About Us
The two humans (and one very quiet car) behind Silent Wanderers.
Hola, we're Alex & Cristyne
We're a couple who swapped a fixed address for a rolling one. Alex is German, a lifelong tech geek, solution architect, and full-stack engineer who has spent 20+ years building cloud and IoT systems. Cristyne is from Singapore and a fashion designer—she graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore and most recently led fashion products at Heinemann in Singapore for the South-East Asia and Oceania region. She's also our chief adventure planner, photographer, and the reason we always find the best tapas bar in town.
Together we're exploring Europe and beyond in our Tesla Model Y, documenting the places, the costs, the bureaucracy, and the occasional gale-force balcony wind along the way. We started in southern Spain and we're not in a hurry.
Alex's work, in short
Results-driven solution architect and full-stack engineer with 20+ years of experience—mostly in Java—building scalable cloud solutions, designing SDKs, and leading cross-regional teams. Happiest where technology meets real business problems (and a good coffee).
Technical toolbox
- Cloud: Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, Cloud Foundry
- Languages: Java, Node.js, JavaScript, C#/.NET
- Architecture: IoT cloud architecture, microservices, GoF design patterns, UML 2.x
- DevOps: CI/CD on AWS, Azure & Jenkins, Kubernetes, Docker
- Ways of working: Agile (Scrum, Kanban)
Experience
Custom solution development (Java, Angular, …) and operating those solutions across cloud platforms for high availability.
DevOps of an Azure cloud solution enabling 1,000+ global users to calibrate electric vehicles; used Databricks, Grafana and a time-series DB for vehicle-data analysis and reporting. Led training and change initiatives.
DevOps of an end-to-end IoT cloud solution making data-driven maintenance forecasts for 10,000+ lifts using heuristic AI—cutting service footprint and installation time by >50%. Gateway development in Java OSGi with a Kafka cloud backend.
Led the Eclipse Vorto project, growing the contributor community 5×. Built an IoT Suite toolchain with Eclipse EMF / Xtext, halving device-integration time via SDKs. Collaborated with Google, Microsoft and others on smart-building sensor abstraction.
Built a Java Spring Boot workflow engine for business users and streamlined SOA/EAI projects, cutting costs by up to 70% through model-driven architectures.
Education & languages
- M.Sc., Furtwangen University, Germany (2001 – 2006)
- German (native), English (fluent), Mandarin (basic), Spanish (improving daily!)
A couple of highlights
- AWS Hackathon Winner, Singapore 2016 (augmented-reality IoT use case)
- Published IoT articles on the Bosch developer portal (e.g. Eclipse Vorto integration)
Cristyne's work, in short
Dynamic senior buyer and fashion professional with 10+ years in procurement, category management, and product merchandising across luxury retail, travel retail, and e-commerce. Proven at driving sales growth, tightening inventory, and launching products that actually move.
Key expertise
- Category management, procurement & negotiation, inventory optimisation
- Product development, merchandising planning, and retail analytics
- Tools: Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Nav BC, Power BI
Experience
Oversees luxury timepieces and eyewear for South-East Asia and Oceania. Achieved a 70% sales increase vs pre-COVID levels, cut inventory 40%, and mentors assistant buyers. Uses data dashboards to prevent stockouts and coordinates with brands for event-ready deliveries.
Managed inventory with sales forecasts; curated assortments and planograms; built promotional calendars. Launched innovative lines for “Discover Singapore” and “Taste of Singapore.”
Selected products from U.S. market trends; negotiated vendor terms; aligned stock with demand forecasts. Collaborated on crowd-funding launches with Fair Leather & Co. and Tocco Toscano.
Led regional handbags and accessories—80% of regional sales at Q2-16 SRM vs prior year. Developed country-specific SKUs with annual turnover exceeding USD 500k.
Handled 98 luxury brands across apparel, shoes, handbags, and fine jewellery—online launches, competitor pricing, SEO with IT, and coordinated promotions.
A/W 2013 handbags collection with Girls' Generation sold out in 2 weeks and boosted seasonal sales 85%. Planned buying budgets, displays, and production quality end-to-end.
Education & languages
- B.A. Fashion Design, LASALLE College of the Arts & U.K. Open University (2009 – 2010)
- Diploma in Fashion Design, LASALLE College of the Arts (2006 – 2009)
- Professional development: Retail Buying, Merchandising Planning (Retail Academy of Singapore); Supply Chain Management (Coursera)
- English (fluent), Mandarin (advanced), German (basic)
A couple of highlights
- 70% sales lift in luxury timepieces & eyewear post-COVID at Heinemann APAC
- Girls' Generation collaboration collection sold out in two weeks (Bonia / Active World)
Code Alex has worked on
A few projects from Alex's GitHub profile—a mix of personal work and contributions to open-source IoT and developer tooling.