user@massimogollo.cloud ~ $

Massimo Gollo, PhD

About Me

Software Engineer and PhD in Distributed Systems, focused on Site Reliability Engineering and Application Performance Management. Passionate about building backend systems, managing cloud infrastructure, and automating everything in between.

My PhD at the University of Catania gave me a solid foundation in distributed systems theory, while industry roles let me apply that knowledge to real production problems.

Expertise: Kubernetes, OpenShift/OKD, Docker, Ansible, Helm, CI/CD, Kafka, Airflow. Currently exploring AI/LLM , fine-tuning models for domain-specific applications and deploying them at scale.

Skills

Languages
Python Golang Java Shell Swift C
Infrastructure
Docker Kubernetes OpenShift Proxmox Nginx
Automation
Ansible Terraform Helm GitLab CI/CD Operators
Observability
Prometheus Grafana Jaeger Istio
Data
PostgreSQL MySQL Redis Kafka

Experience

Software & AI Engineer Jun 2021 - Nov 2025
Catania, Italy
  • Developed microservice backends (Python, Golang) for IoT and mobile apps (WeeNet, Ruppu, YouSpeed)
  • Managed Kubernetes deployments, GitLab CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure with Prometheus monitoring
  • COAT project (NGI Sargasso EU-funded): on-premise LLM inference with Ollama/vLLM, fine-tuned Qwen3 with Unsloth for privacy risk analysis in online agreements
Visiting PhD Researcher Jan 2025 - Jul 2025
Palaiseau, France
  • Built a Kubernetes Event Generator to simulate workloads, node failures, and scheduler configurations
  • Research on distributed systems scheduling and resource management in cloud-native environments
Teaching Assistant Sep 2022 - Feb 2025
Italy
  • Object Oriented Programming: Conducted lab sessions on Java programming, assisted students with exercises and projects
  • Distributed Systems and Big Data: Tutored students on distributed computing concepts and cluster technologies
Software Developer Intern Sep 2020 - Feb 2021
Catania, Italy
  • ASP.NET Core backend development

Education

PhD in Computer Engineering - Distributed Systems | University of Catania, Italy
2022 - 2025
Master's Degree in Computer Engineering | University of Catania, Italy
2018 - 2022 Grade: 110/110 cum laude
Thesis: Resource Allocation with Multiple Offloading Options in Cloud-Edge Scenarios
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering | University of Catania, Italy
2014 - 2018
Thesis: Sentiment Analysis on Web Comments Using Azure Machine Learning

Activities

Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WETICE 2025) | IEEE
Jul 23-25 2025 Catania, Italy
Grifin Workshop on AI, Networks & Cybersecurity | Sorbonne University & LINCS
Apr 22-23 2025 Paris, France
AI, Science & Society Conference | Institut Polytechnique de Paris
Feb 6-7 2025 Paris, France
Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WETICE 2024) | IEEE
Jun 26-28 2024 Reggio Emilia, Italy
VIII Mediterranean School of Complex Networks
Jun 25-30 2023 Catania, Italy

Publications