Trail running with dogs

I’m a software engineer shaped by systems work, where correctness, performance and error handling are not academic concerns. Get them wrong and someone loses their data.

For over a decade I’ve contributed to the Linux kernel, with long-term work in local file systems. That left me with a strong bias: precision matters, and “mostly works” is not good enough. It is also an environment where you own your mistakes in public, and where you never stop learning. I loved it.

What I do now

In recent years my focus has shifted. I still enjoy solving hard technical problems, but I spend less time solving them myself and more time leading teams, mentoring, and helping other people get better at it.

Transferring knowledge to people who share the same goals reaches further than doing the work myself. One person can only be in one place. So most of my energy now goes into building capable teams, setting direction, and creating the conditions where people can do their best work. I am still learning how to do that well.

At the moment I apply that to cybersecurity and defensive capabilities at the Czech Ministry of Defence, where your assumptions get tested by people who want them to fail.

What I’m interested in

My technical interests gravitate toward the infrastructure you don’t think about until it stops working:

  • Operating systems
  • Storage and file systems
  • Cybersecurity enforcement
  • Distributed systems

I’m especially drawn to systems that are hidden in plain sight, the components you interact with constantly without noticing. File systems are the obvious example. Nobody thanks a file system for returning the right bytes, and everyone notices the one time it does not. That suits me fine. The work matters without having to be visible.

Outside of daily work, I:

  • Build small clusters in my homelab to explore distributed systems and ML workloads
  • Study threat hunting, offensive techniques, malware research, and cognitive security
  • Read widely across science, history, and philosophy
  • Collect unfinished pet SW projects
  • Invest in physical training - running, climbing, gym work - because staying effective over the long term depends on both mental and physical resilience

If your work touches systems, security or infrastructure engineering, and there is something interesting to build, I’m happy to talk.

If you’d like to know more about my work experience, see my CV. If you’re curious about what I’m currently building, check out my Projects. And if you’re interested in how I think about technology, systems, and the craft of engineering, you might enjoy my Posts.