Mark Schröder
I build tools and other things with software, hardware, and other people, and share some of the results here. Most of my work now involves AI. I also enjoy exchanging thoughts and opinions on it, especially around AI safety and how people and agents coordinate through shared systems.
01.
Portfolio
Featured project
Watcher
A general-purpose watcher primitive: a small model monitors a stream of text or visual data and triggers an action for a person, an agent, or another system.
View on GitHubMore code
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AutoAnki
A desktop app that turns notes, screenshots, and study material into Anki cards I review before exporting.
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Alpicool BLE Control
A macOS controller that changes my sleep-cooling box temperature overnight and records its status over Bluetooth.
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Canvas Lab
A tiny local design canvas for wireframing with Codex or Claude: chat on the left, live browser preview on the right.
02.
About Me
- Now
- AI Lead at Needs. Building a platform for digital coworkers in teams. Based in Vienna.
- Side
- Mechanism design, coordination and AI governance. A few small tools and experiments.
- Study
- Still finishing the Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen at RWTH Aachen, eventually.
- From
- Schleswig-Holstein → Aachen → Vienna.
- Languages
- DE / EN
03.
Experience
AI Lead | Needs, Digital Coworkers
Needs, Vienna (Remote)
October 2025 to Present
Building a platform for digital coworkers in teams. Leading AI and engineering work in a team of three.
Bachelor's Thesis | AI for Requirements Management
Audi AG, Ingolstadt
February 2025 to May 2025
Developing a system to automate workflows in requirements management; building tools to generate test cases from requirements.
Intern | AI Implementation in TE
Audi AG, Ingolstadt
October 2024 - February 2025
Wrote code to optimize brake cooling parameters for ESC systems; worked with simulation data to improve realtime temperature simulations. Matlab, Python, Carmaker, Synopsis Silver.
Research Assistant
Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) at RWTH Aachen University
October 2023 to October 2025
Revision and modernization of the EIP web platform (data collection). JavaScript, HTML, CSS; SQL Server-based database.
Founder & Developer | DirectionAI
Direction AI
August 2023 - February 2024
Developed DirectionAI, a life planning tool using LLMs for personalization. Built MVP on Bubble.io with AI integration.
04.
Education
RWTH Aachen University
Bachelor's in Industrial Engineering and Management (Mechanical Engineering)
October 2020 - Present
05.
Otherwise
Outside of work I kitesurf, play volleyball, dive, read (lately a lot of ancient history), and basteln. Spent six months on Work & Travel in New Zealand, back in 2020.