Hi, I'm Michal

I build AI and cloud systems that work for real people — and coach the engineers who'll run them.

I help organizations turn ambitious technology ideas into real systems — from presales architecture to production delivery.

Cloud, DevOps and AI architect with 20+ years of experience building scalable infrastructure, mentoring high-performance teams, and delivering real-world systems. Founder of an AI Lab building intelligent platforms used by thousands of users.

Let's talk Read my story Gen-Z coaching

Michal Maxian crouching on a wooden mountain deck, smiling warmly into the camera and reaching a hand toward the lens, with forested hills behind him

Harnessing technology to solve new summits.

Based in Bratislava ⇄ Prague, remote-first
Languages Slovak, English, Czech · learning Spanish and Italian

20+years of experience
15K+users of the RAG platform
9+industries

A bit about me

Michal wearing a woven palm-leaf crown and a palm-leaf tie, pointing straight at the viewer with a grin, in front of dense jungle leaves

I started Blue DevOps in 2008, before DevOps had much of a name, and I'm still doing the same thing: sitting down with a messy system and a few good people until it works.

In 2017 I went freelance and spent a few nomad years helping more than thirty companies around the world with data, CI/CD and big data. Then came fintech. In 2020, in the middle of COVID, I led a data-center migration of Java applications from Slovakia to Italy, with strict security standards and no room for a bad night.

Today I'm co-founder of an AI Lab at the Slovak Technical University. We built a RAG chatbot that more than 15,000 students and staff use, running local models on our own GPU clusters. The part I enjoy most is the team: young engineers I get to coach, who are quickly better than me at things I used to be proud of.

Away from the keyboard I climb and run. Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya taught me more about planning than any project plan did. I've been part of Global Shapers Bratislava since 2013 and have organised and mentored at Startup Weekend since 2011, because good ideas need good company.

We live in AI times

Technology is evolving faster than human understanding — and that gap is widening every day. AI systems are being deployed into critical infrastructure, education, healthcare, and society at large, often without the architectural rigor or ethical clarity they demand. The stakes have never been higher.

Guide the next generation

Help Gen-Z engineers grow into responsible, capable builders of AI systems — engineers who think before they deploy.

Humanize AI adoption

Help organizations embrace AI without surrendering human values — building systems that serve people, not the other way around.

Build systems that work

Architect and deliver scalable technology platforms that actually perform in production — not just on a whiteboard.

What I can help with

From architecture blueprint to production reality. I work across the full technology lifecycle — from the first conversation with a client through to running production systems. Every engagement is grounded in deep engineering fundamentals and shaped by real-world delivery experience.

AI & Cloud Architecture

Design scalable, production-grade systems using cloud-native infrastructure across AWS and Azure, DevOps automation pipelines, and intelligent AI integration. Built for resilience, performance, and growth.

Technology Leadership

Lead complex projects through the complete arc — presale architecture, technical design, delivery. I bridge the gap between business ambition and engineering execution with clarity and accountability.

Gen-Z Technical Coaching

Ignite the potential of emerging talent. I transform junior engineers into autonomous builders who own their systems. Through deep-dive mentorship — from debugging instincts to high-level architecture — I bridge the gap between initial curiosity and elite-level production engineering.

AI Adoption Strategy

Help organizations understand, evaluate, and implement AI responsibly — with clear frameworks for governance, risk, and value delivery that align technology decisions with business outcomes.

How I coach

From junior to production-ready. Coaching and mentorship are different things, and I offer both.

ListenClarifyChallengeGrow

Coaching is about you

I ask the right questions, challenge your assumptions, and help you find your own answers. I don't tell you what to do — I help you figure it out. For young engineers who feel overwhelmed by choices, unsure of direction, or just need someone to think alongside them.

Listen: We start with who you are, not what you know. We'll explore what truly drives you, what frustrates you, and where you actually want to go.
Clarify: I'll help you cut through the industry noise to see clearly what matters for your long-term career path and what is just a distraction.
Challenge: I push you with honest, direct feedback and help you face the real decisions — the kind that shape careers, not just the code you write.
Grow: You will walk away with newfound direction, steady confidence, and a clear sense of exactly what kind of engineer you want to become.

The best engineers are not born — they are built through deliberate challenge and honest feedback.

Work with me

Mentorship is about my experience

20+ years of experience. Yours to learn from. I share what I've learned — the mistakes, the patterns, and the shortcuts that only come from doing it for real. If you want to understand how the industry actually works, not just how it's supposed to work, this is for you.

Share: Open access to real experience: what worked, what failed, and why it matters for your specific path.
Guide: Navigate the industry landscape with someone who knows the terrain — hiring, tech choices, and career moves.
Connect: Introductions, context, and perspective from inside the industry that you simply cannot get from a course.
Model: Show what senior engineering thinking actually looks like in practice, not just in theory.

Experience is not just what happened to you — it's what you make available to others.

Work with me

What I've built

Systems built, impact delivered. Two decades of hands-on engineering across industries — from deep fintech infrastructure to AI platforms serving tens of thousands of users. These are not case studies. They are production systems that run in the real world.

15K+University users — a RAG AI platform actively used across higher education institutions
20+Years of experience — cloud, DevOps, AI, and systems architecture
9+Key industries — telco, fintech, blockchain, eCommerce, manufacturing, government, consulting, healthcare and logistics

RAG AI platform at university scale

Architected and delivered a Retrieval-Augmented Generation AI platform serving 15,000+ university users — from technical design through production deployment and ongoing optimization.

Multi-cloud infrastructure on AWS and Azure

Designed and implemented complex cloud architectures for enterprise clients, including security hardening, cost optimization, and high-availability design patterns.

DevOps and infrastructure transformations

Led large-scale DevOps modernization programs in fintech, telco, and bioinformatics — introducing CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and automated quality gates where manual processes once dominated.

Autonomous engineering teams

Built and coached multiple high-performance engineering teams from the ground up — developing technical leaders who could independently own systems, make architectural decisions, and deliver with confidence.

Where I've worked

One summary instead of a CV. The full story, role by role, is on LinkedIn.

Twenty years in infrastructure, half of them as an independent consultant. I started in enterprise storage and Unix, founded Blue DevOps in 2008 and have since been the person companies bring in when operations have to change under pressure: data-centre migrations, SRE adoption, agile transformations.

Since 2017 that has meant lead roles on contract in regulated and fast-moving sectors – fintech (Fiserv, SIA Europe), telco (Telia), blockchain (HydraDX), biotech (Macromo) – plus 30+ freelance projects for companies worldwide. The common thread: CI/CD, infrastructure as code, Kubernetes, monitoring, and teams that can run what we built.

Today I architect AWS and Azure migrations and AI workflows for Trustsoft in Prague, and I co-founded the AI Lab at the Slovak University of Technology, where a RAG platform I designed serves 15,000+ people on our own GPU clusters. Mentoring has run alongside all of it since 2016 – a university course, Startup Weekend, Global Shapers – and now Gen Z engineering teams.

20+ years · 9 industries · 10 lead and consulting roles · AWS certified · Slovak, English, Czech

Full history on LinkedIn

Toolbox

Kubernetes
AWS
Azure
Ansible
Infrastructure as Code
CI/CD: Jenkins, GitHub Actions
Prometheus & Grafana
Python
Go
RAG & LLMs
Local inference on GPU clusters

Certifications: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, HP ASE and CSA, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager. Languages: Slovak (native), English and Czech (professional), Spanish and Italian (learning, ~2 years).

Great architecture is clarity of thinking

Technology should amplify human potential, not replace it.

The most important systems in the world are not purely technical — they are socio-technical systems, built by strong teams with shared clarity of purpose. Code and infrastructure are the medium; human understanding and responsibility are the message.

Great architecture is not measured by the elegance of its diagrams or the sophistication of its toolchain. It is measured by the clarity of its thinking and the weight of its responsibility — for the systems we build shape the world that runs on them. That is not a metaphor. It is an engineering truth.

Beyond technology

Endurance, discipline, and the courage to explore.

Outside of technology, I push my limits in nature and endurance sports. These experiences shape my professional work: complex systems, like complex terrain, require endurance, discipline, and the willingness to enter unknown territory without a guaranteed path forward.

Mount Kilimanjaro, 5,895 m

Summited the roof of Africa — a journey through five climate zones that demands both physical preparation and mental resilience when the altitude strips every reserve down to will.

Michal standing on a stone summit cairn in a blue jacket and beanie, under a deep blue sky with Alpine ridges far below

Europe

Mont Blanc (4,808 m) for the altitude, Triglav (2,864 m) for the exposure, and Gerlachovský štít (2,655 m) because the Tatras are home — every summit is a lesson in pacing.

Michal in a selfie on Mount Kenya, with ski goggles on his beanie, two local guides cheering behind him with a thumbs up and rocky peaks in the distance

Africa

Kilimanjaro (5,895 m) took me through five climate zones, Mount Kenya (5,199 m) was the technical peak that rewarded careful planning and trust in my team, and Toubkal (4,167 m) in the High Atlas rounded off the continent.

Asia

Fansipan (3,147 m), the highest peak of Indochina, for the jungle approach — a climb that begins long before the first rock.

Long-distance running & trail racing

Marathon training, trail running, and mountain hiking are daily practices in endurance thinking — the same mindset that carries a complex engineering project through months of ambiguity to a clean production launch.

Seven friends, Michal among them, jumping in the air on a sandy beach in Zanzibar, with turquoise water and a big cloud behind — With friends in Zanzibar — the summit is nice, the company is better.

What colleagues say

It was a pleasure collaborating with Michal. He combines expertise with a proactive mindset and strong teamwork skills.

Josef Šebík, IT Project Manager

Cooperation with Michal was exceptional and quick. All tasks were delivered as expected and on time… Communication was also excellent. This all points out his expert skills in the field.

Michal Perzel, System Engineer at Eleveo a.s.

Recommendations from LinkedIn.

Work with me

Ready to build something real? If you are a startup that needs architecture that can scale, a company navigating the complexity of AI adoption, or an engineer who wants to level up into production-grade thinking — let's talk. I work with organizations and individuals who take technology seriously and want to build things that last.

AI & Cloud Architecture

Design and architect AI or cloud systems built for real-world scale.

Technical Leadership

Lead complex engineering projects from first concept to production delivery.

Engineering Mentorship and Coaching

Coach engineering teams to become autonomous, production-capable builders.

AI Era Guidance

Navigate the AI landscape responsibly — with strategy, ethics, and engineering rigor.

Let's talk

Thanks for reading this far. The best systems start with a good conversation, and so do most good things.

I am based between Bratislava and Prague, working primarily remote with on-site availability on demand. Whether you are a founder with a bold idea, a CTO facing a scaling challenge, or a young engineer ready to level up — reach out.

Email: michal@maxian.sk
Phone: +421 903 740 599
Location: Bratislava / Prague, remote-first

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What to expect

A direct, honest conversation about your challenge — no sales pitch, no boilerplate. Just two engineers figuring out what the real problem is and whether I'm the right person to help you solve it.