I build systems
that just work.

I'm an engineer that can connect the dots - working all the way from web browsers and mobile apps, through backend and distributed systems down to edge devices, bare metal embedded software and robots.

Nowadays I work as a freelancer and I'm looking for challenging projects to work on!

Get in touch → See my work

Available for new projects · Wrocław, Poland · Remote

maciek.py

from kwakkwaktech.web.models import Engineer

maciek = Engineer(
	name="Maciej Bałuta",
	company="Kwak Kwak Tech",
	experience_years=10,
	languages={
		"Python", "C", "C++",
		"JavaScript"
	},
	domains={
		"Distributed systems",
		"Embedded Linux",
		"IoT",
		"Robotics",
		"Web development",
	},
	engineering_values=[
		"security",
		"reliability",
		"user experience",
	],
	prev_employers=[
		"Opera Software",
		"Facebook",
		"Automata",
	],
	location="Wrocław, Poland",
	remote=True,
	available=True,
)

What I do

Full-stack, embedded, cloud,
start to finish.

I work across the whole stack — from bare-metal firmware through Linux drivers, Docker services all the way to distributed backends in the cloud.
Oh, and I like web development too.

Do you have something in mind that's not listed here?
I'm keen to learn new things!

Linux & Edge

Embedded Linux & edge devices

Yocto-based Linux distributions, custom drivers, edge device provisioning and maintenance. I've maintained in-house Linux distributions, written Linux drivers, and built secure web interfaces for edge devices backed by mTLS and local certificate authorities.

Yocto
Linux
mTLS / PKI
Python
C

Embedded

Firmware development

Collecting data from sensors, actuation, communication/networking, device libraries, HALs, GUIs, optimizing code and of course debugging.
I have experience with ARM on STM32 platform and AVR on Arduino. Now I'm learning ESP32 with ESP-IDF.

STM32
Arduino
Mesh networks
C
C++

Reliability Engineering

Edge fleet management

I help keep your devices online and secure. Metrics, logs, alerting, OTA updates, cloud integration, vulnerability management, secure remote access.

O11y
Fleet management

IoT & Robotics

Device integration

Integration of hardware into your system for control and firmware updates. I have experience with SCARA robots, gantries and all sorts of lab automation equipment. You get elegant code which abstracts device internals.

Serial
TCP
gRPC
MQTT

Backend

Distributed backends & APIs

Backend systems that are reliable, secure, scalable and easy to maintain.

Python
SQL
Kafka
FastAPI
Docker

Web development

Web interfaces & frontend development

Fast, responsive and pixel-perfect web pages built with vanilla HTML/CSS/JS or modern frameworks like Astro and React.
Particularly interested in web UIs that sit on top of hardware systems — device dashboards, admin panels, configuration interfaces — where reliability and clarity matter more than flash.

HTML
CSS
JS
Astro
React
Responsive
HMI

Selected work

Projects I've shipped.

Own Service

2026–now

QuakOS ↗

A cloud-managed OS based on Yocto with management platform for building web-based services, like kiosks, digital signage or HMIs.
QuakOS handles provisioning, OTA updates, certificate management, and system optimization — so you can focus on building your application without worrying about the OS underneath.

Yocto
Embedded Linux
OTA
Cloud
mTLS

Lab Automation

2025

Driver framework for laboratory equipment

Built a .NET library and framework for a lab automation company to simplify driver development for laboratory instruments which often require using Windows while the rest of the platform runs on Linux.

.NET
C#

Robotics

2023–2025

Robotics transport system

Designed and built a transport system abstraction enabling control of multiple robot types — SCARA arms and magnetic shuttle systems — through a simple Python interface. The system coordinates actions of multiple robots to transport payload from A to B with single call like transport(A, B) without requiring the user to know which robots are going to be used.

Python
gRPC
Docker
Robotics

Android & Security

2021

Remote control of Android calls

Worked on a system for remote control of Android devices for videoconferences: defined protocol to support multiple use-cases, traced Android APIs down to AOSP level to understand undocumented behaviour, designed authentication and security schemes, implementation of the system in Java.

Android
AOSP
mTLS

Reliability Engineering

2019

Crash collection system

Built a pipeline to collect stack traces from Linux-based edge devices. Binaries at the edge are commonly shipped without debug symbols, so we needed a system to combine core dump with debug symbols saved while building the binary. While doing this once is relatively straightforward, the problem gets more interesting when you have thousands of devices (likely crashing at the same time!), so I needed to add safeguards and rate limits.

Linux
gdb
Kafka
Python
Distributed systems

Distributed Systems

2018

Distributed cache at scale

Rebuilt a localhost caching system into a distributed system running across hundreds of servers serving millions of users. This allowed storing much more data in the cache which improved system performance and reduced bandwidth costs. Implemented consistent hashing for reliable key distribution and Bloom filters to eliminate unnecessary cache lookups — measurably improving throughput under load.

C++
Consistent hashing
Bloom filters
Distributed systems

Embedded & Networking

2017

Mesh network for nRF24L01+

As a project at the university I wrote mesh networking library for nRF24L01+ radio - it uses principles of Babel protocol to define protocol that fits in 32-byte frame.

C++
Mesh network
Arduino

I build systemsthat just work.

Full-stack, embedded, cloud,start to finish.