Technology Leadership

I'm currently Chief Technology Officer at Scilife, where I lead Engineering and Product for a distributed team of around 40 people across India and Europe. We're building AI-driven quality management systems for the life sciences industry—modernizing platforms, rethinking architecture, and creating tools for medical device manufacturers.

Beyond Scilife, I work with a small number of B2B SaaS companies I believe in. I advise Made2Flow, a sustainability startup measuring environmental impact in the fashion industry. Together with my dear friend, Gerrit McGowan , I co-founded Gestalt , where we offer advisory, coaching, and fractional leadership for venture builders. I mentor CTOs and technical leaders navigating growth and organizational challenges. And I conduct tech due diligence for investment decisions.

My journey began on a Commodore 64 in Tehran, wound through a PhD in Software Engineering at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and continued across continents. I've designed the software stack for tooz technologies' smart glasses (patent pending), led the creation of cloud-based development platforms at Huawei, invented an intelligent test data generation tool for SAP HANA (patented), grew Userlane's engineering team threefold in under two years, and supervised graduate theses for years.

I believe in empowering teams—trusting them to find the way rather than pointing it out. I approach technology with both strategic vision and hands-on experience, but I try to keep the human element at the center. Rather than prescribing solutions, I help leaders investigate root causes, develop their own frameworks, and build capabilities that outlast my involvement.

I call myself a "bilingual engineer"—someone who speaks the language of product managers, executives, and commercial teams as well as engineers. This ability to bridge technical and non-technical worlds, combined with a deep care for both the craft of building software and the people who build it, shapes everything I do.

Services

While I'm currently CTO at Scilife, I selectively work with a small number of B2B SaaS companies where I believe I can make a meaningful impact. My focus is on early to growth-stage companies navigating critical technical and organizational challenges. Here's how we might work together:

Technical Advisory & Strategy

I work with companies on technical strategy, architecture decisions, and platform modernization—particularly around AI integration, enterprise readiness, and building scalable systems. This isn't about prescribing solutions from a template; it's about understanding your specific context, constraints, and aspirations, then helping you chart a path forward that balances ambition with pragmatism. I've worked with companies like Made2Flow on sustainability technology, helping them think through technical architecture and team development.
 

Leadership Mentoring

I mentor CTOs and technical leaders as they navigate the challenges of scaling teams, establishing processes, and balancing technical work with strategic leadership. My approach emphasizes servant leadership and empowerment over command-and-control. Rather than telling you what to do, I help you develop your own frameworks for decision-making, investigate root causes systematically, and build organizational capabilities that scale beyond your direct involvement.
 

Due Diligence & Organizational Assessment

I conduct technical due diligence for investment decisions and comprehensive assessments of engineering organizations. This includes evaluating technical architecture, team capabilities, development processes, and the alignment between engineering, product, and business goals. The output is a detailed analysis of strengths, risks, and opportunities—designed to inform investment decisions or guide organizational improvements.
 

Personal Reflections

At some point in my past, I declared time "the number one enemy of mankind." More than a decade later, I wrote something different. I realized that time is not the enemy at all—that it is, in fact, an essential element of me enjoying the privilege of my unimaginably improbable existence. It's been a long journey to that realization.

I write, mostly for myself, about questions I don't have answers to; often mid-flight or on trains crossing Europe—those suspended moments where the world feels far away. About time, about what it means to exist, about the people who pass through our lives and the marks they leave. About the moments that take your breath away and the ones that crush your chest. I write to make sense of things, even when I know there is no sense to be made.

I think of the universe like a beautiful origami—energy confined into matter, matter giving birth to time, time enabling change, change enabling perception, perception enabling consciousness. And somehow, consciousness enabling me to write these thoughts down for whoever gets to read them one day.

I get caught by things. The way a stranger's hand gesture can trigger memories of love. How a song can make absence suddenly vivid. We are all prisoners locked-in for life in our own consciousness, and yet we keep reaching across that divide, trying to connect.

Music matters to me deeply. I find my zen in playing electric bass. I have found myself moved to tears by Leonard Cohen's songs, or by a perfectly crafted melody. The way art can capture the essence of life in a few minutes of a song, a single frame, or a masterfully crafted sentence—it's captivating, comforting, and at times heartbreaking.

I look for conversations that go beneath the surface. The day's events are fine, but let's talk about thoughts, observations, the things that tickle curiosity. Sometimes I feel like branches reaching out of me, searching for light, for connections that feed something deeper. I long to be taken out of the daily rituals of this life and fall into adventures of mind and thought.

I hold contradictions I don't try to resolve. Building the future while questioning whether it matters. Acknowledging life's unfairness while finding it beautiful. Seeing both darkness and light, not looking away from either.

If any of this resonates, I'd love to hear from you.

Résumé

Leadership

Coaching and Mentorship

Patents

  1. System, method, computer program, mobile device and kit for operating a device with low computing power (pending)
  2. Data generation for performance evaluation, 2014

Selected Talks & Tutorials

  1. Empowering Teams – Easier Said than Done! A quick dive into the topic of Team Empowerment and exploring some of its main ingredients. Touch 22 Conference. Tbilisi, Georgia. December 2022
  2. Building Microservices with Microservices. How can we offer development tools as-a-service and bring the development closer to the operation? Challenge Your Peers session at Delivery of Things World. Berlin, Germany. April 2018
  3. Microtools: Redefining Development Tools and IDEs. Introducing a new approach in providing tools as a service. Huawei's ERC Talks. Munich, Germany. December 2016.
  4. Dextor: Because ''Realistic'' Test Data Matters. Introducing Data Extractor and Generator toolkit (co-presenter). SAP d-kom 2015 selected talk. SAP Headquarters, Walldorf, Germany. March 2015.
  5. Dr. Hampton, S01-E06: Through the Looking Glass. Introducing HANA Performance Toolchain (co-presenter). SAP d-kom 2013 DemoJam Presentation. SAP Headquarters, Walldorf, Germany. March 2013.
  6. An Extensible Model Framework for High-level Executable Specifications of Distributed Systems. The CoreASM Workshop. University of Ulm, Germany. October 2012.
  7. Performance Analysis of Software Components. Future Internet Private Partnership Program (FI-PPP) Software Architects Week. Zurich University of Applied Sciences. Zurich, Switzerland. May 2012.
  8. Using CoreASM for High Level Design, Analysis and Validation of Distributed Systems Models. First International Conference on Abstract State Machines, B, and Z (ABZ 2008), London, UK. September 2008.
  9. Executing ASM Specifications with CoreASM. Advances in Software Engineering, Lipari International School for Computer Science Researchers. Italy. July 2007
  10. Executing ASM Models with CoreASM. Dagstuhl Seminar (07241) on Tools for the Model-based Development of Certifiable, Dependable Systems. Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany. June 2007.

Education

Technical Experience

  • Platform modernization: transforming legacy QMS architecture to API-first, AI-native platform for life sciences
  • AI strategy and implementation: establishing technical AI capabilities and deploying proof-of-concepts in regulated environments
  • Design and specification of tooz software platform (patent pending)
  • Firmware specifications and the design of a Bluetooth communication protocol
  • Set up of CI, automation scripts, server configurations and the testing environment
  • Co-architect and development lead of a novel microservices platform providing a cloud-based software development environment to R&D developers
  • Inception and implementation of a novel tools-as-a-service platform with a marketplace of tools and real-time developer dashboards
  • Automated test data generation for performance evaluation of data-centric applications (patent pending)
  • Performance analysis and prediction models for SAP HANA
  • Scalability analysis of cloud applications
  • Development of a framework for design and validation of Situation Analysis Decision Support Systems
  • Design and development of a tool for experimental validation of distributed data management protocols (SAP)
  • Architect and former lead developer of the The CoreASM Project
  • Formal semantics and experimental validation of the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS)

Volunteer Experience

  • Principal advisor on a number of BSc, MSc, and PhD theses
  • Organizing committee member of HotTopiCS 2014 and KSCO 2010
  • Program committee member of FOSINT-SI (2012 to 2017), IEEE ISI (2010 to 2017, 2019), ABZ (2012, 2014, 2016), TBFM (2010 and 2014)
  • Organizer of a special session on ASM Tools: Execution, Analysis, Validation, and Verification at the14th International ASM Workshop in Norway (2007)
  • Reviewer for journals, such as Automated Software Engineering, Logical Methods in Computer Science, Software Practice and Experience, and Science of Computer Programming

Selected Publications

For a complete list of publications, visit here.

Journal and Special Editions

  1. R. Farahbod, V. Gervasi, and U. Glässer. Executable formal specifications of complex distributed systems with CoreASM. Science of Computer Programming 79, pp. 23–38. 2014.
  2. R. Farahbod and U. Glässer. The CoreASM Modeling Framework. Software: Practice and Experience. Vol. 41. No. 2. pp. 167–178. 2011.
  3. V. Gervasi and R. Farahbod. JASMine: Accessing Java Code from CoreASM. In J.-R. Abrial and U. Glässer (editors), Rigorous Methods for Software Construction and Analysis. Springer LNCS Festschrift volume 5115. Springer 2009., pages 147-169.
  4. R. Farahbod, V. Gervasi, and U. Glässer. CoreASM: an Extensible ASM Execution Engine. Fundamenta Informaticae. Vol. 77. No. 1-2. pp. 71-103. 2007.
  5. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, and M. Vajihollahi. An Abstract Machine Architecture for Web Service Based Business Process Management. International Journal on Business Process Integration and Management. Vol. 1, No. 4. pp. 279-291. 2006.

Conference Publications

  1. C. Heger, J. Happe, R. Farahbod. Automated Root Cause Isolation of Performance Regressions during Software Development. In  Proceedings of the 4th ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE 2013), pages  27-38. 2013. 
  2. O. Yazir, Y. Akbulut, R. Farahbod, A. Guitouni, S. W. Neville, S. Ganti, and Y. Coady. Autonomous Resource Consolidation Management in Clouds Using IMPROMPTU Extensions. In Rong Chang, editor, IEEE CLOUD, pages 614–621. IEEE, 2012.
  3. R. Farahbod, V. Avram, U. Glässer, and A. Guitouni. Engineering Situation Analysis Decision Support Systems. European Intelligence and Security Informatics Conference (EISIC 2011), Athens, Greece. pp. 10-18. 2011.
  4. M. Altenhofen and R. Farahbod. Bârun: A Scripting Language for CoreASM. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Abstract State Machines, Alloy, B and Z (ABZ 2010). Orford, Canada. February 2010.
  5. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, and A. Khalili. A Multi-layer Network Architecture for Dynamic Resource Configuration & Management of Multiple Mobile Resources in Maritime Surveillance. In: Proceedings of SPIE Multisensor, Multisource Information Fusion: Architectures, Algorithms, and Applications. Vol. 7345. Orlando, USA. 2009.
  6. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, É. Bossé, and A. Guitouni. Integrating Abstract State Machines and Interpreted Systems for Situation Analysis Decision Support Design. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information Fusion (Fusion 2008), July 2008.
  7. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, and H. Wehn. Dynamic Resource Management for Adaptive Distributed Information Fusion in Large Volume Surveillance. In: Proceedings of SPIE Multisensor, Multisource Information Fusion: Architectures, Algorithms, and Applications. Vol. 6974. Orlando, USA. 2008.
  8. R. Farahbod and U. Glässer. Semantic Blueprints of Discrete Dynamic Systems: Challenges and Needs in Computational Modeling of Complex Behavior. In New Trends in Parallel and Distributed Computing, Proc. 6th International Heinz Nixdorf Symposium. Paderborn, Germany. 2006

Selected Talks

Selected Talks & Tutorials

  1. Empowering Teams – Easier Said than Done! A quick dive into the topic of Team Empowerment and exploring some of its main ingredients. Touch 22 Conference. Tbilisi, Georgia. December 2022
  2. Building Microservices with Microservices. How can we offer development tools as-a-service and bring the development closer to the operation? Challenge Your Peers session at Delivery of Things World. Berlin, Germany. April 2018
  3. Microtools: Redefining Development Tools and IDEs. Introducing a new approach in providing tools as a service. Huawei's ERC Talks. Munich, Germany. December 2016.
  4. Dextor: Because ''Realistic'' Test Data Matters. Introducing Data Extractor and Generator toolkit (co-presenter). SAP d-kom 2015 selected talk. SAP Headquarters, Walldorf, Germany. March 2015.
  5. Dr. Hampton, S01-E06: Through the Looking Glass. Introducing HANA Performance Toolchain (co-presenter). SAP d-kom 2013 DemoJam Presentation. SAP Headquarters, Walldorf, Germany. March 2013.
  6. An Extensible Model Framework for High-level Executable Specifications of Distributed Systems. The CoreASM Workshop. University of Ulm, Germany. October 2012.
  7. Performance Analysis of Software Components. Future Internet Private Partnership Program (FI-PPP) Software Architects Week. Zurich University of Applied Sciences. Zurich, Switzerland. May 2012.
  8. Using CoreASM for High Level Design, Analysis and Validation of Distributed Systems Models. First International Conference on Abstract State Machines, B, and Z (ABZ 2008), London, UK. September 2008.
  9. Executing ASM Specifications with CoreASM. Advances in Software Engineering, Lipari International School for Computer Science Researchers. Italy. July 2007
  10. Executing ASM Models with CoreASM. Dagstuhl Seminar (07241) on Tools for the Model-based Development of Certifiable, Dependable Systems. Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany. June 2007.

Publications

Journal and Special Edition Publications

  1. R. Farahbod, V. Gervasi, and U. Glässer. Executable formal specifications of complex distributed systems with CoreASM. Science of Computer Programming 79, pp. 23–38. 2014.
  2. H. Y. Shahir, U. Glässer, R. Farahbod, P. Jackson, H. Wehn. Generating test-cases for marine safety and security scenarios: a composition framework. Security Informatics. Vol. 1, pp. 4–25. 2012.
  3. R. Farahbod and U. Glässer. The CoreASM Modeling Framework. Software: Practice and Experience. Vol. 41. No. 2. pp. 167–178. 2011.
  4. R. Farahbod, V. Gervasi, U. Glässer, and G. Ma. CoreASM Plug-in Architecture. In J.-R. Abrial and U. Glässer (editors), Rigorous Methods for Software Construction and Analysis. Springer LNCS Festschrift volume 5115. Springer 2009., pages 147-169.
  5. V. Gervasi and R. Farahbod. JASMine: Accessing Java Code from CoreASM. In J.-R. Abrial and U. Glässer (editors), Rigorous Methods for Software Construction and Analysis. Springer LNCS Festschrift volume 5115. Springer 2009., pages 147-169.
  6. R. Farahbod, V. Gervasi, and U. Glässer. CoreASM: an Extensible ASM Execution Engine. Fundamenta Informaticae. Vol. 77. No. 1-2. pp. 71-103. 2007.
  7. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, and M. Vajihollahi. An Abstract Machine Architecture for Web Service Based Business Process Management. International Journal on Business Process Integration and Management. Vol. 1, No. 4. pp. 279-291. 2006.

Conference Publications

  1. C. Heger, A. Wert, R. Farahbod. Vergil: Guiding developers through performance and scalability inferno. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Software Engineering Advances (ICSEA), pages 598-608. IARIA, 2014.
  2. A. Wert, M. Oehler, C. Heger, R. Farahbod. Automatic Detection of Performance Anti-patterns in Inter-component Communications. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Quality of Software Architecture (QoSA '14). Lille, France, 2014.
  3. C. Heger, J. Happe, R. Farahbod. Automated Root Cause Isolation of Performance Regressions during Software Development. In  Proceedings of the 4th ACM/SPEC International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE 2013), pages  27-38. 2013. 
  4. D. Westermann, J. Happe, and R. Farahbod. An Experiment Specification Language for Goal-Driven, Automated Performance Evaluations. In Proceedings of the 28th ACM Symposium On Applied Computing (SAC 2013). Coimbra, Portugal. 2013. 
  5. D. Westermann, J. Happe, R. Krebs, R. Farahbod. Automated Inference of Goal-oriented Performance Prediction Functions. In Proceedings of the 27th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, ASE 2012, pages 190–199, NY, USA, 2012.
  6. H. Y. Shahir, R. Farahbod, U. Glässer. Refactoring Abstract State Machine Models. In: Abstract State Machines, Alloy, B, VDM, and Z, LNCS volume 7316, pages 345–348. Springer, 2012.
  7. O. Yazir, Y. Akbulut, R. Farahbod, A. Guitouni, S. W. Neville, S. Ganti, and Y. Coady. Autonomous Resource Consolidation Management in Clouds Using IMPROMPTU Extensions. In Rong Chang, editor, IEEE CLOUD, pages 614–621. IEEE, 2012.
  8. R. Farahbod, V. Avram, U. Glässer and A. Guitouni. A Formal Approach to High-Level Design of Situation Analysis Decision Support Systems. In Shengchao Qin and Zongyan Qiu (eds.), Formal Methods and Software Engineering (Proc. 13th Intl. Conference on Formal Engineering Methods, Durham, UK, 2011). LNCS volume 6991, Springer. Oct. 2011.
  9. R. Farahbod, V. Avram, U. Glässer, and A. Guitouni. Engineering Situation Analysis Decision Support Systems. European Intelligence and Security Informatics Conference (EISIC 2011), Athens, Greece. pp. 10-18. 2011.
  10. O. Yazir, R. Farahbod, A. Guitouni, S. Ganti, and Y. Coady. Adaptive Routing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks Based on Decision Aid Approach. In Proceeding of The 8th ACM International Symposium on Mobility Management and Wireless Access (ACM MobiWac 2010). Bodrum, Turkey. Oct. 2010.
  11. O. Yazir, C. Matthews, R. Farahbod, Y. Coady, S. Neville, S. Ganti, A. Guitouni. Dynamic Resource Allocation in Computing Clouds Using Distributed Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis. In: Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing (CLOUD 2010). Miami, Florida, USA. July 2010.
  12. M. Altenhofen and R. Farahbod. Bârun: A Scripting Language for CoreASM. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Abstract State Machines, Alloy, B and Z (ABZ 2010). Orford, Canada. February 2010.
  13. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, and A. Khalili. A Multi-layer Network Architecture for Dynamic Resource Configuration & Management of Multiple Mobile Resources in Maritime Surveillance. In: Proceedings of SPIE Multisensor, Multisource Information Fusion: Architectures, Algorithms, and Applications. Vol. 7345. Orlando, USA. 2009.
  14. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, P. Jackson and M. Vajihollahi. High Level Analysis, Design and Validation of Distributed Mobile Systems with CoreASM. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation. Porto Sani, Greece. October 2008.
  15. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, É. Bossé, and A. Guitouni. Integrating Abstract State Machines and Interpreted Systems for Situation Analysis Decision Support Design. In: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Information Fusion (Fusion 2008), July 2008.
  16. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, and H. Wehn. Dynamic Resource Management for Adaptive Distributed Information Fusion in Large Volume Surveillance. In: Proceedings of SPIE Multisensor, Multisource Information Fusion: Architectures, Algorithms, and Applications. Vol. 6974. Orlando, USA. 2008.
  17. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, and G. Ma. Model Checking CoreASM Specifications. In: Proceedings of the 14th International Abstract State Machines Workshop (ASM’07). Norway, June 7-9, 2007.
  18. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, and H. Wehn. CanCoastWatch Dynamic Configuration Manager. In: Proceedings of the 14th International Abstract State Machines Workshop (ASM’07). Norway, June 7-9, 2007.
  19. H. Wehn, et al. A Testbed Simulator to Evaluate the Efficiency of Net-enabled Surveillance. In Proceedings of UVS Canada: Conference on Unmanned Vehicle Systems Canada. Montebello, PQ, Canada. November 7-10, 2006
  20. R. Farahbod, V. Gervasi, U. Glässer, and M. Memon. Design Exploration and Experimental Validation of Abstract Requirements. In: Proceedings of the 12th International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality (REFSQ'06), Luxembourg, Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, Essener Informatik Beitrage (June 2006)
  21. R. Farahbod and U. Glässer. Semantic Blueprints of Discrete Dynamic Systems: Challenges and Needs in Computational Modeling of Complex Behavior. In New Trends in Parallel and Distributed Computing, Proc. 6th International Heinz Nixdorf Symposium. Paderborn, Germany (2006)
  22. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, and M. Vajihollahi. An Abstract Machine Architecture for Web Service Based Business Process Management. In Bussler, C. et al (Eds.): Business Process Management Workshops: BPM 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 3812, Feb 2006, 144-157
  23. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, and M. Vajihollahi. A Formal Semantics for the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services. In Savitri Bevinakoppa et al. (Eds.): Web Services and Model-Driven Enterprise Information Systems. Portugal. INSTICC Press (2005) 144-155
  24. R. Farahbod, V. Gervasi, and U. Glässer. CoreASM: an Extensible ASM Execution Engine. In D. Beauquier, E. Börger and A. Slissenko (Eds.): Proc. 12th International Workshop on Abstract State Machines. Paris, France (2005) 153-165
  25. R. Farahbod, U. Glässer, and M. Vajihollahi. Specification and Validation of the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services. In W. Zimmermann, B. Thalheim (Eds.): Abstract State Machines 2004. Germany. Springer-Verlag (2004) 78-95