Principal Cloud Engineer
Konrad Soares
From Zero to Hero: A Journey Through Technology, Innovation & Leadership
Discover My Story
Principal Cloud Engineer
From Zero to Hero: A Journey Through Technology, Innovation & Leadership
Discover My Story"It started with curiosity at age 12..."
Back in 1988, I was just a kid, raised by my mother who worked as a manicure to support us. No luxury, no internet (it wasn't really a thing yet), no guidance, just public school and whatever I could figure out on my own.
Early on, I just wanted to help her so she didn't have to work so hard. Technology became my way in, inspired by arcade games and movies like WarGames, Tron, and Short Circuit, which made that world feel real and within reach. I learned by trying things out, reading tech magazines, and teaching myself English so I could understand things I couldn't find locally.
I started learning the BASIC programming language on machines that weren't even XT/286 yet. Then came my first own machine, bought by selling my Atari and doing small jobs like selling ice cream on the street after school - a Brazilian version of the MSX - loading programs and games from 5¼" floppies and even cassettes. Those days taught me patience and the thrill of making things work.
Technical school in data processing changed everything. I got my hands on an XT/286, then a 386 with Sound Blaster multimedia and a US Robotics modem. Hardware troubleshooting, building systems, learning Clipper, COBOL, dBase — that's where the foundation was laid.
While studying networking, I uncovered weaknesses in both infrastructure and application design at the first company I worked for, ranging from fragile ring network topologies to multi-user system freezes caused by poor file-lock management in legacy systems/database. At only 19, this led to my promotion from a data entry role to IT Advisor and gave me early exposure to real-world reliability and concurrency challenges, paving the way for my transition into a Delphi development role working with relational databases such as InterBase.
I later moved into development with Delphi and ColdFusion, then into Windows infrastructure, earning MCSA certification and becoming a go-to resource for Microsoft troubleshooting. This evolved into Linux system administration and Java middleware, working with platforms like WebSphere, WebLogic, JBoss, and Tomcat.
Today, living in Ireland since 2020 and working as a Principal Cloud Specialist at OpenText, I combine technical SaaS support, DevOps, and cloud engineering, backed by a First Class Honours MSc in DevOps. I'm now focused on AIOps and automation, building on my thesis work to apply intelligent, closed-loop approaches to troubleshooting, driven by a passion for solving complex problems, helping customers succeed, and turning chaos into reliable systems.
More than 30 years later, the curiosity that started it all is still driving me forward.
2021 - Present
2019 - 2021
Automation Developer. Built backend applications and AWS infrastructure for various clients.
2017 - 2018
Cloud & Backup Solutions Engineer. Designed backup/disaster recovery solutions and hybrid cloud environments.
2009 - 2016
Service Delivery Manager / Technical Leader. Led enterprise infrastructure for global clients (Vale, Unilever).
2008 - 2009
Infrastructure Architect. Designed enterprise content management platforms.
2006 - 2008
Sys Admin Jr. Supported web, messaging and middleware systems across multi-platform environments.
2004 - 2006
VMware, Tomcat, Java apps • Eclipse IDE • Tortoise SVN • Team leadership
2002 - 2004
End-user support • Linux proxy/firewall • Productivity tools
2000 - 2002
Active Directory • Exchange • Migrations • Maintenance
1998 - 2000
Delphi • ColdFusion • Financial systems
Diagnosed a system-wide freeze in a multi-user legacy xBase application, traced to improper file-lock handling where a paused client held record locks indefinitely, blocking all other users.
Resolved severe performance degradation in an environment by identifying database contention caused by long-running transactions amplified by excessive worker concurrency, leading to thread starvation.
Identified hidden capacity loss in a clustered environment where a memory-saturated node reduced effective throughput, causing previously stable workloads to trigger system-wide instability.
Diagnosed a self-inflicted outage where excessive diagnostic queries against monitoring threads exhausted application resources, highlighting the impact of uncontrolled troubleshooting actions on system stability.
Resolved false service outages in a Prometheus-monitored environment by identifying container networking misconfiguration and incorrect endpoint resolution between host and container contexts.
Unblocked failed Helm deployments by diagnosing release state locks caused by incomplete operations, implementing safe rollback and state cleanup procedures in CI/CD pipelines.
Bridged gaps between documentation and deployment reality by identifying missing patched images in Artifactory, building and promoting compliant images to unblock production upgrades.
Identified disk exhaustion issues by tracing uncontrolled growth of temporary files to automation scripts lacking cleanup logic, implementing retention and path management improvements.
Diagnosed message processing failures in a SOA application caused by incorrect MTU configuration, leading to packet fragmentation and incomplete message delivery across the system.
Diagnosed application-wide latency in a BOSH worker node environment, traced to storage I/O bottlenecks caused by VMware virtual network limitations between compute and storage, degrading file handling throughput and processing performance.
Diagnosed third-party API integration failures by reverse engineering Java application logic from JAR files (without source code access), identifying incorrect request body parameters and validating payload inconsistencies via Postman. Despite initial customer claims that the issue was product-related, findings proved otherwise, restoring trust through clear technical evidence.
TU Dublin, Ireland
Emerging Digital Technologies
Atlantic Technological University Donegal, Ireland
UNIP, Brazil
Data Processing, Brazil
Exstream Design and Production
OpenText™ Content Management
TeamSite
OpenText™ Core Archive for SAP Solutions
Extended ECM for SAP SuccessFactors
SAP Agent Onboarding - GTS Academy
Extended ECM Intermediate Training - GTS Academy
Introduction to Kubernetes - GTS Academy
Introduction to GitOps - Linux Foundation
Kubernetes and Cloud Native Essentials
Cognos BI
WebSphere 6.5
MCSA
MCDST
Strategic PC games - FPS, RTS, and RPGs
Self-taught musician - guitar, keyboard, and music production
Design and development of Arduino-based systems, integrating automation workflows and AI-driven functionality into custom devices.
Designing and printing functional parts and prototypes
A practical guide to building a successful career in technology. Part memoir, part career guide - everything I wish I knew when starting out.
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