The Hague · Netherlands

Liviu Dănicel

Head of IT & Partner Relations · Kokai Studio

I'm an IT Director-level professional with 15+ years of experience leading infrastructure, cloud, and DevOps environments. My focus is on scalability, reliability, and security of production systems.

Portrait of Liviu Dănicel
15+ Years of experience
100+ Employee organizations supported
Multi-cloud Major + cost-efficient providers
End-to-end Infrastructure ownership

About Liviu Dănicel

I'm an IT Director-level professional with 15+ years of experience leading infrastructure, cloud, and DevOps environments. My focus is on scalability, reliability, and security of production systems.

I combine strategic ownership of IT direction with hands-on technical depth, working closely with stakeholders to align infrastructure with business needs.

I've worked in organizations of up to ~100 people, supporting infrastructure across both internal operations and client-facing systems.

My notable work includes collaboration with Bitdefender on virtualization and infrastructure systems, including Bitdefender for VE.

Professional Experience

  1. 03.2025 - current The Hague, Netherlands

    Head of IT & Partner Relations

    Kokai Studio

    I define and lead IT strategy and infrastructure at Kokai Studio, responsible for end-to-end systems across internal and client-facing environments, driving scalability, reliability, security, and supporting B2B partnerships.

    I coordinate multiple contractors and supplier companies across engagements, manage communication between development and infrastructure functions, and apply diplomacy to resolve conflicts and align emerging workflows.

    I'm also responsible for IT budgeting and cost planning, defining budgets across IT and development functions and presenting them for approval, typically in the €1-2M range.

  2. 11.2022 - 03.2025 The Hague, Netherlands

    SysOps / DevOps - Freelance

    the-mill.nl

    Clients: chess.com · soundstack.com · ethernity.cloud · international intergovernmental agencies

    I defined infrastructure architecture, implemented automation (Ansible), and improved security of web applications, with focus on reliability and maintainability.

    I worked on production systems under load, supporting scaling requirements, operational stability, and infrastructure decision-making.

  3. 08.2016 - 10.2022 Bucharest, Romania

    SysOps / DevOps - Freelance

    ldcore.com

    Clients: livigent.com · americangreetings.com · anritsu.com · gentechsolution.com

    I led the design and scaling of SaaS infrastructure, overseeing hypervisor-based environments, automation (Ansible), GitOps workflows, and operational processes including on-call.

    I covered the infrastructure lifecycle from architecture and deployment to reliability, maintenance, and security.

  4. 07.2014 - 07.2016 Bucharest, Romania

    System & Network Administrator

    Kalon Global Group

    I acted as primary owner of IT infrastructure, covering systems, networking, and operational support, while taking on responsibilities typically associated with IT management.

  5. 08.2011 - 06.2014 Bucharest, Romania

    Linux/Unices QA Team Lead

    Bitdefender

    I started as Linux QA engineer, implementing automated testing frameworks, and progressed to leading a team of 4 engineers. I was responsible for test strategy, coordination, and delivery across Linux/Unix environments.

  6. 09.2010 - 07.2011 Bucharest, Romania

    Senior TechSupport Engineer

    IBM

  7. 10.2007 - 08.2010 Bucharest, Romania

    Linux Testing Engineer

    RNDSoft

  8. 09.2005 - 09.2006 Bucharest, Romania

    Technical Engineer

    Open Society Foundation

Skills & Technical Expertise

Leadership & IT Direction

  • Technical direction
  • Strategic oversight
  • Stakeholder alignment
  • Incident decision-making

Strategic IT direction aligned with business needs. Technical leadership across infrastructure and systems engineering, with hands-on involvement in critical incidents and decision-making.

Cloud & Infrastructure

  • AWS
  • Azure
  • DigitalOcean
  • OVH
  • Scaleway

Production environments designed and operated for scalability, reliability, cost optimization, and long-term maintainability.

Containers & Automation

  • Kubernetes
  • Docker
  • Terraform
  • Ansible
  • GitOps

Containerized platforms and infrastructure-as-code adoption - standardized deployments and improved operational efficiency.

Monitoring & Reliability

  • Prometheus
  • Grafana
  • ELK
  • Graylog
  • Splunk

Monitoring, alerting, and observability practices that support reliability, incident response, and system health.

Networking & Security

  • TCP/IP
  • IPsec
  • WireGuard
  • OpenVPN
  • Cisco
  • Juniper
  • Mikrotik

Secure network architectures with segmentation, access control, and security-minded infrastructure practices.

Systems & Virtualization

  • Debian
  • Ubuntu
  • RHEL
  • VMware
  • KVM
  • Proxmox

Systems and virtualized environments that support production workloads and service availability.

Databases & Scripting

  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL
  • MongoDB
  • Python
  • Bash
  • Go

Data layer reliability, automation, and operational tooling.

Operational Excellence

  • Incident response
  • RCA
  • Change management
  • Documentation

Production system stability and continuous improvement of operational processes.

Debugging & Analysis

  • tcpdump
  • Wireshark
  • strace
  • gdb

Deep troubleshooting across infrastructure, network, and application layers.

Education & Certifications

  • BSc in Mathematics

    University Spiru Haret · Bucharest, Romania

    09.2006 - 06.2009
  • Cisco CCNA

    Cisco Academy · Bucharest, Romania

    2007

Contact Liviu Dănicel