As-salamu alaykum, I’m Wissam, a Staff DevOps Engineer (though I wear many hats!) currently living in the Netherlands and working at PriceSpider. My journey in tech started in Syria, where I spent a few years building my skills before moving to Malaysia to gain experience at dynamic companies. Now, I’ve landed in the Netherlands, continuing my career in the ever-evolving tech landscape. My career has largely revolved around startups and scale-ups, where I’ve thrived in dynamic environments ranging from 30 to 500 employees. These experiences have shaped my expertise in startup culture and my ability to adapt to ever-changing challenges. In non-enterprise companies, flexibility is key, and I’ve embraced roles ranging from Site Reliability Engineer, ensuring platform stability and scalability, to Platform Engineer, building tools and solutions tailored for my favorite customers—developers. I’ve also been deeply involved in fostering DevOps culture and maintaining strong foundations as a Linux System Administrator, a skill I believe is indispensable. Working in startups with tight budgets has taught me to maximize resources creatively. While I leverage cloud computing and managed services to reduce complexity, I’ve often had to dive into open-source solutions, exploring innovative projects to meet business needs. This hands-on approach has provided me with invaluable experience you might not get when relying solely on managed services. I’m passionate about Kubernetes (when it makes sense!), Infrastructure as Code, automation, and everything that makes systems efficient and scalable. I’m here to share my knowledge and experiences with my fellow Syrians, and I look forward to helping others achieve their goals.