Experience
I'm Paul Bütof, the engineer behind Passionate Bytes Solutions. My path is unusual: I started out programming industrial robots on automotive assembly lines, led the engineering of a fully automated fulfillment center, and then followed the data those machines produce into the cloud. Today I build cloud-native platforms and full-stack applications, with the kind of systems intuition you only get from having stood on the factory floor.
I prioritize well-informed architecture, thorough documentation, and rigorously tested results, in software development and warehouse automation projects alike.
Freelance Software Engineer
Software- Cloud infrastructure and data platform consulting for RightHand Robotics, continuing the platform I architected as an employee
- Built an e-learning platform for penetration testers from scratch for a security-training startup: on-demand vulnerable environments orchestrated on Kubernetes (the client folded before launch)
- Web development and volunteer IT administration for small businesses and a local NGO
Governed AI: safe self-service deployments
2025Built a secure self-service platform for AI-driven deployments, letting non-technical teams at a robotics scale-up ship their own internal tools.
- Their fast-moving, AI-generated apps had been going live with unreviewed code and real data exposure risk
- Set up an isolated cloud project with tightly scoped resources and identity-aware access in front of every app
- Packaged ready-made AI agent instructions so those teams deploy their tools themselves, without touching infrastructure
Senior Software Engineer
Software- Architected and built cloud applications and infrastructure managing a global fleet of hundreds of industrial robots
- Built full-stack applications that make petabytes of robot data accessible for machine learning, monitoring, and customer support
- Implemented an OAuth2/OIDC identity provider federating user accounts across all internal services
- Designed data models and highly optimized REST APIs for large-scale data access, with tooling, client libraries, and documentation to match
Petabyte-scale data platform for a global robot fleet
2023 – presentEvery RightHand robot streams multi-modal log data; I architected and built the cloud platform that turns it into ML training data, fleet monitoring, and support diagnostics.
- Designed the event-driven architecture ingesting and archiving petabytes of log data from a global fleet of hundreds of robots, and wrote much of its service code
- Built the full-stack applications that make the data usable for engineers, operations, and ML
- RightHand kept me on as a freelance consultant to continue evolving the platform
Technical Key Account Manager
AutomationProject Management- Technical lead for integration partners and key accounts
- Coordinated warehouse automation projects across central and western Europe
eOperator: piece picking as a product
2019 – 2023Turned RightHand's piece picking into a standardized product: RightPick picking from AutoStore, packaged and sold by Element Logic as eOperator.
- First at the company to lead productized partner offerings, moving from one-off integration projects to a repeatable package
- Drove the joint technical development with Element Logic's engineers and developers
- Proved the model with the first deployments at Apotea (Sweden) and Solar (Norway); the offering carried multiple customer projects since
Project Engineer
Automation- Designed robotic piece-picking solutions for fulfillment centers and warehouses across Europe, including robotic workcell design, technical design documents, ROI analyses
- Continued supporting the APO.com fulfillment center as a primary technology partner
Lead Automation Engineer
AutomationProject Management- Managed the technical implementation of a fully automated fulfillment center for pharmaceutical e-commerce
- Coordinated multiple integration partners and technology suppliers, shaping major technology choices
- Designed the warehouse layout and used operational data analysis to optimize workflows
World-first robotic piece picking in an AutoStore system at production scale
2018 – 2020Led the technical implementation of a €8M+ fully automated pharma fulfillment center, integrating 16 robotic picking stations in an AutoStore system.
- Coordinated the integration partners and technology suppliers, shaping the major technology choices
- Designed the warehouse layout and optimized workflows with operational data analysis
- Kept supporting APO.com's extensions and upgrades from the vendor side after joining RightHand Robotics
Robotics Engineer
AutomationSoftware- Programmed and deployed industrial robots (KUKA, FANUC, ABB, Stäubli, Yaskawa) across Germany, the EU, and the US
- Automotive and manufacturing clients including VW, Audi, Škoda, John Deere, and Tesla (Model 3 final assembly line, Fremont CA)
- Applications covered CNC machine tending, welding, laser and water-jet cutting, vision-guided assembly, handling centimeter-parts to entire car bodies
B.Eng. Mechatronics
- Specialization in robotics and industrial automation