James Pic
James Pic is a full-stack developer, DevOps engineer, systems administrator and Open Source maintainer based in South West France. He has been writing software since 1995 and running Linux at home since 2004, then in production since 2006. His work combines software engineering, infrastructure automation, testing, continuous delivery, operations, security, and Lean practice.
He has contributed to Python, Django, Ansible, OpenStack, ElectionGuard, Arch Linux and many smaller projects, with more than 20,000 Open Source commits across public git platforms. His long-running projects include Django and Python libraries used by companies, public institutions, banks, insurance companies, governments, and large engineering teams.
James works best where development and operations are not separated: product teams, infrastructure teams, regulated environments, internal platforms, government systems, and complex legacy systems that need to become reliable, testable, automated, and maintainable.
Professional profile
- Full-stack development: Python, Django, JavaScript, React, VueJS, Web Components, PostgreSQL, MySQL.
- DevOps and platform engineering: Linux, Docker, docker-compose, Kubernetes, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Ansible, Traefik, Prometheus, Grafana, Netdata, restic, rsync.
- Cloud and infrastructure: OpenStack, Kolla-Ansible, OVN/Open vSwitch, VMware, Rancher, AWX, Kubeflow, air-gapped deployments, bare metal operations.
- Observability and automation: Dynatrace, Prometheus, Thanos, Grafana, ServiceNow, LogNCall, dynamic inventory, infrastructure discovery, AI-assisted operational workflows.
- Security and operations: hardened Linux, GrSecurity, SELinux, firewalld, Postfix, backup and restore, CI/CD hardening, production debugging.
- Engineering practice: Test Driven Development since 2007, continuous integration, continuous delivery, technical documentation, Lean and agile coaching.
Selected achievements
- Built and still maintains the MRS Django platform for French Social Security, used by 10,000 administrators, handling about 1 million user requests per year and generating approximately 10 million euros per year in savings.
- Created and maintained Open Source Django packages such as
django-autocomplete-light,crudlfa+,django-dbdiff,django-responsediff,djhacker,cli2, andbigsudo. - Contributed to Python, Django, Ansible, OpenStack, ElectionGuard-Python and Arch Linux.
- Awarded the eZ Components Award in 2008 for research on an MVC component library.
- Recognized as a NASA Mars 2020 contributor through code contributed to Python.
- Recognized as a GitHub Arctic Code Vault contributor for contributions to Python, Django, Ansible and other archived projects.
- Ranked in the all-time top 0.78% on StackOverflow, with gold badges in Python and Django.
Work experience
BNP Paribas
Developer and DevOps Engineer
2024 - present
Technologies: Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MongoDB, Cassandra, Dynatrace, Python, Django, Ansible, Prometheus, Thanos, Grafana, ServiceNow, LogNCall, Jira, AI pipelines.
James works on large-scale database operations and observability for tens of thousands of database instances, including Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MongoDB and Cassandra. He helped onboard the database estate into Dynatrace and automated the Dynatrace onboarding process.
Within the Cassandra team, he automated a database-backed instance and network referential using network scanning and introspection. The system discovers reachable IP addresses, connects to servers it can access, introspects them to identify Cassandra instances, registers them in a database, displays the inventory through a Django website, and generates dynamic Ansible inventory from that database.
He also built custom Cassandra monitoring with Prometheus, Thanos and Grafana, as well as custom alerting integrated with ServiceNow and LogNCall. The platform includes AI pipelines that investigate alerts.
James also maintains an AI pipeline that investigates deployment failures. The workflow searches for the root cause through an iterative loop, applies chain-of-thought and ReAct-style reasoning patterns, searches existing Jira tickets to attach new occurrences to known errors, and creates new Jira tickets when needed.
French Social Security
Full Stack Developer, DevOps Engineer and Systems Administrator
2017 - present, Toulouse
Technologies: Python, Django, PostgreSQL, Postfix, Docker, docker-compose, Traefik, Netdata, Prometheus, Grafana, Bash, restic, rsync, GitLab CI, Linux, JavaScript, React, Jenkins, pytest, Kubernetes.
James started a Django project from scratch and brought it to production with CI, 85% code coverage, continuous delivery with Ansible and Docker, and bare metal deployment. The system now supports 10,000 Social Security administrators, handles about 1 million user requests per year, and produces approximately 10 million euros per year in savings. His company continues to maintain the platform.
Thales
Lead DevOps Engineer and Systems Administrator
2022 - 2024
Technologies: Python, Ansible, VMware, Kubernetes, Jira, Bitbucket, GitLab CI, Docker, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SELinux, firewalld, Linux, Windows, Bash, PowerShell, pytest, AWS, Azure.
James consulted for Thales Group on air-gapped automation with Ansible, Ansible action plugin development in Python and PowerShell, Ansible collection development, Git, Docker, and internal training. He administered GitLab and development servers, supported developers on RHEL environments, contributed to Ansible, and promoted Kubernetes Operator development.
Accenture / Objectif Libre
Cloud Consultant
2021 - 2022
Technologies: OpenStack, Python, MySQL, Galera, Kolla-Ansible, Ansible, Kubernetes, Kubeflow, AWX, Rancher, VMware.
James deployed secure OpenStack platforms in air-gapped environments, including work at MBDA Systems with Kolla-Ansible and OVN/Open vSwitch. He deployed AWX and Kubeflow on Kubernetes, debugged operators, contributed to Kolla-Ansible, supported OpenStack customers including Orange and INRAE, and worked with Societe Generale on OpenStack Cinder migrations and upgrades.
He also implemented automatic provisioning over vCenter for Rancher Kubernetes for a French education institution.
EquiSafe
Lead Developer, DevOps Engineer and Systems Administrator
2019 - 2020, Paris
Technologies: Python, Django, Ansible, Docker, docker-compose, PostgreSQL, Node.js, AWS, blockchain, Ethereum, Tezos, VueJS, Lemonway, JavaScript, Cypress, pytest.
James first joined as Lean Sensei and agile coach, then moved into a full-time technical leadership role. He worked on Python, Django, VueJS, Docker, observability, GitLab CI, Ethereum and Tezos development, while administering CI, staging and production servers.
PeopleDoc
DevOps Engineer, SecOps Engineer and Systems Administrator
2015 - 2017, Paris
Technologies: LXC, OpenStack, Ansible, Jenkins, GitHub, Linux, Bash, PostgreSQL, SaltStack.
James developed continuous integration for automated deployment across a stack of about 40 services. He automated tests for legacy SaltStack code with LXC containers, led the migration to Ansible, implemented continuous delivery and DevOps practices, participated in the security team, and maintained the internal OpenStack platform deployed on OpenCompute servers over PXE.
Numergy
OpenStack Developer, DevOps Engineer and Systems Administrator
2014 - 2015, Paris
Technologies: Python, RabbitMQ, OpenStack, MySQL, Galera, iptables, OpenVPN.
James developed four custom OpenStack services to replace default components: NAT agent, firewall agent, load balancer agent and VPN agent. He also automated most of the infrastructure with Ansible and Chef, including backups, rollback procedures, zero-downtime updates and encrypted secrets.
NeoSkills
Systems Administrator
2005 - 2014
Technologies: Gentoo, Linux Hardened, GrSecurity, VServer, PHP, MySQL, Apache, FastCGI.
James co-administered NeoSkills servers with William Waisse, also known as ne0futur, during the FreeNode IRC years. The team hosted PHP projects on Gentoo Linux Hardened with GrSecurity and VServer, including government-oriented security setups and custom binary package distributions.
France Premium
Full Stack Developer, DevOps Engineer and Systems Administrator
2010 - 2013
Technologies: Python, Linux, Django, PostgreSQL, PHP, MySQL, Redmine, JavaScript, Jenkins, Prestashop.
James worked on MadeleineMarket.com, synchronizing Prestashop with Easiware CRM through APIs. He also implemented features and bug fixes for LibeFood, a content aggregator, a sports betting social network, a niche CRM, and a CMS for art curators. He handled DevOps and systems administration on Linux bare metal.
Actif2i
Full Stack Developer, DevOps Engineer and Systems Administrator
2006 - 2010, Toulouse
Technologies: Python, Django, Linux, PHP, Gentoo Hardened, GrSecurity, MySQL, JavaScript, PHPUnit, unittest.
Actif2i was an agency run by a web designer and James as the technical lead. He handled full-stack development, DevOps and systems administration for many PHP and Django projects across a wide variety of customers, on bare metal Linux servers that he administered.
Jouve
Developer
2004 - 2006, Paris
Technologies: PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, WinDev.
James developed a print-on-demand online platform during the growth of industrial digital printing. He also worked on smaller SEO-oriented websites and WinDev GUI development for an internal CRM before choosing to work independently with Open Source and Linux.
Open Source and volunteering
Open Source software
Contributor, developer, DevOps engineer and systems administrator
2007 - present
James has contributed to major Open Source projects and maintains many smaller ones:
- Python: security bug fix.
- Django: 9 contributions.
- Ansible: 14 contributions.
- ElectionGuard-Python: 1 contribution.
- OpenStack: 4 contributions.
- Arch Linux: various contributions.
- More than 20,000 commits across GitHub, GitLab, YourLabs and related public repositories.
He also maintains CI, GitLab and other servers for the YourLabs hacker club, including Kubernetes deployments and project hosting.
La Quadrature du Net
Full Stack Developer, DevOps Engineer and Systems Administrator
2015 - 2017, Paris
Technologies: Python, Django, PostgreSQL, GitLab CI.
James rewrote Political Memory, also known as Memopol, from scratch and maintained it over the years. Memopol is known for its role in the campaign that helped block ACTA at the European Parliament. James also handled DevOps and systems administration on bare metal servers.
Awards and recognition
- 2024: All-time top 0.78% on StackOverflow, with almost 600 answers.
- 2021: NASA Mars 2020 contributor through code contributed to Python.
- 2020: GitHub Arctic Code Vault contributor, including Python, Django, Ansible and other repositories.
- 2015: Python gold badge on StackOverflow.
- 2014: Django gold badge on StackOverflow.
- 2008: eZ Components Award from eZ Systems for research on an MVC component library.
Speaking and community
- 2024: Hack’n’Dev BarCamp #0.2, YourLabs HackerSpace, Angouleme.
- 2020: eXtreme DevOps practice with Traefik, Traefik Meetup.
- 2017: Atelier Memopol, PyConFR.
- 2017: Continuous Delivery and DevOps QuickStart, DjangoCong.
- 2017: History of Taylorism and Lean, originally for the PeopleDoc DevOps Guild and later presented in other venues.
- 2016: Stabiliser SaltStack avec Ansible, Ansible Meetup Paris.
Projects
Electeez
Created Electis from scratch: an Open Source online voting platform secured with homomorphic encryption and blockchain, deployed in several French institutions.
crudlfa+
Technologies: Python, Django, MVC, Selenium, pytest, JavaScript, Sphinx.
Originally built for Alcatel to refactor CRUD code, crudlfa+ enriches Django
with a CRUD engine more powerful than Django admin. It is deployed in companies
and government institutions.
django-autocomplete-light
Technologies: JavaScript, Python, Django, Selenium, Sphinx.
An autocompletion plugin for Django created in 2012 and maintained for more than ten years, with more than a thousand GitHub stars and professional support for companies such as Hitachi.
bigsudo
Technologies: Ansible, GitLab, pytest, cli2.
A wrapper for Ansible that automates recursive role dependency download and encapsulates common operational boilerplate.
Ryzom
Technologies: Python, Django, JavaScript, pytest.
Open Source isomorphic web components written in Python and transpiled to JavaScript, with support for Django and Google’s Material Design Components.
django-responsediff
Technologies: Python, Django, pytest.
HTTP response diffing against fixtures for testing, including a spider. It helps build regression tests from observed responses.
django-dbdiff
Technologies: Python, Django, pytest.
A pytest plugin for database state assertion and diffing, designed to reduce repetitive manual testing.
djhacker
Long-term solutions for features that James believes should exist in Django, started in 2021.
cli2
A Python CLI library based on metaprogramming. It was started in 2018 to reduce the verbosity James encountered in other CLI frameworks.
Other projects
djwc: Django plugin to ease Web Components integration.shlax-old: experiments around Docker-style build and execution, and Ansible-like automation.compoctl: backup and restore tooling for docker-compose.django-appwatch: tooling inspired bydjango.contrib.staticfiles.
Writing and media
- My English Blog, since 2012.
- My French Blog, since 2020.
- “Mon Cassos Vitae de SysAdmin/Hacker”, 2019.
- “LXC demystifie”, PeopleDoc Engineering blog, 2016.
- “Programmation par composants MVC”, Programmez! Magazine, 2007.
Education
Systems and Network Administration Certificate
Illinois University of Technology, 2007.
Contact
- Website: yourlabs.org
- GitHub: github.com/jpic
- GitLab: gitlab.com/jpic
- Email: jpic@yourlabs.org