Sascha Brawer

Experience

1. Since Oct 2021

   Independent

   Bern, Switzerland

   • Built Wikidata QRank, ranking knowledge graph entities by analyzing page views on Wikipedia, Wikitravel and other Wikimedia sites.
   • Built OSMViews, ranking geographic locations based on OpenStreetMap tile logs.
   • In 2025, spent a few months helping former Google colleagues at cradle.bio to keep their infrastructure running, cut machine costs, and automate lab workflows.
2. Oct 2019 – Sep 2021

   Director of Engineering

   Niantic Labs · Zürich, Switzerland

   • Designed a pipeline to reconstruct 3D models of the physical world on behalf of Augmented Reality features in “Pokémon Go” and other Niantic games.
   • Set up a prototype to use Niantic’s Augmented Reality technology for non-gaming applications. Worked with potential customers in retail and transportation to clarify product needs. Drove the prototype to demo stage.
3. Sep 2018 – Sep 2019

   Sabbatical

   Rapperswil, Switzerland

   • Dabbled in oil painting. Read a lot. Enjoyed life.
4. May 2004 – Aug 2018

   Senior Staff Software Engineer (L7, latest position)

   Google · Zürich, Switzerland

   • Designed, implemented significant parts of, and drove to launch: Indoor Maps; Google Chart API; Google Webmaster Tools/Sitemaps; Public Transit on Google Maps; Layers infrastructure for Google Maps; Google Translation Dictionaries; “onebox” web search features for European markets; Romansh web search; algorithmic transliteration of Google Maps to Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Russian.
   • Helped start up Google’s European Engineering headquarters. Interviewed candidates for positions in Software Engineering, Operations, Engineering Leadership, and Product Management. Trained new hires on Google’s systems infrastructure. Guided project teams through Google’s launch process, reviewing their systems design and making sure their additions fit into the existing production infrastructure.
   • “Engineering Ambassador” in Tokyo, connecting Google Japan to other sites while leading a Japanese team.
   • Took a 5-month break in 2012.
5. Apr 2003 – Apr 2004

   Founder

   Dandelis · Bern, Switzerland

   • Founded a consulting and software development business.
   • Member of the Swiss delegation to the ISO technical committee for Geographic Information. Wrote the draft standard document for ISO 19137, and drove it through the standardization process in minimal time.
   • Contributed several frameworks to the GNU implementation of the Java libraries.
6. Apr 2002 – Mar 2003

   Software Engineer

   Adasys · Zürich, Switzerland

   • Co-authored a textbook on modeling spatial data.
   • Member of the Swiss delegation to the ISO technical committee for Geographic Information.
   • Implemented threading, exception handling, and GUI modules for a proprietary cross-platform development platform.
7. Mar 2000 – Jan 2002

   Member of Research Staff

   Xerox PARC · Palo Alto, CA, USA

   • Designed a modular, distributed architecture to integrate heterogeneous engines for analyzing semi-structured document collections.
   • Implemented a prototype client/server application for assisting “knowledge workers.”
   • Developed the statistical engine for an interactive classification program.
8. Apr 1998 – Feb 2000

   Software Engineer

   Adasys · Zürich, Switzerland

   • Contributed to the design of an object-oriented modeling language for Geographic Information Systems. Developed a Java tool and class library for checking the semantic consistency of models.
   • Designed and implemented a Modula-2 mapping for CORBA IDL.
   • Consulted clients on data modeling issues, color management, and client/server architectures.
9. Oct 1997 – Jul 1999

   External Lecturer

   University of Zürich, Department of Informatics · Zürich, Switzerland

   • Taught a lecture (Lehrauftrag) on Programming Techniques in Computational Linguistics, 2h/week.
10. Mar 1997 – Sep 1997

    Research Intern

    Apple Computer, Advanced Technology Group · Cupertino, CA, USA

    • Built an optimizing compiler that transformed linguistic grammars for information extraction into PowerPC machine code.
11. Apr 1994 – Oct 1996

    Research Assistant (HiWi)

    Saarland University, Computational Linguistics · Saarbrücken, Germany

    • Developed a natural language parsing framework in C++.
    • Implemented a component for visualizing the semantic construction process in the “Verbmobil” machine translation system (in Prolog, under X11).
12. Jul 1993 – Oct 1993

    Intern

    ETH Zürich, Computer Engineering and Networks Lab · Zürich, Switzerland

    • Improved the phrase structure grammar of a German text-to-speech synthesis system.
    • Implemented Earley’s O(n³) chart parsing algorithm in Modula-2.

Education

1. Jan 1998

   Diploma (~MSc) in Computational Linguistics, Minor: Computer Science

   Saarland University · Saarbrücken, Germany

   • Passed with distinction.

Skills

Programming Languages

Extensive experience in Rust, C++, C, Java, and Python. Completed small projects in JavaScript, Kotlin, Perl, Prolog, Lisp, Object Pascal, Assembler (PowerPC, 680x0, 6301), Objective C, Forth, AppleScript, TCL, PostScript, and Basic.

Operating Systems

System-level programming for MacOS and GNU/Linux. Basic knowledge (ported libraries) of other Unices (Tru64 UNIX, HP-UX, Solaris), and Win32. Minimal exposure to VMS and CP/M.

Languages

Swiss German (native, C2)
English (fluent, C1)
Italian and French (working knowledge, B2)
Romansh and Japanese (entry-level, A1)