Karen Almog

Technical Product Manager with a background in software engineering. I've spent years building Kubernetes infrastructure and developer tooling, and now I work on product for developers in the same space. I care about open source, developer experience, and shipping things that actually get used.

kalmog@trawler.sh

Experience

Technical Product Manager

Metalbear • 03/2026 - Present

  • Product manager for mirrord, an open source tool for local Kubernetes development.
  • Define product roadmap and work closely with engineering on feature design and prioritization.
  • Engage directly with the developer community to understand pain points and shape the product.

Principal Software Engineer

SysEleven GmbH • 2023 - 02/2026

  • Lead development of Kubernetes-based deployment platform.
  • Participate in architecture and design sessions.
  • Drive technical decision-making and architecture planning.
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define, design, and ship new features.

Engineering Manager - Platform

Flink SE • 12/2022 - 07/2023

  • Managed two teams of 7 engineers.
  • Lead development of Kubernetes-based deployment platform.
  • Initiated company-wide tech talks to reduce knowledge gaps between teams.
  • Ran code walkthroughs and reviews to ensure high-quality code.
  • Mentored and coached team members to help them achieve their career goals.

Senior Software Engineer

Mirantis • 02/2019 - 12/2022

  • Core contributor to k0s: the zero friction k8s distribution.
  • Implemented key features and improvements in Go.
  • Collaborated with open source community.
  • Took part in designing the architecture for k0s.
  • Onboarded and mentored new team members and junior engineers.
  • Established best practices and improvements to operational processes.

Software Engineer

CoreOS (later RedHat) • 10/2017 - 01/2019

  • Developed the machine-api OpenShift operator and AWS/libvirt actuator for Kubernetes.
  • Worked on the CoreOS installer for Tectonic.
  • Migrated infrastructure code from Terraform to Go.

Cloud and Web Operations Engineer

eBay (mobile.de) • 09/2013 - 09/2017

  • Built and migrated mobile.de's infrastructure from legacy systems to OpenStack using Terraform.
  • Created workshops for development teams.
  • Maintained and operated critical production systems.
  • Implemented monitoring and automation solutions using Grafana, Elasticsearch, and more.

Skills

Product

  • Product Strategy
  • Roadmapping
  • Developer Experience
  • Open Source Community
  • Stakeholder Management

Technical

  • Kubernetes
  • Go
  • Cloud Native
  • Platform Engineering

Practices

  • Agile
  • Technical Leadership
  • Cross-functional Collaboration

Speaking