Curriculum Vitae — Cathelijne Hornstra

Cathelijne

Driven, enthusiastic and solution-seeking: I am a linux and Open Source professional with both legs firmly planted in technology. Though well-acquainted with best practices, I am not afraid to find solutions off the beaten track when it’s needed.

I have strong problem-solving skills. I like to streamline the workfow without creating an endless bureaucratic process, to minimize the chores and to maximize the fun. If you have to do something more than two times, it’s probably best to automate it. I’m at my best best in roles where I can sink my teeth into something and get it working. As a team lead, I like to get the best out of everyone, finding people’s strengths and help them to overcome their weaknesses, with a stronger team as a result.

My motto: IT is here to make our lives easier, not more complicated.

Professional Experience

DevOps Engineer (Contract)

Touchstone Energy Jan 2023 - Dec 2023
Assisting the current devops team with larger and more complicated tasks, like cluster upgrades and implemenation of new technologies like Hashicorp Vault, Grafana, ArgoCD, KEDA scheduling, Google Workload Identity, to name but a few. This is a large cluster, with a minimum of 100 nodes (depending on scaling) and roughly 600 websites. via Appnovation.

ICT Specialist DevOps CI/CD

TenneT TSO Sep 2022 - Jan 2023
CI/CD Team Member, building a standardized Jenkins for multiple teams. Keywords: Ansible, Jenkins, Argocd, Hashicorp Vault, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes. via Cinq ICT.

Senior Consultant, Global Managed Services [DevOps]

Appnovation Mar 2018 - Jul 2022

Responsible for day-to-day operations of client infrastructure and CI/CD. Sometimes on actual machines and VM’s but mostly Kubernetes clusters on Google Cloud, AWS, Azure or on-premise. Because we manage client systems, we run into all kinds of products and solutions, and it’s vital that everyone on the team is able to quickly learn and adapt to products we’ve never worked with before. Most projects are client-facing. The team is global, we offer services around the clock. This requires good communication, handovers and documentation.

Our preferred tech stack is currently: GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, Gitlab, Jenkins, Stackdriver, docker, Redis, PHP, but we also work with and manage AWS, Azure, Acquia, Netlify (and deployments), Github (and actions), ELK, Varnish, Zabbix, among others.

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Most Managed services work is related to hosting websites, usually Drupal. In the past year, I’ve also worked on projects where the CMS is headless and the site is built with Gatsby.

  • Tech lead for the kubernetes cluster of a large Flemish government cultural division, bringing it from PoC to full production (around 300 websites). GCP, terraform, Drupal with external API-feeds.
  • Tech lead for the on-premise Kubernetes solution for a Flemish government department. Mostly internal applications. Suse, Gitlab, Drupal, Jenkins.
  • Kubernetes backup for an American State Government-funded tourist organisation. GCP, terraform, Drupal, Gatsby, API-links to Saleforce and Dell Boomi, several in-house Python microservices we inherited, Google Cloud Source/Cloud Build.
  • Tech lead for the kubernetes cluster for the largest electric utility in the US. Over 600 Drupal websites. GCP, terraform, Gitlab, Jenkins, Redis, CloudSQL, FileStore. Achieved stability and scalability, making use of the latest Kubernetes features (1.21).

Senior DevOps Engineer

NEP Jan 2017 - Jan 2018
Installing and maintaing Kubernetes Clusters, both on Google Cloud and on- premise for the backbone of NPO Start, in close collaboration with the developers, and occasionally writing a microservice. Changed deployment from Deis Workfow to Spinnaker.

Team Lead Site Operations Marktplaats

eBay Apr 2013 - Sep 2016
Head of two highly skilled Site Operations teams for Marktplaats, in close collaboration with development. One team was responsible for ‘daily management’: multiple releases daily and troubleshooting. Mostly - if not all - driven by the development teams who owned our Kanban board. The other team worked on long- term projects and maintenance and rolled new functionality, i.e. database upgrades, OS upgrades, installing new technologies (like Cassandra or docker) as a mix of dev requests and our own needs.

Global Linux Engineer

Rabobank International Apr 2012 - Apr 2013
Red Hat Satellite administration, Centrify administration, creating and testing new builds of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (up until 6). Preparing changes.

Project Coordinator ICT/E-Media

Free Press Unlimited Jul 2011 - Jan 2012
Office automation and ICT for international projects, always considering the diffcult and sometimes even dangerous conditions FPU personnel works in.

Team Lead Operations

Widexs Jan 2009 - Jul 2009
Head of a team of linux- and windows admins in a large hosting environment. Resource planning, handling of outages (and designing ways to minimize these), technical adaptations and modifcations of customers’ websites.

Unix Team Lead

Binck Bank Sep 2007 - Sep 2008
Responsible for the daily management of a team of unix-, linux-, and application admins. Ensuring availability of the back-end trading systems and website of BinckBank, planning and implementing the change cycle, initiating several improvements (i.e. job management, workfow, OS version management). Member of the Change Advisory Board.

Unix Consultant and Project Manager

ONVZ (via Ormer Solutions) Jan 2007 - Sep 2007
Researching the use of SNMP for system monitoring (Nagios, Zabbix). Project Manager for mijnONVZ. Member of the unix admin team.

Tech Manager Interactive

Sky Radio Group Dec 2005 - Dec 2006
Following the bankruptcy of Capcave, Sky Radio hired me to design, plan and execute the migration from their windows based web platform to LAMP. I combined this with the daily administration of the Sky Radio Group websites.

Senior Unix Administrator

Capcave May 2005 - Nov 2005
Installation, administration and monitoring of > 100 slstems in a complex hosting environment. Assisting customers with website issues. To a lesser extent the administration of the layer-3 network. Consolidation of about 20(!) linux flavors and versions to CentOS 4.

Datacom Specialist

SNV Netherlands Development Organisation Jul 2001 - Jul 2004
Design and implementation of an Open Source VPN and mail network over existing lines/Inernet connections in developing countries (mainly Africa). Mapping out the requirements and wishes of the local SNV offices, implementing a Postfx/LDAP/Webmail environment with userdata from the SAP Human Resources database. Maintaining contact with local ISP’s. I have traveled a lot in this position, to African countries and Bhutan.

Consultant, Trainer

Fourpoints/Fourpoints Suriname N.V. Jan 1998 - Sep 1999
For Fourpoints, I did some consulting in The Netherlands, but the bulk of my time with them was spent working for their Paramaribo office. I designed and carried out courses for Windows NT 4 and Linux, but we also set up the office from scratch: installing UTP, designing the office IT setup, connecting to the internet (at that time still with an X.25 modem) and everything else that needed to be done.

Network Administrator

Bausch&Lomb Jun 1996 - Dec 1997
The summer job that started it all. Hired as assistant to the existing Network Administrator who was involved in a large project off-site, I seemd to have a knack for Novell Netware and Windows for Workgroups. They asked me to stay, and I was happy to do so.

Education, training and certificates

Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect 2022
eBay Internal: Management Essentials 2013
ITIL Foundation 2008
Prince2 Foundation 2008
RedHat Certified Engineer (RHCE) 2003
University of Amsterdam (UvA): Human Geography 1993 - 1996
VWO 1990

Volunteering

Technical project lead for www.kampeerclub.nl

NTKC 2014 - 2023
NTKC needed to upgrade its website. Working with a mixed team of volunteers and hired web developers, we realised a new website that was ready for the future. Currently I’m moving the site from traditional LAMP hosting to a docker-based solution.

Site Admin

Arabische Volbloeden 2011 - 2015
Technical admin of a large forum, dedicated to Arabian horses. I wrote phpBB2 templates from scratch and several site-specifc plugins.

…and

Languages

My mother tongue is Dutch. English is near-fluent. I read and speak French, Italian and German at a basic level. Willing to learn more if needed.

Hobbies and interests

I like to cook, read, visit museums, to travel and live music.

I build websites for fun, lately I have preferred Hugo for that.

To stay fit, I like to walk a lot, and I don't complain when friends drag me to a yoga class. I also like anything in warm water: sailing, rafting, scuba diving...

I'm a hobby photographer, mostly street photography, but now practicing portraits and studio lighting.

How to get in touch

Send me a mail: websitemessage@hornstra.com