Andrey Gubarev

Director of Infrastructure

RebelMouse

• Pioneered agent-native infrastructure operations: standardized repository instructions, curated knowledge bases, and guarded execution conventions that let AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex) plan and apply infrastructure changes safely under human review.
• Directed the design and rollout of a next-generation Kubernetes (EKS) platform for high-traffic media workloads, combining Karpenter autoscaling across spot and on-demand capacity, Istio service mesh, and GitOps delivery via ArgoCD to enable zero-downtime blue-green cluster migrations and cost-aware scaling under viral traffic.
• Led SOC 2 Type II compliance from scoping to certification, and architected automated Disaster Recovery environments for critical services using Terraform, Terragrunt, and Kubernetes.
• Ran a company-wide AWS cost-optimization program that cut spend 12% in six months: statistical analysis of access logs to tier legacy media into S3 Glacier, PostgreSQL storage optimization, Kubernetes workload rightsizing, and eBPF-guided cross-AZ traffic reduction.
• Directed the consolidation of observability onto VictoriaMetrics, OpenTelemetry, ClickHouse, and Grafana with eBPF-based network telemetry, creating a single platform for metrics, logs, traces, alerting, and traffic-cost analysis.
• Established a Linear-first, async-by-default operating model for the DevOps team, with structured intake, explicit priorities, and written decision records, improving cross-timezone collaboration and delivery predictability.
• Established the strategic vision and multi-year roadmap for infrastructure development, aligning with company objectives and focusing on scalability, reliability, and cost-efficiency.
• Led the definition and implementation of DevOps/SRE operational policies, role definitions, incident response protocols, and communication guidelines, establishing a structured knowledge base.
• Modernized infrastructure delivery on OpenTofu/Terragrunt with reusable modules, lockfile-based stack management, SOPS and External Secrets, and standardized CI/CD for clusters, monitoring, and platform services.
• Managed key vendor relationships, including AWS and Fastly, ensuring these partnerships supported technical and business objectives effectively.

skills

Strategic Planning, Team Management, Budget & Vendor Management, Async Operations

stack

AWS, EKS, Karpenter, Istio, ArgoCD, OpenTofu, Terragrunt, VictoriaMetrics, OpenTelemetry, ClickHouse, Grafana, SOPS, Claude Code, Codex

Head of DevOps

RebelMouse

• Led the migration of core applications (Python/Django, Elixir) to Kubernetes (EKS) using Helm and ArgoCD, establishing GitOps workflows and significantly improving deployment velocity and reliability.
• Drove the decomposition of a monolithic backend into specialized microservices, each with dedicated Helm charts, CI/CD pipelines, and ArgoCD applications, enhancing scalability and maintainability.
• Architected and implemented advanced ingress and proxy layers using Nginx, HAProxy, and Istio, featuring sophisticated traffic routing (canary, mirroring, topology-aware).
• Engineered and automated secrets management across the platform using SOPS with AWS KMS, integrating into CI/CD pipelines and Kubernetes deployments.
• Led multiple large-scale client website migrations, coordinating infrastructure, ingress, DNS, and application configuration for seamless cutovers.

skills

Project Management, Team Management

stack

AWS, Kubernetes, Istio, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Python, OpenTelemetry, SOPS

Lead DevOps Engineer

RebelMouse

• Led the adoption and implementation of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform and Ansible, automating provisioning and configuration of AWS resources (EC2, ASG, VPC, ALB, RDS, S3, Route53).
• Pioneered the company's migration to containerization and orchestration with Docker and early Kubernetes (EKS) adoption, establishing GitOps practices with ArgoCD and Kustomize.
• Architected and deployed a centralized logging and monitoring stack (Fluentd, Elasticsearch, Kibana, Prometheus, Grafana) providing comprehensive observability across services.
• Engineered and managed advanced CDN configurations (Fastly, Cloudflare) with VCL/API for caching, security, and edge logic, including automated testing and purging systems.
• Designed and implemented CI/CD pipelines using TeamCity, automating builds, testing, and deployments for diverse workloads.
• Automated system hardening, security agent deployment, and AWS WAF integration, significantly improving the platform's security posture.
• Drove the migration of Terraform codebases to v0.12+ and introduced Terragrunt for enhanced state and dependency management, standardizing infrastructure templating with Cookiecutter.

skills

Project Management

stack

AWS (EC2, EKS, S3, RDS, VPC, WAF), Terraform, Terragrunt, Ansible, Packer, Docker, Kubernetes, ArgoCD, Istio, Fastly, Cloudflare, Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, Python, Bash, TeamCity

Senior Software Engineer / DevOps Engineer

RebelMouse

Transitioned to a DevOps role, leading the design and automation of the company's cloud infrastructure on AWS.

• Designed and implemented AWS cloud infrastructure as part of the DevOps transformation, building a serving and caching stack that enhanced platform reliability and security.
• Engineered infrastructure-as-code solutions using Ansible and Packer for automated AMI building, server provisioning, and consistent application deployment across multiple environments, significantly reducing manual effort.
• Established a centralized logging solution by implementing a Fluentd, Elasticsearch, and Kibana stack for logging and Sentry for error monitoring, improving issue detection, resolution speed, and system health visibility.
• Integrating CI/CD tooling and DNS management to streamline code delivery, accelerate release cycles, and ensure deployment consistency.
• Enhanced core Python services and performance by refactoring internal data libraries, launching versioned public APIs with robust test coverage.

stack

Python, Django, Ansible, Packer, Docker, AWS (EC2, S3, ELB), Nginx, OpenResty, Varnish, HAProxy, uWSGI, Sentry, MongoDB, Redis, REST APIs

Software Engineer

RebelMouse

Worked as part of the team developing and scaling the core RebelMouse platform, contributing to backend systems, APIs, and performance optimizations.

• Developed backend and frontend features (activity streams, APIs, settings engine, CTA, social integrations, content distribution features) for a high-traffic social content platform using Python/Django and JavaScript (Backbone.js, jQuery, RequireJS).
• Focused on performance optimization through advanced caching strategies (Redis, Memcached), database query optimization, and asynchronous task processing (Celery).
• Developed and integrated internal libraries (Python-based Redis/MongoDB extensions, templating, validation, content management) and integrated numerous third-party APIs (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, S3, SES).

stack

Python, Django, Celery, eventlet, Redis, Memcached, MongoDB, MySQL, Backbone.js, REST APIs, S3

Software Engineer

CasaHop

Contributed to the backend and frontend development of a social travel platform, focusing on building performant backend features.

• Developed features including Facebook authentication, photo uploads (S3, async processing), real-time notifications (WebSockets).
• Implemented Redis-based autocomplete, activity feeds, and advanced caching mechanisms.
• Migrated database from MySQL to PostgreSQL/PostGIS. Optimized database queries.
• Automated development environment setup (Fabric, Makefile, Vagrant), and deployment to AWS/dotCloud.

stack

Python, Django, Celery, Redis, PostgreSQL, JavaScript, Backbone.js, jQuery, HTML, SCSS, S3, Facebook API, Google Maps API, Fabric, Vagrant