Who I Am
Quick Facts
My name is Sri (Sritharan K). I have been living and working in Belgium for more than 25 years. I hold Belgian citizenship and I am fluent in English, Dutch, and Tamil, with conversational German.
I am a Lead Software Architect with over 17 years of experience designing and implementing production systems. I specialize in backend services, cloud-native architectures, system design, and integrations across SaaS, IoT, ERP, and commerce platforms. My work spans the full architecture lifecycle: from system design and API development to deployment, monitoring, incident response, and continuous improvement.
I build cloud-native platforms using service-oriented design, asynchronous workflows, and event-driven architecture. I focus on solving real operational challenges: orchestration across distributed services, data consistency under failure, reliable integrations with external systems, and platforms that scale predictably without operational chaos. I work closely with product and business teams, but I think in systems: clear domain boundaries, observable behavior, and production reliability are always top priorities.
Key Achievements
Professional Journey
2008-2013: Foundation
My career started in 2008 with backend development and automation in telecom and enterprise environments. I learned early how to build systems that run reliably under real operational pressure: integrating legacy systems, processing business-critical data, and supporting production workloads that couldn't fail. This foundation taught me that good software isn't just about clean code; it's about understanding how systems behave when things go wrong.
2013-2018: Growth & Leadership
Over the next decade, I evolved from implementing backend components to architecting full platforms. I moved into service-oriented architectures, event-driven workflows, and integration-heavy systems, gradually taking ownership of architectural decisions, API contracts, and system design, moving from implementing components to designing the systems those components lived in. I led teams, mentored engineers, and learned that software architecture is about building systems that survive team changes, scale with the business, and remain maintainable under pressure.
2018-Present: Lead Software Architecture
Today, I architect and lead delivery of cloud-native platforms across SaaS, IoT, ERP, and commerce domains. I own the full architecture lifecycle: from system design and API strategy to deployment standards, observability frameworks, incident response, and continuous architectural improvement. Beyond technical ownership, I focus on aligning engineering roadmaps with business goals and raising the technical bar for the entire team. I design with distributed-system principles, build observability into platforms from day one, and make architectural decisions based on production data and SLOs. My focus is always on delivering reliable, scalable systems that teams can operate confidently without accumulating technical or operational debt.
Core Expertise
Core Expertise
Primary technologies I work with daily
- Python (Django, DRF, Flask, FastAPI)
- SQLAlchemy, Alembic, Pydantic
- Kubernetes, Docker, Helm, Kustomize
- Terraform, Ansible, Pulumi, IaC
- Linux (Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Bash)
- AWS, Azure, Google Cloud
- PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, DynamoDB
- Microservices & Domain-Driven Design
- CI/CD (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD)
- REST, GraphQL, gRPC, SOAP, XML-RPC
- Nginx, Traefik, HAProxy, Load Balancing
- Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry, Jaeger
- AI/ML (LangChain, TensorFlow, PyTorch)
- Poetry, pip-tools, uv (Dependency Management)
Backend & Data
- Node.js, PHP (Laravel, CodeIgniter), Java
- Kafka, RabbitMQ, Celery, Celery Beat, MQTT
- Event-Driven & Message-Driven Architecture
- ETL & Data Pipelines
- Apache Airflow, Prefect
- ElasticSearch, TimescaleDB, InfluxDB, ClickHouse
- Redis Streams, Redis Pub/Sub
- SQL Query Optimization, Indexing, Partitioning
- Database Replication & Sharding
- WebSockets, Server-Sent Events, Real-time Systems
- SOAP, EDI, XML-RPC Integrations
- Soda Core (Data Quality Testing)
- Sentry, Error Tracking & Alerting
Cloud & Infrastructure
- EKS, GKE, AKS (Managed Kubernetes)
- Serverless (AWS Lambda, API Gateway, EventBridge)
- ArgoCD, Flux (GitOps Deployments)
- Istio, Linkerd (Service Mesh, mTLS)
- Multi-region & Multi-zone Deployments
- OpenTelemetry, Distributed Tracing
- Cloudflare, CDN, WAF, DDoS Protection
- Blue-Green, Canary, Rolling Deployments
- Horizontal Pod Autoscaling (HPA, KEDA)
- Cert-Manager, Let's Encrypt, TLS Automation
- HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager
- Disaster Recovery & Backup Strategies
AI & Automation
- OpenAI API, Anthropic Claude, GPT Integration
- Ollama (Local LLM Deployment)
- LangChain, LangGraph, LlamaIndex
- Vector Databases (Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant)
- RAG & Semantic Search Pipelines
- HuggingFace Models & Transformers
- MCP (Model Context Protocol)
- Prompt Engineering & Chain-of-Thought
- AI-Assisted Code & Workflow Automation
Frontend
- React, Next.js, Vue.js, Angular
- TypeScript, JavaScript (ES2022+)
- TailwindCSS, shadcn/ui, Radix UI
- React Native (Cross-platform Mobile)
- Vite, Webpack, ESBuild
- Redux, Zustand, React Query
- REST & GraphQL API Integration
Specializations
- Odoo ERP (Certified) — ORM, XML-RPC, Custom Modules
- IoT & Edge Computing (MQTT, AWS IoT, AMQP)
- Payment Systems (Stripe, Mollie, Idempotency, PCI)
- OAuth2, JWT, OIDC, API Security
- SSL/TLS, mTLS, Secrets & Key Management
- OWASP Top 10, Security Hardening
- GDPR, DPIA, Audit Trails & Compliance
- SLO/SLA Design & Error Budget Management
- Multi-tenancy Architecture Patterns
- Webhook Design, Retry Logic & Dead-letter Queues
- pytest, Hypothesis, k6, Locust (Testing & Load)
- OpenAPI/Swagger, AsyncAPI, Postman
- Conventional Commits, Semantic Versioning
- Domain & Hosting Management (WHM, WHMCS, DNS)
Industry Experience
Engineering Philosophy
I believe reliable systems are built through disciplined engineering, operational ownership, and pragmatic architecture decisions. My approach is grounded in:
- Designing systems for production from day one: observability, monitoring, and failure modes are not afterthoughts
- Writing maintainable code that survives team changes and scales with the business
- Building platforms that solve real problems simply, avoiding unnecessary abstraction and over-engineering
- Owning the full lifecycle: from architecture and implementation to deployment, monitoring, and incident response
- Automating repetitive operational work so teams can focus on delivering business value
- Treating infrastructure, CI/CD, and security as core engineering responsibilities, not separate concerns
- Making data-driven decisions using metrics, SLOs, and production feedback loops
- Mentoring engineers and raising technical standards through code review, documentation, and knowledge sharing
- Choosing proven, stable technology over hype: reliability beats novelty in production systems
Availability & Preferences
Open to
Full-time, Contract, Consulting
Location
Belgium (Mol) | Remote work possible
Start Date
Immediately available
Let's Work Together
I'm open to collaborations on interesting projects, whether that's building new systems from the ground up, consulting on technical architecture, or helping teams navigate complex technical challenges. If you're working on something that requires thoughtful engineering and clean design, I'd love to hear about it.