Dennis Schmidt
Dennis is an engineering leader and product-focused technologist with deep expertise in building modern software systems, mobile platforms, and intuitive, user-centered products. As Staff Engineer at Beams, he helps shape AI-driven solutions for safety and risk management in aviation and beyond. Previously, he held senior engineering and leadership roles at Pivotal Labs and SoundCloud—helping scale teams, launch cross-functional product initiatives, and drive iterative development practices for large clients such as Volkswagen and across sectors like banking, insurance, and multimedia. A passionate builder, Dennis has co-founded multiple startups and continues to run several side projects, among which is an “App of the Day” winner in the US. He works across languages and stacks, focusing on long-term maintainability, thoughtful architecture, and delivering real-world impact.
Session
In aviation, search isn’t simple—people use abbreviations, slang, and technical terms that make exact matching tricky. We started with just Postgres, aiming for something that worked. Over time, we upgraded: semantic embeddings, reranking. We tackled filter complexity, slow index builds, and embedding updates and much more. Along the way, we learned a lot about making AI search fast, accurate, and actually usable for our users. It’s been a journey—full of turbulence, but worth the landing.