Valentin is available for hire
Hire ValentinValentin Stoican
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Toptal member since September 19, 2019
Bio
Valentin has a demonstrated rich and diverse experience spanning enterprise business applications, DevOps, mobile development, Agile transformation, and application lifecycle management. He is specialised in containers orchestrations, CI/CD and software development. He has a good work ethic which is highly appreciated by every client who hired him.
Portfolio
Theai, Inc. dba Inworld AI
Terraform, DevOps, Cloud Infrastructure, CI/CD Pipelines, Helm, Kubernetes...
Woven by Toyota, Inc - Stargate
Kubernetes, DevOps, Kubernetes Operations (kOps), Google Cloud Platform (GCP)...
Oyu Tolgoi LLC
Kubernetes, DevOps, Azure, Docker, GitLab, GitLab CI/CD, Machine Learning...
Experience
- Linux - 16 years
- Kubernetes - 7 years
- Azure - 6 years
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 5 years
- Continuous Integration (CI) - 5 years
- Git - 4 years
- Docker - 4 years
- Rancher - 3 years
Availability
Full-time
Preferred Environment
Kubernetes, Continuous Delivery (CD), Continuous Integration (CI), Git, Cloud, Linux
The most amazing...
...thing I've created was the Docker Birthday #3 app infrastructure which was capable of handling thousands of requests and testing more than 10,000 containers.
Work Experience
DevOps Engineer
2024 - 2025
Theai, Inc. dba Inworld AI
- Migrated over 300 applications from GitHub workflows to Argo CD, streamlining the deployment process and improving CI/CD efficiency.
- Designed and implemented a cross-cloud secret management system that securely distributes sensitive information across GCP, Oracle Cloud, and Azure environments.
- Orchestrated Flink pipeline deployments for real-time data processing.
- Enhanced Argo CD performance through strategic optimizations and developed custom generator plugins to extend functionality and support specialized deployment patterns.
- Deployed and configured robust MongoDB clusters for scalable data storage.
- Provisioned high-performance SLURM clusters on A100 and H100 bare metal servers.
- Designed and implemented an Ansible infrastructure management system featuring a modular repository structure, reusable roles for infrastructure components, and dynamic inventory solutions that automatically discover cloud resources.
Technologies: Terraform, DevOps, Cloud Infrastructure, CI/CD Pipelines, Helm, Kubernetes, Microservices Architecture, Python, Knative, KServe, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Azure, Oracle Cloud, Kotlin, Grafana, Argo CD, Large Language Models (LLMs), Machine Learning Operations (MLOps)
Kubernetes Platform Engineer (via Toptal)
2023 - 2023
Woven by Toyota, Inc - Stargate
- Led and coordinated L5 (former Lyft's self-driving car division) migration to a new platform.
- Contributed to various integrations and customizations of the developer portal based on Backstage from Spotify.
- Worked closely with the SRE team to define customer user journeys and, subsequently, custom metrics for measuring and monitoring the journeys.
- Managed to customize GitHub workflows and extract information in order to provide customers with more in-depth information about their pipelines and the efficiency of the Terraform modules and cloud providers' API response times.
- Collaborated with the security team and managed to identify security issues present with some or all cloud providers and implemented additional controls and configurations to mitigate them.
Technologies: Kubernetes, DevOps, Kubernetes Operations (kOps), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), PostgreSQL, VPN, Networking, Proxies, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
Kubernetes DevOps Engineer (via Toptal)
2020 - 2023
Oyu Tolgoi LLC
- Contributed to GitLab deployment. By successfully implementing GitLab, I introduced a version control system, fostering seamless collaboration and enabling efficient code management.
- Integrated Harbor seamlessly into the infrastructure, empowering secure and scalable container management for multiple projects.
- Worked on CI/CD pipelines. I architected robust CI/CD pipelines, leveraging industry best practices and cutting-edge tools. This automation accelerated development processes, minimized errors, and enhanced the overall quality of deliverables.
- Contributed to Tanzu Kubernetes deployment. I successfully deployed Tanzu Kubernetes, leveraging its power to scale and orchestrate applications effectively. This achievement laid the foundation for scalable and resilient deployments.
- Integrated Snyk into development workflows, enhancing security practices by identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities in the codebase.
- Introduced a centralized secrets management platform, providing a secure and auditable solution for sensitive information. HashiCorp Vault sits in the center of the infrastructure, serving secrets and integrating with most of the applications.
- Implemented Argo CD to facilitate GitOps practices, enabling declarative and automated deployments, further enhancing efficiency and reliability.
Technologies: Kubernetes, DevOps, Azure, Docker, GitLab, GitLab CI/CD, Machine Learning, Cloud Migration, PostgreSQL, VPN, Networking, Proxies
DevOps and Kubernetes Support
2022 - 2022
Wash - Main
- Set up a completely new AWS environment for deploying the main web application, reporting tools, notifications server, etc.
- Implemented a new solution to assign custom MAC addresses to Pod to be able to license the main web application. The solution uses Multus drivers to create virtual VLANs.
- Reverse-engineered deployments in the old Kubernetes cluster and created Helm charts which are now deployed to the new clusters programmatically.
Technologies: Kubernetes, Amazon EKS, Helm, Terraform, Amazon RDS, AWS Global Accelerator, Amazon EC2, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS NAT Gateway, PostgreSQL, VPN, Networking, Proxies, AWS Elastic File System, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Performance Optimization
DevOps Engineer
2021 - 2022
Asset Panda LLC - Main
- Designed new AWS architecture, which was reviewed and validated by AWS solution architects.
- Deployed three new environments using Terraform and Terragrunt: Development, Production, and DR.
- Set up applications repository and deployment pipelines using Helmfile, AWS Codebuild and CircleCI.
- Designed and implemented a platform that had no downtime nor an incident in eight months' time. This was a major improvement considering that the previous platform went down every other week.
Technologies: Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon EKS, GitHub, Amazon RDS, AWS Global Accelerator, Terraform, Terragrunt, GitHub Actions, DevOps, Amazon Firewall, Amazon EC2, AWS DevOps, AWS NAT Gateway, PostgreSQL, VPN, Networking, Proxies, AWS Elastic File System, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Performance Optimization
Kubernetes Expert
2019 - 2020
Capgemini (McDonalds Account)
- Vetted all deployments and changes before going to production as the Kubernetes expert and ensured all platforms were stable.
- Deployed all Kubernetes clusters in AWS using kops.
- Delivered projects including Sync certificates using S3 bucket, ConfigMaps and sidecar containers, Calico IPAM blocks cleaning, zero downtime Kubernetes upgrade, and Newrelic deployment using Terraform and Helm.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Helm, Terraform, Continuous Delivery (CD), Continuous Integration (CI), Docker, Kubernetes, DevOps, Amazon EC2, AWS NAT Gateway, VPN, Networking, Proxies, AWS Elastic File System, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Performance Optimization
DevOps Architect and Engineer
2018 - 2019
Credendo
- Drafted a new DevOps landscape taking into consideration business, compliance, security, and operational requirements. The new architecture brings all new projects promoted by CNCF. Rancher orchestrated Kubernetes clusters running microservices.
- Streamlined CI/CD pipelines, defined the roles and responsibilities, and provided best practices guidelines.
- Automated and secured deployments performed using Ansible and Vault.
- Implemented a single sign-on solution ADFS integrated using Keycloak.
- Designed the monitoring of microservices and alerting using Prometheus and Grafana.
- Based the log aggregation solution on Fluentd, Splunk, and ELK stack.
- Deployed and managed operations for MySQL and SAP Sybase.
Technologies: Sybase, MySQL, Splunk, Fluentd, ELK (Elastic Stack), Grafana, Prometheus, Keycloak, Ansible, Kubernetes, Rancher, DevOps, Amazon EC2, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Databricks
DevOps Continuous Integration Engineer
2017 - 2018
ING Bank
- Continuously improved the performance, scalability, and availability of CDaaS platform. The platform consists of hundreds of Docker containers managed with Mesos and Marathon.
- Supported and maintained the storage solution Ceph where RADOS Block Devices (RBD) are stored.
- Mounted block devices as persistent storage for Docker containers using Rexray and Libstorage drivers and API. Also contributed to the Libstorage GitHub project.
- Developed a Jenkins plugin that publishes build information on Kafka bus.
- Ensured configuration management of all VMs using Puppet and Ansible.
- Oversaw integrations and automation using Python, Go, and Node.js.
- Implemented secret management using Vault (Hashicorp).
- Troubleshot the E2E CD/CI pipeline and provided guidance for CI/CD processes, rolling upgrades, etc.
Technologies: Python, Go, Vault, Ansible, Puppet, Ceph, Marathon, Mesos, Docker, DevOps, Amazon EC2
DevOps CI/CD Engineer
2016 - 2017
Bank Mendes Gans
- Migrated, redesigned, and implemented the development pipeline.
- Integrated and optimized development applications like Git, Jenkins, Artifactory, Sonar, Fortify, Jira, Crucible, and Fisheye.
- Utilized the knowledge as a certified scrum master and made use of Docker containers and Kubernetes to agilely streamline and accelerate the development process.
Technologies: Kubernetes, Docker, Crucible, Jira, HP Fortify, Sonar, Artifactory, Jenkins, Git, Atlassian Fisheye
Technical Consultant
2015 - 2016
Proximus
- Designed and developed a new AAA platform for external customers. The deliverable consisted of a distributed TACACS as a service platform built with Active Directory (AD), the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), and MongoDB.
- Deployed AAA platform components using Ansible scripts.
- Contributed to the platform that was used to manage most of the network devices from the customer's core network.
Technologies: Ansible, Keepalived, HAProxy, Gunicorn, Flask, MongoDB, LDAP, Azure Active Directory
DevOps Engineer
2015 - 2015
KPN
- Managed 200+ Red Hat servers via Red Hat Satellite to configure turn-key solutions for internal customers with specific configuration, storage, network, and deployed services requirements.
- Worked for the capacity management department to develop custom KPIs in Cacti. Implemented custom system and service checks in Nagios.
- Utilized Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) to design and roll out an end-to-end configuration management system based on CFEngine, Elasticsearch, Kibana, and syslog-ng.
- Implemented automated testing and deployment using Jenkins, Git, Vagrant, and KVM.
Technologies: KVM, Vagrant, Git, Jenkins, Syslog-ng, Kibana, Elasticsearch, CFEngine
Experience
Created Docker Birthday Number Three App
The infrastructure was able to handle thousands of requests and test more than 10,000 Docker images published by participants. It served 1,180 people who completed the assignment from 220 locations worldwide.
WhatsApp AI Agents
http://www.whatflow.aiWhatFlow.ai is a company that specializes in developing a visual bot platform designed to create artificial intelligence chatbots for various web channels. This facilitates the automation of customer interactions across multiple digital platforms, enhancing user engagement and operational efficiency. By providing tools that allow for the automation of customer relationships, WhatFlow.ai aims to streamline communication processes for businesses, making it easier to manage and scale customer interactions through AI-driven solutions.
MCP Cloud
http://www.mcp-cloud.aiOne-click, edge-hosted MCP servers. The platform handles the new “streamable HTTP” transport as well as the legacy SSE transport out of the box.
Built-in security and identity: A bundled workers-oauth-provider turns your Worker into a full OAuth 2.1 provider, so users authenticate and grant scopes without you touching tokens. Access tokens are stored in encrypted Workers KV, and the client only gets a narrowed server-issued token, limiting blast radius.
Stateful at the edge: Each session runs inside a Durable Object, giving your MCP server per-user state and the option to persist data to KV, D1, or R2. That lets you go beyond simple RPC tools to richer, agentic workflows.
Fully spec-compliant: The stack tracks Anthropic’s open MCP spec, so clients discover tools, run OAuth, and stream results exactly as defined.
Built-in security and identity: A bundled workers-oauth-provider turns your Worker into a full OAuth 2.1 provider, so users authenticate and grant scopes without you touching tokens. Access tokens are stored in encrypted Workers KV, and the client only gets a narrowed server-issued token, limiting blast radius.
Stateful at the edge: Each session runs inside a Durable Object, giving your MCP server per-user state and the option to persist data to KV, D1, or R2. That lets you go beyond simple RPC tools to richer, agentic workflows.
Fully spec-compliant: The stack tracks Anthropic’s open MCP spec, so clients discover tools, run OAuth, and stream results exactly as defined.
Education
2002 - 2007
Master's Degree in Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology
Universitatea Politehnica Bucuresti - Bucharest, Romania
Certifications
JANUARY 2022 - JANUARY 2025
Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist
Cloud Native Computing Foundation
OCTOBER 2020 - PRESENT
Certified Kubernetes Application Developer
The Linux Foundation
OCTOBER 2019 - PRESENT
Certified Kubernetes Administrator
Cloud Native Computing Foundation
OCTOBER 2017 - PRESENT
Neural Networks and Deep Learning
Deeplearning.ai
AUGUST 2017 - PRESENT
Certified RancherOS Partner and Consultant
Rancher Inc.
APRIL 2016 - PRESENT
Certified Scrum Master
Xebia
APRIL 2014 - PRESENT
Financial Markets
Yale
DECEMBER 2013 - PRESENT
Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence
Case Western Reserve University
JULY 2012 - PRESENT
ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management
BCS
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Jenkins Job DSL, Jenkins Pipeline, WhatsApp API, XL Release REST API, Terragrunt
Tools
Terraform, Amazon EKS, Jenkins, VPN, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), ChatGPT, GitLab CI/CD, Artifactory, Git, GitHub, Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, Amazon Firewall, Kibana, Syslog-ng, Vagrant, Ansible, Keycloak, Grafana, ELK (Elastic Stack), Fluentd, Splunk, Mesos, Puppet, Vault, Sonar, HP Fortify, Crucible, Keepalived, Helm, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), SonarQube, Subversion (SVN), Bamboo, GitLab, Atlassian Fisheye, n8n
Languages
Python, Bash, Go, SQL, Java, Groovy, Kotlin, Python 3, TypeScript
Paradigms
Continuous Delivery (CD), Continuous Integration (CI), DevOps, Microservices Architecture
Platforms
Linux, Kubernetes, Rancher, Docker, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Amazon EC2, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Databricks, KVM, DigitalOcean, Harbor, Knative, KServe
Storage
AWS Elastic File System, PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, MySQL, Sybase, Ceph, Azure Active Directory, MongoDB, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud
Frameworks
CFEngine, Marathon, Flask
Other
AWS DevOps, AWS NAT Gateway, Argo CD, Networking, WhatsApp, OpenAI, Chatbots, Scrum Master, Amazon RDS, Proxies, Large Language Models (LLMs), Performance Optimization, WhatsApp Business, Cloud, Prometheus, LDAP, Gunicorn, HAProxy, Information Technology, AWS Global Accelerator, GitHub Actions, Kubernetes Operations (kOps), Machine Learning, Investments, Leadership, IT, Cloud Migration, Cloud Infrastructure, CI/CD Pipelines, Machine Learning Operations (MLOps)
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