---
author: Jan Brennenstuhl
canonical_url: https://www.janbrennenstuhl.eu/about/
description: Jan Brennenstuhl is a principal engineer in Berlin who works on application security, identity and agentic engineering.
id: jb-author
kind: profile
license:
  name: Not specified
  scope: No reuse license specified for this page.
  url: ''
markdown_url: https://www.janbrennenstuhl.eu/about/index.md
modified: '2026-10-31T00:00:00+01:00'
published: '2021-04-08T00:00:00+02:00'
review_basis: ''
review_status: not-reviewed
reviewed: ''
series: ''
status: published
title: About Jan Brennenstuhl
topics:
- application-security
- identity-authentication
- agentic-engineering
---

# About Jan Brennenstuhl

Jan Brennenstuhl is a principal engineer in Berlin who works on application security, identity and agentic engineering.


Hi, I'm Jan. I live and work in Berlin, where I was born and raised.

I work as a principal engineer for application security, and most of my time goes into making [agentic engineering](https://www.janbrennenstuhl.eu/topics/agentic-engineering/) secure and efficient. Before that I spent years building and operating identity systems used by millions of customers, balancing usability and security in high-stakes revenue funnels. That is where my interest in the overlap of security, usability and automation comes from.

The list of things I've worked on is long and mostly unglamorous: e-commerce funnels, rule engines, cloud strategies, identity and access management (IAM) and single sign-on (SSO), REST APIs, system integrations, legacy migrations, decommissioning projects and splitting up monoliths. I've practised software archaeology more often than I've started a greenfield service.

I prefer internet standards, open source software and open formats over custom builds. In my experience, the best software comes from small teams of product-minded engineers with a narrow scope and a clear picture of what they are building. I enjoy leading and coaching engineers as much as building and running software that is reliable, secure and maintainable.

Right now the biggest piece of that is the open-source [Agentic Identity Broker](https://www.janbrennenstuhl.eu/projects/agentic-identity-broker/), which Magnus Jungsbluth and I build so that an agent can act for a person without holding that person's credentials. The [now page](https://www.janbrennenstuhl.eu/now/) says what I'm working on this month, and the [speaking page](https://www.janbrennenstuhl.eu/talks/) lists the talks.

I hold an M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Potsdam, with a thesis on certificate management in the cloud for authentication in a university environment, and I studied Media Informatics at Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin.

Away from the keyboard: cycling, coffee and [hiking](https://www.rucksackrebellen.de).


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Cite as: Jan Brennenstuhl. "About Jan Brennenstuhl." Brennenstuhl on Security, 8 April 2021. https://www.janbrennenstuhl.eu/about/
License: not specified.