Iasonas Kakandris
Building infrastructure where AI research meets compute — HPC clusters, MLOps pipelines, and self-hosted systems.
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HPC
Slurm · Open OnDemand
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MLOps
Kubernetes · Kafka
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Homelab
25+ self-hosted services
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Based in
Athens, Greece
About
Infrastructure engineer with a builder's mindset
A bit about me
I'm a Software Engineer at IIT, NCSR "Demokritos", working on Pharos — the Greek AI Factory, an EU-funded initiative bringing national AI computing infrastructure to researchers across Greece.
My work spans HPC cluster administration (Slurm, Open OnDemand, Ansible), MLOps platform engineering, and a self-hosted homelab running 20+ services behind Traefik. I hold an M.Eng from AUTh with a thesis on a declarative DSL for streaming ML pipelines.
Mensa member. Fluent in Greek, English, Italian, and German.
By the numbers
25+
Self-hosted services
4+
Years engineering
Currently
Software Engineer at IIT, NCSR "Demokritos"
Pharos — the Greek AI Factory
Stack
- Python
- C++
- Java
- TypeScript
- Dart
- C
- Bash
- Kafka
- Quix Streams
- River
- PostgreSQL
- MinIO
- Firebase
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- k3s
- Istio
- ArgoCD
- Kyverno
- Helm
- OpenTofu
- Ansible
- Falco
- Trivy
- cosign
- Slurm
- Apptainer
- Traefik
- Tailscale
- Authentik
- Keycloak
- OpenLDAP
- SSSD
- ColdFront
- Prometheus
- Grafana
- Loki
- Kiali
- Zammad
Infrastructure
Kubernetes cluster
Every request passes through Authentik, ztunnel mTLS, and Kyverno policy before it reaches a pod
request-path
Diagram: a request travels from a client through Authentik (auth), ztunnel (mTLS, L4) and Kyverno (policy) to a pod, which answers 200 OK; the response travels back through ztunnel to the client.
- k3s
- Istio ambient
- ArgoCD
- cert-manager
- Kyverno
- Authentik
- Sealed Secrets
- Trivy
Experience
The journey so far
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IIT, NCSR "Demokritos"
Feb 2026 – Present
IIT, NCSR "Demokritos"
Feb 2026 – Present
Software Engineer
Software Engineer
Built the Pharos platform's Support service in Go: users open and follow Zammad tickets with live updates, kept consistent through outages by an event-driven design (RabbitMQ, transactional outbox, idempotent consumers). Packaged Zammad as an Argo CD service so any environment gets a ready helpdesk in one command. Stood up Outline, Keycloak, Zammad, and Plane as the team's docs, auth, support, and project-tracking stack. Prototyped OpenBao dynamic credentials and Calico zone-based network isolation for Themelio's Kubernetes cluster, and deployed a pilot Open OnDemand portal with Keycloak OIDC.
- Go
- RabbitMQ
- Zammad
- ArgoCD
- Keycloak
- OpenBao
- Open OnDemand
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ICS, FORTH
Jul 2025 – Feb 2026
ICS, FORTH
Jul 2025 – Feb 2026
MLOps Engineer
MLOps Engineer
Trained a semantic segmentation model for river region detection (Dice 0.91). Deployed a containerized data pipeline on Kubernetes integrating Kafka, MinIO, PostgreSQL, and Grafana dashboards for live metrics.
- MLOps
- Kubernetes
- Kafka
- Grafana
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Technology Without Borders
Jul 2024 – Sept 2024
Technology Without Borders
Jul 2024 – Sept 2024
Software Engineer Intern
Software Engineer Intern
Created B2B apps with Microsoft PowerApps, reducing processing time by 98%. Designed an event management app with Flutter & Dart, and built a Chrome extension using Plasmo and Firebase.
- Flutter
- Dart
- PowerApps
- Firebase
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SpaceDot (student space team)
Nov 2021 – Nov 2024
SpaceDot (student space team)
Nov 2021 – Nov 2024
Software Engineer
Software Engineer
Built the Angular operator UI to monitor and control the team's satellite data transmission system. Containerized the application with Docker, cutting deployment time by 40%.
- Angular
- TypeScript
- Docker
Projects
Things I've built & run
- Live
Athens Bus
Web and Android app for Athens public transport: nearby stops, live arrivals, line timetables, live bus positions on a map, OASA service announcements, and metro and tram lines. No backend of its own: a Cloudflare Worker proxies the OASA API, and the list of stops is rebuilt nightly by a GitHub Action. Installable and works offline.
- TypeScript
- React
- MapLibre
- Cloudflare Workers
- Capacitor
- PWA
- Live
Beaver
A declarative DSL for building ML pipelines on live data streams. Write .bvr files — Beaver generates Python that wires Kafka, Quix Streams, River, and Plotly/Dash together. Includes static validation, model analysis, a unified CLI, and detailed error reporting. Developed as my M.Eng thesis.
- TextX
- Jinja
- Kafka
- Quix Streams
- River
- Python
- Docker
- Live
ESP32 Greenhouse Monitor
Standalone greenhouse monitor — no PC required after setup. DHT22 reads temperature and humidity; two potentiometers set alert thresholds; readings display on a 16×2 LCD. The ESP32 hosts its own web dashboard and fires Telegram alerts when thresholds are crossed.
- ESP32
- C++
- DHT22
- Telegram API
- Embedded
- Live
SixPath
Self-hosted professional network graph tool. Maps people, projects, and relationships through an interactive graph interface.
- TypeScript
- Graph
- Self-hosted
- Building
Pharos AI Factory
EU-funded Greek national AI infrastructure. Building the platform layer connecting researchers to compute — HPC, Open OnDemand, identity management, and cloud-native services.
- EU
- AI
- HPC
- Infrastructure
Homelab
Self-hosted stack
25+ Dockerized services across 2 machines — Traefik reverse proxy, Cloudflare DNS
Media
- Jellyfin
- Sonarr
- Radarr
- Prowlarr
- Jellyseerr
- qBittorrent
- Recommendarr
Photos & Docs
- Immich
- Paperless
- BookLore
- Syncthing
- File Browser
- Karakeep
Infrastructure
- Traefik
- Pi-hole
- Portainer
- Beszel
- Uptime Kuma
- n8n
Finance
- Actual Budget
- Ghostfolio
AI & Storage
- Open WebUI
- OpenMediaVault
Curriculum Vitae
Iasonas Kakandris
Software Engineer · MLOps · HPC Infrastructure
Updated Oct 2026
Contact
Let's talk
Whether it's infrastructure, MLOps, or just a good conversation about self-hosting — reach out.