From the ambulance to the backend

I'm Michael Danko, a backend and DevOps engineer based in Austin, Texas. I work mostly in Java and Python, and I like the parts of software that keep systems running: services, pipelines, and infrastructure.

Before software

My first career was in emergency services. From 2013 to 2016 I worked as a Firefighter/Paramedic with Marion County Fire Rescue. That job teaches you to stay calm under pressure, work the problem in front of you one step at a time, and communicate clearly with your team when things are going wrong. Those habits carried straight over into engineering, especially when something breaks in production.

I earned my B.S. in Computer Science from Florida State University in 2016.

Software engineering

From 2017 to 2023 I was a Software Engineer at General Motors. I built Java backend applications with Spring and did DevOps work on CI/CD pipelines in Jenkins and Azure DevOps (VSTS). One notable project was migrating a Salesforce-based backend service to an in-house Java/Spring backend.

Family and the home lab

Since 2023 I've spent time at home caring for my kids, and I've kept building the whole way through. I run a self-hosted home lab on a custom server I built from consumer hardware: Proxmox VE as the hypervisor, services in Docker, Nginx Proxy Manager for reverse proxying and TLS, Home Assistant, a UniFi Network controller, a self-hosted Git server, and a few game servers. Right now I'm exploring Kubernetes. I write about it on the blog.

Outside of tech, I earned my Private Pilot License from the FAA in 2025.

What I'm looking for

I'm open to:

• Remote senior backend roles (Java or Python)
• Remote DevOps roles
• Local software roles in the Austin, TX area

If that sounds like a fit, I'd love to hear from you. Take a look at my resume or reach out below.