Vision

Use my presence to propel a solid team of developers to release great software. I bring a healthy curiosity, a drive to improve the day-to-day life of the engineers around me, and a high bar for quality to any team I work with.

Skills and Projects

• Programming Languages:
  • Javascript/Typescript: Node and NPM backend services and scripts, JSON Schema-based service definition, Browser automation, some frontend work (React, Vue)
  • Rust: Service development, targeted to CPU-bound processing
  • Ruby: Rails/Sinatra web applications, Rake build scripting
  • Java: Application design and development, Data Load/ETL Processing and Report Generation, Servlets/JSP, Ant and Maven project management and build automation
  • Clojure/CLJS: Personal projects
• Cloud Services:
  • AWS: Serverless application development (Lambda + API Gateway + DynamoDB + S3), CloudWatch + Xray, CloudFormation, CodeBuild + CodeDeploy, EC2, Step Functions
  • Kubernetes: Cluster access and application deployment via kubectl, helm and Kustomize
• Software Tools/Libraries:
  • Web Frameworks: Ruby on Rails, Sinatra, Ring/Compojure, Laravel, Django
  • Utility libraries: AWS SDK, jQuery, underscore/lodash
  • Build Tools: AWS CDK, just, NPM, Rake, Ant, Maven, Boot, Leiningen, Grunt, webpack
  • CI/CD tools: GitHub Actions, AWS CodeBuild + CodeDeploy, Hudson/Jenkins
  • Configuration Management: AWS CDK, Docker, Chef, Ansible
  • Databases: DynamoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB
  • Source Control: git, subversion
• Projects:
  • ballpointcarrot.net : Personal Website/Blog; JAMstack website generated by Zola and lives on Netlify.

Work History

Senior DevOps Engineer - Flexport, Bellevue, WA
August 2022 - Present

• Launched a software catalog and developer tools platform called Backstage to help teams expose service details and metadata to the rest of the organization
• Managed complex GitHub actions workflows used to provide CI/CD pipelines and provision resources as part of project generation; designing ways to reduce this complexity
• Designing a new process for handling managed software configuration and updates for software projects; helping address the problem of "how do we remove the tedious setup and SDLC processes so developers can focus on their domain?"
• Manage and maintain the internal GitHub Enterprise Server and JFrog Artifactory installations

Engineering - Stedi, Remote
February 2020 - August 2022

• Built a custom deployment pipeline for AWS CDK via AWS CodePipeline and CodeBuild (prior to the release of CDK Pipelines)
• Developed internal tooling to help with content sharing between teams, and log and track privilege access requests to restricted environments
• Served as a reference point for EDI usage, having used it in the healthcare field
• Built multiple revisions of parsers for EDI data, learning from each implementation how to generalize the parser, casting an ever-wider net for customer usage patterns
• Helped foster a culture of toil reduction, driving to automate repetitive, manual tasks
• Participated in code reviews, helping improve the quality of the delivered products
• Built a mechanism for handling semantic versioning of package releases, while maintaining branch protection for the main branch of our repositories
• Created build and deploy scripts across several packages, introducing performance improvements and lowering build and deploy times

Systems Development Engineer - Amazon Web Services, Seattle, WA
December 2017 - January 2020

• Designed and created a web portal for tracking Support Agent metrics and performance over time
• Developed internal applications to improve the AWS Support experience
• Maintained and improved existing Support Engineer-created scripts and applications
• Mentored junior members of the team as tech lead

Solutions Architect - Amazon Web Services, Seattle, WA
August 2016 - December 2017

• Worked with external customers to design application architectures to fit the AWS Cloud
• Built internal tooling for the Solutions Architecture team
• Created demo applications providing demonstrations of specific technologies
• Ran overviews and deep dive presentations of AWS Services
• Lead group hands-on training sessions for AWS Services
• Provided in-depth architecture review for customers; focused on security, performance, reliability and cost optimization

Systems Development Engineer, Elastic Beanstalk - Amazon Web Services, Seattle, WA
December 2014 - August 2016

• Designed and implemented a CI/CD system for building Elastic Beanstalk software stacks, supporting Java/Tomcat, Python, PHP, Ruby, Docker and Node.js
• Managed software deployment and testing lifecycle operations, including parallel deployments to multiple geographic regions
• Requested, set up and administered backend hosts for service extensions
• Instituted regular quality reviews and internal tooling updates
• Provided assistance to the Customer Support team for in-depth questions regarding the service
• Routed and assisted in resolving service-level issues, creating workarounds for customers and eliminating bugs found in the service
• Participated in in-depth code reviews with members of the service team

Developer Support Engineer - Amazon Web Services, Seattle, WA
February 2013 - December 2014

• Provided phone, email and chat-based support to customers of AWS Services
• Created training materials for and internal classes for coworkers on CloudFormation and Elastic Beanstalk services
• Created Subject Matter Expert (SME) programs for CloudFormation, Elastic Beanstalk, OpsWorks and Simple Workflow services
• Selected as an SME for CloudFormation, Elastic Beanstalk and Simple Workflow
• Worked with service teams to reduce contact escalation rates, and to provide improvements to customers of the services
• Developed and maintained utilities used by the Support organization, to make the day-to-day work easier
• Worked with the Customer Support Development team to provide long-lasting improvements to the Support organization

Web Developer - SR Education Group, Kirkland, WA
June 2011 - January 2013

• Created features for a set of websites built for online college lead generation using Ruby on Rails
• Led impromptu code reviews with coworkers; helped streamline and improve team members' code
• Managed a fleet of micro-websites on EC2/Nginx as proxy-caching servers
• Provided reporting data via third-party APIs to help influence the project's direction

Software Engineer - RelayHealth, Dubuque, IA
March 2010 - May 2011

• Implement and customized the Payer Connectivity Services medical claims processing SaaS platform
• Developed custom applications in Java, Python and C#/.NET to enhance the claims processing workflow for individual customers
• Organized and educated coworkers on Agile methodologies towards software implementation
• Installed and maintained a Hudson bulid server for automated build and deployment
• Created an analytics reporting system in Java with JasperReports for a daily clam count audit, including claims aging and routing logic

Software Engineer - Sysorex Federal, Inc., Rock Island, IL
August 2009 - November 2010

• Supported and upgraded the Munitions Transport Management System (MTMS), a Java-based tracking database frontend designed to maintain the chain of custody for munitions shipments
• Performed usability and performance upgrades to the existing system; redesigned a major portion of the UI on the desktop client, and rewrote old existing Servlets to data-fed JSP pages
• Refactored old Java 1.1-era code to Java 5+ Standards (including adding support for Generics)

Education and Certifications

• Bachelor of Science (Cum Laude), Computer Science
  Clarke University, Dubuque, IA
  May 2009

  • Cumulative GPA 3.63 (on a 4.00 scale)
  • Minor in music performance

• Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies (長崎外国語大学)
  Nagasaki, Japan
  April 2007 - August 2007

  • Study abroad experience via University of Wisconsin - Platteville