About

About

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” — Seneca

Hello! I’m Cristian Gómez, a Platform Engineer specializing in Kubernetes Networking & Troubleshooting, currently serving as AVP in Site Reliability Engineering in the banking sector in Mexico. I debug traffic flows at L3/L4 — network namespaces, veth pairs, iptables chains, CNI internals. Not just kubectl apply. From the primitives up.

This blog is where I write the From Scratch series: Platform Engineering explained from the internals out — for engineers who want to understand why, not just how.

👨‍💻 Professional Profile

With a Master’s degree and over a decade in the tech industry, I lead a team of engineers with a background in production SRE automation at scale. My focus goes beyond keeping systems running — I dig into the network internals that make Kubernetes actually work. Every concept I study gets a lab, a commit, and a public breadcrumb.

Tech Stack & Focus

I specialize in the Linux ecosystem and Kubernetes networking, with a strong emphasis on understanding systems from first principles.

Linux Kubernetes AWS Ansible Python eBPF Cilium

What I’m Building:

  • linux-networking-labs — Hands-on labs: network namespaces, iptables, NAT, firewalld, SELinux — everything that runs under Kubernetes.
  • From Scratch series — Platform Engineering from the internals out, published on this blog.
  • Targeting the CKA certification and a K8s networking specialist role (remote, US/EU market).

🌲 Beyond the Screen

I believe in a balance between the digital and the spiritual. I am a practitioner of Stoicism and Declared Intention — a personal philosophy of aligning daily actions with long-term purpose — always striving to live with ethics and meaning.

🎮 Interests

  • Gaming: A huge fan of FromSoftware worlds.
  • Cinema: Sci-Fi classics (Alien, Blade Runner, Planet of the Apes) and psychological horror (Martyrs, It).
  • Reading: From technical docs to Manga and theological history.

Life Goal: In the next 3-5 years, I aim to transition to a fully remote role and move to a ranch, growing my own food and enjoying the silence of nature with my family.

📬 Connect

I’m always open to discussing K8s networking internals, SRE war stories, or the lore of Dark Souls. If you’re hiring for a remote K8s networking / Platform Engineering role in the US/EU market, feel free to reach out.