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Nicusor Serban, DevOps Engineer and Developer in Msida, Malta
Nicusor Serban

DevOps Engineer and Developer in Msida, Malta

Member since November 30, 2018
Nick is a site reliability engineer who uses the best practices out there to enhance an app's DevOps lifecycle. He can automate everything from the code to testing, the release management, deployment, operations, monitoring, and CI/CD pipelines. He's also good at bringing your entire app stack into a nice Docker stack managed by either Compose, Swarm, or Kubernetes. Nick also worked as a developer with C#, Node.js, PHP, Python, among others.
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Portfolio

  • Catena Media
    Ceph, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Go, Python, Bash, Ansible, Prometheus...
  • Bitcoin Air
    Node.js, WordPress, Angular, PHP, MySQL, Python, Bash, Kubernetes...
  • IBM
    Automation, Bash Scripting, Ansible, Chef, Citrix, Migration, GitLab, MySQL...

Experience

Location

Msida, Malta

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Linux

The most amazing...

...feeling I've had was when I've wrote the code for an application that's used by millions of people on a daily basis.

Employment

  • Site Reliability Engineer

    2019 - PRESENT
    Catena Media
    • Helped my team set up production/development environments on Kubernetes for WordPress apps.
    • Helped deploy Prometheus and Grafana on Kubernetes to monitor all our servers, Microsoft products, sites, and so on.
    • Managed the AWS infrastructure through Terraform.
    • Automated everything.
    • Wrote Ansible scripts to provision and manage several VMs.
    • Coded microservices in Python and/or Go.
    • Handled all types of emergencies including downed sites or services, errors, and so on.
    Technologies: Ceph, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Go, Python, Bash, Ansible, Prometheus, Grafana, Kubernetes

  • DevOps Engineer

    2018 - 2019
    Bitcoin Air
    • Deployed the entire web infrastructure on scalable Docker containers in Docker Swarm with plans to move it eventually to GCP Kubernetes.
    • Implemented continuous integration and deployment pipelines in Jenkins for all of the apps and stacks.
    • Developed backup pipelines in Jenkins.
    • Debugged and containerized any new app that was not built for Docker.
    • Deployed Bitcoin and Peercoin networks on Docker containers.
    Technologies: Node.js, WordPress, Angular, PHP, MySQL, Python, Bash, Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, Docker Compose, Docker, Ubuntu

  • DevOps Specialist

    2018 - 2019
    IBM
    • Developed and tested Chef cookbooks for enterprise software; also wrote modules in Ruby for Chef.
    • Created internal automation scripts in Bash, Python, Ruby, and PHP.
    • Implemented continuous integration and deployment through Jenkins and UCD.
    • Deployed internal applications on Docker and Docker Swarm.
    • Conducted RHEL administration and management.
    Technologies: Automation, Bash Scripting, Ansible, Chef, Citrix, Migration, GitLab, MySQL, Angular, .NET Core, Jenkins, Docker Compose, Docker

  • Migration Specialist

    2017 - 2018
    Christian Tour
    • Documented a legacy app (PHP 5.4).
    • Documented code functionality and database schemas.
    • Migrated a website from a bare-metal environment to AWS.
    • Supported developers in writing a new, improved app in Laravel based on the old one's logic and functionality.
    Technologies: Reverse Engineering, Debugging, MySQL, MySQL Workbench, Laravel, Amazon Web Services (AWS), PHP

  • Software Developer and DevOps

    2016 - 2018
    Cloud Business Services
    • Developed an internal management tool used by company employees (Node.js, Angular 2, and PHP).
    • Implemented continuous integration and deployment using Jenkins.
    • Wrote various necessary tools and microservices in Bash, Python, C#, .NET Core, and PHP.
    • Developed bug-tracking automation through Jira.
    • Wrote deployment scripts in Chef for enterprise software.
    Technologies: MongoDB, SlimPHP, Laravel, Ubuntu 16.04, CentOS, VMware, Chef, Docker, Python, Bash, PHP, Angular, Node.js, MySQL, PostgreSQL

  • Game Developer

    2012 - 2016
    Self-employed | Freelance
    • Built various tools in C# used to modify client game content (Lua) and client-server content (Lua).
    • Developed tools that automatically play the game or do certain actions in C++.
    • Created management tools for social platforms (profiles, pages, groups, and more) in C#.
    • Developed server management tools C++.
    Technologies: Lua, C++, C#

Experience

  • Bitcoin Air (Development)

    Working for a blockchain company, I managed the web stack through Docker, continuous integration, and deployment. I di this specifically via Jenkins pipelines and installing and configuring the mail servers, backups, and security.

  • Christian Tour (Development)

    Working for one of the biggest travel companies in Europe, I migrated applications to Amazon Web Services (AWS). I also documented legacy apps, rewrote the apps to Laravel, and built an amazing environment with Kubernetes, AWS, and Docker.

  • Cloud Business Services (Development)

    For this project, I mainly managed a small team of four developers to deliver web apps written in PHP, Angular, and Node.js. I also held regular meetings with the client, translated requirements into tasks, and allocated them using the best Agile principles. I also held daily Scrum meetings and worked as a back-end developer and Scrum master.

  • IBM (Development)

    For IBM, I worked to automatically provision enterprise-grade software through Chef on Linux and Windows. In pursuit of this goal, I wrote integration tests using InSpec, used UCD as a deployment tool, and managed the continuous integration and deployment pipelines.

Skills

  • Frameworks

    Selenium, Windows PowerShell, .NET Core, Angular, Laravel

  • Paradigms

    DevOps, Agile, Automation

  • Other

    System Security Developer, Data Mining, Reverse Engineering, Prometheus, Scraping, Data Scraping, Integration Tools, APIs, Discord Bots, Migration, Bash Scripting, Debugging

  • Languages

    Python, C#, JavaScript, SQL, Bash, Ruby, Lua, PHP, Go, Java, C++

  • Libraries/APIs

    Node.js, REST APIs

  • Tools

    VMware, Jenkins, Chef, Artifactory, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Git, GitLab, Nginx, Logstash, Ansible, Vagrant, Docker Compose, MySQL Workbench, Docker Swarm, Kibana, Nagios, Grafana, Puppet, SaltStack

  • Platforms

    Windows, Linux RHEL/CentOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, Citrix, CentOS, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu, WordPress

  • Storage

    MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SlimPHP, Ceph

  • Industry Expertise

    Security

Education

  • Bachelor's degree in Informatics Economics
    2016 - 2019
    Romanian-American University - Bucharest, Romania

Certifications

  • Certified Disciplined Agilist
    DECEMBER 2018 - DECEMBER 2019
    Disciplined Agile Consortium

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