Khalid S

DevOps Technical Lead (AWS Certified Solutions Architect) specializing in secure AWS platform design, Terraform-based Infrastructure as Code, and production-grade CI/CD at scale. Proven in PCI-aligned environments, leading network segmentation and security remediation on AWS, and producing audit-ready evidence through automated logging and analysis. Deliver standardized, multi-environment delivery pipelines and platform automation that improve reliability, strengthen change control, reduce manual operations, and optimize cost.

Partner closely with Security/Audit and engineering stakeholders, to ship pragmatic automation that boosts developer productivity.

DevOps Technical Lead at Guaneri Consulting (2025-08 – Present)

• Led Network Re-architecture for a Payments company processing $1.5B annually in transactions to support new PCI 4.0 and SOC 2 requirements.
• Designed and delivered a Terraform-managed, production-ready self-hosted GitHub Actions runner platform, enabling reliable CI execution in private subnets with controlled scaling and rollouts for a HIPAA compliant cloud deployment.
• Owned and managed infra repos and CI/CD across multiple environments with isolated remote states, gated approvals, and automated quality/security checks; blocking high-severity misconfigurations pre-apply, and reducing production drift and security exposure.
• Engineered a Terraform-managed AWS data delivery platform to automate monthly partner statements with secure partner access (SFTP); improved reliability and reduced manual ops by ~25 hrs/month.
• Implemented centralized egress via a DMZ/edge VPC with multi-AZ NAT and stable outbound IPs + VPC endpoints; improved allowlisting simplicity and targeted cost optimization saving ~$2,200/mo.
• Delivered PCI segmentation remediation with evidence-grade logging and repeatable traffic validation queries; cut audit evidence turnaround from ~1 day → ~1 hour and reduced audit back-and-forth by 50%.
• Led PCI-aligned hardening across storage, messaging, and logging (KMS CMKs, TLS-only, least-privilege IAM); strengthened audit readiness and traceability.

DevOps Engineer at TechTalks (2022-05 – 2025-08)

• Reduced manual deployment tasks and cut deployment time drastically. Automated application builds and releases by designing and deploying on-premises TeamCity CI/CD pipelines integrated with GitHub.
• Cut infrastructure setup time by 60% and automated infrastructure provisioning by developing reusable Terraform modules. Integrated Terraform linting into CI/CD pipelines for static analysis, ensuring compliance and consistency in Kubernetes infrastructure.
• Improved deployment consistency and system reliability by containerizing applications with Docker / Docker Compose, and managing Kubernetes workloads using Minikube and Helm in local development environments.
• Reduced AWS costs by 40% by automating instance shutdowns using CloudWatch metrics, EventBridge, and Lambda to schedule jobs targeting idle resources.
• Led incident management efforts, performing root cause analysis and enhancing monitoring/alerting systems, reducing downtime and preventing recurring application issues.

Coursework completed toward B.S. in Computer Science (CS) – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign