Hi. I'm Pierre Stoffe, a freelance technologist based in Belgium.
"Technologist" is vague, I know. But it's the only word that still fits. Let me explain.
I started as a UI/UX designer, sketching interfaces, obsessing over pixels. But I wanted to build what I designed, so I taught myself HTML, CSS, JavaScript, then PHP.
Frameworks came naturally after that: Vue.js, React, Nuxt, Next.js. I got comfortable with Craft CMS for content-heavy sites, built E-commerce platforms, wired up REST APIs and GraphQL.
Then the scope expanded again. Projects don't just need code, they need somewhere to live. CI/CD pipelines, VPS and AWS deployments, Linux server administration. The infrastructure that keeps everything running.
Eventually I became the person who could take a project from first sketch to live deployment. The full loop.
A few years ago, something shifted. The web was starting to feel like one room in a larger house. I'd been curious about what lay beyond: infrastructure, security, sustainability,... but client work always filled the schedule. The questions kept piling up. I had a growing list of things to explore "someday."
Then AI arrived. LLMs turned out to be a multiplier — for output, for learning, for ambition. Tasks got faster. Unfamiliar territory got less intimidating.
Someday became now.
I went deeper into infrastructure:
- Docker for containerization, Ansible for automation, Proxmox for virtualization
- Monitoring with Grafana, Prometheus, Loki
- Self-hosting everything, homelab setup, Linux server administration
- Firewalls, networking, VLANs, Tailscale, Wireguard
- Backup Strategies, Disaster Recovery planning, RAID
- AI Stacks with Claude Code, Ollama, Open WebUI
- Go for CLI tools and backend services
- Hardware builds: NAS, Servers, workstations
- Technical consulting, Security Audits
These days, the label depends on the problem.
Designer, developer, sysadmin, consultant. I don't specialize in one layer. I specialize in understanding how layers connect.
The web taught me to build. Infrastructure taught me to think in systems. AI let me cover more ground. Now I bring all of it to whatever problem lands on my desk.
- Dior
- Fondation Cartier
- Base Design
- Delvaux
- Institut Français de la Mode
- MoMu
- Energy Observer
- Haus der Kunst
- Allies and Morrison
- Howells
- Maison Dandoy
- Warner Music Group
- ING
- D'Ieteren Group
- Mudam
- Musée Yves Saint Laurent
- Art & History Museum
- Xavier Hufkens
- Axel Vervoordt
- Franklin Azzi
- villa eugénie
- Castelfalfi
- Remerge
- Studio Brussel
- Omexco
- ...and more
If you've read this far, you probably have a question or a problem that doesn't fit neatly into a job description.
Best way to reach me: mail@pierrestoffe.be
I'm open to consulting, collaboration, and interesting challenges. If you're not sure whether I can help, ask anyway. I'll be honest.
AI changed how I work. Not as a novelty, as a collaborator.
I use Claude Code daily. It reads my codebase, understands context, writes code, runs tests, commits changes. We work in loops: it proposes, I review, I push back, it iterates. This website was built that way.
It's not plug-and-play. You learn to prompt it, to give it the right context, to know when to trust it and when to override. I'm still learning every day, getting better results each time.
I also build infrastructure to run AI locally. Ollama for local models, Open WebUI as the interface, custom hardware with the right GPUs. Privacy-respecting AI that runs on your own terms.
I've helped others set up similar stacks. Hardware selection, deployment, integration with existing workflows. AI is most useful when it fits naturally into how you already work.
Security isn't a feature you bolt on at the end. It's a way of thinking about systems from the start.
The goal is reducing attack surface. On the web: input validation, auth flows, dependency audits. On infrastructure: keeping services off the public internet, segmenting networks so a breach doesn't spread.
Backup Strategies that actually get tested. Disaster Recovery plans that don't live in a drawer. The 3-2-1 rule, offsite copies, encrypted at rest.
Proper identity management matters too. One login across services, clear access control, audit trails that show who did what and when. It's not glamorous, but it's what keeps things accountable.
I offer Security Audits to help companies see what they're missing. I'm not a penetration tester and I know when to bring one in. But I know how to build things that don't fall over when someone pokes at them.
This homelab started as curiosity. Now it's where I test everything before it touches a client's infrastructure.
Proxmox runs the show, as a cluster of nodes handling VMs and LXC containers. Ansible keeps it reproducible. Spin up an environment, break it, tear it down, start fresh. No consequences.
The stack runs deep. Docker containers orchestrated with Compose, managed through Dockge. GitLab for version control and CI/CD pipelines. Authentik handling SSO across everything.
Media is fully automated: Jellyfin serving video, the *arr stack (Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Prowlarr) handling acquisition, Immich managing photos with ML-powered search. Calibre Web for ebooks.
Observability everywhere: Prometheus scraping metrics, Loki aggregating logs, Grafana dashboards showing the full picture. I know when something's wrong before it becomes a problem.
Local AI runs on dedicated hardware: Open WebUI as the interface, LiteLLM proxying requests to different models. Privacy-first, no data leaving the network.
Business tools too: Invoice Ninja for billing, n8n automating workflows, NocoDB for quick database UIs, MinIO for S3-compatible storage.
All of it behind Tailscale and Caddy, accessible from anywhere, exposed to no one. Home Assistant ties in the physical space too.
It's not just a hobby. Every tool I deploy, every database I tune, every container I debug, that's knowledge I bring to real projects.
If you've read this far, you probably have a question or a problem that doesn't fit neatly into a job description.
Best way to reach me: mail@pierrestoffe.be
I'm open to consulting, collaboration, and interesting challenges. If you're not sure whether I can help, ask anyway. I'll be honest.