In 2025 we started a program (“Developer U”) to help colleagues who show promise for PostgreSQL Development to become contributors. Because I’m a softie for people’s origin stories, I talked to several of the participants about their motivations, hopes, dreams, and patches.
Florin Razvan Irion is an expert in database systems and software development, based in Prato, Italy. Following an internship at 2ndQuadrant, Florin transitioned into roles as a PostgreSQL DBA and Developer.
Florin in Athens, for PGConf EU, and in Barcelona, for Developer U.
He is currently a Staff SDE (Software Development Engineer) at EDB, where he focuses on replication and data movement. Specifically, he develops PGD (BDR), a PostgreSQL extension that allows bi-directional replication.
A bit of background
Originally from Romania, Florin comes from a completely different field and underwent a significant career transition later in life.
Florin moved to Italy at age 20 and worked in the hospitality industry, eventually becoming a Chef. At age 37 however, he decided to follow his passion for technology. He enrolled in a specialized course (PRO.GE.DO) organized by 2ndQuadrant and the PIN (Polo Universitario Città di Prato), resulting in a degree in database systems design, implementation, and maintenance in 2018. The course focused specifically on PostgreSQL, but also covered Linux, Python, and general IT systems knowledge.
“I fell in love with PostgreSQL. The thing I like most is its extensibility. You can use it for so many different types of workloads, you just need the right extension. And if it doesn’t exist you can create your own!”
Contributing to PostgreSQL
"Giving back to the community is a priority for me, as I feel I’ve gained so much from PostgreSQL over the years. I love waking up in the morning, happy to go to work!” Anyone who has met Florin at a Postgres conference or meetup knows he’s not just saying this because this piece will end up on his employer’s blog. And it’s likely that you did (meet him). Florin used to help out with the organization of PGDay Italy*, and served as a council member for ITPUG (the Italian PostgreSQL Users Group). He signed up for Developer U to better channel his efforts into the project. Although familiar with PostgreSQL, the experience has been an eye-opener regarding the high bar set for core commits.
Florin worked on some small things already. His first ever patch was committed and then reverted by Tom Lane, Florin jokes: “I should make a t-shirt for that!” He’s referencing an actual shirt featuring a classic Tom Lane review.
Florin persevered and after some fixing his patch went in again. He also worked on some Documentation changes, clarifying that pg_dump takes ACCESS SHARE lock, and to fix the parameter name for pg_create_logical_replication_slot().
During the program he joined a group project, and submitted his part to the mailing list for review already.
What’s next?
Florin’s biggest challenge was just picking a starting point. Now that he’s off and running, you’ll be seeing a lot more of him on the mailing list!
Want to get in touch with Florin? He is active on LinkedIn, and of course on GitHub, whenever he’s not spending time with his family, hiking, swimming, playing chess, or video games.
*Rumor has it that this event will be brought back to life in 2027.