About
Senior Customer Reliability Engineer at Isovalent/Cisco. I run a homelab, write about Kubernetes and networking, and drink too much speciality coffee.
Who I Am
I'm Dario Mader, an infrastructure engineer based in Switzerland. At Isovalent/Cisco, I help enterprise customers run Cilium in production. Back home, the homelab keeps me busy. I have a family I love spending time with and a speciality coffee habit that's out of control. I started this blog to document things I had to figure out the hard way. Someone else will hit the same wall, and a post saves them a few hours.
Experience
Jan 2024 – Present
Senior Customer Reliability Engineer
Isovalent at Cisco
Working as a Senior CRE at Isovalent (part of Cisco), helping customers succeed with Cilium and eBPF-based networking and security.
Feb 2023 – Jan 2024
Customer Reliability Engineer
Isovalent
Supported enterprise customers deploying Cilium in production, troubleshooting complex Kubernetes networking and security scenarios.
Apr 2022 – Jan 2023
Kubernetes DevOps Engineer
Swisscom
Maintained and managed multiple on-premise Kubernetes clusters. Oversaw applications including ArgoCD, Dex, Rook, and Velero using a GitOps approach. Adapted CI/CD pipelines, bootstrapped projects with Jsonnet and Helm, and developed Go tooling.
Sept 2021 – May 2022
Site Reliability Engineer — Mobile Network
Swisscom
Introduced SRE practices within the mobile network. Assessed, modeled, and measured reliability of mobile services. Established Service Level Objectives and developed probing systems.
Apr 2020 – Sept 2021
Network Engineer Analytics
Swisscom
Operated Ericsson Network Analytics to measure perceived user experience in mobile networks. Built and managed an observability stack with Grafana and Prometheus.
Jun 2017 – Apr 2020
Core & Radio Network Test Engineer
Swisscom
Acceptance testing of hardware, services, and software for mobile network components including base stations, VoLTE, and IoT. Set up probing systems with Raspberry Pi, Grafana, and InfluxDB.
Aug 2012 – Jun 2017
IT Apprenticeship
Swisscom
3rd level support, field support for internet/telephony/TV customers, integration of mobile network base stations, and mobile device testing for Android and iPhone.
Certifications
Apr 2024 – Apr 2027
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Oct 2023 – Oct 2025
CKS: Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist
The Linux Foundation
Jan 2022 – Jan 2025
CKA: Certified Kubernetes Administrator
The Linux Foundation
Mar 2022
Cambridge B1 Business English — Pass with Distinction (B2)
Cambridge University Press & Assessment
Education
2018 – 2021
Dipl. Techniker/in HF Informatik — ICT-System- und Netzwerktechnik
ipso Bildung
2014 – 2017
Informatiker EFZ
gibb Berufsfachschule Bern
2012 – 2014
Informatikpraktiker
gibb Berufsfachschule Bern