Christian Ernst
AI Engineer, Designer, University Teacher
Principal AI Engineer (Associate Director) at AstraZeneca / Evinova
About
Christian Ernst is an engineer and designer specialising in AI-centric product development and agentic systems. He is currently building multi-agent systems at Evinova, an AstraZeneca company. Before that, he was leading a seven-person team building next-generation event software at Sweap, where he architected and deployed production AI systems using technologies like Python FastAPI, PydanticAI, Prefect in multi-client architectures. He combines hands-on Python development with strategic product leadership. His expertise spans the full spectrum from UI/UX design to backend AI workflows, enabling him to bridge design thinking with technical execution. He also teaches applied AI and 'Extended Intelligences' at HTW Berlin and IAAC Barcelona, demystifying AI systems for the next generation of designers.
Skills
Design
Figma 12 years (Expert) Leadership
AI Engineering
Langchain 4 years (Advanced) Langgraph 3 years (Advanced) 
Pydantic AI 2 years (Advanced) 
Google ADK 1 year (Advanced) 
Pytorch 3 years (Beginner) 
Jupyter 3 years (Beginner) Backend, DevOps, AIOps
Python 6 years (Advanced) 
FastAPI 5 years (Advanced) 
Flask 5 years (Advanced) 
Prefect 3 years (Intermediate) 
Docker 3 years (Beginner) 
IBM Cloud 2 years (Intermediate) 
AWS <1 year (Intermediate) Langsmith 3 years (Intermediate) 
Pytest 3 years (Intermediate) 
Sentry 3 years (Beginner) 
Keycloak 3 years (Intermediate) Frontend Prototyping
Tailwind 6 years (Advanced) 
Next.JS 4 years (Intermediate) 
Nuxt + Vue 3 years (Intermediate) 
Streamlit 4 years (Intermediate) 
React 3 years (Beginner) 
Svelte/SvelteKit 3 years (Beginner) Other Skills
Ableton 9 years (Advanced) 
Arduino 5 years (Advanced) 
3D Printing 5 years (Beginner) Projects
Lead Companion
An AI sales assistant for event teams. As Product Lead, I shaped the product from concept to closed beta, spanning UX design, product architecture and backend development. Visit the official website.
Teaching (Berlin): Dreaming With Eyes Open
A 5-day design sprint with students at HTW Berlin understanding and critically investigating AI tools in a today's designer's workflow.
AI Headlines
An experiment using a fully-automated web platform that generates news headlines with ChatGPT and illustrates them with a finetuned StableDiffusion version every seven hours. Check out the concluded experiment and my thoughts on it.
Master in Design for Emergent Futures
A trans-disciplinary master with elements of computer science, electrical engineering and digital fabrication. Link to both MDEF Documentation and FabAcademy Documentation here.
Hybrid Ecosystems
An interactive audiovisual exhibition exploring the patterns that emerge in both natural and synthetic ecosystems. View the project website here.
Work Experience
Principal AI Engineer (Associate Director)
As part of the Data Science team at Evinova, part of AstraZeneca, I am responsible for rapidly prototyping internal AI automations and maturing them to a 'product light' maturity. In this context, multi-agent architectures using Google ADK and deployed on AWS are most common.
Head of AI & Innovation
Following successful validation of a prototype built together with IBM, I hired and led a seven-person product development team delivering a multi-platform AI product (iOS, PWA, web), which I brought to closed beta with 20+ testers. The product employed technologies including Python FastAPI, PydanticAI, Prefect, Nuxt.js and Edge Functions across eight codebases. I drove technical architecture, product strategy, and cross-functional collaboration, while still actively contributing to the codebase.
Key Achievements
- Matured a prototype to a product with three clients and eight codebases, being tested by 20+ beta testers
- Achieved 90+% Test coverage across both backend and frontend repositories
- Repeatedly demonstrated the delivery of high-complexity features and product updates against tight deadlines
- Named an IBM Champion in 2025 in recognition of contributions to the IBM ecosystem
Product Lead
Led product strategy, design and frontend development for small and medium enterprises, delivering comprehensive digital solutions across several domains.
Key Achievements
- Assembled and led full-stack freelance teams to work on and deliver complex B2B and B2C platforms to clients
- Successfully managed projects from the private and public sector with up to 30 months duration
Education
MA Mention in Research
MA Design for Emergent Futures
BA Communication Design
Teaching & Collectives
Teaching: Extended Intelligences
A yearly one-week workshop in the Master in Design for Emergent Futures. Rated among the best lecturers of the master.
Founding Member
Founding member of a distributed design collective developing data installations across continents, focusing on innovative AI and technological solutions. Winners of the Distributed Design Award 2023.
Teaching: HMIs & Applied Artificial Intelligence
A yearly one-week workshop on human-machine interfaces and applied artificial intelligence.
Exhibitions
Sonic Ecologies 2.0
DOTTOD – cybernetic interpretations
DOTTOD – cybernetic interpretations
Hybrid Ecosystems
Human-Machine-Interfaces
Want to get in touch?
Made with ♥ in Barcelona. © 2026 Christian Ernst. All rights reserved.