Ioannis Papadopoulos

AI | Technology | CTO | Strategy

Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

About

I'm a technology and product leader with over 12 years of experience across engineering, product development, and business strategy, combining hands-on depth in software architecture, cloud, and modern tech stacks with the ability to build and scale organizations. I spent over a decade at trivago, where I led B2B and MarTech Product Engineering and helped establish our Auction Marketplace. I left in 2021 to serve as CTO and later CEO of Homelike, before returning to trivago in 2025 to sharpen our focus, drive AI transformation and strengthen our technological capabilities. Today I'm Chief Technology Officer of trivago (NASDAQ: TRVG), leading the technology organization through one of the most significant transformations in its history: building an AI-first engineering culture, evolving the platform from hotel search toward a hybrid meta-and-booking model. Our goal is to integrate technology and products more closely than ever before, delivering greater value for travelers. At the core of how I think is a single conviction: AI lets a focused, well-supported team operate far beyond its headcount, empowering 600 people to have the impact of 6,000. That means rebuilding developer experience around agentic coding, rethinking how engineering organizations are structured, and turning the fast pace of change in AI into lasting value, for trivago's product and the people building it.

Experience

  • trivago (Full-time · 1 yr 4 mos)
    • Chief Technology Officer
      Oct 2025 - Present · 10 mos

    • Head of AI Strategy & Special Projects
      Apr 2025 - Oct 2025 · 7 mos

      Leading AI strategy, adoption, evolving infrastructure, and enabling agentic ecosystems at trivago. Driving cross-functional initiatives, leading special projects, assessing business cases, and cultivating strategic partnerships.

  • Homelike (Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)
    • Managing Director - CEO
      Aug 2022 - Mar 2025 · 2 yrs 8 mos

    • Chief Product & Technology Officer
      Feb 2021 - Jul 2022 · 1 yr 6 mos

  • trivago (9 yrs 4 mos)
    • Head of B2B Product Engineering
      Jan 2017 - Jan 2021 · 4 yrs 1 mo

    • Head of Product Development Strategic Projects‬ ‭
      Dec 2014 - Jan 2017 · 2 yrs 2 mos

    • Head of MarTech Product Engineering‬ ‭
      Mar 2012 - Nov 2014 · 2 yrs 9 mos

  • Business Development Manager at Talos Software & IT LTD
    Jul 2008 - Sep 2011 · 3 yrs 3 mos

  • Business Development Manager at European Profiles Greece
    Jan 2002 - Jun 2008 · 6 yrs 6 mos