paul@homelab:~ — zsh — 128×42
whoami --verbose

Paul Gierend

Platform engineer & M.Sc. CS student at Universität des Saarlandes. Working student on the platform team at ZopaAI, Saarbrücken — Kubernetes, cloud infra, backend. Homelab enthusiast, embedded tinkerer, and Head of IT at Campus Innovation Group.

Status
online
Uptime
Location
Saarland, DE ·
// about § 01

I build and maintain the connective tissue between code and production — the pipelines, the clusters, the knobs engineers forget exist until they break. Most of my time goes into Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, and the small developer-facing tools that make a platform feel cohesive.

I grew up in the Saarland, started university early while still in school through the Frühstudium programme at the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld (additive manufacturing), and stuck around in the region for a B.Sc. in Data Science & AI and now an M.Sc. in Computer Science.

Outside of work I run a modest homelab on Proxmox, build things with ESP32s and Arduinos, and help run the IT side of Campus Innovation Group e.V. — a non-profit student consultancy bridging Saarland University and local companies.

// ps -ef (work) § 02
pidstatetstartcommand · role
2408 RUNNING 2024-08 → now zopaai/platform-eng — ZopaAI · Saarbrücken Platform engineering across cloud infra, Kubernetes and DevOps. Backend & tooling supporting AI platform operations.
2011 EXITED·0 2020-11 → 2024-07 softwareag/setup-provisioning — Software AG · Saarbrücken Nearly four years alongside studies, contributing to enterprise infrastructure setup and provisioning pipelines.
2007 EXITED·0 2020-07 → 2020-10 softwareag/intern — Software AG · Saarbrücken Software development and hands-on time with enterprise infrastructure & provisioning tooling.
2402 VOLUNTEER 2024-02 → now cig.e.V/head-of-it — Campus Innovation Group e.V. Leading IT & internal tooling for a non-profit student consultancy connecting students with companies.
// education § 03
M.Sc ENROLLED 2024 → present Computer Science — Universität des Saarlandes
B.Sc COMPLETED 2020 → 2024 Data Science & Artificial Intelligence — Universität des Saarlandes
Frü COMPLETED 2018 → 2020 Frühstudium · Additive Manufacturing — Environmental Campus Birkenfeld Early-study programme while still at Gymnasium. Final grade 1.0.
Abi COMPLETED 2020 Abitur — Johannes-Kepler-Gymnasium Lebach LK Mathematik & Englisch · MINT-Zweig.
// systemctl --skills § 04
languages
v12+
PythonJavaJavaScriptCC++
devops & cloud
prod
DockerKubernetesHelmCloud infraTalos LinuxCI/CDArgoCD
self-hosted
homelab
ProxmoxLinuxNetworkingMonitoring
embedded
hobby
ArduinoESP32ESP8266Sensors
backend
shipping
APIsDatabasesToolingAutomation
langues
human
Deutsch · nativeEnglish · fluent
// homelab § 05
      ╔═══════════════════════════════╗
         node-01   ·   proxmox VE    
      ╠═══════════════════════════════╣
        cpu ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░░  31 %   
        mem ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░  58 %   
        net ▓▓▓░░░░░░░░░░░░░  12 Mb  
      ╠═══════════════════════════════╣
         lxc/nginx        up  42d   
         lxc/grafana      up  42d   
         vm/k8s-control   up   9d   
         vm/k8s-worker-1  up   9d   
         vm/k8s-worker-2  up   9d   
         vm/home-assist   up 118d   
      ╚═══════════════════════════════╝

a small box that hums quietly in the cellar

I like infrastructure I can touch. The homelab is where I test ideas before I take them to work — small k3s/talos clusters, ESP32 sensors feeding Grafana, a Home Assistant that occasionally turns the wrong light on.

hypervisor
Proxmox VE
orchestration
k3s/talos · 3 nodes
observability
Grafana
edge
ESP32/ESP8266 sensor mesh
mood
quiet, warm, slightly dusty
// tail -f /var/log/life § 06
2026-04-24INFOcurrently somewhere between a thesis proposal and the next on-call rotation
2026-03-10OKmigrated a chunk of our internal tooling onto Helm charts; less YAML than feared
2026-02-02INFOM.Sc. semester 3 started — modules in operating systems & security
2025-11-15WARNhomelab breaker tripped; put server on different circuits
2025-09-01OKone year at ZopaAI · platform team · still learning things weekly
2024-08-01OKstarted at ZopaAI as working student, platform engineering
2024-07-31INFOwrapped up four years at Software AG — grateful for the ride