# Dario Castañé (@dario.cat)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/dario.cat
Headline: Senior Software Engineer (APM Data Collection and Storage - Go Language Platform @ Datadog), Indie Hacker, FLOSS Evangelist and Public Speaker

## About

I am a Senior Software Engineer at Datadog, where I create and maintain APM Data Collection and Storage Language Platform in Go. With 20+ years of experience in full-stack development, DevOps, cloud computing, and software architecture, I have the skills and knowledge to deliver high-quality, scalable, and secure solutions for complex problems.

I am also passionate about free software, open source, and civil rights, and I actively contribute to various libraries and projects, such as Mergo, a small library to merge Go structs that is used by 60K repositories on GitHub, including Docker and Kubernetes. As a public speaker on topics related to politics and technology, I aim to empower people and organizations to build and use software that is ethical, reliable, and respectful of human dignity.

## Career

- **Senior Software Engineer (Open Source & Go Language Platform) at Datadog** (Aug 2023 - Present)
  Full-time · Remote
  Current maintainer of dd-trace-go, the Go SDK for integrating with Datadog, and Orchestrion/otelc, our compile-time autoinstrumentation tools.
- **Co-organizer at Full Stack Vallès** (Mar 2026 - Present)
  On-site
- **Founder at opinee by coopanio oü** (Apr 2021 - Present)
  Self-employed · Remote
- **Public Speaker** (2012 - Present)
  Self-employed
  Experienced speaker in politics and technology with emphasis in civil rights and personal digital security. Slides in https://speakerdeck.com/dario
- **Co Organizer at IGD Tech & Drinks** (Sep 2018 - Jan 2024)
  Igualada, Catalonia
- **Engineering Manager at Loyal Guru** (Apr 2020 - Jul 2023)
  Remote
  [Mid-senior]
  \- Team's members churn rate of 0% in all my time as Engineering Manager.
  \- Improved voucher generation by 6x, now delivering millions of vouchers per hour.
  \- Reduced main API's response times by 70%.
  \- Deliver good quality source code adjusted to given boundaries with a 90% success rate.
  \- 7 direct reports.
- **Board Member at Pirate Parties International** (Dec 2020 - Jan 2023)
  Remote
- **Board Advisor at Ticanoia** (Oct 2019 - Aug 2022)
  Remote
- **Promoter at Freedom to Share** (May 2020 - Jun 2022)
  Remote
  European Citizen Initiative to legalise sharing – via digital networks, for personal use and non-profit purposes – of files containing works and other material protected by copyright, related rights and sui generis database rights, with a view to striking a balance between the rights of authors and other rightholders and the universal right to science and culture.
- **Board Member at associació blockchain catalunya** (Feb 2019 - Jun 2021)
- **Senior Go Software Engineer at Loyal Guru** (Nov 2019 - Mar 2020)
  Full-time · On-site
- **Full Stack Engineer at Engisoft** (Apr 2006 - Nov 2019)
  Full-time · On-site
  Full stack engineer for high availability cloud systems.
  
  Highlighted projects:
  \- Successfully implemented a PCI DSS bubble for processing credit cards in a global hospitality company with more than 400 establishments.
  \- Integrated an innovative portable electrocardiography device with HL7-based PACS.
  \- Managed a highly available booking platform with integration with external on-line travel agencies.
- **Board Member at Ticanoia** (Sep 2015 - Oct 2019)
  On-site
- **Councilperson at Ajuntament D'igualada** (May 2015 - May 2019)
  Board member · On-site
  Elected city council member for Decidim Igualada.
- **Founder at Qomun** (Jan 2010 - Feb 2014)
  A libre and free culture directory and promotion non-profit platform. Share, remix and love.
- **Software Engineer at Epnuke** (Mar 2012 - Oct 2013)
  I cast Python spells to untangle gamebooks graphs for  Gamebook Experience, the line of gamebooks released by Epnuke Studio.
  
  As Technomancer, I developed Kerta, a language to annotate plain text to allow the reader app to reproduce complex gamebooks. Also, I have been involved in all the steps of the design of the game: "Saint George, the forging of a Legend".

## Projects

- **Asembleo** — https://github.com/coopanio/asembleo (Oct 2020 - Present)
  Pseudo-anonymous voting system for distributed general assemblies, organizations, or events.
- **Zas** — https://github.com/imdario/zas (Apr 2013 - Present)
  Zas is “the most zen static website generator ever” that uses nothing more than some markdown files and a layout for creating static sites. It’s highly configurable and very stable.
- **Mergo** — https://github.com/imdario/mergo (Mar 2013 - Present)
  A helper to merge structs and maps in Golang. Useful for configuration default values, avoiding messy if-statements.
  
  Used by Docker, Kubernetes, VMWare, Telefónica, Shopify, etc.
- **IoT platform on AWS for industrial monitoring** (Aug 2016 - Nov 2019)
  Low latency and scalable infrastructure to manage and visualize industrial monitoring data. Developed in Django, cloud and on-premise deployment with Docker.
- **Intranet for global manufacturer** (Dec 2018 - Aug 2019)
  Developed in Vaadin and Spring (Java)
- **Data extraction assistant for EU Horizon 2020 project** (Nov 2018 - Aug 2019)
  Data extraction assistant for EU-funded project to compare effectiveness of self-management health interventions in high priority chronic diseases: developed in Django
- **Migration of recreational machines management software to hybrid cloud (> 1k customers)** (May 2018 - Jun 2018)
  Design of the migration of a on-premise software to a hybrid cloud architecture based on Docker.
- **PCI compliant serverless infrastructure** (Sep 2017 - Apr 2018)
  Development and management of a PCI compliant Cloud Infrastructure on AWS. Project highlighted as an example of serverless architecture by Werner Vogels in 2018 AWS Summit at Madrid
- **Intranet migration from TTS to Drupal** (May 2017 - Jan 2018)
  Content migration from a TTS platform to Drupal.
- **Drupal Corporate Website (> 2k employees)** (Jul 2016 - Jul 2017)
- **Intranet migration from Oracle Portal to Drupal (> 2k employees)** (Jun 2016 - Feb 2017)
  Content migration from Oracle Portal to Drupal.
- **Security audit for complementary currency's mobile app and API based on Cyclos** (Dec 2016)
- **Gamebook Experience** (Jul 2011 - Apr 2013)
  Gamebook Experience, is the name of the line of gamebooks released by Epnuke Studio. As Technomancer, I developed Kerta, a language to annotate plain text to allow the reader app to reproduce complex gamebooks. Also i have been involved in all the steps of the design of the game: "Saint George, the forging of a Legend".
- **Integration platform for medical data capture and archive** (2007 - 2008)
  High throughput platform to capture and consolidate medical data in Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS).

## Skills

### Technical
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Apache
- Bash
- Blockchain
- C
- Cloud Computing
- CSS
- DevOps
- Distributed Systems
- Django
- Eclipse
- Git
- GitHub
- Go
- Go (Programming Language)
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- HTML 5
- Java
- Java Enterprise Edition
- JavaScript
- JSON
- Linux
- MySQL
- Nginx
- PHP
- PostgreSQL
- Python
- Ruby
- Ruby on Rails
- Shell Scripting
- Software Design
- Software Development
- SQL
- XML
### Business
- Agile Methodologies
- Public Relations
- Software Project Management
- Team Management
### Interpersonal
- Communication
- Leadership
- Public speaking
- Technical Leadership
### Community
- Community Building
- Open Source
- Open Source Software
### Other
- Android
- Ansible
- Brainfuck
- Chef
- Cybersecurity Incident Response
- European Law
- Free Software
- Google App Engine
- Graph Theory
- Observability
- Paint
- Puppet
- Tomcat

## Credentials

- Understanding the EU Cyber Resilience Act CRA (LFEL1001) — The Linux Foundation (Jun 2025) https://ti-user-certificates.s3.amazonaws.com/e0df7fbf-a057-42af-8a1f-590912be5460/610d6f49-66e3-4b93-9d0f-e9b757052c3d-dario-casta-83843665-b0de-4aec-b740-27e7002c5bab-certificate.pdf
- Certificate of English Proficiency (Level CEFR C1+) — goFLUENT (Mar 2023)
- Wardley Mapping Practitioner — Hired Thought (Jan 2023)
- Triplebyte Certified — Triplebyte (Dec 2022) https://triplebyte.com/tb/dario-castane-2chveq3/certificate
- TeamOps Certification — GitLab (Nov 2022) https://levelup.gitlab.com/c/MHqNizkSRVGn2Se1Vko9EQ
- Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust (getAbstract Summary) — LinkedIn (Aug 2022) https://www.linkedin.com/learning/certificates/464dfe0eba9d45180a7113a7eed88291a0d26c199b77e11830c479cfd812ee80
- ISO 27001 Cybersecurity manager: Guidelines — Udemy (Dec 2021) https://www.udemy.com/certificate/UC-c29ad244-062a-492f-b92e-144a33230029/
- edX Verified Certificate for Introduction to Hyperledger Sovereign Identity Blockchain Solutions: Indy, Aries & Ursa — edX (May 2021) https://courses.edx.org/certificates/c01eb4d1abc548b790f2920728d60bcd
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate - RECERTIFICATION — Amazon Web Services (Dec 2017)
- Introducción al peritaje jurídico informático — ASPERTIC - Asociación profesional de peritos informáticos (2016)
- AWS Solutions Architect - Associate — Amazon Web Services (Dec 2015) https://aws.amazon.com/es/certification/certified-solutions-architect-associate/
- Seguridad Informática y Hacking de Sistemas — Ceina Formació (Mar 2007) https://www.educaweb.com/curso/seguridad-informatica-hacking-sistemas-barcelona-124456/

## Education

- **Universitat Oberta de Catalunya** — Bachelor (2006 - 2010)
  Enginyeria Tècnica en Informàtica de Sistemes
- **IES Milà i Fontanals** — CFGS (2005 - 2006)
- **IES Milà i Fontanals** — CFGS (2003 - 2005)

## Involvement

### Volunteering
- TICAnoia (2017 - Present)
  Board Member
  Member of the Blockchain Workgroup.
- Fundación Inceptum (2014 - Present)
  President
- Mergo (Mar 2013 - Present)
  Open Source Developer
  Creation and maintenance of an free software library in Go, used by 40K repositories, including projects like Docker and Kubernetes and companies like Google, Github, Telefónica, HP, VMware, etc.
  
  URL: https://github.com/imdario/mergo
- Pirates de Catalunya (Jun 2019 - Sep 2024)
  International delegate
  I represent the Catalan pirate party in international meetings and assemblies.
- Freedom to share (May 2020 - May 2021)
  Organizer
  To legalise sharing – via digital networks, for personal use and non-profit purposes – of files containing works and other material protected by copyright, related rights and sui generis database rights, with a view to striking a balance between the rights of authors and other rightholders and the universal right to science and culture.
- Associació Blockchain Catalunya (Mar 2019 - May 2021)
  Board Member
- Vocdoni (Feb 2021)
  Frontend Developer
  I led the effort of building the UI for 14fruites.cat, the blockchain-based opinion poll, featured in TV3, RTVE, and other media. It integrated with Vocdoni's digital voting platform using React.
  
  Almost 2.000 people participated in this initiative: https://www.elnacional.cat/es/politica/2000-personas-participan-primera-prueba-voto-digital-14-f_583530_102.html
- Pirates de Catalunya (Jun 2015 - Jun 2019)
  Board Member
- Referéndum Real Ya (Apr 2014 - Jun 2014)
  Technical Coordinator
  From https://15mpedia.org/wiki/Referendum_Real_Ya:  Referendum Real Ya es el nombre dado a una actividad lanzada por colectivos del 15M y la Plataforma DRY, que han convocado un referéndum para realizar entre los días 14 y 19 de junio, antes de la proclamación de Felipe VI. En esta consulta ciudadana (no oficial ni vinculante), se permitirá el voto por Internet mediante la plataforma Ágora Voting, ya usada en las primarias de Podemos o la iniciativa Congreso Transparente del partido Compromís. La plataforma AgoraVoting permite autentificación mediante el certificado digital del DNIe.
- Multireferèndum (Jan 2014 - May 2014)
  Technical Coordinator
  From http://www.multireferendum.cat/:  Multireferèndum 2014 és una convocatòria, de la gent per a la gent, per debatre i decidir sobre qüestions bloquejades en les institucions polítiques. Neix a proposta de Som lo que Sembrem i la Plataforma Aturem el Fracking i ha culminat en una primera onada, durant les setmanes prèvies a les eleccions europees de maig de 2014. Amb ella, cerquem pràctiques que ens portin cap a una democràcia creixent i directa.
- Unconditional Basic Income ECI (Mar 2013 - Nov 2013)
  Campaign Coordinator
  http://basicincome2013.eu/ubi/
- Pirates de Catalunya (Sep 2010 - Feb 2013)
  TIC coordinator
  Political campaing manager and IT coordinator.

## Languages

- Catalan (native)
- Spanish (native)
- English (full professional)

## Links

- activitypub: https://mastodont.cat/@dario
- hackernews: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=darccio
- linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darccio
- tangled: https://tangled.org/did:plc:aj77r5uwt72o6oimdjfplqoz
- dns: https://dario.cat
- github: https://github.com/darccio
- bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/dario.cat