Kousha Ghodsizad
Systems & Infrastructure Engineer
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Systems, infrastructure and platform engineer. I build the platforms, delivery pipelines and tooling that engineering teams run their services on, and I keep them understandable as they grow.

■ Experience

Adyen
Jul 2023 to Present / Infrastructure Engineer, CI/CD & Platform
  • Designed and built adyencli in Go, Adyen's CLI and plugin management platform. Teams write plugins with SDKs provided by AdyenCLI for four programming languages over gRPC, submit them for building and distribution, and manage their lifecycle, access controls and secure execution on Linux and macOS.
  • Designed the backend architecture of a highly available system deployed across four geographically distributed data centres. It routes requests to responsive services, handles heavy workloads, and is designed to keep running when one or more data centres become unavailable.
  • Built a highly available, multi cluster execution and recovery solution for Argo Workflows. Another available cluster can take over a workflow when its execution owner fails or comes under resource pressure, and persisted workflow state with retry handling lets failed steps recover without restarting the whole workflow.
  • Contributed to a modular, self service automation platform built in Python and integrated into the HA environment. Teams define repository specific automation as Gherkin scenarios over reusable modules. It uses NATS, with Prometheus and Grafana monitoring down to individual merge requests and their pipeline executions.
Studocu
Jul 2022 to Jul 2023 / Senior Software Engineer
  • Worked on backend performance, crawler accessibility, observability and production reliability for a high traffic education platform.
  • Built CI/CD checks for SEO and performance testing, so every release was validated the same way.
  • Tracked down bottlenecks in the application and database layers and turned the findings into concrete fixes.
KolayIK
May 2021 to May 2022 / Senior Software Engineer & Backend Team Lead
  • Led backend engineering for HR systems, expense management, data import and export, and queue based services.
  • Designed and brought up K3s infrastructure from scratch for a high availability environment across multiple data centres, from cluster deployment to the supporting infrastructure needed to run it.
  • Used modular architecture, clear domain boundaries, TDD, messaging and AWS services to make the systems easier to maintain and operate.
Wingie Enuygun Group
May 2020 to Apr 2021 / Senior Software Engineer & Team Lead
  • Led hotel provider integrations and the backend services behind provider aggregation, search, caching and data pipelines.
  • Designed Go and gRPC services for concurrent provider requests and standardised hotel data flows.
  • Improved reliability through testing, Elasticsearch tuning, cache strategy and a database migration.
Insider
Jun 2019 to Jun 2020 / Senior Software Engineer
  • Refactored the newsletter and email delivery systems, moving them from legacy structures to clearer service boundaries.
  • Worked on Go services, messaging, data migration and security remediation in high volume marketing infrastructure.
  • Improved maintainability through architecture reviews, the repository and service pattern, and a redesign of data flows.
Bamilo
Aug 2015 to Apr 2019 / Senior Software Engineer & Head of Development
  • Built and led engineering work across marketplace operations, seller tooling, warehouse systems, delivery tracking, and inventory services.
  • Owned backend architecture, team growth, data migration, Kafka pipelines and service reliability improvements.
  • Helped turn operational problems into maintainable internal platforms for logistics and marketplace teams.
Sepehr Mahan Tech
Aug 2012 to Jul 2015 / Senior Software Engineer
  • Developed organisational workflow, task management, form builder, social network, and mobile API systems.
  • Built backend services and application foundations for process automation, delivered to private and public sector clients.
  • A Little More About Me
  • Alongside my interests in software engineering
    and DevOps, some of my other interests and hobbies are:
  • Professional Chess Player
    Rock Climbing
  • Running
    Hiking

Systems & Infrastructure Engineer

I build the platforms, delivery pipelines and developer tools that engineering teams run their services on.

Systems, infrastructure and platform engineer with a background in backend development. I build and run production platforms: Kubernetes infrastructure, CI/CD workflows, and the developer tools engineering teams use to build and run their own services. Most of my work sits in infrastructure automation, observability and distributed systems, and I pay close attention to keeping those systems secure and maintainable.

I usually own a piece of work from the first design through to production and the improvements that come after it. I like hard technical problems and architectural decisions, and I like building tools that let other teams get things done on their own. Engineering quality matters to me, especially in systems that have to keep working as they grow.

Core Expertise

Platform Engineering & Developer ToolingPlatform tools and CLIs written in Go, plugin management and secure plugin execution, reusable automation, and self service workflows for engineering teams.
Kubernetes & Application DeliveryKubernetes and K3s infrastructure, Helm, GitOps with Argo CD, progressive delivery with Argo Rollouts, and CI/CD pipelines in GitLab CI and Jenkins.
Infrastructure as Code & SecretsTerraform for provisioning, Puppet for configuration management, HashiCorp Vault for secrets and HashiCorp Consul for service discovery.
High Availability & ReliabilityArchitectures that span several data centres, request routing, workflow failover and recovery, and safe deployments.
Observability & Production OperationsPrometheus and Grafana, metrics, logging and dashboards, monitoring after each deployment, and digging into production issues.
Backend Systems & ArchitectureGo services, APIs, workers and messaging, distributed system design, service boundaries, technical reviews and engineering standards.

Technical Skills

Languages & BackendGo, Python, PHP, Shell, APIs, gRPC, GraphQL, services, workers, CLIs.
Containers & OrchestrationKubernetes, K3s, Docker, Helm.
Kubernetes Networking & StorageCilium (Kubernetes networking), Calico (network and firewall controls in existing infrastructure), Flannel (pod networking in personal infrastructure), Longhorn (storage in personal infrastructure).
Delivery & WorkflowsArgo CD, Argo Rollouts, Argo Workflows, Argo Events, Temporal, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Harbor, Nexus.
Infrastructure & AutomationAWS, private cloud, OpenStack, Terraform, Puppet, HashiCorp Vault, HashiCorp Consul.
Data & MessagingMySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, RabbitMQ, Kafka, NATS, Cassandra, ClickHouse, Elasticsearch, MongoDB.
Observability & ReliabilityPrometheus, Grafana, metrics, logging, operational dashboards, readiness checks, rollout safety.
ArchitectureSystem design, reliability engineering, automation strategy, modular architecture, domain boundaries, technical review, engineering standards.

Work Preferences

  • I take ownership of what I build, from the design through to how it behaves in production, and I keep improving it after it ships.
  • I'm drawn to hard problems and real responsibility: production platforms, complicated delivery workflows, and decisions that will matter for years.
  • I set a high bar for engineering and think about the product, not only the code. Good collaboration and clear communication matter to me, because decisions made carefully and together hold up better over time.