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We’re committed to delivering the highest quality and performance in all aspects of the software that we build. But behind those two values there are awesome teams, with real people that are making the impact.
One of these teammates is Rafał, our DevOps Engineer that ensures our processes are smooth and flawless. Read on to learn more about DevOps role at Ulam Labs.
What is your role and what are your responsibilities?
I am working as a DevOps Engineer. My main responsibilities are automation of deployments and upgrades, I also support Development Team in implementing new solutions and development environments, design and selection of systems, tools and technologies to make sure everything is covered by CI/CD approach.
What does your day look like?
I like to start my work early, at 7am. It does not matter if I am working from the office or home. First, I answer Slack messages and emails, then sort out the tasks by priority. I usually spend some time researching before proceeding with a task, especially a larger one, to make sure I will not need to correct it multiple times.
What tools do you use?
I work mostly on Ansible, Docker, Packer, and Terraform. Packer & Terraform are a perfect fit for managing multi-cloud environment as code. In my opinion, Ansible is absolutely top choice for advanced configuration management in larger projects.
What skills are the most important for your role?
I would say that a holistic view of the software's IT infrastructure. Thinking also from the Developer’s, QA’s, or CTO’s perspective to have a clear view of what really can be improved, modified to ensure high quality of software development process from the beginning to the end. Detail-oriented mind, ability to move quickly between multiple technologies, which are being changed very often between projects.
But also soft skills like good communication skills–the ability to explain complicated things to people in an easy and reasonable way, and finally patience.
What was your development path?
I would need to go back to my childhood I guess… I repaired my mother’s computer when I was 7. Windows 98 and the “Full Stack” of 10x 3.5 inch floppy disks were very popular back then :-) Computers quickly became one of my biggest passions.
Few years later, I started reading PC World magazines, collecting some old hardware and attempting to build my own PC part by part. During my studies, I was working a lot with hardware as a freelancer.
After I graduated, I received a very good offer to become full-time Linux Specialist in a very large project. We had a lot of legacy hardware there. I had a chance to take part in the selection and ordering of brand-new hardware, migration of many business crucial applications, changes in their architecture to achieve better protection from potential both hardware and software failures.
When our infrastructure became more stable, and I was moved to the freshly formed DevOps Team. DevOps culture approach and managing infrastructure as code came to me very “naturally” as a modern XXI solution for problems, which I was encountering every day. After that I crossed my paths with Ulam and here I am as a DevOps Engineer.
What do you enjoy most about working as a DevOps Engineer?
Optimization, I guess, which is driven by the constant passion for improving every aspect of software. I like to make applications run faster, scale better, be more failure-resistant, and cost less in maintenance.
Tell us a few words about your current project.
Currently, I am in a Cybersecurity project. We are developing a complete platform for scanning network infrastructure, web applications, and APIs. It is a really interesting project with many opportunities to learn. I have a chance to change architecture and migrate a lot of legacy applications to containers, then orchestrate them using the likes of Kubernetes/Nomad/OpenShift, learn multiple cloud providers, automate deployments. Free choice of technology stack is definitely a big plus there.
Do you remember your recruitment process?
The whole process was pretty quick and straightforward, with a technical interview that took about 2 hours. Technical questions were chosen well and practical in nature. I think that they are arranged for specific candidates depending on their knowledge and experience mentioned in the CV.
I liked the fact that the conversation was quite dynamic, and you couldn't just answer with one word. Sometimes there are 2-3 hours of job interviews where the question and answer are mechanical like clockwork. Luckily, it was not one of them!
Want to join our team at Ulam Labs? Make sure to take a look at our open roles. For more stories of what Life at Ulam Labs is like, take a look at our Instagram and LinkedIn.
