Cloud & DevOps Engineer (Independent Contractor) at Culture Compass (2025-08 – Present)
Engaged as a freelance/contract Cloud & DevOps Engineer to design, build, and operate Culture Compass's internal cloud platform end-to-end, solo.
- Designed and deployed production-grade AWS infrastructure using Terraform, Kubernetes, and GitOps workflows, single-handedly taking the platform from greenfield to a live system serving 50+ active users.
- Engineered multi-cluster Amazon EKS environments with reusable Infrastructure-as-Code modules and centralized S3/DynamoDB remote state, maintaining isolated dev, staging, and production workloads.
- Built and maintained CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, Helm, and Kustomize, replacing what would otherwise be manual multi-step deployments with a single GitOps-driven release process.
- Developed an AI-powered operational automation system (Python, FastAPI, Anthropic API, Qdrant) for semantic runbook retrieval and remediation suggestions, cutting time spent searching documentation during incidents.
- Implemented a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline enabling context-aware troubleshooting assistance grounded in the platform's own operational history.
- Configured progressive delivery with Argo Rollouts and Istio traffic management (canary deployments with automated rollback), eliminating downtime windows during releases.
- Established zero-trust Kubernetes networking using Istio STRICT mTLS, Calico Network Policies, cert-manager TLS automation, and AWS IAM least-privilege access controls.
- Integrated External Secrets Operator with AWS Secrets Manager to automate secret synchronization into Kubernetes workloads, removing all hardcoded credentials from the codebase.
- Built a centralized observability platform (Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager, CloudWatch, SNS) giving the team real-time SLI visibility and proactive incident alerts in place of manual log review.
- Automated AWS infrastructure inspection using Python and Boto3, generating operational insight reports that shortened root-cause investigation time during incidents.
- Diagnosed and resolved production incidents including Terraform state lock conflicts, ArgoCD sync failures, Kubernetes networking inconsistencies, and cross-cluster configuration drift.
- Deployed and operated containerized multi-tier applications (React, Flask, Spring Boot, PostgreSQL, MySQL) on Kubernetes with encrypted ingress and GitOps-driven delivery.
Cloud & DevOps Intern at Digital Witch Community (2025-01 – 2025-06)
Structured DevOps & Cloud Security training program; completed hands-on infrastructure projects, including a production-style 3-tier banking application, before transitioning directly into the Culture Compass engagement.
- Completed DevOps & Cloud Security Certification (June 2025) and In-Demand IT Skill Training Certification (2024) through hands-on, project-based training.
- Built and deployed a production-style 3-tier banking application on AWS EKS, applying Terraform, GitOps, and CI/CD practices later carried directly into professional contract work.
