also known as daveloper
Brussels, Belgium Full-stack & platform engineer

David
Nyckees.

I've been building software since I was nine. I still can't stop.

Now

Building Questix with Cloudcastle. Open to senior full-stack and platform roles.

born 1983 — coding since 1992 currently: Brussels, BE

§ 01

Selected
work.

Two projects worth showing. Questix is what I've been building with my co-founder for the last two years. Before that, four years as a platform engineer at Paradigm, inside the Brussels public sector.

01 — 2024 / present

Questix.

AI-powered SaaS platform

Role Co-founder, full-stack eng.
Studio Cloudcastle
Status Friends & family alpha
Timeline ~24 months in

A SaaS for managing tabletop RPG campaigns, built around AI-assisted content generation and the editor workflows behind it. Built under our studio, Cloudcastle, with my co-founder — a Paris-based lead UX designer. I lead the project: product direction, technical decisions, and all of engineering and infrastructure. He leads design and UX.

The product runs on Next.js 16 and React 19 at the edge, with a layered service architecture behind it. Currently in friends-and-family alpha — real users, real billing, kept small on purpose.

Application

Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind, shadcn/ui

Data

PostgreSQL, Prisma, Redis, Neon

Edge

Cloudflare Workers, R2, KV, Queues, Workflows

Ops

Docker Compose, Traefik, Hetzner, GitHub Actions

Auth

NextAuth.js, JWT, RBAC, OAuth 2.1

Testing

Vitest, Playwright, real-DB integration

Observability

Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, audit logging

Monorepo

Turborepo, shared TypeScript contracts

02 — 2020 / 2024

Paradigm.

formerly CIRB — Brussels Regional Informatics Centre

Role Platform Engineer
Promoted from IT Systems Engineer
Scope Municipal infrastructure
Users 500+

Four years inside the public sector — from third-line support to platform engineering. I ran the Azure migration (AD Connect, MS365, identity) for the municipality of Anderlecht, and automated the deployment pipelines that kept it running.

  • — Regularly pulled into architecture decisions and core-team shotcalling on municipal projects, beyond the pure engineering scope.
  • — Managed MS365 / Azure AD deployment and support for 500+ municipal users.
  • — Built monitoring infrastructure in PRTG with SNMPv3 / WMI probes across network segments.
  • — Automated server provisioning and patching (Ansible, PowerShell, Python, Bash).
  • — Built CI/CD pipelines in Jenkins and ran containerised deployments on OpenShift for municipal applications.
  • — Migrated the municipal web stack from PHP 5 to PHP 8 without service interruption.
  • — Maintained integration middleware for EOS and LotusNotes across the social services department.
⁂

§ 02

The
path.

I started in retail and kitchens, learned to code on weekends and nights, and worked my way into engineering roles one job at a time.

2024 / now

Co-founder — Cloudcastle / Questix

Co-founded a small studio with a Paris-based UX designer. I lead the project — product direction, technical decisions, and the full engineering stack (front, back, edge, infra). AI content pipelines, auth, RBAC, edge workers, CI/CD, observability. Friends & family alpha.

2021 / 2024

Platform Engineer — Paradigm

Azure migration, Jenkins and OpenShift CI/CD pipelines, PRTG monitoring, PHP 5 → PHP 8 stack modernization for Anderlecht municipality.

2020 / 2021

IT Systems Engineer — Paradigm

Windows & Linux server administration and third-line support — but quickly pulled into architecture discussions and core-team decision-making beyond the scope of the role. Stepping stone to the platform role.

2018 / 2020

R&D Manager — Mister Genius

Led the replacement of POS and CRM systems across 13 retail locations. Built REST middleware in Python, rolled out zero-touch imaging via PXE. Also tasked with researching and sourcing new technology for the B2B catalogue — travelled to trade shows and suppliers to bring it back.

2016 / 2017

Store Manager — Mister Genius

Ran the shop — daily operations, stock, schedules, supplier contact. 100+ electronic repairs per month. Hired, trained, and managed the junior techs. First real management role.

2013 / 2014

IT Coordinator — FWB — Centre de Technologies Avancées

Public service work. Automated the coordinator's weekly data entry from ten hours to fifteen minutes with Selenium and Python.

Earlier — electronics repair, HORECA, youth technology education. Not engineering titles, but they count.

§ 03

Things I
work with.

Loosely grouped by layer. Older sysadmin tooling (Windows Server, PowerShell, Ansible, PRTG, Azure AD) sits in the Path rather than here.

Languages

  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript
  • Python
  • Bash
  • PowerShell
  • SQL

Frontend

  • React 19
  • Next.js (App Router)
  • Tailwind CSS
  • shadcn/ui, Radix
  • TanStack Query
  • Zustand

Backend & Data

  • Node.js
  • Prisma ORM
  • PostgreSQL, Neon
  • Redis
  • Zod, REST APIs
  • JWT / OAuth 2.1, RBAC

Infra & Ops

  • Docker, Docker Compose
  • Traefik, Hetzner
  • Cloudflare Workers, R2, KV
  • Azure (AD, MS365)
  • GitHub Actions CI/CD
  • Prometheus, Grafana, Loki

§ 04

About
me.

Based in
Brussels, BE
Languages
FR, EN, NL (notions)
Work mode
On-site, hybrid, remote
Email
daveloper@protonmail.com
GitHub
zdaar
LinkedIn
davidnyckees

I've been obsessed with computers since I was nine. My first language was Batch, then PowerShell, then Python. I never got a formal CS education — I taught myself by building things and fixing real problems, which is more or less still how I work.

Most of my jobs in IT ended the same way: I started automating the manual parts. At Paradigm (formerly CIRB) I grew from third-line support into a platform engineering role, running automation pipelines and cloud migrations. Before that, I led a CRM and POS replacement across thirteen retail locations, and built the middleware I needed to make it work.

Since 2024, I've been building Questix with a co-founder under our studio, Cloudcastle. A full SaaS, currently in friends-and-family alpha. The next step — alongside shipping Questix — is a senior engineering role where I can help build reliable systems with people who care about doing things properly.

Outside work — father of two, worldbuilding, painting.