During February 2026, J. Plum focused on enhancing the reliability of the gitlabhq/gitlab-runner repository’s CI image flattening process. Addressing a persistent issue with rpm --verify false positives caused by back-dated modification times, J. Plum implemented a workaround using the RPM_VERIFY_NOMTIME argument, which aligned the verification process with reproducible-build standards and SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH requirements. This solution, developed with Shell scripting and YAML configuration, reduced unnecessary rebuilds and failures in the CI/CD pipeline, resulting in faster and more stable feedback for developers. The work demonstrated a strong grasp of build reproducibility and CI pipeline reliability within a complex automation environment.