Kubernetes isn’t magic—but with the right platform, it can feel like it. I’m a Platform Engineer and CNCF Kubestronaut based in Lier, Belgium. I help teams make cloud-native smooth, secure, and scalable.
I started out as a Software Engineer and gradually moved towards platform engineering and infrastructure work - which is where I found my niche. Over the years I’ve designed and operated production Kubernetes clusters, built Internal Development Platforms, architected large-scale Azure environments, and coached teams through cloud-native transitions.
Off the clock I’m bouldering, tinkering with my café racer motorcycle, or adventuring with my Australian Shepherd, Islay.
Skills
My current focus is Kubernetes and the Cloud-Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) landscape, Azure Cloud and Platform Engineering with Crossplane. Constantly experimenting with new languages, tools, and frameworks, staying technology-agnostic so I can choose the right solution for each problem. I’m equally committed to sharing knowledge—whether that’s writing docs, giving learning sessions, going to meetups, speaking at events or mentoring others.
The skills listed here are only the ones I work with the most. In a previous life, I was a Software Engineer. This history has proven useful countless of times; whether it is deep-dives in the source code of tools I use on a daily basis, or helping developers implement devops practices in my role as a Platform Engineer.
Kubernetes & Cloud Native
Kubernetes · Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) · Azure Container Apps
Cloud
Microsoft Azure
Infrastructure Provisioning
Terraform · Bicep · Crossplane
CI/CD & Automation
GitHub · Azure DevOps
Observability
Prometheus · Grafana · DataDog
Security
ISO-27001 · Kubernetes security hardening · CKS-level security practices
Certifications
While certification is not necessarily a measurement of skill, achieving the Kubestronaut title was only possible because of many long nights of deep study sessions. It is a result of my commitment to life-long learning and represents a significant milestone in my career.
Kubernetes
Kubestronaut
CKS
CKAD
CKA
KCSA
KCNA
Azure
AZ-104
Experience
Platform Engineer — Kubernetes & Azure
Liantis · Jul 2025 – Present · Bruges, Belgium
Building the Internal Developer Platform (IDP) that will accommodate all present and future applications of Liantis. With the deprecation of Azure Spring Apps, their current hosting platform, they took the opportunity to develop their own platform. My responsibility was mostly concerning the resource provisioning layer, which is a set of Kubernetes clusters that is used to orchestrate both Azure cloud and other (more workload-centric) Kubernetes clusters. The provisioning itself was done through Crossplane, a CNCF project for infrastucture provisioning that extends the Kubernetes API with custom resources to serve as our internal infrastructure API and leverages Kubernetes-native mechanisms like reconciliation and self-healing.
My most memorable contributions were:
- The implementation of a local development environment (K3s, Azure Arc) so the team could develop and test locally to increase velocity.
- Crossplane implementations to provision cloud resources that were requested by developers through the self-service portal.
- Design a system to validate, test, and promote complex Kubernetes configuration between environments in a type-safe manner with KCL as a programmatic rendering engine.
- Deep dives into the inner workings of the Crossplane source code to optimize performance and to better support the daily operations of our platform.
- Implementation of Kubernetes security hardening for ISO-27001.
- Implementation of Karpenter node auto-scaling through AKS Node Auto Provisioner.
- Implementation of DataDog observability for our platform.
Being part of this team has been an incredible journey for me personally and professionally. Each one of them, talented in their respective field, enabled a culture of continuous learning and innovation. Working with another Kuberstronaut in the same team is also not something that happens often. Even though I have to travel many hours on the days I come to the office, it has been worth every minute. Grateful to be part of this.
Platform Engineer — Kubernetes & Azure Trainer
Colruyt Group (Consultant under Kapuani) · Jul 2024 – Jul 2025 · Belgium
Joined Colruyt Group’s Cloud Platform Team during a critical in-sourcing transition. Served primarily as the Kubernetes/AKS expert and trainer, upskilling the team to take ownership of a platform serving millions of end users.
Cloud & DevOps Engineer
Narato (Kapuani) · Jan 2022 – Jul 2025 · Belgium
Worked across multiple client engagements as a consultant:
- Flanders Investment & Trade
- Head Kubernetes expert maintaining multiple enterprise AKS clusters. Built CI/CD pipelines and Helm Charts for automated multi-cluster deployments. Provided ongoing consultancy to application teams.
- Departement Financiën en Begroting
- Led the on-premise to Azure migration. Introduced Azure Landing Zone and Hub-Spoke networking. Set up Azure DevOps pipelines and migrated data analysis workloads to the cloud.
- Kapelli (internal product)
- Lead DevOps Engineer on an enterprise Data Orchestrator. Rewrote the full installation process as a modular, automated system using Azure Container Apps Jobs. Designed a Hub-Spoke cloud architecture and built an internal portal for non-technical tenant provisioning. Clients included:
- ArcelorMittal Logistics
- Cevora
- Flanders Investment & Trade
- Federale Overheidsdienst Mobiliteit
- Lead DevOps Engineer on an enterprise Data Orchestrator. Rewrote the full installation process as a modular, automated system using Azure Container Apps Jobs. Designed a Hub-Spoke cloud architecture and built an internal portal for non-technical tenant provisioning. Clients included:
- Bridgestone EMEA — Urgent Kubernetes security engagement. Analysed AKS vulnerabilities with Azure Defender for Cloud and resolved all blockers to unblock their production release.
Software Engineer — Junior Consultant
FrontForce (a Ferranti company) · Oct 2020 – Jan 2022 · Antwerp, Belgium
Started as a backend API developer on the VREG V-Test platform vtest.be, then expanded into DevOps: Kubernetes application development and CI/CD pipelines in a microservice architecture. This was my first time interacting with Kubernetes and guided my team through the steep learning curve.
Publications
I write about Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies. You can find these blogs here. Follow me on my LinkedIn page to get notified when I publish new articles.
Education
Karel de Grote-Hogeschool
Professionele Bachelor, Informatica - Application Development & Software Engineering · 2016–2020