Distributed systems · Technical leadership · Education

I bring clarity to complex systems and complex ideas.

I’m Bassem Dghaidi. I build high-stakes distributed systems, create practical pathways into engineering careers, and teach engineers how to think clearly about technology without the hype.

Explore my work Get in touch

Bassem Dghaidi smiling against a blue background — Software engineer, educator, independent voice

My work sits where scale, failure, and human judgment meet: queues, caches, data stores, platform patterns, and the decisions behind them.

Selected work

Systems that have to keep working.

The most important infrastructure is rarely visible when it works. These are a few of the systems I’ve helped make safer, simpler, and easier to evolve.

GitHub Actions · Data platform resilience

Led the zero-downtime re-architecture of the persistence layer behind GitHub Actions for higher availability and 100× scale.

I led the migration of critical workflow data from a 24 TiB MySQL cluster to Azure Cosmos DB while Actions continued handling more than 200 million jobs a day. We introduced store-agnostic routing, dual writes, shadow reads, parity gates, one-flag rollback, session consistency, and multi-region failover so every cutover remained observable and reversible.

The result: an architecture targeting at least five-nines availability with 100× scale runway, drastically reducing the platform-wide availability and recovery risk of a saturated, single-write-path database cluster.

Daily scale: 200M+ jobs
Scale runway: 100×
Delivery: 3 months

SE Factory · Career acceleration

Launching a career accelerator for software engineers.

Led the launch of Lebanon’s first intensive tech bootcamp, which reached a 91% employment rate across 7 cohorts. The programme was featured by Forbes and selected for the World Economic Forum’s list of 100 Corporate-Ready Social Enterprises. It has since grown into a broader talent ecosystem with more than 1,200 graduates.

I designed and taught the flagship curriculum, built the selection framework, and combined software engineering, professional skills, and employer access into a model I called a career accelerator.

Cohorts led: 7
Employment rate: 91%
Recognition: Forbes + WEF Top 100

Mobiquity Europe · Digital banking

Taking a branchless bank from inception to production.

I led 18 engineers and architected the microservices integration layer behind ila bank in Bahrain. The platform connected onboarding, identity verification, core banking, card management, compliance, Salesforce, and international transfers.

The bank moved from an idea to a production launch in 12 months, making it one of the fastest branchless bank launches in the Gulf.

Engineering team: 18
Time to launch: 12 months
Market: Bahrain

3M+1 · Container terminal systems

Delivering the integrated technology platform behind King Abdullah Port.

I led the end-to-end implementation and integration of the terminal operating, reefer asset management, automation, Oracle E-Business Suite, access control, port community, and shipping-line systems. I also contributed to the design and construction of the port’s three-tier on-premises data center.

I contributed to the architecture of TIMA, 3M+1’s system-of-systems analytics product, which unified data from the terminal’s platforms to provide real-time operational KPIs and cross-system visibility. This helped identify bottlenecks, reduce unnecessary dwell time, and improve operational efficiency.

Core platforms: 5 integrated
External links: PCS + shipping
Infrastructure: 3-tier DC

How I think

Substance over spectacle.

I try to be a deinfluencer in an industry that often rewards certainty, novelty, and tidy answers. Real engineering is usually messier, and more interesting.

“The point isn’t to make a system sound impressive. It’s to understand where it breaks, what it costs, and whether people can trust it.”

Trade-offs belong in the open.

Architecture is not a collection of best practices. It is a record of constraints, risks, and decisions made with incomplete information.

Reliability is organizational.

Retries and circuit breakers matter. So do clear ownership, honest feedback loops, design records, and teams that can say no.

Good work should compound.

A difficult project is more valuable when it leaves behind a library, pattern, or explanation that makes the next project less difficult.

Read my field notes

Teaching in public

I teach the thinking, not just the tooling.

Through glich.stream, courses, talks, and conversations, I translate production experience into useful mental models for system design, Git, CI/CD, and engineering judgment.

450K+ views

One practical conversation about how engineers should think before they draw boxes.

Featured conversation · 450K+ views

How to Think About System Design: A GitHub Engineer’s Perspective

A practical discussion about scaling by orders of magnitude, resisting unnecessary complexity, communicating impact, and thinking clearly before drawing boxes.

Watch the conversation

Courses

GitHub Actions Udacity

Practical System Design glich.stream

The Git Masterclass glich.stream

GitHub Actions: The Full Course glich.stream

Selected stages

Building GitHub with Copilot GitHub Universe A deep dive into ARC WeAreDevelopers Open source in the UN system UNGA 77 side event Building without the buzzwords Overcommitted Podcast

150K+ people across social channels · 400+ videos · 23 speaking appearances · LinkedIn Top Voice

Career

Complex systems are technical, organizational, and human.

More than 15 years in software engineering and architecture have taught me that reliable systems cannot be designed through technology alone. They are also shaped by organizational structures, incentives, communication, and the people who build, operate, and depend on them.

Working across ports, banking, developer tools, and big tech has given me experience at every level of that complexity, from writing software and designing architecture to leading teams, navigating constraints, and helping organizations make consequential technical decisions.

Teaching and public speaking are part of the same practice. Building and teaching at Lebanon’s first intensive tech bootcamp, publishing more than 400 videos, and speaking at industry events have sharpened how I explain difficult ideas, challenge assumptions, and create shared understanding.

Bringing these perspectives together helps me see the whole environment, identify the real constraint, align people around better decisions, and build systems that are more reliable, adaptable, and easier to operate.

2020 to nowGitHubSenior Software Engineer · Senior Solutions Architect

2021 to nowInterop ServicesFounder · glich.stream

2019 to 2020Mobiquity EuropeSenior Solutions Architect

2016 to 2018SE FactoryTechnical Director

2009 to 2016Earlier workSystems engineering · Architecture · Development

Let’s talk

Have a hard systems problem or an honest question?

letsworktogether@interop.com.co