Dr. Simon Harrer

Co-Founder and CEO of Entropy Data · Gerolzhofen, Bavaria, Germany

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Simon is co-founder and CEO of Entropy Data, a data marketplace for data products and contracts.

Dr. Simon Harrer is co-founder and CEO of Entropy Data, a data marketplace powered by data products and contracts based on open standards.

Dr. Simon Harrer is co-founder and CEO of Entropy Data, building a data marketplace powered by data products and contracts based on open standards. He serves on the technical steering committee for the Open Data Contract Standard (ODCS) and the Open Data Product Standard (ODPS) at the Linux Foundation.

Dr. Simon Harrer is co-founder and CEO of Entropy Data, a company building a data marketplace powered by data products and contracts. He brings his deep experience in software engineering to the world of data, advocating for robust, contract-first approaches. Simon is also a member of the technical steering committee for the Open Data Contract Standard (ODCS) and the Open Data Product Standard (ODPS) at the Linux Foundation.

Dr. Simon Harrer holds a PhD in Distributed Systems from the University of Bamberg, Germany. Based on six years of teaching Java programming to students, he co-wrote the best-selling book "Java by Comparison".

He then moved into industry as a Senior Consultant at INNOQ, where he delivered software as part of a team practicing full-time remote software teaming. For that, the team created the popular open source tool mob.sh.

Today, Simon brings that engineering mindset to the world of data. He is co-founder and CEO of Entropy Data, a spin-off of INNOQ building a data marketplace powered by data products and contracts. He co-translated the German edition of "Data Mesh", co-created the Data Contract CLI and Data Contract Editor, and serves on the technical steering committee for the Open Data Contract Standard (ODCS) and the Open Data Product Standard (ODPS) at the Linux Foundation.


Career

Full professional history, as published on LinkedIn.

Co-Founder and CEO

Entropy Data

– present

Founded Entropy Data to bring people, data, and AI together, and built a data marketplace on data products and data contracts.

Created the Data Contract CLI and the Data Contract Editor.

Senior Consultant

INNOQ

· 7 years 4 months · Munich area, Germany

Implemented a distributed order management system at Breuninger and established clear interfaces at Hellmann.

Case studies: Breuninger · Hellmann. Developed the open source tool mob.sh.

Software Engineer

Self-employed

· 7 years 8 months · Bamberg area, Germany

Created an email notification service as a SaaS business for two German counties as a profitable side business, and made a successful exit in 2023.

CEO and Founder

Simon Harrer GmbH

· 3 years 3 months · Bamberg, Germany

Created a price negotiation tool for the strategic purchasing department at Robert Bosch GmbH.

External Lecturer

Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg

· 6 months · Bamberg area, Germany

Gave a seminar on Kubernetes and Cloud Native for master students at the Distributed Systems Group.

Researcher and Teaching Assistant

Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg

· 6 years 1 month · Bamberg area, Germany

Developed the two courses “Advanced Java Programming” and “Programming Complex and Interactive Systems” and lectured them for six years. Was subject advisor for B.Sc. and M.Sc. in applied computer science for two years.

Published 20 peer-reviewed papers in journals, conferences, and workshops — see research.

Student Teaching Assistant

Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg

· 4 years · Bamberg area, Germany

Gave 12 tutorials in 7 different computer science and software engineering courses, including mathematics for computer scientists, algorithms and data structures, and introduction to distributed and mobile systems.

Business Intelligence Student Internship

NETZSCH Group

· 2 months

Implemented a data warehouse and management reporting for the CFO. The internship was part of the Praxis Academy of the Campus of Excellence.

CIO

Feki.de e.V.

· 1 year 9 months

Led the transformation of the legacy Java-based portal to a standardized content management system.

Student Software Developer

Siemens AG

· 2 years 2 months · Nuremberg area, Germany

Developed large client-server applications with MS Access.

Education

Dr. rer. nat. in Computer Science, magna cum laude

Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg

2011 – 2017

Thesis: Effective and Efficient Process Engine Evaluation, University of Bamberg Press.

Diplom in Information Systems, with distinction

Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg

2005 – 2010 · Information Technology