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Andrés Peña Castillo

Hi, I'm

Andrés Peña Castillo

Site Reliability Engineer · Serial Entrepreneur

📍 Heredia, Costa Rica

Leaving a Lasting Legacy is my Driver.Helping others access the opportunities I had is my purpose.

Site Reliability Engineer and serial entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience in the technology industry, having worked at multinational companies such as IBM, Western Union, Roche, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Provectus.

Areas of expertise include Site Reliability Engineering (Cloud and Clusters Management using GitOps), Patch Management, and Endpoints Administration. CTO and co-founder of startups in the EdTech, AgriTech, and Web3 sectors.

~/lapc506 — sre.yaml 
# reliability as code
apiVersion: lapc506.me/v1
kind: SiteReliabilityEngineer
spec:
  focus: [GitOps, Observability, IaC]
  clouds: [AWS, GCP, OpenShift]
  ventures: ChimeraNext
  uptime: "99.9%"
10+ Years in tech 5 Multinationals 5 Ventures & startups

Find me across the web

Professional Experience

10+ years across SRE, cloud and end-user computing

  1. Freelance Full-Stack & Infrastructure Engineer

    DojoCoding Labs

    Mar 2026 – Present

    📍 Remote

    • Supabase
    • React
    • GitHub Actions
    • Compute Engine
    • OpenTofu
    • Bash
    • PHP
    • Claude Code
    • SQL
    Dojo OS — EdTech SaaS Platform (Supabase + React + Edge Functions) Mar 2026 – Present
    • Comprehensive security hardening: rate limiting on critical serverless functions, fixing overly permissive RLS policies, field allowlists against mass-assignment, and pre-commit SQL linter to prevent privilege escalation
    • Anti-bot CAPTCHA integration on signup and password reset forms
    • Security audit table creation and serverless function instrumentation for full traceability
    • Integration test writing to validate data access policies on critical tables
    • CI/CD pipeline migration to self-hosted runners on Google Compute Engine
    • AI agent chat enablement in production with post-streaming state synchronization and contextual enrichment with course data
    Dojo Agent — Claude Code Plugin for Autonomous Project Management Mar 2026 – Present
    • Bidirectional integration toolset with project manager: creation, updating, commenting, project querying, and sprint cycles
    • Webhook endpoint for automatic pull request review
    • Semantic search tool across team messaging channel history
    • Secure SQL query tool with auto-generated schema descriptions and controlled-access functions
    • Persistent agent memory system with relevance weighting and categorization
    • 31+ E2E test suite for graph search and self-repair capability
    • 21-phase structured brainstorming tool for Business Model Canvas generation
    Freedom Academy — GCP Infrastructure for Educational LMS (OpenTofu + Bash) 2026
    • IaC modules design and implementation: managed relational database, in-memory cache, and compute with auto-provisioning scripts
    • Elasticity configuration with managed instance groups, load balancer, and autoscaling
    • WAF implementation, monitoring alerts, and automated backup strategy
    • SSL/TLS certificate configuration and full domain migration to production
    • Student data export pipeline with relational schema and GDPR privacy compliance
    • Complete documentation: credential handover, incident response playbook, deployment runbook, and cloud roles/permissions matrix
    Freedom Academy — Custom Plugin Suite for Educational LMS (PHP) 2026
    • Partner Enrollment: enrollment plugin with individual student management, aggregate statistics, student journey kanban board, and org-scoped report export
    • Campaign Tracking: marketing campaign tracking with analytics platform integration, performance funnel reporting, and automated tests with HTTP mocks
    • Journey Automation: student journey automation engine with assessment-based triggers, certificate issuance, visual rule editor for non-technical admins, metrics dashboard with push notifications
    • Centralized Dashboard: native control panel with RBAC (admin/partner/staff), data aggregators, custom views, and org-scoped report export
    • AI Feedback: AI-powered feedback plugin with NLP engine research documentation

  2. Site Reliability Engineer

    IBM

    Feb 2024 – Sept 2025

    📍 Remote

    • OpenShift
    • ArgoCD
    • IBM Instana
    • Grafana
    • RHEL
    • Bash
    • PagerDuty
    • Salesforce Lightning
    • IBM DB2
    • Oracle
    • MongoDB
    • SQL
    Maximo Application Suite and Maximo Manage
    • Administered Red Hat OpenShift across multiple AWS clusters, manually modifying YAML manifests for CRDs and operators
    • Administered IBM WebSphere (WAS) across multiple RHEL servers
    • Deployed MAS application upgrades using ArgoCD GitOps workflows
    • Application observability with IBM Instana and Grafana
    • Composed runbooks and knowledge base articles in GitHub Pages and Confluence
    • Real-time incident response using IBM On Call Manager, PagerDuty, and Salesforce Lightning
    • Built multiple Bash scripts for OpenShift and WebSphere automation and data recovery
    • Supported major upgrades including MAS 8 to 9.1 and 9.0 to 9.1.2
    • Documented Disaster Recovery scenario for Db2U Standalone on OpenShift clusters

  3. IT Cloud Engineer

    Provectus

    Sept 2021 – Nov 2023

    📍 Remote

    • ManageEngine
    • Jamf Pro
    • PowerShell
    • Active Directory
    • Bash
    Consulting contractor for Model N
    • Support for ManageEngine Desktop Central and Jamf Cloud MDM device management suites
    • Developed automated Patch Management workflows for monthly Windows and macOS patches
    • Custom PowerShell scripts for System Restore Point scheduling, Windows 11 update blocking, and root cause analysis of patch deployment failures
    • Successfully upgraded +1,100 endpoints from Windows 10 v1703 to 21H2 (Aug 2022)
    • Successfully implemented macOS Monterey 12.5 to Ventura 13.6 manual upgrades via Jamf Cloud with custom Bash script for Intel and Apple Silicon Macs

  4. Senior Service Desk Agent

    Roche Services & Solutions

    Sept 2020 – Sept 2021

    📍 Costa Rica

    • ServiceNow
    • Jamf Pro
    • Google Sheets
    Responsibilities & achievements
    • Managed IT incidents and service requests in ServiceNow ITSM following ITIL v3 framework
    • L1 support for Google Suite, Microsoft Office, SAP, conferencing tools (Webex, Google Meet), and macOS applications
    • L1 support for standard and exception hardware (laptops, desktops, tablets, mobile devices, monitors, printers)
    • Implemented a custom problem analysis reporting tool for continuous improvement, systematizing root cause analysis to suggest proactive change recommendations

  5. End User Support Specialist (L3)

    Western Union

    Feb 2018 – May 2020

    📍 Costa Rica

    • WSUS
    • PowerShell
    • Tanium
    • Qualys VMDR
    • Pulse Secure
    • Event Viewer
    • ServiceNow
    • VMware Horizon
    • BigFix
    • Tableau
    • Power BI
    EUC Desktop Engineering
    • Maintained computers up to date through WSUS
    • Built PowerShell scripts for new installation packages, planning mass distribution via Tanium
    • Reviewed vulnerabilities in Qualys VMDR and Pulse Secure error alerts
    • OS error tracking via Event Viewer, using CMTrace for log file interpretation
    • Deployed new applications using VMware Horizon with AppStacks and User Environment Manager
    • Translated legacy batch scripts to PowerShell 5.1, completing IBM BigFix to Tanium migration (2019)
    • Detected root cause of Windows Update failures affecting +1,000 endpoints in LATAM and US states (2019): WSUS database record corruption, restored by Microsoft engineers
    • Discovered unexpected bug in Microsoft Oct 2018 Feature Upgrade (error 0x80070070); established new corporate policy for System Restore Points on all Windows 10 endpoints

  6. Technical Support Technician (L1)

    Western Union

    Jan 2017 – Jan 2018

    📍 Costa Rica

    • ServiceNow
    • Active Directory
    • Okta SSO
    • VMware Horizon
    • Pulse Secure
    Responsibilities & achievements
    • End user support handling IT incidents and requests, issue escalation and cooperation with next-level IT teams
    • IT outage support according to Business Continuity Plan
    • Updated multiple Knowledge Base articles in ServiceNow ITSM

  7. Customer Solution Center Technician

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (DXC)

    Nov 2015 – Dec 2016

    📍 Costa Rica

    • ServiceNow
    • Cisco AnyConnect
    • Oracle
    Pfizer Global Service Desk
    • RightFax support on Pfizer Printing Support team, configuring internal BIOS of HP printers deployed across Pfizer buildings
    • Raised major incidents affecting Pfizer at scale, including outages at New York HQ
    • IT incident and request management via ServiceNow ITSM following ITIL v3 processes
    • Promoted to L2 Printing Support team

  8. Technical Support Representative

    Perfiles Tecnológicos

    Dec 2014 – Nov 2015

    📍 Costa Rica

    • ServiceNow
    • Active Directory
    Contractor for HPE at Pfizer GSD
    • IT incident and request management via ServiceNow ITSM following ITIL v3 processes
    • Supported Windows XP to Windows 8/8.1 transition for Pfizer computers (2015)
    • Supported Hospira colleague integration efforts after Pfizer acquisition
    • Built a custom marquee tool using HTML5 and jQuery to reduce ambient noise during IT outages, improving satisfaction rates across multiple accounts (Pfizer, Universal Music Group, Grupo Bimbo, Under Armour)

Ventures & Startups

Building under the ChimeraNext umbrella

⛰️ Umbrella stack

ChimeraNext

An umbrella stack of source-available ventures sharing one production-grade microservices core — isolation, not contagion.

Visit ChimeraNext →

Vertivolatam

AgriTech & IoT

Urban vertical farming startup — autonomous aeroponic microgreenhouses. Serverpod, Flutter, Raspberry Pi (Balena), EMQX MQTT, K8s + ArgoCD GitOps. US $9,500 pre-seed (Bridge for Billions, 2021).

Visit site

AduaNext

Customs & LogisticsTech

Customs-agency proforma bid aggregator connecting merchants with agencies for quote requests. Dart full-stack.

View repo

AltruPets

Animal Welfare

Flutter app for animal protection: rescue coordination, foster homes, crowdfunding campaigns, and anonymous abuse reports.

Visit site

HabitaNexus

PropTech

Long-term housing rental marketplace with a digital lease-negotiation system. Built with Flutter.

Visit site

KeikoLatam

EdTech & Web3

Decentralized educational collaboration with a blockchain Life Learning Passport (Starknet). Flutter, Dart, GraphQL, gRPC, Cairo, Redis Streams.

Visit site

Values & Think Tanks

The ideas and institutions I align with

Values

  • Classical Liberalism
  • Progressive Capitalism
  • Social Market Economy
  • Circular Economy
  • Planetary Boundaries
  • Stoicism

Community Volunteering

Asociación de Desarrollo Integral Guararí

2018, 2023

Vocal 3 (2018) · Vocal 1 (2023)

  • Recovered historical financial reports for the association
  • Helped establish the community development center building
  • Supported the MICITT partnership and CECI community technology program
Project ↗ Facebook ↗ Instagram ↗

Technical Skills

Containerization

Advanced
  • OpenShift
  • Kubernetes
  • Minikube
  • Podman
  • GHCR

Automation

Advanced
  • Ansible
  • AWX
  • Bash
  • PowerShell
  • Python

Observability

Advanced
  • IBM Instana
  • Grafana
  • Datadog
  • Mezmo
  • CloudWatch

GitOps & CI/CD

Advanced
  • ArgoCD
  • Helm
  • GitHub Actions
  • GitFlow

Infrastructure-as-Code

Advanced
  • Terraform
  • OpenTofu
  • CloudFormation

AWS Cloud

Advanced
  • EC2
  • IAM
  • Lambda
  • SQS
  • SNS
  • Route 53
  • IoT Core
  • SageMaker

GCP Cloud

Intermediate
  • Cloud SQL
  • Compute Engine
  • Memorystore
  • Cloud Armor
  • Vertex AI

MLOps & AI

Intermediate
  • LangChain
  • LangGraph
  • LangSmith
  • LangFuse
  • Airflow
  • Kubeflow
  • MLFlow
  • OpenCV

Patch Management

Advanced
  • ManageEngine
  • WSUS
  • Qualys VMDR

LDAP & Identity

Advanced
  • Active Directory
  • AGPM
  • Okta SSO
  • Duo Security
  • Entrust

ITSM (ITIL v3)

Advanced
  • ServiceNow
  • Salesforce Lightning
  • Jira
  • PagerDuty

Windows & macOS Admin

Advanced
  • Tanium
  • BigFix
  • SCCM
  • MDT
  • Jamf Pro
  • Apple DEP

Mobile & Frontend

Advanced
  • Flutter
  • Dart
  • Riverpod
  • Rive
  • React

Backend & Platforms

Intermediate
  • Supabase
  • GraphQL
  • gRPC
  • Redis
  • PHP
  • Cloudflare
  • n8n

Data & Analytics

Intermediate
  • Tableau
  • Looker Studio
  • Power BI
  • SQL
  • IBM DB2
  • Oracle
  • MongoDB

Project Management

Advanced
  • ClickUp
  • Notion
  • Confluence
  • Scrum
  • Management 3.0

Certifications

2023

PIEA 2023 — Agroindustrial Projects Acceleration & Mentorship Program

INCAE Business School & Invermaster Ventures
2022

Innovate Programme 2022 — Early-Stage Startup Incubation

Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit
2021

The Leap Incubation Program — Early-Stage Startup Incubation

Bridge for Billions
2020

Scrum Product Owner Professional

CertiProf
2020

User Stories Foundation

CertiProf
2020

Scrum Foundation Professional

CertiProf
2020

Management 3.0 Fundamentals

Management 3.0 / F&M Consulting Perú
2019

Tableau 2019.2 Intermediate — Tableau Desktop Certified Associate Preparation

Prisma Análisis Costa Rica
2013

Cambridge English B1 CEFR — English for Speakers of Other Languages

University of Cambridge
2011

Cisco IT Essentials

Cisco Networking Academy & Fundación Omar Dengo

Services & Consulting

Available for freelance work

Multi-Platform Apps & AI Agents

Cross-platform Flutter/Dart application development and AI agent orchestration (n8n, ComfyUI, Node-RED).

Gumroad

Data Visual Analysis

Dashboards and analytics with Tableau, Power BI (DAX), Jupyter, pandas, and Excel.

Gumroad

Formal Education & Languages

Formal Education

Colegio Técnico Profesional de Flores

2011 – 2013

Technical Diploma · Information Technology Technical Support

📍 Heredia, Costa Rica

Languages

Spanish

Native

English

C1

Portuguese

A2 (Reading & Listening)

Communities I Lead

Ciencia de Datos en Latinoamérica

Jul 2019 – Present

📍 LinkedIn

LinkedIn community with ~3,000 members focused on Data Science in Latin America. Founder and administrator.

linkedin.com/groups/8951267/

Startups 506

2022 – 2024

📍 Costa Rica

Co-founder and co-administrator of a startup community in Costa Rica.

linktr.ee/startups506

Ideas & Beyond Work

Business Ideas

Early-stage concepts on hiatus

Sazones Semanales

ConsumerTech

Household pantry inventory mobile app for tracking personal pantry stock.

View repo

MeshCommerceChain

Web3 & Commerce

Decentralized Shopify alternative for crypto sales — modular mesh-network architecture for physical and digital products.

View repo

Beyond Work

DJ & Music Production

  • Electronic Dance Music
  • Pioneer DDJ-FLX4-W
  • Music Festivals

Motorsports & Outdoors

  • Formula 1
  • Karts
  • Canopy
  • Nature Exploration