Costin Stefan
Profile

Platform and infrastructure engineer with 15+ years of experience designing and operating complex systems across on-prem and cloud environments. Specialized in Kubernetes/OpenShift platforms, infrastructure architecture, and automation at scale, with a focus on reliability and security.

I’ve worked in regulated industries — telecom, healthcare — acting as technical lead and trusted advisor. My career started in deep network engineering (BGP, OSPF, MPLS at ISP scale) and evolved into platform engineering and cloud-native systems.

Currently working at HPE, where I own multi-cluster OpenShift platforms and have built automation frameworks that reduced manual intervention across complex delivery pipelines.

I also consult on platform engineering challenges. If you have a hard infrastructure problem that needs both technical depth and clear communication, reach out.

Experience
  • Feb 2018 – Present

    Lead Platform Engineer / Infrastructure Owner

    HPE

    Designed and operated multi-cluster OpenShift/Kubernetes platforms, defining deployment patterns for stateful systems (Kafka, PostgreSQL/Patroni, ETCD). Architected a complex telecom platform with 40+ components across 8 environments. Delivered Security Scanning as a Service generating ~$60k/year per project. Owned 3 regional infrastructure labs with 100+ physical servers spanning VMware, OpenStack, and OpenShift.

  • 2016 – 2018

    Senior Network Consultant

    NNIT

    Led zero-downtime migration of a core network router, ensuring service continuity for production traffic. Migrated network monitoring platform to HP NNMi. Operated and optimized enterprise routing (OSPF/BGP) and wireless environments.

  • 2015 – 2016

    Senior Network Engineer

    Edwards

    Owned EMEA network infrastructure across 18 countries and 20+ sites, supporting ~5,000 devices in a GxP-regulated medical environment. Designed and implemented enterprise network solutions ensuring HA and compliance. Led network lifecycle activities: procurement, deployment, upgrades, and vendor coordination.

  • 2014 – 2015

    Senior Network Engineer

    Accenture

    Contributed to the deployment of a global WAN infrastructure including routing, switching, and MPLS L3VPN configurations. Built and tested MPLS L3VPN environments, validating failover and QoS scenarios.

  • 2013 – 2014

    Senior Network Engineer / NOC Shift Lead

    DHL IT Services

    Acted as Shift Lead within a global NOC, coordinating operations, incident response, and escalation handling across international teams. Played a key role in the insourcing of NOC operations. Provided L2/L3 support for critical network infrastructure ensuring stability of global telecom services.

  • 2012 – 2013

    Network Engineer

    AT&T

    Supported operation of a large-scale, multi-vendor telecom network across routing, transport, and service architectures.

  • 2006 – 2011

    Network Engineer / NOC IP Engineer / Team Lead

    RCS-RDS

    Progressed from technical support to network engineering and team leadership within a large ISP. Operated and maintained a large-scale Metro Ethernet/IP network in Bucharest with multi-vendor equipment (Cisco, Juniper, Huawei, ZTE). Acted as Team Lead within the Network Monitoring Center, serving as first escalation point for major incidents.

Certifications
  • Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
  • Certified Kubernetes App Developer (CKAD)
  • Certified Scrum Developer
  • F5 Certified BIG-IP Administrator
  • Cisco certifications
  • Juniper certifications
  • Palo Alto certifications