Ahmed Salem
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Available for engineering leadership roles

Ahmed Salem
Engineering Leader, Embedded Systems and Software

Engineering leader with 15 years of experience in embedded systems, IoT, and machine learning. Currently leading a team of 14 engineers at Mynaric in Munich.

See my work ahmed.salem.9182@gmail.com Munich, Germany
Ahmed Salem portrait
Munich, DE
Engineering leadership, embedded and software.
15+
Years in software
14
Engineers leading today
100%
Team scale up at Mr Beam
90%
Fewer launch issues
About

Engineering leader, hands on architect, and team builder.

I lead cross functional engineering teams building embedded and software products. My work spans architecture, delivery, and people: defining technical direction, running agile teams, owning DevOps and release processes, and hiring the engineers who make the rest of it work.

How I work
  • Give engineers clear ownership of meaningful problems.
  • Use process to support delivery, not to demonstrate control.
  • Match architecture to the team that will maintain it.
  • Ship the smallest increment that informs the next decision.
Experience

Fifteen years across eight companies in Germany and Egypt.

From 4G protocol stack development at Intel to leading a 14 engineer embedded team at Mynaric. The common thread is delivering complex software with the right team and process behind it.

  • Mynaric Lasercom GmbH
    Munich, Germany

    Team Lead, Embedded Software

    Sep 2023, Present
    • Lead and mentor a cross functional software team of 14 engineers, holding the dual role of Product Owner and Scrum Master.
    • Architect embedded software and align technical solutions with product requirements.
    • Own all Agile ceremonies, sprint execution, project timelines, and business alignment.
    • Partner with Product Management on roadmaps, priorities, and milestone delivery.
    • Optimize DevOps practices: CI/CD, automated testing, and deployment workflows.
    • Customize Jira workflows and integrations to streamline task management and reporting.
    • Spearhead recruitment to grow the team in line with product and org strategy.
  • Mr Beam Lasers GmbH
    Munich, Germany

    Head of Software

    Jun 2021, Aug 2023
    • Led a team of 7 software engineers and testers and executed a 100 percent growth plan.
    • Developed backend software in Python and led the migration from Python 2.7 to 3.x.
    • Owned the OTA pipeline and fleet management framework for the device fleet.
    • Built a support framework integrating Jira, Freshdesk, and Google Sheets that cut response times substantially.
    • Instituted the company's first software QA process and release management procedures.
    • Launched a product with 90 percent fewer reported issues compared to previous launches.
    • Trained the company on Confluence and Jira and built a structured interview process for scale.
  • Bragi GmbH
    Munich, Germany

    Team Lead, Tiny ML

    Nov 2019, Sep 2020
    • Led a team of 5 software developers and data analysts.
    • Architected a custom machine learning compiler for embedded in Python 3 in 5 months.
    • Shipped the company's first embedded ML pipeline in C/C++ in under 2 months.
    • Released the first real time trigger word ML model for embedded in 4 months.
    • Integrated TensorFlow Lite Micro and guided more than a dozen embedded algorithms.

    Senior Software Engineer

    Jan 2019, Nov 2019
    • Built a Python package to serialize an ML pipeline in under 2 months.
    • Deployed a road traffic analysis and classification ML pipeline on Raspberry Pi in under 2 weeks.
    • Improved release process with Git and GitLab CI, doubling traceability and halving lead time for changes.
  • Bloks GmbH
    Munich, Germany

    Team Lead, Embedded Software

    Oct 2017, Jan 2019
    • Led a team of 10 software developers and testers.
    • Hands on development of the company's electric bike computer in C and Python.
    • Coordinated the migration from Bamboo CI to Jenkins with zero impact on SW release deadlines.
    • Accelerated firmware build speed 4x by restructuring projects to use CMake.

    Senior Embedded Software Engineer

    Apr 2016, Oct 2017
    • Developed real time FreeRTOS tasks for embedded devices in C.
    • Owned CI/CD pipeline setup and maintenance.
    • Developed and maintained bootloaders for STM based embedded platforms.
    • Integrated third party e-bike drive trains via serial communication protocols.
  • Infineon
    Munich, Germany

    Software Development Consultant

    Nov 2015, Apr 2016
    • Built tests and test automation for analog mixed signal designs in Perl and SKILL scripting.
  • Atmel
    Cairo, Egypt

    Software Development Engineer

    May 2015, Nov 2015
    • Developed new BLE features for embedded systems in C.
    • Ported Atmel APIs to BLE stack v4.1 from v4.0.
  • Axxcelera Broadband Wireless
    Cairo, Egypt

    Embedded Software Engineer

    Aug 2014, May 2015
    • 4G/LTE stack software development and testing in C.
    • Designed and implemented unit test infrastructure with BOOST C++.
  • Intel
    Cairo, Egypt

    Software Engineer

    Jul 2013, Jul 2014
    • Developed software for the 4G protocol stack in C.
Selected work

Projects with measurable outcomes.

A selection of engagements from across my career, delivered with the team and within the agreed timeline.

Bragi2020

Embedded ML Compiler

Architected and built a custom machine learning compiler for embedded targets in Python 3, end to end in 5 months.

Tiny MLPythonCompilersEmbedded
Bragi2020

Real time Trigger Word Model

Released the company's first real time trigger word ML model for embedded silicon in 4 months.

Tiny MLC/C++TF Lite Micro
Mr Beam Lasers2022

OTA and Fleet Management

Designed and implemented OTA for the device fleet and owned the fleet management framework end to end.

IoTPythonOTAFleet
Mr Beam Lasers2023

Product Launch, 90 percent fewer issues

Led the launch of a hardware/software product with 90 percent fewer reported issues than previous releases.

Release MgmtQALeadership
Bloks2018

Firmware Build 4x Faster

Restructured firmware projects on CMake and cut build times by 4x with zero release impact.

CMakeDevExFirmware
Bloks2018

CI Migration, Zero Downtime

Coordinated full migration from Bamboo CI to Jenkins without missing a single SW release deadline.

CI/CDJenkinsMigration
People and leadership

How I lead engineering teams.

A large part of my work is the team itself: hiring, growing tech leads, supporting engineers through difficult quarters, and creating the conditions for good technical decisions to be made.

01

Building teams

Hired and onboarded engineering teams from the first engineer onward, defining roles, levels, and working practices as the team grew.

02

Scaling under delivery pressure

At Mr Beam, doubled the size of the software team while maintaining delivery cadence and individual performance.

03

Developing engineers

Mentor engineers across seniority levels through structured 1:1s, technical reviews, and growth plans, including developing tech leads.

04

Cross functional collaboration

Work closely with product, hardware, QA, support, and customers so that engineering decisions reflect business and user context.

05

Agile delivery

Run Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban with OKRs and KPIs. Focus on ceremonies that produce decisions and retros that change behavior.

06

Process and tooling

Set up Jira workflows, Confluence documentation, QA processes, release management, and recruiting pipelines that scale with the team.

Skills

Technical and leadership toolkit.

Leadership

  • Cross functional team leadership
  • Hiring and scaling
  • Coaching and mentoring
  • Agile (Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban)
  • OKRs and KPIs
  • Stakeholder management
  • Jira and Confluence administration

Engineering

  • Embedded systems architecture
  • Full stack architecture
  • ML compilers and Tiny ML
  • OTA and IoT fleet management
  • Test automation
  • Bootloader development

Languages

  • C
  • C++
  • Python
  • Shell scripting

DevOps and CI/CD

  • Jenkins
  • GitLab CI
  • Bamboo
  • GitHub Actions
  • Docker

Platforms and RTOS

  • ESP32
  • STM32
  • SAM
  • Raspberry Pi
  • FreeRTOS
  • Linux (Debian)

Protocols

  • MQTT
  • UART
  • SPI
  • I2C
  • CAN
  • LIN
  • Ethernet
  • BLE
Achievements and education

Selected results and background.

Selected achievements

  • 01Scaled the Mr Beam software team by 100 percent in line with strategy and KPIs.
  • 02Shipped a product launch with 90 percent fewer reported issues than previous releases.
  • 03Delivered Bragi's first embedded ML pipeline in under 2 months.
  • 04Released the first real time trigger word ML model for embedded in 4 months.
  • 05Cut firmware build times by 4x at Bloks by moving to CMake.
  • 06Doubled software traceability and halved lead time for changes at Bragi via Git and GitLab CI.
  • 07Passed the NCEES Engineer in Training (EIT) certification exam, October 2010.

Education

  • Information Technology Institute
    Embedded Systems Advanced Diploma
    Cairo, Egypt • 2012, 2013
  • AMIT Learning
    Embedded Software Development Mini Diploma
    Cairo, Egypt • 2012
  • El-Shorouk Academy
    BSc, Electronics and Computer Engineering
    Cairo, Egypt • 2005, 2010

Languages and certifications

  • EnglishFluent
  • ArabicNative
  • GermanBasic
  • NCEES Engineer in Training (EIT) Certificate, October 2010.
Get in touch

Open to engineering leadership roles.

Based in Munich and considering roles across Europe, particularly where embedded systems, IoT, ML, and modern product engineering intersect.

Email me LinkedIn