Resume

Efe Kaya

Cloud Platform Engineer — Internal Developer Platforms

I design and build Internal Developer Platforms — Backstage, Crossplane and GitOps done right — for enterprise and public-sector clients. Started out in bio-informatics (data analytics for oncology genetics) before pivoting into platform engineering in 2022; that same instinct for turning a messy manual process into a repeatable, self-service system now drives the IDP product I'm building at Blue Stack, alongside hands-on DevOps engagements for clients like Politie, NS and SVB.

Zaandam, The Netherlands +31 6 24 34 69 16
Contact Me github.com/efekaya-devops LinkedIn Download Resume

Skills

AzureAKS / KubernetesCrossplaneTerraformBackstageArgoCD / GitOpsAzure DevOpsOpenShiftHelmDockerBicepAnsibleTypeScriptPythonGrafana / PrometheusBash

Flagship initiative

Building a commercial Internal Developer Platform

Blue Stack B.V. · product initiative, pre-launch

  • Architecting a self-service Azure provisioning layer designed from the outset to be sold and operated as a managed service — not a one-off internal deployment — cutting environment provisioning from a multi-day, ticket-based process down to a single golden-path request (~9 min time-to-prod).
  • Designed the packaging and licensing model around Crossplane Configuration packages (OCI/ACR): an 18-module Foundation catalog plus modular Expansion add-ons, so customers install only what they buy — entitlement enforced via private registry repos and per-customer pull tokens.
  • Built the control plane on Crossplane v2 — 24+ composite resource definitions and compositions over the Upbound Azure provider family, covering ~25 resource types (AKS, PostgreSQL, Key Vault, storage, networking, App Service), with environment-aware defaults and opt-in bring-your-own-VNet.
  • Delivered the developer experience via Backstage + ArgoCD GitOps: a portal request scaffolds a Crossplane claim, ArgoCD syncs it, Crossplane reconciles it into Azure — every change code-reviewed and auditable.
  • Validated the go-to-market with a build-vs-buy ROI model alongside the platform, structured as a one-time implementation plus an optional annual supplier retainer.
AzureAKSKubernetesOpenshiftCrossplaneTerraformBicepAzure DevOpsGitLab CI/CDJenkinsGrafana / PrometheusBackstageArgoCDHelmKustomizeDocker

Experience

  • Cloud Platform Engineer · Blue Stack B.V.

    Mar 2024 — Present
    • Contractor to Blue Stack's clients while leading the IDP product build above — see flagship initiative.

  • DevOps Engineer — Politie (client, via Blue Stack) · Politie

    Apr 2026 — Present

    Utrecht, The Netherlands

    • Acting as de facto DevOps engineer across two teams, cutting release friction by introducing CI/CD and GitOps ways of working alongside developers and architects.
    • Investigating feasibility of a self-service platform for the internal OpenShift landscape while deploying and migrating applications.
    • Restructuring a legacy zip-based installation protocol — a single massive third-party archive — into containerized, Helm-chart deployments via ArgoCD pull deployments, including migrating Ansible playbook workflows to ArgoCD + managed k8s config, collapsing a manual multi-step install into one GitOps-driven rollout.

  • DevOps Enablement — Sociale Verzekeringsbank (client, via Blue Stack) · Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB)

    Sep 2025 — Jan 2026

    Amstelveen, The Netherlands

    • Trained development teams through hands-on hackathons as part of the DevOps Enablement team, accelerating onboarding of new teams onto Azure.
    • Developed Terraform modules for the PostgreSQL provider and Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server with Entra ID authentication, workload identity integration, HA, private networking and environment-specific configurations — adopted as the standard pattern for onboarding teams.
    • Researched Crossplane as an alternative to Terraform and Bicep and built a proof of concept on OpenShift using ArgoCD, informing the organization's platform tooling direction.
    • Extended Bicep templates and developed Azure DevOps pipelines; built Python automation for API management (YAML processing, dynamic JSON, Git change detection, WSO2 API deployment) integrated into Azure Pipelines, removing a recurring manual deployment step.

  • Cloud Enablement — Nederlandse Spoorwegen (client, via Blue Stack) · Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS)

    Jan 2025 — Jul 2025

    Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    • Advised and supported teams organization-wide in adopting the Azure Guardrails compliance policy.
    • Wrote Terraform modules for standardized, organization-wide provisioning, reused across multiple teams' repositories.
    • Onboarded Terraform Git repositories per team — template pipelines, workspace architecture, tfstate backends — establishing a repeatable onboarding pattern.
    • Migrated Azure resources from legacy subscriptions to new, compliant subscriptions with no reported service disruption.

  • OpenShift Platform Engineer — Rijkswaterstaat / DSO (client, via Blue Stack) · Rijkswaterstaat

    Apr 2024 — Jul 2024

    Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    • Maintained and developed GitLab pipelines for new user stories, e.g. deploying services via Harbor and Helm.
    • Maintained and troubleshot the OpenShift cluster and NGINX Ingress routing, improving platform stability for production releases.
    • Managed MinIO and AWS S3 buckets, including data migration for self-hosted tools like Mattermost.
    • Used Grafana and Prometheus for alerting and monitoring; troubleshot containerized PostgreSQL databases (pgAdmin).

  • IT Manager — Azure Platform Engineering · Procter & Gamble

    Mar 2023 — Feb 2024

    Warsaw, Poland

    • Team lead for an Angular-based internal developer portal (Backstage equivalent) powering P&G's global self-service platform for ~1300 dev teams, enabling automated Azure provisioning through Terraform, Jenkins and Azure DevOps.
    • Led development of a next-generation platform in parallel with maintaining the first, without disrupting existing self-service users.
    • Simplified provisioning by developing blueprint Terraform modules across ~100 existing modules, cutting onboarding time for new teams.
    • Provided L3/Admin support across the full stack and implemented fail-fast practices (e.g. Python Selenium regression automation), shortening incident recovery time.

  • Platform Consultant — OpenShift Platform Engineering · Devoteam (KKR Investment Group)

    Apr 2022 — Feb 2023

    Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    • Administered the OpenShift platform; built GitLab CI/CD pipelines to onboard new projects, automating Kubernetes deployments via Helm and managing the image registry via Harbor.
    • Optimized resource utilization and reduced billing for a governmental body by rightsizing multi-node clusters.
    • Ran an in-house Azure FinOps initiative — Bicep-based budget alerts and Policy-as-Code plus PowerShell automation — curbing recurring subscription budget overruns.
    • Monitored platform health with Grafana/Prometheus and ElasticSearch/Logstash/Kibana; automated configuration management with Ansible.

  • Application Manager · Abbott Pharmaceuticals — Starlims Technology

    Apr 2021 — Mar 2022

    Weesp, The Netherlands

    • Reduced QC review time by 30% by developing and implementing a laboratory web application for global operations — received a Golden Excellence Award for project delivery.
    • Executed functional testing and UATs; led cross-department collaboration.
    • Managed day-to-day processes for 90+ local users, including monitoring, maintenance and root-cause analysis.

Education

  • M.Sc. Business Process Management & IT

    On hold

  • B.Sc. Bioresearch — Data Analytics of (Epi)genetics, Oncology specialization

    2020

Certifications

  • Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
  • Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)
  • LS458: Kubernetes Administration — The Linux Foundation
  • Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO I)