Sascha “Faun” Winter

Summary

Highly skilled infrastructure engineer specializing in distributed database systems, Kubernetes platform operations, and large-scale data infrastructure. Proven track record designing and operating MySQL, Postgres, Redis, Kafka, and distributed SQL systems (TiDB, Vitess) at scale. Deep expertise in zero-downtime migrations, sharding, and distributed transaction management. Experienced building Golang services, Kubernetes operators, and Ruby on Rails applications. Seeks a high-trust, high-autonomy organization that values professionalism, operational excellence, and self-direction.

Selected Employment

Staff Engineer, Datastores Infrastructure

Gusto

August 2024 - Present

Architect, deploy, and operate distributed database systems on Kubernetes at scale, ensuring high availability, data consistency, and operational excellence. Coordinate complex, zero-downtime migrations from monolithic to distributed architectures, including sharding and service extraction to isolate services to increase uptime. Drive efficiency improvements across storage infrastructure through query optimization, caching strategies, and workload management. Build automation to ensure data consistency, integrity, and security across distributed systems. Partner with product engineering teams to enable rapid and reliable product development. Mentor engineers on best practices for operating complex, self-hosted distributed systems.

Select technologies used included TiDB, MySQL, Postgres, Redis, Kafka, Kubernetes, AWS, Golang, Ruby on Rails

Engineer, Orchestration

PlanetScale

July 2021 - March 2024

Responsible for building and maintaining the orchestration layer for the PlanetScale database platform. Managed numerous Kubernetes clusters and oversaw the deployment, health, and scaling of many MySQL databases. Responsibilities included writing performant, maintainable code for internal Golang services, a Kubernetes operator, as well as a Ruby on Rails application. Held pager rotation as well as customer on-call support for database health. Wrote internal CLI tooling to manage database infrastructure.

Select technologies used included Golang, Ruby on Rails, Kubernetes, MySQL, Vitess

Senior Software Engineer

Percy.io (acquired by BrowserStack)

Aug 2017 - Jul 2021

Responsible for architecture and maintenance of the infrastructure for a screenshot capture & diffing platform. Worked on an HTTP(S) caching layer in Golang & JS, utilizing container-local proxy combined with Cloudflare workers. Developed customer-facing functionality in Ember.js and Ruby on Rails.

Select technologies used included Ruby on Rails, Ember.js, Golang, MySQL, Redis, Kubernetes, Knative, Istio, Cloudflare Workers

Lead Engineer

Stitch Fix

August 2016 to July 2017

Functioned as team lead for large customer-facing projects. Mentored junior developers and fostered team culture. Built sustainable products and maintained existing systems. Led performance audits and provided recommendations to the larger team for improvements. Maintained and upgraded critical continuous delivery systems and high-scale production systems. Designed, implemented and maintained distributed, service-oriented applications. Built a geo-location micro-service application in Golang.

Select technologies used included Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, RabbitMQ, Redis, Golang, React

Owner & CEO

Hydra Development, Inc., San Francisco, California

August 2012 to December 2016

Founder and primary developer at a software consulting company focused on building high-quality, scalable, and reliable web applications for companies in the technology industry.

Select clients included TaskRabbit, Wootric, Neo Innovation, Timeline Labs, Afolio

Senior Developer

Cloud City Development, San Francisco, California

February 2013 to April 2014

Engineered web applications for startups in the Bay Area. Wrote robust applications for clients utilizing pair programming, behavior-driven development, continuous integration, and code reviews. Managed feature backlog and requirements using Pivotal Tracker and developed software using Extreme Programming techniques. Interviewed, trained, and coached numerous coding bootcamp students through a company mentorship program.

Select technologies used included Ruby on Rails, AngularJS, Ember.js

Application Developer

John McNeil Studio, Berkeley, California

April 2012 to July 2012

Created a sophisticated mobile application for a major health insurance company.

Select technologies used included Ruby on Rails, Backbone.js, PhoneGap

Web/Applications Developer

Traction Corporation, San Francisco, California

Mar 2008 to April 2012

Responsible for the development of email campaigns, web applications, micro-sites, and e-commerce solutions for corporate clients on a strict timeframe and with exacting specifications and requirements. Built a Rails application for the company blog and portfolio showcase using a custom blogging framework and content management system written from scratch. Built a custom user interface for website administration by pairing with designers and defining requirements from the ground up. Interviewed and evaluated new candidates for the development team and helped to train new hires. Responsible for delivering exacting work under tight timelines and demanding expectations.

Education

Cabrillo College, Aptos, California - 2004-2007 - Skills Certificate, Web Programming

University of California, Santa Cruz, California - 2001-2004 - Studied Community Studies

El Molino High School, Forestville, California - Graduated 2001

References

Available upon request.