Ilyes Litim
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About

Ilyes Litim

DevOps & AI engineer, in Montréal

I started in support (2016), then moved to systems and network administration, cybersecurity and finally DevOps. That path makes me look at a platform as a whole: the server, the network, the pipeline, and what happens when something breaks.

At Hoortrade (2022 - 2025) I was the only DevOps engineer of an eight-developer product team: architecture of the SaaS platform on OVH Cloud, Kubernetes clusters from test to production, GitLab CI/CD pipelines, Terraform and Ansible, observability with Prometheus, Grafana and Zabbix, incident management and root cause analyses.

I cannot show my employers' code or infrastructure. The projects on this site are therefore personal, built on infrastructure I run.

How I work

How I work, applied to my projects, with what you need to check it.

  1. 01

    Nothing ships without review and a green pipeline

    Every change goes through a branch and a merge request. A merge is blocked until the pipeline has passed, on every project.

    The workflow of each project ↗
  2. 02

    An unscanned image does not ship

    The scan runs before promotion. An exception carries its reason and an expiry date, after which the pipeline fails again.

    Security in the pipeline ↗
  3. 03

    Least privilege by default

    CI may only change the image of a Deployment. Pods run without root, read-only, with no Kubernetes token when they do not need one. The service that receives visitors' messages has no access to the cluster.

    Security in the pods ↗
  4. 04

    A backup is proven by a restore

    The cluster's backups were restored to check them, and an alert fires when the last success is more than 30 hours old.

    Backup and recovery ↗
  5. 05

    Git describes what runs

    Helm values and manifests are versioned. For the demo application, Argo CD reverts any change made by hand.

    GitOps with Argo CD ↗
  6. 06

    Everything is written down, limits included

    Runbooks, and known limits with their plan to fix them. A vulnerability is fixed first; it is documented afterwards.

    Runbook ↗

These practices are applied to my personal projects; the full documentation is on hoortrend.com.

Experience

Professional experience

DevOps Engineer (freelance)

2025 - 2026

Independent projects and Kubernetes lab · Remote

Stack: Kubernetes, Docker, GitLab CI/CD, Nginx, Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager, Python

  • Deployed a multi-node Kubernetes cluster on 2 VPS (control plane + worker).
  • Configured Nginx as a reverse proxy to expose the cluster's services.
  • Containerised Python applications (Docker) and wrote their Kubernetes manifests.
  • Set up Prometheus, Grafana and Alertmanager for monitoring and alerting.
  • Deployed to production on Kubernetes through a GitLab CI/CD pipeline and Argo CD.

DevOps CI/CD Engineer

2022 - 2025

Hoortrade (Casanoov, Cazeboo, Sicaan) · France

Stack: Kubernetes, Argo CD, GitLab CI/CD, Terraform, Ansible, Prometheus, Grafana, OVHcloud

  • Technical lead: defined the DevOps strategy and the SaaS architecture on OVHcloud.
  • Installed Kubernetes clusters (Kubespray); GitOps with Argo CD, rolling/canary, HPA/VPA.
  • Designed the GitLab CI/CD pipelines (DevSecOps) and administered the GitLab platform.
  • Automated provisioning with Terraform and configuration with Ansible (IaC).
  • Deployed and operated Prometheus, Grafana and Zabbix monitoring.
  • Handled production incidents and led root cause analyses (RCA).
  • Managed SSL/TLS certificates; responsible for the platform's stability and security.
  • Helped developers adopt DevOps practices.

Cybersecurity Engineer

2021 - 2022

Econocom, client EDF · France

Stack: Fortinet, Bash, vulnerability assessment

  • Deployed Fortinet network security solutions, with configuration automated in Bash.
  • Carried out vulnerability assessments of systems and networks.
  • Monitored security alerts and responded to cybersecurity incidents.
  • Applied security policies and ensured compliance with the standards in force.
  • Wrote technical documentation and trained staff in security best practices.

Systems Administration Engineer

2019 - 2020

Expectra, client Enedis · France

Stack: Windows Server 2019, VMware vSphere

  • Planned and carried out the migration of more than 300 servers to Windows Server 2019.
  • Wrote the technical documentation of the migration procedures.
  • Deployed and administered VMware vSphere virtual machines.
  • Monitored server and VM performance to detect anomalies.
  • Ran system backups and updates (security and compliance).
  • Configured networks and systems; solved user incidents with the support team.

Systems and Network Administration Engineer

2018 - 2019

Utopiascript · France

Stack: Linux, Bash, Virtualmin, web (Apache, Nginx) and mail (Postfix) servers

  • Automated server deployment and configuration with Bash scripts.
  • Administered web and mail servers and ran the Virtualmin infrastructure.
  • Monitored system and network performance; put security measures in place.
  • Integrated new applications on the servers with the development teams.
  • Provided remote technical support to customers and analysed system logs.

A DevOps / SRE project or contract?

Describe the need in a few lines. I answer myself, by e-mail.

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Profile

DevOps engineer with more than 7 years of experience in infrastructure, containers and CI/CD automation. Former DevOps technical lead at Hoortrade: SaaS architecture on Kubernetes, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible) and observability (Prometheus, Grafana). Brings generative AI into DevOps workflows to speed up automation.

Professional experience

DevOps Engineer (freelance)

2025 - 2026

Independent projects and Kubernetes lab · Remote

Stack: Kubernetes, Docker, GitLab CI/CD, Nginx, Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager, Python

  • Deployed a multi-node Kubernetes cluster on 2 VPS (control plane + worker).
  • Configured Nginx as a reverse proxy to expose the cluster's services.
  • Containerised Python applications (Docker) and wrote their Kubernetes manifests.
  • Set up Prometheus, Grafana and Alertmanager for monitoring and alerting.
  • Deployed to production on Kubernetes through a GitLab CI/CD pipeline and Argo CD.

DevOps CI/CD Engineer

May 2022 - Jun 2025

Hoortrade (Casanoov, Cazeboo, Sicaan) · France

Stack: Kubernetes, Argo CD, GitLab CI/CD, Terraform, Ansible, Prometheus, Grafana, OVHcloud

  • Technical lead: defined the DevOps strategy and the SaaS architecture on OVHcloud.
  • Installed Kubernetes clusters (Kubespray); GitOps with Argo CD, rolling/canary, HPA/VPA.
  • Designed the GitLab CI/CD pipelines (DevSecOps) and administered the GitLab platform.
  • Automated provisioning with Terraform and configuration with Ansible (IaC).
  • Deployed and operated Prometheus, Grafana and Zabbix monitoring.
  • Handled production incidents and led root cause analyses (RCA).
  • Managed SSL/TLS certificates; responsible for the platform's stability and security.
  • Helped developers adopt DevOps practices.

Cybersecurity Engineer

Jan 2021 - May 2022

Econocom, client EDF · France

Stack: Fortinet, Bash, vulnerability assessment

  • Deployed Fortinet network security solutions, with configuration automated in Bash.
  • Carried out vulnerability assessments of systems and networks.
  • Monitored security alerts and responded to cybersecurity incidents.
  • Applied security policies and ensured compliance with the standards in force.
  • Wrote technical documentation and trained staff in security best practices.

Systems Administration Engineer

Jun 2019 - Dec 2020

Expectra, client Enedis · France

Stack: Windows Server 2019, VMware vSphere

  • Planned and carried out the migration of more than 300 servers to Windows Server 2019.
  • Wrote the technical documentation of the migration procedures.
  • Deployed and administered VMware vSphere virtual machines.
  • Monitored server and VM performance to detect anomalies.
  • Ran system backups and updates (security and compliance).
  • Configured networks and systems; solved user incidents with the support team.

Systems and Network Administration Engineer

Feb 2018 - Mar 2019

Utopiascript · France

Stack: Linux, Bash, Virtualmin, web (Apache, Nginx) and mail (Postfix) servers

  • Automated server deployment and configuration with Bash scripts.
  • Administered web and mail servers and ran the Virtualmin infrastructure.
  • Monitored system and network performance; put security measures in place.
  • Integrated new applications on the servers with the development teams.
  • Provided remote technical support to customers and analysed system logs.