I learn by doing, then I keep doing. I just do the work.
This is not a rainbow and roses story. My career started messy: the boring and turbulent school days, the lie that led me to learn Kubernetes in a few weeks, my first startup that did not find its market and me being a naive founder. It's also about the OSS community and people who make the work worth doing.
Before 2015
Curiosity > Going to university
I was always passionate about computers and technology, but I started coding when I was 15. I had switched from a scientific, mostly theoretical high school to what in Italy is called a technical high school, where I learned the basics of programming and computer science.
I was never a good student. School bored me and I never liked studying, but I was always curious and loved learning new things, especially when they involved computers or music. I played in several bands well before my tech career began. Music did not pay the bills, so here I am, working in tech.
Most of my professors told me I would never work in tech because I was not good enough. I kept learning on my own anyway.
Many people in my life were not happy with that choice either. They wanted me to go to university, get a degree, and find a “real job” instead of “playing with computers.” I wanted to work and learn by doing. I also tried to venture into esports, but that did not go as expected either.
2015
Production code before a driving licence.
I started my professional journey in 2015 as a web developer, writing production-grade PHP before I had my driving licence.
As an employee, I started as a full-stack developer at a small company building embedded software in C and internal tools in C#. Then I joined a promising local startup, still as a full-stack developer, but back to PHP with a Laravel flavor.
The only other developer, who was also my mentor, left after just a few weeks. I found myself as the only technical person in the building. Fun.
Milan → 2018
Software engineering, then the dark side.
After high school I moved to Milan, switched languages to specialize in Java, and built my back end as a Software Engineer. I climbed the ladder, worked on large-scale products serving more than eight million users at the time. It serves more than ten million today. Eventually, I became a Senior Software Engineer.
Since I am fundamentally lazy, I learned to love automation. I started with Bash scripts and moved into DevOps tools and practices.
“Do you know Kubernetes?”
“Yes, of course.”
I was lying.It was 2018. In Italy, very few people knew what it was.
I joined the dark side of DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering, bringing the best of my software engineering background with me. I led DevOps initiatives, improved DORA metrics. We measured before changing anything. I also helped multiple teams move from zero to GitOps and built a platform to make it simple.
2021
No ladder? Build another one.
Eventually I hit a ceiling, both at the company where I worked and in the Italian IT market. Italy did not have a clear Individual Contributor ladder. In most companies, you either became a manager or stayed at Senior. That was 2021. Things may have changed, and I hope they have; I still have family and friends working in tech there.
So I became a freelance professional and something of a digital nomad. I wanted to scale my impact on the industry and help more people and companies achieve their goals.
I took on far more clients than I could handle. That meant endless weeks, nights, and weekends spent grinding. Yes, I made more money than ever before. Honestly, more than I have since. It was a ridiculous amount of money every month, but I wanted more. No, not more money. I wanted to have more of a positive impact in the world. I still do.
I coached and mentored people on DevOps principles and practices and, in hindsight, on Platform Engineering before it was cool, Kubernetes included. I helped companies with infrastructure, developer experience, CI/CD, DevSecOps, and the processes around them.
I also learned more front end, especially React. I always despised JavaScript, but TypeScript made me like it a little more. It is still not my thing, but I can live with it. Node.js is more fun than I expected; I will give you that. This joined Python and Go in my main toolbox, with a pinch of C, C++, and C# from the past. PHP? Gone. I do not want to touch it anymore. Sorry. At least I started writing way more Golang by then, which is still amongst my favorite languages to work with.
2023
Co-founder, CTO, and a hard lesson.
After working across Europe as a digital nomad, I joined KubeLab in 2023 as a late co-founder and CTO. I guided its pivot from a bootstrapped consultancy to a product company.
It was a hell of a year. I enjoyed building a new company culture, revolutionising its services, taking a product from zero to one. Design and build an entire system end to end, not tailored to a single company but flexible enough to be used by many. Most importantly I kept caring for my team until the very end, even when we run out of money (long story short: no product market fit, high costs). I rightfully gave up my severance, so theirs could be paid. It was only fair. Big tech can definitely do better when laying people off for no reason.
Like many startups founders and Yoda can attest: failure is the greatest teacher.
2024 → 2026
Community, customers, and cautious optimism.
I kept advocating for cloud native technologies. I started contributing to Kubernetes upstream in 2024 and, as of mid 2026 I went on a hiatus to focus on my career. I have also been a CNCF Ambassador since 2024, with a term set to run at least through late 2027.
I strongly believe in the power of Platform Engineering. I co-authored the CNPA exam with many smart people from the community, and I look forward to having a further impact on the tech industry through my work.
After a short chapter at a Y Combinator W23 startup, where I joined as employee number 15 and became the Head of DevRel, Marketing and Field Engineering. And well, I was also the only DevRel, to be fair. I was given a false promise of a US Visa, which is the main reason why I've quit that job.
So, after that not-so-great experience, I joined GitHub as a Solutions Engineer. Always with the idea to go back to Engineering proper one day.
Pre-sales is not really my thing, but I enjoy talking with customers and diving into the nitty-gritty of complex, foundational products such as GitHub Actions.
I used to be an AI sceptic. Now I am a very cautious optimist, working on several hobby projects I had zero time for before AI. I am also still leading a band in Berlin, despite living somewhat close to Amsterdam and travelling fairly often to Italy and the United States.
What will I do in 2027 and beyond? Who knows.
To be continued…Matteo Bianchi