Wagner Souza
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Wagner Souza

00:00Platform Ops Advisor · AI, cost, teams

Find the money your operations waste.

Your ops team, plus AI, closing the biggest leaks. Measured in dollars. Done in 90 days. Your team keeps the tools, the know-how and the savings. I work with a team of senior specialists from big tech.

Book a 30-minute call See the 90 days

25+ years building platforms and teams

  • Globo.com
  • Stone
  • Zoop
  • Farfetch
  • OLX
  • Harumi

01 The one number

The money goes somewhere. Few teams know where.

The bill grows every quarter. The team drowns in repetitive requests and noisy alerts. So we put one number on it, one your CFO already understands.

Leak 1Cloud wasteIdle, oversized and forgotten resources. Read straight from your invoice.
Leak 2ToilHours lost to repetitive work, priced at the hourly cost your finance team gives us.
Leak 3IncidentsEngineer hours spent on pages and outages. Counted only when the data holds up.

Cost to operate = cloud waste + toil + incidents, per month.

Agreed in writing before we start. Measured the same way after.

02 Proof · from the platforms I ran

Numbers from the job, not from a deck.

$0.23→$0.03

Zoop · head of infrastructureAWS cost per transaction.Measured per transaction, the unit the business actually sells.

−60%

Stone · head of infrastructureCompute, after a self-service platform.Product teams got infrastructure through a platform instead of tickets.

−70%

Stone · on-callFalse-positive alerts.Less noise for on-call, so the alerts that remain get answered.

2,000+

Farfetch · platform engineeringEngineers served by one infrastructure platform.Self-serve Elastic, Kafka, Redis and more, run at cloud scale.

03 In their words

He was one of the few executives able to truly translate strategy into technical and organizational results! … as CTO of a technology company, I can count on him again as an advisor …
Breno Lima RibeiroAssessoria Imigratória | Brasil → Portugal | Profissional Global · same team at Farfetch · 2024
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“Wagner and I worked together at Farfetch on a mission to organize its rapid growth! He was one of the few executives able to truly translate strategy into technical and organizational results! With a great balance of negotiation and leadership skills, strategic thinking and technical expertise, he made a difference in this huge and challenging journey! Now, a few years later, as CTO of a technology company, I can count on him again as an advisor to guide the leadership team on technical, strategic and management topics!”

He fulfilled the mission so well that he and his team became a reference within the company. … Wagner is the leader every company should have to grow and honor its clients.
Marcelo BaptistaSenior Enterprise Solutions Architect @ AWS · same team at Stone · 2017

Translated from Portuguese

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“Wagner joined Stone Pagamentos with the mission of building the best technology team to create the best infrastructure of a payments company in Brazil. He fulfilled the mission so well that he and his team became a reference within the company. An excellent technical professional and a born leader, who inspires and dedicates himself to the team, using frankness and transparency to motivate the team and keep it aligned with the company culture. Wagner is an example that we can always learn new things from good people and, even after 30 years of career, I am proof of that, having learned a lot from him. Wagner is the leader every company should have to grow and honor its clients.”

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“Wagner entrou na Stone Pagamentos com a missão de montar a melhor equipe de tecnologia para criar a melhor infraestrutura de uma empresa de pagamentos do Brasil. Ele cumpriu tão bem a missão que ele e seu time viraram referência dentro da companhia. Um técnico excelente e um líder nato, que inspira e se dedica ao time, utilizando da franqueza e transparência para motivar e manter o time alinhado à cultura da empresa. Wagner é um exemplo de que sempre podemos aprender coisas novas com as pessoas boas e, mesmo depois de 30 anos de carreira, sou prova disso, tendo aprendido muito com ele. Wagner é o líder que toda empresa deve ter para crescer e honrar seus clientes.”

Wagner is extremely dedicated professional, really focus effort on execution and have huge sense of ownership. … build the operation team from scratch.
Marcel NicolayCTO | Co-founder Harumi · same team · 2018
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“Wagner is extremely dedicated professional, really focus effort on execution and have huge sense of ownership. He also have strong technical skills in cloud computing, operation, security and reliability. We had opportunity to work together to modernize our engineering and infrastructure tools, security processes and programming stack, implementing a fully automated Continuous Integration and Deployment pipeline and build the operation team from scratch.”

Wagner is an outstanding professional, senior technically speaking and noticeably a leader. … a long experience in tech industry, topped with strong business acumen …
Rafael MarinsFinancial Services Industry Lead, LATAM @ Red Hat · Wagner was his client · 2017
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“Wagner is an outstanding professional, senior technically speaking and noticeably a leader. It was a pleasure to meet him as a Red Hat customer and build a fair relationship and rich experience over Next Generation Architecture debates and Cloud adoption journey. He always maintains a high degree of professionalism and thoroughness. He is the type of individual that everyone would hope to have the pleasure to work with. I endorse him for a long experience in tech industry, topped with strong business acumen, are valuable resources that anyone like to tap into when embarking on a new project or strategy.”

Wagner worked closely with me to build the Infrastructure Platform at Farfetch … with self-serve capabilities to empower over 2K engineers. … He is a believer who inspires others with his actions.
Gaurav GuptaBuilder, Advisor, Product & Technology Leader · managed Wagner directly at Farfetch · 2023
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“Wagner worked closely with me to build the Infrastructure Platform at Farfetch with capabilities to build and operate cloud scale open-source services like elastic, kafka, redis etc with self-serve capabilities to empower over 2K engineers. Wagner has deep understanding on cloud infrastructure and how to build IaC like enterprise grade products. He is a believer who inspires others with his actions. Wish him all the best and loads of success in his life and career.”

I have worked with Wagner for 17 years, from the operations team at Globo.com to manager at Stone Pagamentos … as a manager, a great people manager, bringing out the best in each person in order to achieve positive results.
Daniel Santos AlvesSenior Cloud Network Engineer · same team, from Globo.com to Stone · 2017

Translated from Portuguese

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“I have worked with Wagner for 17 years, from the operations team at Globo.com to manager at Stone Pagamentos: a tremendous professional, committed and persevering, technically a person up to date with the newest in the market and, as a manager, a great people manager, bringing out the best in each person in order to achieve positive results.”

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“Trabalho com Wagner a 17 anos, desde a equipe operacional da Globo.com a gerente na Stone Pagamentos — um tremendo profissional, comprometido e perseverante, tecnicamente uma pessoa atualizada com o que há de mais novo no mercado e como gerente um grande gestor de pessoas, tirando o melhor de cada um afim de atingir resultados positivos.”

During my time working with him, I was able to witness his exceptional ability to guide, motivate, and challenge his team to reach their full potential. … His influence on my career has been immeasurable …
Marcus BergoStaff AI Engineer · Wagner was his intern supervisor · 2024
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“I would like to share my experience working with Wagner, my intern supervisor, who is an outstanding leader and overall an amazing person. During my time working with him, I was able to witness his exceptional ability to guide, motivate, and challenge his team to reach their full potential. He has a unique approach that promotes constructive feedback and a collaborative work environment, which helped me grow both personally and professionally. His influence on my career has been immeasurable, and I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to learn from him. I would highly recommend Wagner to anyone looking for a supportive and knowledgeable leader who can help them achieve their goals.”

Wagner is an great professional with a deep knowledge on Linux/Unix systems, web applications and Cloud Computing. … Autodidact and fast learner, Wagner is always studying to keep growing in his career.
Rafael Inocenciodifferent teams · 2015
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“Wagner is an great professional with a deep knowledge on Linux/Unix systems, web applications and Cloud Computing. He shows passionate for what he does, in addition to demonstrating worried about the quality of the service. Autodidact and fast learner, Wagner is always studying to keep growing in his career. With an excellent interpersonal skills, he is always willing to help.”

Wagner is an excellent specialist, with great knowledge of both infrastructure and development. … he is an excellent leader, who built a fantastic team and developed technical people and leaders within it!
Diego MoralesInfrastructure Developer · same team · 2017

Translated from Portuguese

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“Wagner is an excellent specialist, with great knowledge of both infrastructure and development. He has fantastic experience with containers, microservices and automation. He communicates very well and, on top of that, he is an excellent leader, who built a fantastic team and developed technical people and leaders within it!”

Read the original

“Wagner é um excelente especialista, com grande conhecimento tanto em infra quanto desenvolvimento. Tem uma experiência fantástica com containers, microserviços e automatização. Comunica-se muito bem, e além disso, é um excelente líder, que formou um time fantástico e desenvolveu técnicos e líderes dentro dele!”

His vision of how software should be deployed, paired with the deep understanding of the inner workings of cloud and on-premise environments, is a great addition to any technology team.
Raphael GuarilhaCrypto · different teams · 2017
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“Wagner is very reasonable and always willing to help. His vision of how software should be deployed, paired with the deep understanding of the inner workings of cloud and on-premise environments, is a great addition to any technology team. I certainly recommend Wagner's work.”

A passionate and inspiring leader, with enormous technical knowledge, as well as an enviable vision of future technologies. Certainly a professional ahead of his time.
Rafael GomesSenior Platform Engineer at DNSFilter · same team · 2017

Translated from Portuguese

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“A passionate and inspiring leader, with enormous technical knowledge, as well as an enviable vision of future technologies. Certainly a professional ahead of his time.”

Read the original

“Um líder apaixonado e inspirador, dono de um conhecimento técnico enorme, assim como uma visão de tecnologias futuras invejável. Com certeza um profissional a frente do seu tempo.”

A professional with great experience and excellent technical knowledge, Wagner stands out for being a dynamic, good-humored professional, always ready to help the team as a whole.
Flavio Ambrosio, PMPSenior Security Sales Specialist · managed Wagner directly · 2010

Translated from Portuguese

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“A professional with great experience and excellent technical knowledge, Wagner stands out for being a dynamic, good-humored professional, always ready to help the team as a whole.”

Read the original

“Profissional com grande experiência e excelente conhecimento técnico, Wagner se destaca por ser um profissional dinâmico, bem humorado e sempre preparado para ajudar o time como um todo.”

From LinkedIn recommendations

04 The programme

90 days. Then the savings are yours.

The same sequence every time, so you know exactly what you are buying. I lead it, with a team of senior engineers who built platforms at big tech. We work with your ops team, not around it.

Week 1 · two days in the room

  1. Weeks −4 to 0

    The Leak Map

    I read your billing, tickets and incident history, and rank every leak in dollars per month.

  2. Week 0

    Go or no-go

    If the leaks don’t justify the fee, I say so. You keep the map.

  3. Week 1

    Two days with your team

    We pick the top three leaks. Each squad starts building its own AI tool to close one.

  4. Weeks 2 to 5

    The build

    Your team ships. I check in twice. Demo day shows each tool and its dollar estimate.

  5. Week 12

    Savings and handover

    Same formula, same sources. One page: before, after, and what to protect. Your team owns the tools. Follow-on support is there if you want it.

Thirty minutes is enough to know if a Leak Map is worth it.

Book a 30-minute call

05 Who it’s for

For the person who owns the platform and its bill.

You are

  • Head of platform, infrastructure, SRE or DevOps
  • Or the CTO of a growing company
  • Running a cloud bill above $30k a month
  • With an ops team of 4 to 30 people

And right now

  • The CFO asked why the bill grew again
  • You can’t hire, but the backlog keeps growing
  • On-call is burning people out
  • Your team bought AI tools and barely uses them

06 About · the book · the letter

25+ years in ops.

I’m Wagner Souza. I started as a system operator at Globo.com in 2000 and went on to run infrastructure at Stone and Zoop, lead platform engineering at Farfetch and manage engineering at OLX.

On every engagement I work with a team of senior specialists from big tech. I lead, and they deliver with me.

I watched every “this will kill ops jobs” moment. Every time, automation made the role bigger. AI is the same story, and ops teams can now build their own tools.

Book cover: Beyond the Code, A Practical Handbook for Engineering Managers, by Wagner Souza

Beyond the Code

A practical handbook for engineering managers: people, priorities and the work around the code.

Get it on Amazon

The weekly letter

AI in engineering and IT operations, for ops people and the leaders who run them. One email a week.

Find out where your platform leaks.

A 30-minute call with me. You come away clearer about where the money goes, whether or not we work together.

Book a 30-minute call