Louis de Looze, freelance software engineer

About me

Freelance software engineer with a background spanning e-commerce development, DevOps infrastructure, and embedded hardware. I build and maintain production systems for clients across Europe, run Pixel Labs and Perfcom, and work on open hardware through the Open Camera Lab initiative.

My Companies & Initiatives

Technology Experience

  • Magento / Hyvä

    Deep expertise in Magento 2, with a strong focus on Hyvä-based frontend architecture, custom theme development, and frontend performance tuning. Active open-source contributor within the Magento ecosystem.
  • Laravel

    Internal dashboards and tooling using Laravel, integrating multiple external APIs, managing authentication flows, and building maintainable backend architectures for operational tooling connected to e-commerce platforms and infrastructure.
  • Ansible & CI/CD

    Infrastructure-as-code with Ansible for configuration management and provisioning across bare-metal and containerised servers. Monorepo CI/CD architectures with dynamic per-project workflows using Bitbucket Pipelines and GitHub Actions.
  • Embedded C

    Embedded C development for custom hardware projects, including the design and creation of modern analog camera systems. Experience working close to the hardware layer with microcontrollers, sensors, and low-level communication protocols.

Freelance Experience

  • E-commerce Developer

    Magento 2 developer across more than 40 live shops, ranging from focused single engagements to long-term ownership of large production platforms. Led Magento 1 to 2 migrations, complex version upgrades, and performance optimisations on high-traffic sites. Integrated third-party marketplaces via Channable and implemented zero-downtime deployment strategies.
  • DevOps

    Design and operation of infrastructure spanning more than 50 servers across bare-metal and containerised environments. Developed internal Node.js CLI tooling and Laravel-based dashboards for environment and deployment management. Running Kubernetes in a homelab for continued experimentation.
  • IT Consultant

    Hands-on consulting across both strategic migrations and on-site infrastructure work. Led transitions from legacy on-premises Active Directory environments to Microsoft 365, covering identity migration, user management, and security configuration. Also handled lower-level work: network infrastructure, computer system installation, security camera deployments, and custom integrations connecting fleet management systems to business processes.
  • Technical Founder

    Founded a company building air quality monitoring solutions. Owned the full technical stack: hardware design, embedded firmware, cloud provisioning on Particle.io, and a Svelte-based dashboard for real-time data visualisation and device fleet management. The product reached a working, deployed state. The founding team chose not to continue.

Open-source work

  • node-php-git

    Alpine-based Docker images bundling PHP (8.2–8.5), Node.js, Composer, and Git in a single CI-ready image. Multi-arch builds (amd64 + arm64) published to GitHub Container Registry. Versions are bumped automatically every Monday via a scheduled GitHub Actions workflow. GitHub
  • non-composer-registration

    A Composer plugin for Magento 2 that replaces the static "NonComposerComponentRegistration" file with a dynamically generated. This results in a faster Magento shop and can be used in a Monorepo environment to selectively disable modules without removing them from the codebase. GitHub
  • magento2-devbar

    A floating developer toolbar for the Magento 2 frontend that surfaces environment info and provides one-click shortcuts for common dev tasks: jump to the admin panel, log in as a random customer, add a random product to the cart, or go straight to checkout. Intended for local and staging environments only. GitHub
  • Nimslo3D-pcb

    A custom PCB design for the Nimslo 3D, a four-lens lenticular 3D film camera from the 1980s. Built around an Arduino Pro Mini, the board replaces and extends the camera's original electronics. Part of the Open Camera Lab initiative. GitHub

Academic Work

  • Master's thesis

    VDK: An Open-Source Toolkit for Velostat-Based Pressure Sensor Research and Development — Published at the 2025 International Conference on Applied Electronics (AE). The Velostat Development Kit (VDK) is an open-source instrumentation system designed for characterising the piezoresistive properties of Velostat, a material widely used in tactile sensor arrays. The hardware enables efficient electrode-Velostat switching with accurate measurement circuitry, while the software provides a GUI for real-time data acquisition and extensible interfaces for future research. IEEE Xplore
  • Bachelor's thesis

    Localization on LoRa 2.4 GHz — A modular, scalable multi-node localization framework operating in the global 2.4 GHz ISM band. The system uses time-of-flight ranging and multilateration to determine the position of mobile nodes relative to a set of fixed anchors, without requiring GNSS or line-of-sight to open sky. Hardware runs on ESP32 microcontrollers and backend service handles real-time location computation and visualisation. GitHub