About Ме
Hi, I am Bozhidar Valchev.
I like taking noisy, complex systems and turning them into something you can actually understand and work with. My main focus is observability, data, and the tools that help teams see what is really happening inside their systems.
I work best when there is a hard problem to debug, a messy environment to untangle, or a system that needs to become understandable.
What I do
I work as a Senior Splunk Consultant and observability engineer. Most of my experience lives around:
- designing and implementing Splunk environments
- building and tuning log and event pipelines
- creating useful searches, dashboards, and alerts
- improving the way teams monitor and operate their systems
Over the years I have helped customers in different industries to:
- migrate to Splunk Cloud
- stabilize and clean up existing Splunk deployments
- build IT service monitoring with Splunk IT Service Intelligence
- make better use of the data they already collect
The exact tools and platforms change over time, but the core idea stays the same: turn raw data into something that supports real decisions and real work.
A bit of background
Before focusing on Splunk and observability, I spent several years in roles such as:
- technical support and hosting support
- head of technical support for a WordPress hosting company
- security engineer working with enterprise security products
This gave me a lot of hands on experience with:
- Linux and Windows servers
- Web hosting and performance
- Security tools, firewalls, and endpoint protection
- Talking to real customers under real pressure
All of this now feeds into how I approach monitoring, reliability, and debugging.
Skills and certifications
Some of the areas I am most confident in:
- Splunk Core, Splunk Cloud, and Splunk IT Service Intelligence
- Observability and monitoring design
- Troubleshooting complex issues in distributed systems
- Linux and general system administration
- Technical communication, documentation, and training
I have held multiple vendor certifications, including but not limited to:
- Splunk Core Certified Consultant, Architect, Admin, and ITSI Certified Admin
- Splunk Cloud migration accreditations
- Cribl Certified User
- LPI Linux Essentials
- Several McAfee product specialist certifications
I do not collect certificates just for the paper. For me they are checkpoints that I have reached a certain level of understanding and can be trusted with real production environments.
What you will find on this site
This site is my space for:
- experiments with data, systems, and automation
- write ups of tricky problems I have debugged
- small tools, workflows, and ideas that remove friction
- longer form thoughts about how we work with complex systems
I do not try to chase every new trend or cover every release. Instead, I write about things I have actually touched, broken, and fixed. If a topic is here, it usually means I have spent real time on it and decided it is worth remembering.
How I think and work
A few principles that matter to me:
- Start from the real symptoms, not from assumptions
- Build a clear mental model of how the system should behave
- Find where reality does not match the model
- Write things down so the next time is easier
Good observability is not just about graphs. It is about helping someone under pressure see what to do next.
Languages
- Bulgarian – native
- English – full professional proficiency
If you came here from my CV
If you are a recruiter or hiring manager, the best way to get a feel for me is to:
- read this page
- open a couple of recent blog posts
- see how I break down problems and how I explain them
If what you see here matches what you are looking for, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn.
