Bio

Sylvain Kalache is a technologist and strategic communicator with two decades of experience at the intersection of engineering, public relations, and developer advocacy. He specializes in leading initiatives that bridge technical innovation with impactful storytelling and community engagement.

Currently, Sylvain leads AI Labs at Rootly, an initiative that aims to augment reliability engineering in the era of AI. Under his leadership, the lab has developed open-source prototypes, tools, and research collaborations, sponsored by organizations like Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Google Cloud.

Previously, Sylvain co-founded Holberton School to scale the training of highly skilled software engineers while promoting inclusivity. The school’s innovative approach attracted partnerships with tech luminaries, including LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang, and Docker founder Solomon Hykes, as well as entertainment icons such as Grammy Award-winning artist NE-YO and actress Priyanka Chopra. Graduates have gone on to work at top-tier companies including Apple, Nvidia, and Meta.

In his earlier career, Sylvain served as a Senior Site Reliability Engineer at LinkedIn, where he co-designed a patented self-healing infrastructure system. He also built and maintained an infrastructure that displayed 3 billion slides per month.

Beyond his technical and entrepreneurial ventures, Sylvain has a track record of building communities and thought leadership. He founded while42, the world’s largest network of French engineers, boasting 3,000 members across 40 cities. He has also contributed articles to prominent tech publications, including TechCrunch, The New Stack, and VentureBeat.

Equal parts engineer, entrepreneur, and evangelist, Sylvain’s passion lies in turning innovation into impact—and telling the story along the way.

Sylvain Kalache's LinkedIn profile       

Writing

I write about tech, entrepreneurship, and workforce development. You can find some of my stories in these publications:

Link to Sylvain Kalache articles on TechCrunchLink to Sylvain Kalache articles on ForbesLink to Sylvain Kalache articles on TheNewStack
Link to Sylvain Kalache articles on CIOLink to Sylvain Kalache articles on CNBC
Link to Sylvain Kalache articles on Linux.comLink to Sylvain Kalache articles on VentureBeat

Podcasting

Sylvain is co-hosting the:

  • The Landscape: discusses everything related to the CNCF landscape and beyond. We interview project maintainers, contributors, end-users, and other stakeholders to help you navigate the busy world of cloud-native technologies.
  • The Data Defenders Forum: The Data Defenders Forum is a podcast discussing everything related to data compliance and data security. With over 70% of countries having some sort of data privacy and consumer rights legislation and the rate of sanctions going accelerating; the problem is not going away.
  • Humans of Reliablity: Behind every reliable software system, there are human beings working hard to keep it online. Get to know them here!

Industry papers

Talks & interviews