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| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +title: "Contributor Spotlight: Jaime Silvela" |
| 3 | +date: 2025-07-08 |
| 4 | +draft: false |
| 5 | +image: |
| 6 | + url: jaime.jpg |
| 7 | + attribution: |
| 8 | +author: fdrees |
| 9 | +tags: |
| 10 | + - kubectl |
| 11 | + - ciclops |
| 12 | + - kubernetes |
| 13 | + - postgresql |
| 14 | + - open-source |
| 15 | + - spotlight |
| 16 | +summary: "In a mini-series on this blog we highlight the work of the community. |
| 17 | + Today we meet Jaime Silvela, experienced software developer and system |
| 18 | + builder and CloudNativePG component owner." |
| 19 | +--- |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | +Building and maintaining an open source project takes a village. In a |
| 22 | +mini-series on this blog we would like to highlight the work of our |
| 23 | +maintainers, component owners, and members of the larger community. |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +Jaime Silvela ([jsilvela](https://github.com/jsilvela) on GitHub), is an experienced software developer and |
| 27 | +system builder, and a component owner for the CloudNativePG project. If you've |
| 28 | +ever visited cloudnative-pg.io (spoiler: you have now), you've seen his work. |
| 29 | +Jaime is currently on a sabbatical of sorts, after working at EDB from 2021 to |
| 30 | +2025, first as a Senior developer, then as a Principal. |
| 31 | + |
| 32 | +When he started at EDB, the operator (then called CNP) had not yet been made |
| 33 | +open source. "I was so lucky to land in the team building CloudNativePG." His |
| 34 | +first real contribution was adding the `report` command for the kubectl plugin. |
| 35 | +Other significant ones were declarative roles and tablespaces, documentation, |
| 36 | +and creating [Ciclops](https://cloudnative-pg.io/blog/introducing-ciclops/). |
| 37 | + |
| 38 | +"CloudNativePG already does most of what I need; it's what I'll use in any |
| 39 | +project where I have a choice." It's not the project that needs to change, |
| 40 | +says Jaime. What he most wants applies to Kubernetes, and only by refraction |
| 41 | +to CNPG: "I would like to see more consolidation and refinement in the K8s |
| 42 | +ecosystem. There is too much complexity right now, and at the same time, I |
| 43 | +see this careless attitude of _just deploy this manifest on your K8s cluster_ |
| 44 | +that reminds me of ... NPM." |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +Like many in his generation, from a young age Jaime was attracted to computers, |
| 47 | +which still felt arcane and unexplored. "I have fond memories of my family's |
| 48 | +Commodore VIC-20. But it was not until reading [*Structure and Interpretation |
| 49 | +of Computer Programs*](https://mitp-content-server.mit.edu/books/content/sectbyfn/books_pres_0/6515/sicp.zip/index.html) in my early twenties that I thought of writing code for |
| 50 | +a living." That book also motivated him to move to the US for graduate school, |
| 51 | +which he did in 2003. |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +To the question what he wants to be when he grows up, Jaime answers: "I just |
| 54 | +turned 50, and you don't find so many developers of that age. But I intend |
| 55 | +to keep writing code; I have more contributions to make!" Even if these days |
| 56 | +there's a lot of hype around generative AI / LLM tools, Jaime is betting and |
| 57 | +hoping that when the dust settles, there will still be a big need for human |
| 58 | +software developers. "Do not obey in advance!" We know who to go to battle |
| 59 | +with when the singularity comes. |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | +If you wanted to get in touch with Jaime, you can find him in the |
| 62 | +CloudNativePG channels on the CNCF Slack workspace, or on [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/jaimes.bsky.social), |
| 63 | +[Mastodon ](https://mastodon.social/@[email protected]), or [LinkedIn ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimesilvela/). He also writes a [blog ](https://blog.silvela.org/). You can follow the CloudNativePG project on [Bluesky ](https://cloudnativepg.bsky.social) and [Mastodon ](https://mastodon.social/@CloudNativePG) too! |
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