Curriculum Vitae

Whoami

A passionate advocate for open source with a strong focus on Kubernetes and the CNCF landscape, driven by a deep enthusiasm for DevOps culture and a commitment to fostering team collaboration and improving workflows. Beyond DevOps, there is a strong interest in platform engineering, where the goal is to build resilient platforms and systems that enhance development efficiency, optimize system uptime, and simplify operations for both development and operations teams.

With extensive hands-on experience across GCP, AWS, Azure, and DigitalOcean, I have developed expertise in leveraging technologies such as GKE, EKS, AKS, DOKS, OpenShift, Talos, and K3s to design and manage containerized platforms. By embracing GitOps principles, ArgoCD has been successfully implemented in numerous projects to automate and standardize application delivery, ensuring reliability and consistency across environments.

Extensive expertise in CI/CD tools such as GitLab CI and Jenkins, enabling teams to accelerate software delivery with continuous deployments while optimizing and automating build, test, and deployment workflows for greater efficiency and reliability.

What am I looking for

I am seeking to transition into freelance work and secure my first role, ideally a stable, long-term contract (12 months or more). I am looking for opportunities that allow me to leverage my expertise in Kubernetes, cloud-native technologies, infrastructure as code, and CI/CD practices, where I can contribute to building and optimizing scalable, automated systems.

Socials

Education

2013-2014 - Howest - Digital Arts & Entertainment
2015-2018 - PXL - Applied Computer Science – System & Network Administration (Bachelors degree)
2018-2019 - Howest - Computer & Cybercrime Professional (CEH certificate)

Certification

2021 - CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator)
2019 - CEHv10 (Certified Ethical Hacker)
2019 - ITIL Foundation

Recent Training & Courses

2022 - Go Training - Interactive training on programming in Go
2023 - RedHat Openshift ACM - Advanced Cluster Management
2023 - Kasten K10 - Kubernetes backup and distaster recovery
2025 - Architecting on AWS - AWS Solutions Architect Associate

Continuous Learning

2015-2025 - Homelab - Built and maintained a personal tech environment for hands-on learning and staying ahead of the curve with industry trends.

Languages

Dutch - Native Speaker
English - Fluent (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening)
French - Basic (Reading, listening)

Experience

HostYou (02/2018 - 04/2019)

Internship

Creating an automated test environment for web development at HostYou. I also made a custom CLI tool to manage it.

Infrastructure Solutions Advisor

Supporting clients to offer the best possible solution for their hosting needs. My responsibility was maintaining the datacenter, including firewalls, switches and HPE servers. It was also my job to automate the provisioning of the LAMP stacks and a wide range of other small tasks to make sure minimal manual work was needed.

Aarixa (04/2019 - 06/2022)

DevOps Consultant at Digipolis

Platform9 Kubernetes Infrastructure As Code

Automating the creation and management of Platform9 Kubernetes clusters as code. Users only need to commit changes to a git repository, after that the automation tools take over to create or update all the required infrastructure.

AVI Infrastructure As Code

Creating and maintaining IAC pipelines to automate the configuration of AVI network loadbalancers. Migrating from F5 BigIP to VMWare AVI.

Application Lifecycle Management

As a member of the ALM team it is our responsibility to support the developers in their deployment process by providing a platform as well as a set of automation tools to facilitate their process.

MyACPaaS

Working on the "My Antwerp City Platform as a Service" platform, I was part of the Workplace team, the team that was responsible for Gitlab and some custom build side components to automate the deployment process. These components consisted of custom build Python API's and applications to automate the communication between Gitlab and other systems like Kafka, Vault and S3. Everything was created as containers, either to be used in the pipelines or to run on Kubernetes. We always worked in sprints with Agile and Scrum.

Nexuzhealth (06/2022 - 10/2023)

Technical Software Engineer - DevOps Engineer

As part of the Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team, I was responsible for ensuring system reliability, keeping infrastructure up and running, and continuously seeking improvements. I worked extensively with Google Cloud, maintaining all infrastructure as code using Terraform, eliminating manual configurations entirely. The approach was infrastructure as code first, along with pipelines as code to streamline operations. Additionally, we used a custom GitOps tool in Go, comparable to ArgoCD or Flux, to enhance deployment workflows. We focused on automating workload management on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), ensuring scalability, efficiency, and high system availability.

Projects:

UZ Leuven: Migration from Openshift 3 to Openshift 4

We successfully migrated from OpenShift 3 to OpenShift 4, setting up the entire infrastructure as code using Terraform. I was responsible for defining application deployments, leveraging custom Groovy Jenkins pipelines and Terraform to ensure a seamless, automated rollout.

Migration from Jenkins to Gitlab-CI for MOAPR

We carried out a major migration from complex Jenkins Groovy libraries to GitLab CI for our MOAPR (Mother Of All Patient Records), the core product NXH. This transition streamlined our CI/CD processes, improving maintainability, efficiency, and automation. It was an agile environment working in sprints of two to three weeks.

Jenkins | Groovy | Gitlab-CI | Go | GKE

Setup and maintenance Observability Stack

We designed and implemented a cloud-native observability stack on top of GKE to monitor all our GKE clusters. This setup leveraged Prometheus for metrics collection, Grafana for visualization, Loki for log aggregation, and Phlare/Pyroscope for profiling, ensuring comprehensive monitoring, performance insights, and efficient troubleshooting across our infrastructure.

Setup and maintenance Security products

We needed a clear view of dependency management through the use of SBOMs, ensuring transparency and security across our software supply chain. To achieve this, we implemented automatic SBOM generation for dependency management and leveraged Dependency Track for tracking dependencies. Additionally, we used Trivy Operator for container image scanning and Defect Dojo for vulnerability management, enabling us to collect, analyze, and visualize data on dependencies and security risks effectively.

Dependency Track | Defect Dojo | Trivy Operator

Piros (10/2023 - 01/2024)

I had two combined roles across Piros and Qubr, with significant responsibility in both technical and leadership capacities.

Piros: RedHat DevOps Consultant

Piros is the biggest Belgian RedHat partner. I provided expert advice on DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) best practices, helping customers optimize their infrastructure and workflows. Additionally, I supported the sales team from a technical perspective, offering insights and guidance that were crucial in securing business opportunities.

Openshift | Ansible | RedHat

Qubr Teamlead

Qubr is a subdivision under Piros, offering managed services to customers. I was teamlead of a team of six, primarily composed of junior and medior profiles. My responsibilities included designing infrastructure architecture for customer projects, with a strong focus on Kubernetes and OpenShift solutions. I also played a key role in supporting and mentoring junior team members, helping them grow and develop their skills. Additionally, I was responsible for the setup and maintenance of Qubr’s infrastructure, ensuring the reliability and scalability of our systems.

Sopra Steria / Tobania (01/2024 - now)

DevOps / Platform Engineer / Technical Lead

Setup and maintenance of Kubernetes-based container platforms, leveraging a GitOps approach for streamlined management. Utilizing a diverse range of tools from the CNCF landscape, I specialize in building scalable, secure, and automated platforms that enhance operational efficiency and reliability for our customers.

With a strong focus on automation, I develop and optimize CI/CD pipelines across various technologies, enabling seamless software delivery, reducing manual effort, and improving deployment efficiency.

To enhance visibility and gain deeper insights, I have designed and implemented a distributed multi-cluster observability platform using Thanos, Prometheus, Loki, and Grafana, providing centralized monitoring, log aggregation, and improved visibility across these complex cloud-native environments. With most customers we work in an agile way, in sprints, with daily and weekly meetings do discuss progress.

Jorselutions (02/2022 - 02/2024)

Secondary Occupation (bijberoep)

I developed a custom web platform for a local funeral undertaker, enabling efficient management of documents and appointments. Integrated Belgian eID for secure authentication and streamlined operations.

Infrastructure as a Hobby (2018 - now)

Platform Engineering

In my spare time, I built a cloudnative platform, leveraging Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to provision and manage Talos Kubernetes clusters in Hetzner Cloud, with integrated autoscaling for dynamic resource management. The solution utilizes a GitOps approach with ArgoCD to streamline deployment and management. It incorporates robust security with CrowdSec and Cloudflare, ingress management, SSO, and integrated observability tools. Custom node pools and cloud-native database management were implemented, alongside a custom private container registry powered by Harbor. Additionally, a multi-cluster mesh was established using Tailscale, ensuring secure and efficient cross-cluster communication. Secure secret management was integrated with HashiCorp Vault and External-Secrets to safeguard sensitive data across the platform. This infrastructure supports the deployment and management of self-written applications and Kubernetes operators, ensuring seamless, automated operation. HA Postgres database clusters are maintained using Cloudnativepg.

Homelab - Private Projects - Hobby (2015 - now)

Since my school years, I have been passionate about technology. In my spare time, I enjoy experimenting with new technologies, continuously learning, and exploring tools that I could potentially introduce at work. I design and build complex systems for my homelab, developing custom APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure as code to deepen my expertise and stay ahead of industry trends. I run these workloads on a mix of old HPE ProLiant servers, custom built machines, and scale them up to Hetzner Cloud, ensuring a flexible and scalable infrastructure for experimentation and development.

Apart from infrastructure, I have a strong passion for programming. I enjoy developing custom APIs to automate tasks at home and within my infrastructure, as well as building Kubernetes operators to streamline operations on my own clusters. My projects are primarily written in Python and Golang, allowing me to create efficient and scalable automation solutions.

Experimenting with tools in the CNCF landscape.
Network VLANS at home for my servers and my network infrastructure.
HPE Proliant servers for own internal tooling and Hetzner cloud for scaling infrastructure.
Tech:
- Proxmox
- Gitlab CICD
- Continuous Deployments
- Continuous Delivery
- Operating Systems
  - Linux
  - Unix
  - Windows
- Hashicorp Vault
- VPN:
  - Tailscale
  - Wireguard
  - OpenVPN
- Databases
  - Mysql
  - Postgres
  - Redis
  - Mongodb
  - Elasticsearch
- Ingress
  - Nginx
  - Traefik v2
- Container Registries
  - Sonatype Nexus
  - Harbor
  - ECR
  - Gitlab
  - Artifactory
- Observability
  - Prometheus
  - Thanos
  - Loki
  - Promtail
  - Fluentd
  - Fluentbit
  - Grafana
- Firewalls:
  - PfSense
  - OPNsense
  - Ubiquity
- Various API's, Kubernetes operators, mostly written in Python/Go
- Custom DNS solution to manage my own DNS servers as code:
  - CoreDNS
  - Bind9
  - Everything as code with Gitlab CI
- Kubernetes:
  - Talos
  - k3s
  - k0s
  - Rancher
- Hetzner Cloud
  - All infrastructure is defined as code with Terraform and Ansible.
  - Multiple kubernetes clusters, setup as code, fully GitOps managed by ArgoCD.
  - +- 75 Customized helm charts of CNCF products running live on private clusters.
- IoT
  - Managing my home automation with a small Talos Kubernetes Edge Cluster.
- Programming
  - Backup-Viewer: A simpel React frontend application to visualise all kinds of backups in my Kubernetes clusters.
  - Gatus-Operator: A Kubernetes operator written in Go to automatically configure a Gatus monitoring server based on service discovery in a Kubernetes cluster.