SALIM GASMI

 Tech zealot

About me

With over two decades of experience in digital leadership and people management,
I have successfully led international teams and supervised large-scale projects.
Additionally, I possess a strong expertise in Unix and networking.

  • Currently Production Engineering Manager at Meta.
  • Previously Production Engineering Manager at Instagram (Meta group).
  • Previously Production Engineering Manager at Facebook (Meta group).
  • Previously CTO of SdV Plurimedia, a french hosting company.
  • Former adjunct lecturer at Strasbourg University.
  • Author of several open source projects.
  • Clarinet player in a klezmer band.
  • Married and have a son.

My skills

Expertise honed over 29 years of experience:

  • Leadership and Strategy
  • Large scale projects management
  • International teams management
  • Talent development and hiring
  • Large scale distributed architectures
  • Networking (TCP/IP suite, routing, switching, BGP, MPLS)
  • DevOps/SRE - Unix - System design
  • Coding (C, PHP, Python, Bash)
  • Security (FW, IDS, IPS, DDOS, compliance)
  • Docker and Kubernetes (CKA certification in progress)
  • AI with PyTorch (1 year of experience)

Some questions you may have:

  • I have been all of them as I have had diverse roles in my career. I began as a software engineer, progressed to a tech lead, and eventually transitioned into a role focused on supporting and developing individuals, culminating in my a position as CTO.

    It's challenging to provide effective support to engineers without a comprehensive understanding of their work. That's why I believe a strong leader should remain technically involved and hands-on.

    For the past 10 years, I dedicated several hours per day to coding/hands-on work.
    This practice also aids me in staying abreast of the latest technologies and maintaining a sharp focus on strategy.

  • I have a deep appreciation for people, relishing in their growth. I find fulfillment in coaching and mentoring, and I would describe my leadership style as enlightened.

    I also value simplicity and actively strive to follow the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principles, particularly in the technology domain. I've observed numerous instances of over-engineered systems that ultimately lead to failure.
    I am a pragmatic and down-to-earth individual with high standards, particularly when it comes to serving customers.

  • Employment at Meta provide me with exposure to exceptionally intricate challenges and an immense scale that was beyond reach in my previous role.
    In my pursuit of growth and learning, I couldn't resist the opportunity to collaborate with the world's most brilliant engineers.

    To me, the emphasis is placed on learning rather than a job title.


  • Some feedbacks I received on LinkedIn:

    "I had the privilege of working under Salim's management for two years, and I want to extend my sincere appreciation for the outstanding support he consistently offered, cultivating a positive work environment.
    Salim's extensive technical expertise across various fields, coupled with his adept communication skills, greatly contributed to the team's understanding and alignment with his vision. Under his guidance, I've not only advanced my technical proficiency but also honed my soft skills, making me a more adept engineer." -- Breno Leitao @ Meta

    "[...] Salim stands out as one of the best managers I ever worked with, exhibiting a rare blend of deep technical understanding with a genuine commitment to nurturing his team. His approach to technical projects, characterized by clarity and precision, helped us tackle complex challenges with confidence [...]" -- Razvan Alecsandrescu @ Meta

    "Salim owns a extraordinary profile as CTO of SDV. His knowledge of the datacenter market, Tier-1 and IP among others is exceptional. Salim has created the most reliable and technically advanced environment to offer superior services to his customers. If you get the opportunity to work with Salim, you will be in an environment that pushes top notch creativity in an excellent working team." -- Miguel Villada @ Arbor Networks

    "Salim is a bright guy. Not the kind of average bright guy, he is a real bright, clever, smart engineer, with a very high focus on efficiency. He has turned SdV in a real Internet powerhouse." -- Jean-Georges Perrin @ RBS

Projects

Over the years, I spent some time creating cool projects.

Postfix GLD

A lightweight standalone greylisting daemon written in C for postfix, available on Ubuntu, Debian and many other distributions.
View on Github

Docker HCD

Docker was missing some high availability features I needed, HCD is a daemon that restarts unhealthy containers, downloaded more than 10,000 times.
Go to Docker hub - View on Github

Hex Packet Decoder

An online network packet decoder used by Broadcom, Cisco, Fortinet, Juniper, NASA and many universities.
Initally created for my own use, it became a reference.
Go to web site

Geo Traceroute

An ambitious tentative to display accurate geolocalized traceroutes over the Internet using 1000+ nodes spread across the world and some deep learning AI with PyTorch.
Go to web site

BGPMap

Standard looking glasses were missing fanciness, I opted for a real time graphical BGP paths visualisation.
Go to web site

Visualising RIPE ATLAS Anchor Measurements

An article on how to leverage RIPE ATLAS nodes to enhance your network observability, published by RIPE Labs.
Read article - Watch the video at FRNOG - PDF

GPU GLSL Shaders

I always wanted to code GPU GLSL shaders as the programming logic is quite unique and challenging.
View my shaders on shadertoy

Three.js old school demos

As a former Amiga scene democoder, I recoded some old school demos using WebGL and Three.js.
Tunnel - Rubber Glenz - Boxes

France take home calculator

Not finding an online take home salary calculator, I decided to create one.
Go to web site

Contact me


I'm always open to new opportunities, ideas, feedbacks, feel free to email me.

Or reach out on LinkedIn.