Résumé
This is an intentionally verbose résumé where I strive to list every engineering activity or technology I’ve had direct but meaningful contact with over the years.
Its scope absolutely overwhelms me too at times, but I’m looking forward to tripling it over the next decade.
Profile
Detail-oriented systems software engineer who simply has to know how everything works.
Over a decade of experience designing, building, and maintaining critical distributed systems, integrations, and automations optimised for both performance and stability.
Passionate about real-world system design, programming languages and their implementations, as well as Linux/Windows operating system internals.
Principled believer in Open Source and making technology accessible to all.
Core Skills
Engineering: Software Architecture, Platform Engineering, Distributed Systems, Systems Engineering, Data-Driven Design, Continuous Integration/Delivery, Configuration Management, Microservices, Operators
Operating Systems: Linux (notably Ubuntu), Windows Client and Server (Win32), macOS
Virtualisation: KVM, QEMU, Hyper-V, ESXi, LibVirt, Hypervisor.framework
Containerisation: LXC, LXD, Docker, namespaces, cgroups, CRI, CNI
Platforms: Kubernetes, OpenStack, VMware, Azure, AWS, Oracle Cloud, Proxmox
Programming: Python, Golang, Rust, C, Java, Lua, Haskell, Zig, Bash, PowerShell, eBPF
General: REST, gRPC, OpenAPI, schemas, SQL, NoSQL, ORMs, networking
Automation: GitHub Actions, Ansible, Terraform, Helm, Jenkins, shell scripts
Personal tooling: Ghostty, NeoVim, Fish shell, Docker, Multipass, macOS
Experience
Cloud Native Solutions SRL | January 2025 - September 2025
Technical Project Lead
Designed and implemented an end-to-end user workflow pattern detection system which was comprised of several independent software components:
- Rust agent running as a Windows service to monitor user input events (mouse moves/clicks, keyboard typing, in-focus app, etc…), with a strong focus on:
- optimisation: the agent’s design was purely event-driven, leading to exactly ZERO CPU cycles outside of user input periods, with a memory cap of 50MiB (over half of which being internally allocated pre-output buffers) to allow for as broad of a customer install base as possible
- stability: the agent was virtually crash-proof with several fail-safes preventing it from ever entering an invalid state and ZERO crash reports from customers
- set of Rust library crates comprising a pipeline for aggregating user input statistics
- Rust library to dynamically plot aggregated user data along certain metrics
- set of Python libraries for efficiently loading and processing user event logs
- Python tool which detects user patterns using sequential pattern mining
- fullstack Rust web application for viewing patterns, plots, and timesaving suggestions built using Dioxus
This challenge had brought with it great experience of systems-level Rust on Windows, familiarity with a big chunk of the Win32 API surface area, and deep insights into designing a user-facing data-driven system.
Cloudbase Solutions SRL | July 2014 - November 2024
Senior Cloud Engineer | September 2021 - November 2024
Worked on several separate Cloud Native initiatives over a longer period:
- Canonical’s k8s and microk8s snapped Kubernetes distributions:
- helped build OCI images with Rockcraft and automated testing/auditing
- gained deep understanding of deploying high-level Kubernetes components
- containerd, nerdctl, and various CRI/CNI utilities for Windows:
- helped in porting, testing and benchmarking on Windows
- gained deep understanding of lower-level Kubernetes internals (CRI, CNI)
- worked with (at the time) bleeding edge Windows Server container features
- taught 2 Canonical Kubernetes Explorer certification training programmes
- focused on linking high-level Kubernetes resources to low-level Linux APIs
- embraced course-time mishaps to showcase Kubernetes debugging process
- packaged FINOS Legend fintech platform as Canonical Juju Charmed Operators
- gained experience building/running Java services as Kubernetes operators
This wider array of roles has helped greatly expand my knowledge of Linux containerisation primitives (namespaces, cgroups, overlays), Kubernetes’ architecture and internals, and the ability to bridge knowledge gaps while teaching.
Project Lead Developer (January 2016 - July 2021)
Worked as (initially sole) lead developer on Coriolis, an in-house Open Source distributed system which automates migrations and disaster recovery of Virtual Machines and associated infrastructure between numerous cloud platforms.
- experienced entire end-to-end development and delivery lifecycle of Coriolis
- helped grow Coriolis’s CI/CD to a batteries-included appliance image built by Ansible and powered by Docker, end-to-end tested and deployable anywhere
- expanded Coriolis’ architecture with several new microservice components
- led team of 2 devs and 2 QA engineers across Coriolis’ distributed components
- grew alongside the team as Coriolis expanded in scope and feature-set
- scaled from internal test envs to customers with 1000s of VMs
- gained intimate experience with the APIs and internal workings of the numerous public or private Infrastructure-as-a-Service platforms supported by Coriolis:
- private: OpenStack, VMware vSphere, AzureStack, SCVMM, Proxmox, Oracle VM, XenServer, Red Hat Virtualisation (oVirt), KubeVirt
- public: Azure, AWS, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
- gleaned great insight into the early boot process, driver loading, services, configuration and internals of every guest OS supported by Coriolis:
- every major Linux distro: Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, RHEL, Oracle Linux, SLES
- relevant Windows Server/Client versions (Server 2008R2/7 to Nanoserver/10)
This project served as a proving ground both for my technical skills with handling highly-distributed fault-tolerant systems, managing a team of fellow engineers, as well as for my ability to analyse customer requirements and offer the most optimal solution for migrating/recovering their critical virtual infrastructure. Upon the end of my tenure on Coriolis, it had reached its pique levels of customer satisfaction and profitability.
Cloud Engineer | July 2014 - December 2015
The start of my engineering career was marked by several notable endeavours across a wide range of technologies and programming environments:
- helped port Canonical’s Juju Orchestration platform to CentOS and Windows
- great introduction to distributed systems and end-to-end testing in Golang
- helped define resources from Azure’s Service Manager (ASM) API in Terraform
- experienced working on a highly popular Open Source project/ecosystem
- wrote Python tool for converting Heat/CloudFormation IaC templates to the (at the time) newly-released Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates
- gained deep understanding of virtual infrastructure definitions on OpenStack/AWS and Azure and how to equate them
- taught Student Training Programmes on cloud engineering at the local University
- great first exposure trying to teach and pass my knowledge forward
Community
I am thankful for all the knowledge I have gained from others, and have strove to pass it forward in any way I could, such as:
- being a member and regular speaker of the local CNCF branch here in Timisoara
- hosting Canonical Kubernetes and OpenStack training programmes to Canonical partners
- teaching cloud engineering fundamentals to university students at LigaAC LABS
Education
Bachelor’s in Computer Science in English (2012 - 2016)
Institution: The Polytechnic University of Timisoara, Romania
Grades:
- Diploma 10 / 10
- Yearly grade averages: 9.17 / 10
- Final average: 9.58 / 10
High School - Mathematics and Informatics focus (2008 - 2012)
Institution: The “Grigore Moisil” Informatics High School of Timisoara, Romania
Grades:
- Final Bacalaureat exam: 8.9 / 10
- Yearly average: 9.12 / 10
- Final: 9.01 / 10
Awards:
- qualified for 4/4 Romanian National English language Olympiads
- obtained special mention for reaching top 10 at national level in 2011
- won first place in an international essay competition on some Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars fanfic
Middle School - English focus (2000 - 2008)
Institution: The “William Shakespeare” High School of Timisoara, Romania
Grades:
- Standardised tests: 9.24 / 10
- Yearly average: 9.32 / 10
- Final: 9.28 / 10
Hobbies
I am a chronic homebody who prefers to use any daylight hours to work/lounge around the garden while listening to random videos about tech in the background, with most of my real engineering work being done after dusk.
I have gone through several “collector phases” over the years, ranging from foreign literature (notably Orhan Pamuk), retro Nintendo consoles (mostly original Game Boy and Super Nintendo), and more recently painting miniatures (Death Korps of Krieg).
The cherry on top of my days is petting my cat while listening to the tree leaves rustling in the midnight breeze.
Thanks for making it this far; we hope to see you again soon! :)
