Hi, I am Saleh, a software engineer on a mission to build tools that empower developers and create systems that teams can trust. If it makes engineering better, I'm interested.
My journey didn't start with software. I graduated from Electric Power Engineering at Cairo University. I started my journey back in electronics. My first real project was in a team in college where we were the first team in Cairo University to build a racing car for a competition in "Formula Students". I was responsible for building all the electrical systems to control the engine.
The next year was my graduation project. I locked myself in the power electronics lab with one mission: I wanted to build an induction furnace and make it small enough to fit in the lab while being able to smelt soda cans into aluminum ingots. I built it all by myself, and I was so proud of it. Maybe I'll write a blog post about that period, including all the technical difficulties and stories around it.
I joined a small local company briefly as an electrical engineer, and at this time, I was just getting introduced to embedded software. I was amazed by the fact that I could write code and replace a lot of electronics logic I spent hours building before on my furnace with just a few lines of code. I started learning embedded software, built an electronics 3-phase meter to replace the one the company was importing from abroad. I didn't just design software, but I also designed the PCB, manufactured the prototype in my bedroom, and assembled it. I felt like I could build anything.
After military service, I created a course on Udemy about ARM processors - it was the first of its kind on Udemy back in 2015. A few months later, I landed my first job at Valeo as a software engineer. Valeo was the only big company in Egypt and the biggest R&D center for Valeo to develop control units for automotive.
I worked there for almost 3 years, learning a lot about automotive systems, embedded software development, and working in big teams. I learned everything about software engineering and had exposure over the entire V-cycle of software development. It was a really life-changing experience, and I felt that I had a big future in automotive.
I moved to Germany in 2018, eventually landing at Hella in Berlin, where I worked on lighting systems and became the software architect and tech lead. I've always wanted to make a business for myself - I learned about e-commerce and social media marketing, built my first website as a side project to sell products, had a good 3-month run before my supplier went down.
When COVID hit, I decided to build my own control unit as a side project. After all, I was the architect behind a product that sells for millions of dollars. I designed, built, and tested a functional prototype with a patentable idea. I partnered with a German investor and met with OEMs, suppliers, and manufacturers, but I learned that the automotive market doesn't work that way. I will definitely write about that project someday.
After COVID eased, I found a job in Munich as a software project manager. Germany's economy was challenging, and the automotive industry was being disrupted by Chinese competitors. So I kept learning. I decided to learn about AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, AI, and new technologies outside the automotive industry. I was in love. Finally, something more complex and challenging.
Automotive had become easy for me to figure out - I could build any system in automotive if I put my mind to it. But cloud technologies and how they're not locked into a single industry, the amount of detail that no one can humanly be an expert in each part of, was another level of eye-opening.
My first project after learning AWS was Cronlytic - a monitoring platform for cron jobs. I also built a small tool with OpenAI API to get insights from Reddit, which I called Reddit Scrapper.
Now, I am building this website to document my journey, because I believe every person has a lot of sides and angles to look at - not just technical expertise, or personal life, or thoughts or ideas, but a bit of each. I want to share my experience with the world and also learn from others.
I'm exploring opportunities where I can leverage my expertise in cloud-native technologies and contribute to building scalable systems. This website serves as both a platform to share knowledge and connect with like-minded engineers and organizations.
I hope this content helps someone out there by any means. I'm also using it as my personal knowledge base for deepening my expertise in Kubernetes and cloud technologies, while sharing insights, tutorials, and thoughts along the way.
I'd love to hear from you. Whether you want to discuss a project, share ideas about cloud technologies, or just connect - reach out through any of the channels below.