Zoltan Toma

Senior Backend Engineer specializing in industrial IoT edge platforms and distributed Go microservices. 10+ years building scalable systems for manufacturing, security, and observability, from thousands of CNC machines to millions of protected websites.

Technical Skills

  • Languages & Frameworks: Go, PHP, Python, Bash, Ruby | Symfony, Laravel, ReactPHP, API Platform, Vue.js
  • Infrastructure & DevOps: AWS, Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, Ansible, Terraform, Vagrant, Nginx, HAProxy, Conan
  • CI/CD & Observability: Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Trivy, Dynatrace, Grafana, ELK, Prometheus
  • IoT & Industrial: eKuiper, MQTT, OPC UA, MTConnect
  • Security & Standards: ISO 27001, NIST 800-53, NIST CSF, OWASP, SBOM, CRA

Work Experience

Senior Backend Engineer, HEITEC Digital Kft Sep 2024 - Present

Hungary, Remote, Employee

Industrial IoT edge platform for CNC manufacturing

  • Led the migration of the Complex Event Processing engine from Kuiper v1.1.1 to eKuiper v2.1.2, including custom Go plugins and API changes, deployed on thousands of CNC machines worldwide. Filed numerous upstream GitHub issues and fixes during the upgrade.
  • Led security hardening within the 5-person edge platform team: standardized Docker base images to Alpine, resolved 100+ critical and high CVEs, and met EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) requirements with SBOM and license scanning in CI pipelines.
  • Designed a unified development environment (Ansible, Vagrant, WSL2) for 20+ Go microservices (MQTT, OPC UA, MTConnect), cutting environment setup from a full day to under 40 minutes, with runnable integration tests and Portainer-based Docker management.
  • Solved message ordering on the edge for the Messenger cloud service: timestamped and sequenced machine messages (telemetry, probes, alerts) at the source, so the cloud-side consumer could process each type with the correct ordering and priority.
  • Improved the reliability and observability of the Cloud Connector, the IoT edge gateway that transfers CNC machine data to Azure and forwards cloud configuration and commands back to the machines.
  • Implemented MTConnect 2.2 standard support and improved OPC UA build tooling with Alpine-based images and Conan lock files for reproducible C++ builds.
  • Migrated the Machine API from deprecated go-pg to bun to fix a CVE, rolled out an extended golangci-lint config across Go services, and introduced HTTPYac for multi-protocol API testing.

Independent Contractor & Security Consultant 2022 - 2024

Estonia, Remote, Contract

Operated through Estonian company providing backend engineering and security consulting to international clients.

Platform Engineer, AGCO Corporation (2023 - 2024) - US agricultural equipment manufacturer

  • Built open-source Dynatrace Account Inventory tool (Go, Docker, MongoDB, Metabase) revealing 60% inactive users and identifying cost optimization opportunities.
  • Created installation wrapper service on AWS App Runner to mitigate critical authentication token vulnerability affecting 10,000+ agents.
  • Led cross-team meetings on cybersecurity, application development best practices, and observability governance.

Security Consultant, Blue Colibri App (2022 - 2023) - Hungarian mobile app startup

  • Improved PHP Laravel CI/CD pipeline, establishing initial code coverage and identifying 2000+ security vulnerabilities.
  • Introduced frontend E2E testing solution reducing unreproducible bugs significantly.
  • Led DevSecOps training sessions reducing Ops/Dev friction and improving security posture (ISO 27001, NIST 800-53 compliance).
  • Assisted in infrastructure migration planning from Azure to AWS.

Additional consulting: Helped 5 companies improve security practices, reduce cloud costs, and implement DevSecOps pipelines.

Senior Backend Developer, EPAM Systems 2021 - 2022

UK, Remote, Employee

  • Developed observability platform (Go, Telegraf, RabbitMQ, ClickHouse, Grafana) deployed to 30,000+ servers, addressing $4M annual DataDog costs.
  • Migrated documentation from Confluence to internal Hugo site with SSO (OAuth2 Proxy), reducing support ticket volume.
  • Implemented mTLS encryption between deployed agents and API, ensuring secure communication and proper client identification.

Senior Backend Developer & Team Lead, BitNinja.io 2016 - 2021

Hungary, Remote, Contract

All-in-one cybersecurity solution with installable security Agent deployed on 7000+ servers protecting 6M+ websites for 300+ hosting providers.

  • Led team of 3 developing server-side security Agent with 18 security modules and 100+ production releases.
  • Designed defense strategies against attack vectors as Threat Manager, protecting millions of websites from malware and intrusions.
  • Created OSS async PHP testing framework (2.7k Packagist installs) enabling fuzzing tests and solving unreproducible production bugs.
  • Upgraded PHP aho_corasick extension (5.6 -> 7.2), improving log processing speed by 7000%.
  • Rebuilt Agent release pipeline with containerized Jenkins on AWS.
  • Participated in transition of monolithic PHP Yii backends to Docker-based microservice architecture (Swarm → Kubernetes).

Full-stack Developer, Web-Server Ltd. 2015 - 2016

Hungary, Onsite, Employee

Participated in transitioning internal security solution BitNinja into a startup company. Developed admin interface and real-time incident propagation features.

Indie Game Developer, Self-employed 2013 - 2015

Hungary, Remote, Contract

Developed Unity3D/PhoneGap cross-platform games for Android, iOS, PC, and Facebook. Led 4 game development teams producing 10+ pre-MVP mobile applications.

Junior PHP Developer, Web-Server Ltd. 2012 - 2013

Hungary, Onsite, Employee

Migrated websites to WordPress, enhanced Yii-based billing application, and implemented PHPUnit test generator reducing test creation time from hours to seconds.

Open Source & Side Projects

  • Vagrant WSL2 Provider - Ruby-based Vagrant provider enabling native WSL2 support with Ansible local provisioning (v0.5.0, MIT). GitHub
  • AI Video Automation Tools - Private automation solutions for video processing workflows using AI tooling for content creation pipelines.
  • Dynatrace Account Inventory - Governance tool (Go, Docker, MongoDB, Metabase) for Dynatrace account management. GitHub
  • PHP Async Testing Framework - Asynchronous testing framework with 2.7k+ Packagist installs. GitHub
  • PHP aho_corasick Extension - Upgraded PHP extension improving log processing by 7000%. GitHub PR