Business requirements in. Production systems out.
Platform engineering and cloud infrastructure, from the first architecture decision to day-to-day operations.
Piotr Nierobisz is open to permanent and contract roles.
Mainly about data residency
Decisions it leads to
- Deploy in a UK region only, with backups kept in the same region.
- Encrypt at rest and in transit, with keys managed in-region.
- Keep a data map: what personal data is stored where, and for how long.
Stacks worked with
Roles that fit
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Platform engineer, main focus
Kubernetes and container platforms, delivery pipelines and infrastructure as code that let a team ship safely.
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DevOps and cloud engineer (AWS), main focus
Networks, serverless and containers on AWS, built and changed with Terraform.
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Site reliability engineer
Monitoring, alerting and on-call built around agreed recovery targets, with outages traced to their cause.
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Cloud solutions architect
Systems designed with the business and sized for the stage it’s at, in-house or as a consultant.
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Cloud security engineer
Least-privilege access, private networking and secrets management, with security issues fixed at the root.
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ML platform engineer
Model inference on GPU workers that scale with demand, run like any other production service.
Work
Own products
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Vault3
Zero-knowledge password manager. Everything is encrypted on the device before upload, so the server only holds data it can’t read. Live public beta, open source.
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BunGo
Open-source Go framework that ships a Go backend and React frontend as one self-contained binary, with no Node.js or npm.
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NubDB
Open-source in-memory key-value database in Go, with checksummed storage and automatic crash recovery.
Client platforms
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Ride-hailing and food delivery
Live dispatch, real-time ride updates and driver payouts.
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Peer-to-peer rental marketplace
Bookings, identity checks and in-app messaging, running on Kubernetes.
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B2B marketplace
A prototype rebuilt for production, with paying subscribers migrated without disruption.
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Property investment platform
Listings, enquiries and prices in each visitor’s currency.
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AI music generation
Text-to-music inference on GPU workers that scale with demand.
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Start with the business
Customers, deadlines, budget, and how much downtime the business can live with, before any technology talk.
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Write it back
A one-page brief covering goals, constraints and what’s out of scope, agreed before design begins.
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Options, not a verdict
Two or three approaches compared on cost, complexity and the effort to run them, so the decision stays with the people who own it.
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Write decisions down
Short written updates and a plain decision log the next engineer can pick up.
Principles
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Only what the business needs.
As much complexity as the problem calls for, and no more.
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Evidence before change.
No recommendation without data behind it.
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Nothing only one person can maintain.
Documented so the team can run it.
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Plain English.
If it can’t be followed, it hasn’t been explained well enough.
About
Octa Digital is the trading name of Octa Systems Ltd, run by Piotr Nierobisz, a platform and cloud infrastructure engineer with 7+ years designing, building and running production systems, including platforms with live payments and real-time features. Piotr takes on contract and consulting work through Octa and is currently open to permanent roles as well.
Questions
Available for a new role?
Yes. Open to permanent roles, and to contracts through Octa Systems Ltd.
Remote or office?
Remote, or hybrid with one or two office days a week. Happy to travel for client sites or team get-togethers.
What is Octa Digital?
The trading name of Octa Systems Ltd, the company used for contract and consulting work and for own products such as Vault3.
What happens to Octa in a permanent role?
It stays the home of the open-source projects, with no competing client work.
AI coding tools?
Yes, as tools. Their output is reviewed, tested and owned like any other change.
Can I see code?
Yes. BunGo, NubDB and Vault3 are open source on GitHub.
Can I see client work?
Yes. Any of the platforms above can be walked through in a conversation.
Get in touch
Hiring for a platform, cloud or reliability role, or need help with a project? A reply follows within one working day.