Principal Engineer · Lucerne

Hi, I’m Marcos Alexandre Figur Messer

Principal Engineer based in Lucerne, Switzerland. I lead teams that deliver complex software — from architecture through production — and I still ship a lot of the code myself. I value people who care about their craft, and I earn trust by holding myself to the same standard. I’m driven by using technology to solve real-world problems.

Selected projects

cold.global

Nuxt · Vue · TypeScript · FastAPI · PostgreSQL · OpenAI · Cloudflare

The Choice of Law Dataverse: an open-access legal research platform for private international law — court decisions, legal instruments, and jurisdiction comparisons for scholars and practitioners worldwide. I volunteer as an engineer across the stack: edge caching and Core Web Vitals, Auth0 authentication, search, jurisdiction comparison, and an AI case analyzer that extracts choice-of-law data from court decisions.

I also modernized its standalone case-analysis app (Python, LangChain, Streamlit) and shipped it to Azure with CI/CD.

Source on GitHub

agathabrandao.com

Next.js · TypeScript · Cloudflare

Personal academic site for a University of Lucerne researcher in transnational law — publications, CV, and events, in four languages.

patrimoniosolar.com

Astro · Tailwind CSS · Cloudflare

Marketing and lead-generation site for Patrimônio Solar, a Brazilian solar energy company — services, FAQ, blog, and quote requests.

formacaoglobal.com

Hugo · Cloudinary · Cloudflare

Site for Formação Global, a Brazilian study-abroad advisory — scholarships, mentoring content, and testimonials, tuned for performance with hardened security headers.

Work

Principal Engineer — crowdhouse AG

Apr 2026 — now

Technical direction and hands-on platform work — architecture through delivery.

Engineering Manager — crowdhouse AG / Driven AG

Dec 2023 — Apr 2026

Planning, processes, and delivery with product and stakeholders.

Tech Lead — Driven AG / crowdhouse AG

Jan 2023 — Dec 2023

Architecture, coding standards, and delivery in a cross-functional product team.

Senior Software Engineer — Driven AG / crowdhouse AG

Dec 2021 — Dec 2022

Full-stack TypeScript — React, NestJS, GraphQL, and AWS infrastructure as code with Terraform.

Software Engineer — EF Education First / EF Kids & Teens

May 2019 — Nov 2021

Web platforms with Next.js and Gatsby, Go services on AWS; Salesforce development and administration.

Software Engineer — Tribunal Regional do Trabalho 17a Região - TRT-ES

Apr 2014 — May 2019

Court systems in C#/.NET for a regional labor court; SharePoint development and administration.

About

Originally from Brazil, I’ve spent over a decade building software across startups, large corporations, and government agencies. That range has given me strong technical depth and adaptability. I lead through respect for good work and honest effort — trust is earned, not assumed, and the best teams are built on that foundation.

Off the clock I volunteer as an engineer on the Choice of Law Dataverse and run a home lab hosting more self-managed services than any household needs.

Engineering Manager

Running teams that ship — clear planning, agile delivery, and high standards for the work and the people doing it.

Full Stack Developer

Building scalable web applications end-to-end with React, Node.js, C#, and Python — including the CI/CD pipelines that keep them running.

Cloud & DevOps

Hands-on with AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, and Terraform — designing infrastructure that scales and deploying it with confidence.