I'm a Mid DevOps Engineer at COERA BC SRL and EO Platform Product Manager at AIM-SPACE, operating at the intersection of cloud infrastructure and space technology. My days rotate between three orbits — COERA (cloud platforms and observability), AIM-SPACE (Earth Observation products), and ROSPIN (community and aerospace outreach). Currently pursuing a Master's in Distributed Systems in Internet at Babeș-Bolyai University.
apiVersion: mission.simoneldavid.dev/v1
kind: Engineer
metadata:
name: simonel-olimpiu-david
labels: { role: devops, domain: space, location: romania }
spec:
primary_orbits:
- name: COERA BC SRL
role: Mid DevOps Engineer
focus: [ aws, kubernetes, terraform, observability ]
- name: AIM-SPACE
role: EO Platform Product Manager
focus: [ earth-observation, product-strategy, satellite-data ]
- name: ROSPIN
role: Business Development Director · Satellite Data Masterclass Manager (also IT Manager)
focus: [ community, education, aerospace-outreach ]
learning: [ distributed-systems, federated-learning, edge-ml ]
interests: [ satellites, astronomy, cybersecurity, music, violin ]
motto: "Let your dreams expand beyond the borders of the universe."
status: In Orbit — accepting collaboration requests.
Mid DevOps Engineer
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EO Platform Product Manager
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Business Development Director
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# ~/.config/mission/crontab
# m h activity
00 07 * * * wake && coffee --strength=high
30 08 * * 1-5 coera:standup # COERA · cloud platforms standup
00 09 * * 1-5 coera:deep-work # terraform, k8s, observability, on-call
00 13 * * 1-5 lunch --no-slack
00 14 * * 1-5 aim-space:product # AIM-SPACE · EO platform, roadmap, data
00 18 * * 1-5 rospin:community # ROSPIN · partnerships, mentoring, events
00 21 * * * learn || play(violin) || dance || stargaze
00 23 * * * shutdown --gracefulflowchart LR
classDef coera fill:#0D1117,stroke:#58A6FF,stroke-width:2px,color:#79C0FF
classDef aim fill:#0D1117,stroke:#4493F8,stroke-width:2px,color:#79C0FF
classDef rospin fill:#0D1117,stroke:#1F6FEB,stroke-width:2px,color:#79C0FF
classDef ground fill:#0D1117,stroke:#0969DA,stroke-width:3px,color:#58A6FF
GROUND([ Ground Station<br/>Cluj-Napoca, RO ]):::ground
subgraph COERA [ COERA · Cloud Platforms ]
direction TB
C1[AWS + Azure]:::coera
C2[Kubernetes + ArgoCD]:::coera
C3[Terraform · Ansible]:::coera
C4[Prometheus · Thanos · Grafana]:::coera
C1 --> C2 --> C3 --> C4
end
subgraph AIM [ AIM-SPACE · Earth Observation ]
direction TB
A1[Sentinel-2 · Landsat · Radar]:::aim
A2[GEE + Copernicus Pipelines]:::aim
A3[Product Roadmap]:::aim
A4[Customers · Insights]:::aim
A1 --> A2 --> A3 --> A4
end
subgraph ROSPIN [ ROSPIN · Community ]
direction TB
R1[Partnerships · BD]:::rospin
R2[Satellite Data Masterclass]:::rospin
R3[rospin.org + Mentoring]:::rospin
R4[Aerospace Outreach]:::rospin
R1 --> R2 --> R3 --> R4
end
GROUND ==> COERA
GROUND ==> AIM
GROUND ==> ROSPIN
COERA -.shared infra.-> AIM
AIM -.shared talent.-> ROSPIN
ROSPIN -.shared mission.-> COERA
$ kubectl get missions --all-namespaces -o wide
NAMESPACE NAME STATUS AGE OWNER PRIORITY
coera ReplicaSet/k8s-platform Running 2y devops P0
coera CronJob/observability-stack Running 2y devops P0
coera Deployment/ci-cd-pipelines Running 2y devops P1
aim-space Deployment/eo-platform Deploying 6mo product P0
aim-space Job/satellite-data-masterclass Running 1y education P1
aim-space Pod/federated-learning-edge-ml Pending 3mo research P2
rospin StatefulSet/partnerships-bd Running new leadership P0
rospin Deployment/rospin.org Running 3y it-manager P1
rospin CronJob/aerospace-outreach-events Scheduled 4y community P1
personal Pod/masters-distributed-systems Running 2y self P0
personal Job/violin-practice CronJob ∞ self P3
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Level-1 — Cloud & Infrastructure Trivia
Q1. What tool turns a Git commit into a running cluster change without a kubectl apply?
answer
ArgoCD — GitOps reconciliation loop.Q2. Which three pillars of observability do I work with daily?
answer
Metrics (Prometheus/Thanos), Logs (OpenSearch + FluentBit + Logstash), Traces.Q3. If you need multi-region, long-retention Prometheus without running out of disk, what do you reach for?
answer
Thanos — global query view and object-store backed blocks.Q4. Which AWS service do you NOT want to scale to zero if uptime matters?
answer
NAT Gateway — it's zonal, and losing it silently breaks egress.Level-2 — Earth Observation & Space Trivia
Q1. Which ESA mission studies exoplanet atmospheres via transit spectroscopy?
answer
Ariel — I worked on noise analysis during the ESA Datalabs Ariel Hackathon 2025.Q2. Landsat vs Copernicus — which constellation gives you a 5-day global revisit?
answer
Copernicus Sentinel-2 (a pair of satellites).Q3. What do Urban Heat Island cold spots tell urban planners?
answer
Where green infrastructure is working — and where a city is quietly cooling itself.Q4. Why SAR (radar) instead of optical imagery for border monitoring?
answer
SAR sees through clouds and works at night — critical for 24/7 critical-infrastructure surveillance.Level-3 — Product & Leadership Trivia
Q1. Most important question to ask before adding a feature to an EO platform?
answer
"What decision does this enable a customer to make, and how often?"Q2. Worst failure mode for a community organisation growing fast?
answer
No succession plan — when founders leave, institutional memory leaves with them.
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SIM #01 — Escape the Production Incident · choose your path
It's 03:47 AM. PagerDuty fires. Three pods in prod-eo-pipeline are in CrashLoopBackOff. The on-call channel is quiet. You have 60 seconds of caffeine left. What do you do first?
A) kubectl rollout undo deploy/eo-pipeline
You roll back. Pods stabilise. But you just reverted a 400-line change without knowing what broke. The PR author sends three question marks at 09:00.
Score: saved the page, spent the trust. Lives remaining: 2.
➜ next: blameless post-mortem
You runkubectl describe pod on yesterday's image, find a memory leak in a new Prometheus scrape, raise a PR, write a runbook. Game cleared — but the harder way.
B) kubectl top pods -n prod-eo-pipeline --sort-by=memory
You see memory climbing to the limit within 40 seconds. Classic OOM pattern.
Next move?
➜ bump memory limit to buy time
Pods stabilise. You now have a morning to find the real leak without a P1 breathing down your neck.Verdict: pragmatic. Lives remaining: 3.
➜ dig into a heap dump immediately
Noble — but at 03:47 AM, mean-time-to-recovery beats mean-time-to-root-cause. Users don't pay you for heroism, they pay you for uptime.Verdict: correct eventually, wrong first. Lives remaining: 2.
C) kubectl delete pod --all and hope
The chaos option. New pods spin up, OOM again 90 seconds later. PagerDuty refires. Your phone rings.
Verdict: this is a speedrun to incident review. Lives remaining: 0.
Retry? Scroll back up.
SIM #02 — Identify the Satellite · three rounds
Round 1. "I see through clouds. I work at night. Border patrols love me."
reveal
Sentinel-1 — C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar. The one I use for border-change detection in EOSec.Round 2. "I have 13 spectral bands, a 10–60 m resolution, and a 5-day global revisit thanks to my twin."
reveal
Sentinel-2 — the workhorse of Copernicus optical EO.Round 3. "I am tuned for the troposphere. Methane plumes cannot hide from me."
reveal
Sentinel-5P (TROPOMI) — atmospheric composition monitoring.Bonus. "I transit exoplanets and sniff their atmospheres. The ESA is still building me."
reveal
Ariel — the mission behind the ESA Datalabs hackathon I joined in Madrid.SIM #03 — Match the Tool to the Pain
| Pain | Pick the tool |
|---|---|
| "My Prometheus is eating all my disk and I want 2-year retention." | pickThanos — object-store blocks + global query. |
"My cluster has drifted from Git. Someone kubectl edit-ed production again." |
pickArgoCD — declare desired state, let the reconciler win the fight. |
| "Logs are scattered across 40 pods and I can't correlate anything." | pickFluentBit → Logstash → OpenSearch. Ship, transform, search. |
| "Terraform state got corrupted because two engineers ran apply simultaneously." | pickRemote state + DynamoDB lock table (or equivalent lock backend). |
| "Our CI deploys don't roll back automatically when health checks fail." | pickArgoCD sync waves + rollout hooks, or Argo Rollouts for progressive delivery. |
| "An engineer just quit and nobody else knows how the EO ingest pipeline works." | pickRunbooks + architecture-decision records. The tool is writing things down. |
SIM #04 — Infra Word Scramble
Unscramble. Click to reveal.
RSEFTMARO→answer
TERRAFORMTEUKBNSSREE→answer
KUBERNETESUMSRHOPTEE→answer
PROMETHEUSSOBERINAVYITLB→answer
OBSERVABILITYCILENPOESU→answer
COPERNICUSETLELSITA→answer
SATELLITE
SIM #05 — Guess the Log, Name the Incident
Log snippet A:
error: Got a connection, but no valid credentials were found
context deadline exceeded (Client.Timeout exceeded while awaiting headers)
reveal root cause
IAM role assumption or IRSA misconfiguration — workload can reach the API but can't authenticate in time.Log snippet B:
Killed
[exit code 137]
pod evicted: The node was low on resource: memory
reveal root cause
OOMKill — set memoryrequests + limits; investigate leak; consider VerticalPodAutoscaler recommendations.Log snippet C:
Error: error locking state: state lock acquisition timed out
Lock Info: ID: ..., Operation: OperationTypeApply, Who: ci-runner@...
reveal root cause
Concurrentterraform apply. Another runner holds the lock. Investigate, then force-unlock only if you're sure.|
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Detailed badge view
Languages
Cloud & DevOps
Monitoring & Observability
Earth Observation & Space
Web Technologies
| Role | Organisation | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Mid DevOps Engineer | COERA BC SRL | Jan 2026 — Present |
| Advanced Junior DevOps Engineer | COERA BC SRL | Jul 2025 — Jan 2026 |
| Junior DevOps Engineer | COERA BC SRL | Jun 2024 — Jul 2025 |
| Trainee DevOps Engineer | COERA BC SRL | Oct 2022 — Jun 2024 |
| DevOps Intern | COERA BC SRL | Jul 2022 — Aug 2022 |
| EO Platform Product Manager | AIM-SPACE | Nov 2025 — Present |
| Software Engineer | AIM-SPACE | Mar 2023 — Nov 2025 |
Role highlights
- Mid DevOps Engineer @ COERA BC SRL — Designing and operating AWS and Kubernetes infrastructure with CI/CD automation and infrastructure-as-code.
- Advanced Junior DevOps Engineer @ COERA BC SRL — Improved cloud reliability through Terraform-based automation and production monitoring.
- Junior DevOps Engineer @ COERA BC SRL — Built Kubernetes platforms and centralised monitoring to improve deployment efficiency.
- Trainee DevOps Engineer @ COERA BC SRL — Supported cloud automation and CI/CD using Terraform, Ansible, and Jenkins.
- DevOps Intern @ COERA BC SRL — Introduced to cloud and DevOps practices through Azure-based deployments.
- EO Platform Product Manager @ AIM-SPACE — Leading an Earth Observation platform by aligning satellite data capabilities with product strategy.
- Software Engineer @ AIM-SPACE — Developed satellite data processing and geospatial analysis solutions.
- Business Development Director @ ROSPIN (Apr 2026 — Present) — Leading ROSPIN's growth strategy and partnerships.
- Satellite Data Processing Masterclass Project Manager @ ROSPIN (Oct 2024 — Present) — Built and manages a satellite data course with Babeș-Bolyai University.
- IT Manager @ ROSPIN (Sep 2022 — Present) — Leads website development and mentors junior developers in WordPress, cPanel, and React.
- PR Coordinator & Aerospace Mentor @ Romanian Science Festival (Apr 2024 — Dec 2024) — Led outreach and hands-on space activities for children.
- Community Manager @ ROSPIN (Sep 2022 — Jan 2024) — Organised large-scale space education events across 11 cities in Romania.
- ROSPIN School Project Manager (Jan 2022 — Sep 2022) — Led the inaugural edition with 300 students on space science and technology.
- Cluj-Napoca Ambassador @ ROSPIN (Oct 2021 — Sep 2022) — Built and led a community of space enthusiasts, organising regular networking events with industry experts.
- Volunteer — Projects Department @ Asociația Studenților Fizicieni UBB (Oct 2022 — Sep 2023) — Planned and executed STEM events and workshops with high participant engagement.
- Volunteer @ Euroavia Cluj-Napoca (Oct 2022 — Sep 2023) — Organised aerospace networking events, workshops, and industry-focused discussions.
- HR Volunteer @ HERMES Society (Oct 2021 — Sep 2023) — Supported recruitment and coordinated the Hermes Hackathon.
- Backstage Volunteer @ UNTOLD Festival (Aug 2022) — Logistical and operational backstage support: artist schedules, equipment setup, event execution.
Co-developed a satellite-based monitoring platform using multispectral and radar imagery to detect critical infrastructure and border changes.
Built a machine-learning solution to analyse instrument noise and improve signal clarity for the ESA Ariel exoplanet mission.
- "Be Unique" (Antalya, Turkey, 2019) — Social inclusion and empowerment initiatives.
- "Synergy for Renewal" KA21 (Vilnius, Lithuania, 2018) — Community renewal and sustainability.
$ ls -lah ~/lab/2026/
drwxr-xr-x federated-learning-eo/ # on-orbit model averaging, privacy-preserving EO
drwxr-xr-x ebpf-observability/ # Pixie/Cilium experiments for zero-instrumentation traces
drwxr-xr-x argo-rollouts-progressive/ # canary + blue-green on a real workload
drwxr-xr-x sar-serverless-pipeline/ # Sentinel-1 preprocessing on Lambda/GEE
drwxr-xr-x urban-heat-v3/ # Romania UHI dataset refresh, new cities + 2025 data
drwxr-xr-x thesis-distributed-eo/ # reading list + prototype scaffoldingReading shelf · Q2 2026
- Site Reliability Engineering (Google) — re-read, this time with highlights.
- Designing Data-Intensive Applications — Kleppmann.
- Earth Observation Using Python — McGuirk et al.
- Accelerate — Forsgren / Humble / Kim — metrics that actually move.
- Papers: Flower federated-learning papers, ESA's on-board AI whitepapers.
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| # | Album | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Valea Voltului | Subcarpați |
| 02 | Suits (Original Television Soundtrack) | Christopher Tyng |
| 03 | BITE ME | RAVA |
| 04 | The Sound of Heaven | André Rieu · Johann Strauss Orchestra |
| 05 | Hurry Up Tomorrow | The Weeknd |
Taste, summarised: Electronica and Europop run the focus sessions, soundtracks (the Suits OST especially) keep the writing flowing, and Subcarpați — Romanian hip-hop fused with traditional folk — anchors the whole rotation.
- Autonomous Heat Island Detection Tool — Docker, Terraform, GEE, Java, Python, Nginx, Grafana, Prometheus.
- Landsat vs Copernicus — ROSPIN workshop on the advantages and tradeoffs of Copernicus and Landsat data. Python, GEE, Copernicus Hub.
- Geospatial Intelligence Workshop — Deploying a web app that processes satellite data. Docker, Shell, Python, GEE, Copernicus Hub.
- SpacedIn Platform — A platform to educate students on the lifecycle of space missions.
- ROSPIN Website — Main website of ROSPIN.
- WhatsApp Automation Tool — Automation tool supporting ROSPIN staff. Python.
- ROSPIN Satellite Data Processing Masterclass — 5th SSEA Symposium, Munich, Apr 2026
- Federated Learning for On-Orbit EO Analytics in Military Satellite Constellations — 5th EDT Conference, Sibiu, Mar 2026
- Top Cities in Romania by Urban Heat Island Cold Spots (2018–2022) — ROSPIN, AIM-SPACE, Nov 2024
- Top Cities in Romania by Urban Heat Island Hotspots (2018–2022) — ROSPIN, AIM-SPACE, Nov 2024
- Wondering for Freedom — Independent game project inspired by John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, Apr 2021
- Master's in Distributed Systems in Internet — Babeș-Bolyai University (2024 — Ongoing)
- Bachelor of Science in Computer Science — Babeș-Bolyai University (2021 — 2024)
| Language | Level |
|---|---|
| Romanian | Native |
| English | C1 |
| German | Intermediate |
Leadership · Teamwork · Communication · Research · Creativity · Problem-Solving · Decision-Making · Strategic Thinking · Adaptability
Machine Learning · Cybersecurity · Space Exploration · Satellites · Astronomy · Video Games · Open-Source · Music · Violin · Contemporary Dance (trained)
