I help people decide what to build, understand what’s going wrong, and change systems that already matter.
The work often crosses software, infrastructure, data and the people responsible for them. I get into the details, work out what needs to be done, and help see it through.
Where I can help
Decide. You know what you want to achieve. Should you build something, buy it, connect existing tools, or change the process? I help work through the options, including whether and how AI can help.
Design. You need an architecture, or want an experienced pair of eyes on one: dependencies, state, capacity, failure modes, recovery, and what operating it will involve.
Build. You need a working system: a tool, an integration, or a way to put your data to use. I work out the smallest useful version, build it, and help get it into real use.
Change. You need to migrate, replace or untangle something live, with data to preserve, dependencies to accommodate, and people relying on it throughout.
Diagnose. Something important behaves in a way nobody quite understands. I follow the evidence across code, infrastructure, data, vendors and teams.
Own. An important piece of work needs hands-on technical leadership: someone to understand the whole situation, work through decisions with the people involved, and take responsibility for moving it forward.
I’m currently taking on a small number of engagements.
Some background
I’m self-taught. Starting as a teenager, I spent five years building and running internet infrastructure for clients around the world, including web and email systems serving millions of domains.
I then spent 15 years at Google, working across reliability engineering and engineering leadership: diagnosing failures across distributed systems, reviewing designs, and navigating difficult launches and migrations. Alongside that hands-on work, I built and led engineering teams responsible for the reliability of Gmail, Google Drive and Docs.
I left at the end of 2020 after burning out. Since then, I’ve spent much more time with my family and gone deep into permaculture and regenerative systems on our land in Portugal. Our food forest is an ongoing investigation into what thrives here and how plants work together. It has stretched my systems instincts: observing over seasons, working with uncertainty, and learning when to intervene.
I combine software I build, drone mapping, and precision surveying to design and establish regenerative systems that can thrive without technology. During Storm Kristin and the ensuing blackout we kept power, water, and IT infrastructure running for days while most nearby homes were dark.
Across my work, AI agents are central to investigation, design and implementation. I’ve learned through building with them, connecting them to infrastructure, databases and spatial tools, and finding out where their approaches succeed or fall apart. I choose what to build, shape and review the implementation, and operate the resulting systems. That includes simplifying or discarding things that turn out to be wrong for the problem.
I miss using technology to help other people solve problems, so I’m making room for that alongside the life I’ve built here.
Working together
An engagement works best when I can get access to the real system and people, and we can act on what we learn. We can start with a specific question and discuss what further involvement would make sense.
Have something in mind?
Tell me what you’re working with, what you’d like to be different, and where you could use help. It can be an early decision, an existing difficulty, or a change you want to make.
A short email is enough to start: petru@paler.net