Márton Szalay

Senior DevOps / Platform Engineer • Azure & Kubernetes Specialist

🌍 Budapest, Hungary | Connect on LinkedIn

🧭 Summary

I’m a Senior DevOps Engineer specializing in both hybrid and cloud-native platforms, Kubernetes, and Azure architecture. I build secure, scalable systems and enjoy designing hybrid environments that blend enterprise reliability with modern automation practices. I enjoy building and operating the systems I design, ensuring reliability through practical engineering and automation.

🔎 What I’m focusing on now

Currently focusing on Kubernetes platform engineering, Azure cloud architecture, and strengthening GitOps workflows.

🔧 Technical Skills

Cloud & Platforms: Azure (IaaS/PaaS), AKS, Azure Arc, VPN
Architecture & Design: Hybrid architecture, DR/BC, SLA/RTO/RPO tradeoffs, solution diagrams
Data & Databases: Azure SQL, MS SQL, MariaDB, backup/replication strategies
CI/CD & Automation: Azure DevOps, Jenkins, Bamboo, Git, Terraform, Bicep, ARM, Ansible
Networking & Security: BGP, IPv6, Private Link, NSGs, WAF, PKI/ADCS, conditional access, zero-trust
Observability & Ops: Grafana, NetBox, Zabbix, SCOM, logging and alerting design
Languages & Tools: C#, C++, PowerShell, Bash, Nginx, Apache

🏢 Experience

Senior DevOps Engineer — Erste Investment Hungary (May 2025–)

  • Planned migration of production microservice-based workload from Windows to Linux
  • Architected migration of Windows container workloads to Linux and AKS, defining node sizing, ingress, and observability
  • Implemented automated CI/CD pipelines for legacy applications (Azure DevOps), reducing deployment lead time and rollback incidents
  • Advised development teams on maintainable IAM and distributed application patterns to improve operational security and maintainability

DevOps Engineer — Merkantil Bank (Apr 2024–Apr 2025)

  • Introduced on-prem Azure DevOps Server and assisted MSSQL BI teams to create repeatable pipelines, improving release consistency
  • Designed on-prem infrastructure for on-prem connector component and contributed to data governance implementation (Collibra), aligning technical design with compliance requirements

DevOps Engineer — Vodafone Hungary (Mar 2019–Mar 2024)

  • Designed and operated a high throughput Nginx reverse proxy handling 10–15M requests/day
  • Managed self-hosted Atlassian stack (Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, Bamboo) and led migrations and integrations to improve developer workflows
  • Led CI efforts across Bamboo, Jenkins, and Azure DevOps
  • Piloted AWS for partial OKD migration, producing architecture comparisons and cost/performance tradeoffs

Senior DevOps Engineer / Lead DevOps Engineer — Swiss Re (Aug 2015–Feb 2019)

  • Automated ITSM workflows and integrated Azure DevOps CI/CD solutions for .NET and Java stacks, improving deployment reliability
  • Consulted on Azure DevOps infrastructure improvements and auditability for enterprise compliance, migrating on-prem Azure DevOps Server to cloud

Software & Infrastructure Specialist — Kilgray Translation Technologies (Oct 2012–Aug 2015)

  • Private cloud design & server-side development

Senior Systems Engineer (Consultant) — Grepton Informatics Plc (Jan 2011–Sep 2012)

  • Designed, implemented, and maintained Microsoft server solutions
  • Supported both internal infrastructure and customer environments

Systems Engineer — Hungarian Export-Import Bank (Apr 2007–Dec 2010)

  • Managed Windows Server-based infrastructure (Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, ISA/TMG)
  • Administered Cisco network infrastructure for 120 users
  • Planned and performing improvements and migrations
  • Developed internal .NET/ASP.NET applications using MSSQL

Microsoft Certified Trainer — NetAcademia Ltd (Sep 2006–Jan 2008)

  • Delivered IIS and Exchange Server trainings

🧪 Home Lab & Hybrid Architecture Project

Building and operating a resilient, enterprise-grade personal home datacenter demonstrating hybrid design and operations (dual ISPs, BGP IPv6, redundant power, dedicated cooling). Deployed ADDS, multi-tier PKI with HSMs, an 8-node Kubernetes cluster, MariaDB/MS SQL clusters, CI/CD pipelines, Zabbix monitoring, and NetBox documentation. Implemented hybrid connectivity patterns, automation, and observability for production-grade workloads.

🏗️ Selected Projects & Achievements

  • Performed a comprehensive security assessment of a GKE‑hosted national event ticketing platform handling ~230k daily requests, covering cluster hardening, workload security, RBAC, network policies, CI/CD and IaC posture.
  • Designing and planning migration of containerized workloads to AKS.
  • Consulted technical carve-out work for Active Directory and PKI migrations, along with Azure separation during a divestiture project.
  • Designed and implemented highly available Nginx reverse proxy serving ~5M requests/day.

    • 🏅 Awards

    Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP)

    • Management Infrastructure (Apr 2009)

    🌍 Languages

    Hungarian – Native | English – Fluent

    📜 Certifications

    Selected Historical:

    MCSE: Cloud Platform & Infrastructure; Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT); CCNA; CompTIA Security+.
    Full certification transcripts from Microsoft and Credly are available for download.

    📚 Books

    🎓 Education

    Széchenyi István University (2005–2008)

    Trefort Ágoston Bilingual Secondary School (1999–2004)

    🧠 Personality traits