical systems running under pressure.
It was like a second apprenticeship, but entirely hands-on.
Later, I switched to an IT distributor, where I worked directly with enterprise customers.
I became the go-to contact for some accounts and joined high-impact projects where reliability wasn’t just nice to have but instead it was mission-critical.
🔒 The security incident that changed my perspective
One of the most intense projects I’ve worked on started with a call no one wants to get:
A customer had been hacked and was on the brink of insolvency.
For five weeks, I worked on-site alongside the team — 12 to 14 hours a day — to rebuild their entire infrastructure from the ground up.
It was exhausting, technically complex, and often stressful.
But it was also the moment I truly understood the real-world impact of what we do in IT.
This wasn’t just about servers, clusters, or uptime —
it was about keeping a business alive, protecting jobs, and securing the livelihoods of families.
When we finally brought everything back online, it wasn’t just a technical win. It was a reminder that reliable systems can change everything.
⚙️ Building platforms at scale
After the security incident, I joined a project to build a Kubernetes-as-a-Service platform within our vCloud environment.
A colleague led the design, while I focused on the operational side: deployments, configurations, and day-to-day platform management.
Rolling out our first customer on the platform was a milestone moment for me.
There’s something uniquely satisfying about delivering a reliable, scalable environment that others can build on.
While the platform was eventually retired due to some early technology choices, the experience reinforced what I enjoyed most: Designing systems that are dependable, scalable, and make life easier for the people who use them.
🤖 The leap into AI
Not long after the Kubernetes project, my manager asked who wanted to get involved with AI.
I raised my hand without hesitation.
It started with NVIDIA intro videos, then a Udemy course or two, and eventually a full NVIDIA Masterclass.
My background in platforms and infrastructure made it easier to understand GPU-accelerated computing, the necessary GPU operators for NVAIE, and the challenges of running AI workloads at scale.
I began experimenting in my test lab. Deploying models, building pipelines, connecting applications to LLMs, and so on.
Those experiments led to multiple projects, including a production-ready, NVIDIA-based AI platform that now supports over 250 active users in an enterprise environment — running reliably, day in and day out.
In November 2024, I was awarded the title of NVIDIA Enterprise Platform Advisor (NEPA) — one of only 32 people worldwide — and attended even more NVIDIA events and workshops to stay at the forefront of enterprise AI.
🌟 Today: Building for impact
For me, AI isn’t just another technology trend, it’s the next industrial revolution.
And I want to make sure it’s built on platforms that are scalable, reliable, and actually useful.
My focus today is on enabling teams to do more with AI by designing infrastructure that’s easy to adopt, optimizing it for real-world workloads, and ensuring it delivers value beyond the hype.
Because at the end of the day, impact isn’t measured by how many features you ship — it’s measured by how much you enable others to achieve.
That’s why I do what I do.
If you’ve read this far, thank you for your time 🙏. I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey so far, and maybe found a little inspiration for your own path.
If you’d like to work together, feel free to reach out anytime at dirk.gluecker@kickoffai.io or directly at dirk.gluecker@medialine.ag.
I hope you have a great day,
Dirk