About Tuba Kaya

I'm Tuba Kaya, a software engineer who modernizes large, business-critical systems — making them modular, reliable and able to scale. Much of my work has been on some of the Netherlands' largest and most critical platforms, the kind where downtime or a botched migration is felt nationwide.

What I do

My work sits where architecture meets operability: system modularization, reliability engineering, cloud and event-driven architecture, and the modernization of legacy systems. I care most about the durable ideas — coupling, cohesion, clear boundaries — that outlast any particular framework or vendor. You can see how these ideas play out in practice across the systems I've worked on, from national-scale migrations to event-driven platforms, on my projects page.

How I think about the work

A few convictions run through all of it. Modernization should be incremental— the business can't stop while you rewrite. Reliability and modularity aren't heroics; they're repeatable, team-wide capabilities built from shared patterns, reusable libraries and automation. And fast systems don't have to be unmaintainable — the best designs are both. I also think our field treats system modularization as too much of a dark art, so I build tools and models to make it more systematic.

Why I write

I write to turn hard-won, tacit experience into something reusable. If you're wrestling with a modernization programme, a reliability problem or a system that's grown too coupled to change, I hope these essays save you a few of the mistakes I've already made.

Away from the keyboard

When I'm not modernizing software, I like to build things I can actually hold. I do woodworking, nothing grand, but useful things. I've made play areas for my toddler out of scrap wood and a fence around my vegetable garden. For a solid year, my toddler played almost every day in a sandbox with his little wooden wheelbarrow, both built by me. It's how I stay in touch with the physical world.

Get in touch

The best ways to reach me areLinkedInor email. I'm always happy to talk shop.