Graziano Casto

Sole DevRel Engineer reporting directly to the CTO, spanning technical partnerships, product development, and go-to-market for an AI-powered Kubernetes performance optimization platform. Led early-stage exploration of LLM inference optimization as a new product line, defining the optimization scope, building the infrastructure layer, and mapping the Job To Be Done. Co-authored an industry report with DZone on Platform Engineering, contributing to the product's market positioning. Represented the company at major international conferences across EMEA and NAMER, including KubeCons and KCDs.

Designed and delivered a 5-course learning path on the company's training platform, generating 150+ certifications per year across partners and customers. Built and led a community of 50+ external subject matter experts to extend product evangelism and cloud-native advocacy beyond the company. Spoke at 10+ international conferences per year across Europe and the US; authored technical articles for DZone, The New Stack, InfoQ, and CNCF. Supported solution architects during pre-sales by building POCs and delivering demos using the MEDDPICC framework. Owned the company's public-facing product documentation end to end.

Owned strategy and roadmap for HUKO's entire product portfolio, reporting directly to the C-suite. Managed end-to-end customer lifecycle from requirements gathering to adoption and upsell. Led the company's transition to SCRUM, establishing the product development process still in use today.

Engineered the migration of the flagship product to a cloud-native architecture using Java Spring Boot microservices on AWS. Designed and implemented the company's end-to-end testing strategy, including core procedures and automated test suites. Evaluated new development tools via POCs and built supporting SDKs, improving team developer experience.

Elected Co-Chair after one year as Tech Lead. Define strategic direction for the group and ensure initiatives align with the CNCF Technical Oversight Committee (TOC). Oversee active initiatives, coordinate with other TAGs and the TOC, and represent the group at CNCF events and public forums.

Led the 'State of AI-Assisted Development' initiative, a six-month observational study across CNCF projects from Sandbox to Graduated. Designed and launched a community-wide survey reaching 150 respondents across nearly 100 unique CNCF projects. Synthesized findings into a public data-driven report with practical guidance for secure AI integration in open-source development workflows.

v1.37 | Working on In-Place Pod Resize alongside static CPU manager policy, cAdvisor-less CRI container/pod stats, and Scheduler Preemption for In-Place Pod Resize.

Review and approve community contributions to the official Kubernetes Blog, covering technical accuracy and editorial quality. 185+ pull requests reviewed and processed on kubernetes/website to date. Mentor new contributors through the blog's submission and publication process.

v1.36 | Release Signal Team Member. v1.35 | Release Comms Lead. v1.34 | Release Comms Team Member.

Recognised by the Platform Engineering community as a subject matter expert, contributing to the advancement of platform engineering through content creation, community engagement, and knowledge sharing with an audience of 150,000+ practitioners.

Recognised by DZone as one of their most active and engaged contributors, consistently delivering high-quality technical content to a global developer audience. As a Core Member, I am regarded as an authoritative expert in my field and am eligible for exclusive programs including the Community Advisory Board, paid writing and speaking opportunities, and the DZone Ambassador programme.

Recognised by the Green Software Foundation for contributions to sustainable software practices and green cloud-native advocacy.

Recognised by the Kubernetes SIG Docs community for helpful contributions to the Kubernetes Blog, leading to becoming a blog co-maintainer.

Completed two years of Computer Science coursework while working full-time as a Software Engineer.