About me
With over two decades of experience in digital leadership and people management,
I have successfully led international teams and supervised large-scale projects.
Additionally, I possess a strong expertise in Unix and networking.
- Currently Product Engineering Director at HAProxy.
- Previously Production Engineering Manager at Meta, on Facebook and Instagram.
- Previously CTO of SdV Plurimedia, a french hosting company.
- Former adjunct lecturer at Strasbourg University.
- Author of several open source projects.
- Clarinet player in a klezmer band.
- Married and have a son.
My skills
Expertise honed over 29 years of experience:
- Leadership and Strategy
- Large scale projects management
- International teams management
- Talent development and hiring
- Large scale distributed architectures
- Networking (TCP/IP suite, routing, switching, BGP, MPLS)
- DevOps/SRE - Unix - System design
- Coding (C, PHP, Python, Bash)
- Security (FW, IDS, IPS, DDOS, compliance)
- Docker and Kubernetes (CKA certification in progress)
- AI with PyTorch (1 year of experience)
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Q:Are you a CTO, a tech lead or a manager?
I have been all of them as I have had diverse roles in my career. I began as a software engineer, progressed to a tech lead, and eventually transitioned into a role focused on supporting and developing individuals, culminating in my a position as CTO.
It's challenging to provide effective support to engineers without a comprehensive understanding of their work. That's why I believe a strong leader should remain technically involved and hands-on.
For the past 10 years, I dedicated several hours per day to coding/hands-on work.
This practice also aids me in staying abreast of the latest technologies and maintaining a sharp focus on strategy. -
Q:What is your leadership style?
I have a deep appreciation for people, relishing in their growth. I find fulfillment in coaching and mentoring, and I would describe my leadership style as enlightened.
I also value simplicity and actively strive to follow the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principles, particularly in the technology domain. I've observed numerous instances of over-engineered systems that ultimately lead to failure.
I am a pragmatic and down-to-earth individual with high standards, particularly when it comes to serving customers. -
Q:What do people say about you?
Some feedbacks I received on LinkedIn:
"I had the privilege of working under Salim's management for two years, and I want to extend my sincere appreciation for the outstanding support he consistently offered, cultivating a positive work environment.
Salim's extensive technical expertise across various fields, coupled with his adept communication skills, greatly contributed to the team's understanding and alignment with his vision. Under his guidance, I've not only advanced my technical proficiency but also honed my soft skills, making me a more adept engineer." -- Breno Leitao @ Meta
"[...] Salim stands out as one of the best managers I ever worked with, exhibiting a rare blend of deep technical understanding with a genuine commitment to nurturing his team. His approach to technical projects, characterized by clarity and precision, helped us tackle complex challenges with confidence [...]" -- Razvan Alecsandrescu @ Meta
"Salim owns a extraordinary profile as CTO of SDV. His knowledge of the datacenter market, Tier-1 and IP among others is exceptional. Salim has created the most reliable and technically advanced environment to offer superior services to his customers. If you get the opportunity to work with Salim, you will be in an environment that pushes top notch creativity in an excellent working team." -- Miguel Villada @ Arbor Networks
"Salim is a bright guy. Not the kind of average bright guy, he is a real bright, clever, smart engineer, with a very high focus on efficiency. He has turned SdV in a real Internet powerhouse." -- Jean-Georges Perrin @ RBS
Projects
Over the years, I spent some time creating cool projects.
Postfix GLD
A lightweight standalone greylisting daemon written in C for postfix, available on Ubuntu, Debian and many other distributions.
View on Github
Docker HCD
Docker was missing some high availability features I needed, HCD is a daemon that restarts unhealthy containers, downloaded more than 10,000 times.
Go to Docker hub - View on Github
Hex Packet Decoder
An online network packet decoder used by Broadcom, Cisco, Fortinet, Juniper, NASA and many universities.
Initially created for my own use, it became a reference.
Go to web site
Geo Traceroute
An ambitious tentative to display accurate geolocalized traceroutes over the Internet using 1000+ nodes spread across the world and some deep learning AI with PyTorch.
Go to web site
BGPMap
Standard looking glasses were missing fanciness, I opted for a real time graphical BGP paths visualisation.
Go to web site
Visualising RIPE ATLAS Anchor Measurements
An article on how to leverage RIPE ATLAS nodes to enhance your network observability, published by RIPE Labs.
Read article - Watch the video at FRNOG - PDF
GPU GLSL Shaders
I always wanted to code GPU GLSL shaders as the programming logic is quite unique and challenging.
View my shaders on shadertoy
Three.js old school demos
As a former Amiga scene democoder, I recoded some old school demos using WebGL and Three.js.
Tunnel - Rubber Glenz - Boxes
France take home calculator
Not finding an online take home salary calculator, I decided to create one.
Go to web site