Brandon Lau

[email protected] | github.com/grendel71

Experience

Stevens Student Managed Investment FundHoboken, NJ
DeveloperJan 2025 -- Present
  • Maintained highly available Kubernetes cluster with 3 bare-metal and 3 AWS control plane nodes
  • Built full observability and log aggregation infrastructure using VictoriaMetrics and VictoriaLogs, providing real-time visibility into cluster state, resource utilization, and pod-level logs across 10+ services
  • Engineered cluster-wide backup and disaster recovery using Velero with dedicated SeaweedFS S3-compatible backend, enforcing daily backups with weekly retention reducing storage costs by 90%
  • Migrated nodes to NixOS with Git-managed configs, SOPS-nix for secrets (k3s token, WireGuard keys), enabling fast reproducible provisioning
Stevens BlueprintHoboken, NJ
DeveloperJan 2025 -- Present
  • Developed and maintained the HSDS Transformer, a tool that converts social service resource data into the Human Services Data Specification (HSDS) format
  • Implemented command-line utilities to automate generation of mapping files, facilitating consistent conversions and reducing overhead for users
  • Built reverse transformation tool to convert HSDS output back to source format, enabling validation of mapping schema and data integrity

Projects

HomelabKubernetes, Proxmox VE, NixOS, Nix Flakes, FluxCD, Longhorn, ZFS, LVM, Bash, Linux
  • Designed and deployed 3-node K3s Kubernetes cluster on Proxmox VE, provisioning NixOS nodes declaratively via Nix Flakes as infrastructure as code for reproducible deployment
  • Managed all node configs in Git-based GitOps workflow for declarative, version-controlled cluster state
  • Utilized Traefik Ingress + Cloudflared Tunnel to securely expose services, Cert-Manager + Let’s Encrypt for auto TLS, MetalLB, internal DNS for service discovery, and Kube-VIP for LB between control plane nodes
  • Deployed Longhorn as distributed storage backend with replicated block/object storage and automatic failover; managed persistent storage with ZFS/LVM snapshot policies for data integrity
  • Integrated SOPS + age encryption into FluxCD pipeline for secure, auditable secret delivery
  • Used Github Actions to automate Node rebuilds to local binary cache
Obsidian Notes IngesterPython, Google Gemini API, Nix Flakes
  • Created Python script to import and organize handwritten notes into Obsidian Vault, utilizing Nix Flakes for reproducible environment
  • Automated bulk file transfer and compression of libraries of 15+ PDFs using rsync and GhostScript, improving storage efficiency
  • Implemented OCR using Google Gemini API to transcribe handwritten notes into Markdown/LaTeX for searchable and structured documentation

Education

Stevens Institute of TechnologyHoboken, NJ
B.S Computer ScienceMay 2028 Expected

GPA: 3.85

Coursework: Data Structures, Discrete Mathematics, Linear Algebra, Multivariable Calculus, Probability & Statistics, Fundamentals of Information Systems