Work Experience
Infra Engineer
2022 - now
Building a cloud-native datacenter infrastructure
Taking it to the next level, building an OpenShift platform that provides computing and storage (4+ PB) for the application landscape of the national archive. Starting from designing the layout of the data center (hardware, network) to the configuration of OpenShift and supporting services and working on containerizing of the primarily VM-based apps.
DevOps Engineer
2020-2022
Migrating CI/CD pipeline to Kubernetes
For this project, the challenge was to migrate a full CI/CD stack based on Jenkins, Nexus and Gitlab to Kubernetes. This included migrating to CI/CD applications to Kubernetes, but also migrating the business applications and their CI/CD workflows. Luckily, the applications were already containerized, but had to be adapted to Kubernetes using Helm charts which were deployed with ArgoCD. At the end of the project I had shifted the whole CI pipeline to Kubernetes, and contributed to the migration of the CD pipeline as well.
DevOps Engineer
2018-2020
Adding 'Ops' to 'Dev'
On top of implementing automated development pipelines, I also got introduced to the world of operations. I experienced what it really means to run software in production and learned how useful Linux, Ansible and Docker can be to reliably roll out software automatically. For several applications of the National Archive, I have set up fully automated CI/CD pipelines and made sure the applications run smoothly in production.
CI/CD Engineer
2014-2018
Radically changing the software development process with CI/CD
After I got infected with the CI/CD virus at a testing conference, it opened my eyes to why my work as a test professional was so difficult sometimes. We really had to work on automating all our build and deploy processes, too! Ensuring, we would always have up-to-date, working systems at our disposal for testing and delivering to our customers. Having been confronted repeatedly with failing builds and deployments, I from now on made it my task to automate everything around it! Over the course of the years, I have been working on setting up ant and maven scripts, configuring Bamboo and Jenkins, migrating from legacy version control systems to Git and introducing deployment scripts for environments.
Quality Assurance Lead
2011-2014
Entering the world of software development
With Actuera, which made software for pension funds and pension insurance companies, I made the switch from consulting to a permanent position in software development. The management had recently introduced Agile and Scrum, bringing Development and Test together in one team. My main focus as Quality Assurance Lead was automating the test process using unit testing, Excel and Selenium and spreading this knowledge amongst my fellow test specialists. Also, I was heavily involved in setting up the ISAE3402 audit process for Actuera.
Actuarial Consultant
2008-2011
Experiencing disruptions in the flows of financial institutions
Almost naturally I rolled into my first job after my university career. I was studying the economics of aging, which led me to an actuarial consultancy job. Through PMT Groep, I have worked for several of the prominent Dutch insurers and pension funds Also I drowned myself in actuarial studies. At one point I had seen enough of these companies to realize that their problems consisted not so much of actuarial calculations, but rather missed well-working software. Luckily, one project got me to work as an actuarial tester at a software company. While I had always been a tech-savvy kid, due to the lack of proper IT education, I had a lot of catching up to do. But finding tech so addicting that it would just as easily slip into my free time, I was ready to learn quickly.
Education
CompTIA Network+ Training and Certification
2023
Networking: An essential component for all things cloud-native
Building bare-metal OpenShift clusters in my client's data centers for sure brought up many interesting networking topics. Not only does everything need to be connected on a hardware level, but also the many services running on that platform need to communicate securely and reliably with each other.
That means it was time to deepen my knowledge of networking. Because of good past experience, I took the 1-week intensive course at Firebrand's followed by picking up the official certification. Time well invested!
CKAD and CKA certifications
2021
Mastering kubernetes
Following a Kubernetes training I acquired both the Kubernetes Application Developer and the Kubernetes Administrator certifications from the Linux Foundation.
Linux+ Training and Certification
2019
Foundation for everything containers and kubernetes - Linux essentials
Followed a Firebrand training and acquired the CompTIA Linux+/LPIC-1 certification. Great basis for executing the various operations tasks and of course for working with (Linux) containers.
Java Programming I course
2017
Programming skills that come in handy
Even though I never really aspired to become a fully devoted developer, I always had respect for this profession and I truly believe that basic programming principles are also super helpful in all other areas of IT. That's why I tried to deep dive a little into Java programming with this course.
iSQI Foundation Level Certification
2013
How do I make sure this works correctly?
Learned how to perform structured tests. How to verify something is working with high certainty while also minimizing the testing effort? How to cover the biggest risks to the project? This is something taught by this certification. The skills I carry around and apply still on a day-to-day basis, even after having left the field of testing long ago. I honestly believe we should always verify everything we make and the software landscape as a whole will improve.
Economics and Finance
2003-2008
My university time - New cultures, new insights
Being born and raised in Germany, somewhere in the perimeters of Berlin, I really wanted to spread my wings and experience something different. Destiny brought me to the nice city of Tilburg where I studied economics and finance for a couple of years. In an international environment, I learned to appreciate other languages and cultures, including the Dutch! Before I landed there I knew literally nothing about the Netherlands, the people, the language. But somehow I grew very fond of them, and eventually, settled here.