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Melih Karagöz

Computer engineer in Istanbul, building production-grade LLM platforms and the cloud infrastructure they run on — with roots in embedded hardware, networking and self-hosted systems.

  • [ AI ]
  • [ Embedded ]
  • [ Cloud ]
  • [ Security ]
Get in touch Download CV ↓

01. About

I’m a computer engineer based in Istanbul who loves building and automating systems — from embedded hardware all the way up to cloud infrastructure. Currently I work at Skyloop Cloud & AI as an AI Engineer, designing, deploying and operating production-grade LLM-based systems in both cloud and on-premise environments.

Before that, I spent two years owning the full lifecycle of Linux-based production systems: building virtualised on-premise infrastructure with ESXi and FortiGate, running end-to-end DevOps pipelines, and shipping backend services people use every day.

What ties it all together is a background in IoT, networking and backend development, combined with hands-on cloud experience on AWS and self-hosted stacks. If it has a CPU and a network interface, I probably want to automate it.

02. Experience

  1. 2025 — Present

    AI & Cloud Engineer @ Skyloop Cloud & AI

    • Leading the deployment and delivery of ZZeti, an on-premise AI platform for running local LLMs, building agents, defining workflows and guardrails, and connecting third-party tools via custom MCP servers — without data ever leaving the customer’s infrastructure.
    • Handling the full delivery cycle: on-site installation, customer integration, agent system-prompt design, custom MCP development and post-sale technical support.
    • Designing and operating production-grade AWS infrastructure with Step Functions, Lambda, API Gateway, S3 and RDS — reliable, event-driven and cost-efficient architectures that stay observable and maintainable.

  2. 2023 — 2025

    Full-Stack Developer & DevOps Engineer @ Sancaktepe Municipality

    • Architected and launched services including live streaming, IoT-based turnstile access control and an SMS proxy on Dockerised Django/FastAPI stacks with PostgreSQL — delivering sub-300ms real-time operations over WebSockets.
    • Built the on-premise virtualisation layer from scratch: VMware ESXi on bare metal, vSphere for central management and FortiGate as the network-wide gateway enforcing traffic inspection and access control.
    • Managed the full lifecycle of dozens of Ubuntu/Debian servers and migrated the team to self-hosted GitLab with CI/CD pipelines, owning the final review and release of every production deployment.

  3. 2022 — 2023

    IT Specialist & Help Desk @ ForTech Bilisim

    • Provided remote L1 support for Gratis retail stores nationwide under strict SLA targets — diagnosing POS terminals, handheld scanners, printers, PCs and network links across dozens of branches, and escalating where needed.

03. Projects

A selection of systems I have built and shipped — most of them still running in production today.

  • ZZeti — On-Prem AI Platform

    Enterprise platform for running local LLMs with agents, workflows, guardrails and budget controls. I lead end-to-end delivery: on-site installs, customer integrations, custom MCP servers and agent design.

    • LLM
    • AI Agents
    • MCP
    • On-Premise

  • IoT Turnstile Access Control

    Card-based access system for municipal sports centres — remote-controlled gates, schedule-based appointments and encrypted socket validation between the hardware and the backend.

    • IoT
    • Django
    • PostgreSQL
    • Sockets

  • Live Streaming Platform

    Municipal live-streaming service with real-time viewer tracking over WebSockets, delivering sub-300ms latency on a Dockerised FastAPI stack running on Linux.

    • FastAPI
    • WebSocket
    • Docker
    • Linux

  • Self-Hosted Infrastructure Suite

    Deployed and operated self-hosted GitLab with CI/CD runners, RustDesk remote desktop and XIBO digital signage — cutting licence and support costs by roughly ₺1M per year.

    • GitLab CI/CD
    • Docker
    • Linux

  • On-Prem Virtualisation & Network Security

    Bare-metal ESXi hosts managed through vSphere, fronted by a FortiGate gateway enforcing network-wide traffic inspection and access control for every server behind it.

    • VMware ESXi
    • vSphere
    • FortiGate
    • Networking

  • SMS Proxy Service

    Central SMS gateway that routes and audits outgoing messages for municipal services, running on a Dockerised Django stack with PostgreSQL.

    • Django
    • REST API
    • Docker

04. Skills

  • AI & LLM Engineering

    • Local LLM Deployment
    • AI Agents & Workflows
    • MCP Server Development
    • Prompt Engineering
    • Guardrails & Budgets

  • Cloud & DevOps

    • AWS (Lambda, Step Functions, S3, RDS)
    • Docker
    • GitLab CI/CD
    • Linux Administration
    • VMware ESXi & vSphere

  • Software Development

    • Python
    • Django & FastAPI
    • PostgreSQL
    • WebSockets
    • REST APIs
    • Bash

  • Embedded & IoT

    • IoT System Design
    • Embedded Hardware
    • Serial Communication
    • Access Control Systems
    • Arduino

  • Networking & Security

    • FortiGate
    • Network Segmentation
    • Traffic Inspection
    • Firewall Policies
    • Encrypted Socket Validation

05. Writing

I occasionally write about AI engineering, infrastructure and homelab experiments on Medium.

All posts on Medium ↗

06. Education

  • Gedik University

    B.Sc. Computer Engineering

    2021 — 2026

  • Kocaeli University

    Associate Degree, Computer Programming

    2019 — 2021

  • TCMB MTAL

    Electrical & Electronics (High School)

    2014 — 2018

// Certificates

AWS Certified Developer — Associate

Amazon Web Services

2026 — 2029

// What's next?

Get In Touch

Whether you have a question, a project idea, or just want to say hi — my inbox is always open.

Say hello