About Me
Originally from Lisbon, Portugal, I moved to São Miguel island, in the Azores, Portugal, in 2019, and found myself the best of dogs, Nina.
I spend as much time as possible socializing with people, cooking, and scuba diving (weather permitting). Recently started picking up yoga, but still think of coding as one of the most relaxing activities I've found so far.
Background
With an MSc in Computer Science from NOVA, I spent some time working with the Transactional Systems Group at university, during which I worked on my thesis focused on adding transactional semantics to Btrfs. Soon after, in early 2012, I joined Inktank, developing Ceph. Since then, my life has been tighly coupled with distributed systems at scale, and the world of open source software.
While involved in Ceph, I spent some time at Red Hat, following Inktank's acquisition, and moved to SUSE in 2015.
During my tenure at SUSE, until December 2023, I was involved with the SUSE Enterprise Storage product, actively contributing to the upstream Ceph project in the role of maintainer of Ceph's distributed consensus daemon, and part of the project's technical leadership committee.
Over the years, I had the privilege of trying many different hats at SUSE, from being an interim engineering manager for about a year, to dedicating my time building and growing teams in various technical leadership positions during the Aquarium and s3gw projects, heavily involved in project management, both as a supporting asset to the project manager, but also informally wearing that hat as well.
Core Beliefs
Growth Mindset
Strong believer that anyone can achieve anything given enough time and dedication, regardless of natural aptitude or inclination.
Additional support through mentorship can generate the right foundational knowledge, developing approaches to speed up learning.
Personal Development is Fun
May it be learning new skills or going to therapy, further evolving one's understanding of themselves and the world, is fun. Throughout my life I've tried to live by these words.
I have gotten a PG Diploma in Intellectual Law, as well as a PG Diploma in Agile Project Management. Even though both are useful in this line of work, the main motivator was simply interest in learning for the fun of it. And I often learn new programming languages, techniques, and technologies (which I then apply through mildly interesting projects).
Sharing is Caring
May it be code, knowledge, food, a few drinks, or silly life stories, sharing brings people together, generates empathy and creates bonds.
These bonds allow us to build stronger foundations in our relationships, may they be in our social lives or as part of a team working together.
Openness and Honesty
Early in my life I realized being open and honest about myself, what I believe, what I know, and what I think, takes less effort than the alternative.
I learned to value this trait, and allow myself to apply it to all my relationships, both in my personal and professional spheres.
Empathy
Understanding the needs of others, their struggles and challenges, and what motivates them, has proven itself essential to building strong relationships throughout my life.
Even in professional contexts, listening and lending a hand, may it be through a friendly chat or more formal mentorship, has shown that empathy is crucial to a team's growth.