CR

CTO · Systems Architect · Graz, Austria

Christian Rieger

I architect software and the infrastructure it runs on, spanning application logic and backend systems through to Kubernetes platforms and the tooling in between.

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Portrait of Christian Rieger

About

“The right tools for the perfect systems.” — personal motto

My first real taste of programming was AVR RISC assembly, driving a microcontroller one register at a time, and I’ve been fascinated by every layer of a system ever since, from the lowest level to the highest. The infrastructure habit came just as early: I’ve been running servers since before I could afford a real one. It started around 2010 with a PHP site served from a 2005 laptop under my bed, moved through a Hetzner root server shared with four classmates, and grew into a homelab with its own CI, monitoring stack, and deployment automation. At some point I looked at the tooling I’d built and realized I was basically reinventing Kubernetes. What always drew me in wasn’t any single component but how they fit together into a coherent whole, and that fascination with system architecture is what I’ve built my career around. That mix is still what drives me: software down to the metal and the infrastructure it runs on.

Today I do that professionally. As CTO and co-founder of RiKuWe I’m responsible for the technical strategy of a managed hosting company built on open-source, cloud-native foundations like Kubernetes; at TimeWizz I lead the engineering of an AI-supported time-tracking product; and at Fraiss IT I’ve led the backend department since 2020, shipping data-centric systems in .NET and Rust for the mobility, medical, and financial sectors. Across all of it I work the same way: a close eye on security and detail, always looking for the most reliable and efficient solution rather than the quickest one.

I studied computer science at TU Graz with a major in IT security. My master’s thesis, IOTLS, is a lightweight end-to-end encryption protocol for constrained IoT devices. I write Rust partly because it’s fun, but mostly to build reliable, industry-leading services where performance and correctness matter. Away from production systems I run Arch Linux, build custom split keyboards, and cook with the same precision I bring to system design.

  • Kubernetes
  • Rust
  • .NET
  • C/C++
  • CI/CD
  • Linux
  • IT Security
  • Embedded

Now

RiKuWe GmbH

CTO & Co-founder · 2025 – present

Managed hosting and Kubernetes platforms: GDPR-conscious infrastructure in the EU, built for agencies and SMEs. Responsible for technical strategy, automation, and the open-source direction.

rikuwe.com

TimeWizz AI & Software GmbH

CTO · 2026 – present

AI-supported time tracking with integrated HR and invoicing. Responsible for product architecture and the overall engineering direction.

timewizz.com

Fraiss IT GmbH

Tech Lead, Backend · Aug 2020 – present

Leading the backend department: data-centric systems for the mobility, medical, and financial sectors in .NET (ASP.NET, EF Core), plus AI and distributed-systems work in Rust.

fraiss.com

Path

  1. 2026 – present

    CTO — TimeWizz AI & Software GmbH

    Technical lead of an AI-supported time-tracking product with integrated HR and invoicing.

  2. June 2026

    MSc Computer Science — TU Graz

    Passed with distinction. Major IT security, minor software technology. Thesis: IOTLS: Secure IoT Communication, a transport-agnostic end-to-end encryption protocol for constrained devices, supervised by Daniel Gruß.

  3. 2025 – present

    CTO & Co-founder — RiKuWe GmbH

    Co-leading a managed hosting company; technical strategy, infrastructure architecture, and operations.

  4. Aug 2020 – present

    Tech Lead Backend — Fraiss IT GmbH

    Managing backend development across mobility, medical, and finance projects in .NET and Rust.

  5. Oct 2018 – 2020 · 2024 – 2025

    Tutor — TU Graz, IAIK

    Teaching operating systems and systems-level programming; placed first in the OS course ranking in 2018.

  6. 2015 – 2020

    Toolchain Developer — NXP Semiconductors

    SmartCard toolchain: LLVM compiler benchmarking, SDKs, test infrastructure, and a high-performance smartcard reader in C and Rust.

  7. 2015 – 2019

    BSc Information and Computer Engineering (ICE) — TU Graz

    Bachelor thesis: ARMv8 / Raspberry Pi 3 port of SWEB, TU Graz’s teaching operating system, since merged upstream.

  8. 2009 – 2014

    HTL Mössingerstraße, Klagenfurt

    Technical computer science; Matura passed with distinction.

Writing

I write on the RiKuWe blog about tooling, infrastructure, and the occasional piece of hardware.

March 2025

Nushell — a next-generation shell

Why string-splatting in POSIX shells keeps producing fragile scripts, and how a shell built around structured data changes the way you automate.

Read on rikuwe.com

September 2025

Containers — not just boxes on a ship

Fifteen years of deploying software, from copying PHP files onto a laptop under a student bed to a K3s homelab, and what containers actually solve.

Read on rikuwe.com

February 2026

Framework Desktop, unexpected use case: FPGA development

Turning a Strix Halo mini-PC with 128 GB of shared memory into a compact FPGA synthesis workstation that also runs large open-weight LLMs locally.

Read on rikuwe.com

All posts on the RiKuWe blog →

Contact

Building something that needs solid foundations? Say hello.

christian@firenamics.com