Lydon Carter

Hi! After 9 years at AWS, I am looking to focus my energy on a new domain. I have a deep connection to nature and the environment, and want to utilise my very-relevant big data skills towards noble causes. I am between Germany and South Africa through the year, and hope for a remote or very flexible hybrid role.

Data Engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS) (2022-05 – Present)

Works in the AWS threat-prevention organization building data systems to enable threat research and prevention. Designs and implements software infrastructure as code, including analytics tools and ops features.

• Build data systems to enable threat research & prevention
• Design and implement software infrastructure as code, including analytics tools & ops features
• Users include applied scientists, software engineers & security engineers; work impacts thousands of AWS customers
• Propose technical solutions aligned to business goals and deploy features to address operational issues
• Team follows Agile methodology, utilizing latest AI tooling, open source software, & AWS features
• Experiment with proof-of-concept builds
• Share knowledge through documentation & training sessions
• Participate in mentoring, hiring & culture initiatives

Senior Cloud Support Engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS) (2017-12 – 2022-05)

Progressed from Premium Cloud Support Associate to Senior Support Engineer in the Big Data profile. Supported distributed compute services and served as consultant for enterprise customers.

• Joined AWS EC2 as Premium Cloud Support Associate, progressed to Senior Support Engineer in Big Data profile
• Supported distributed compute services such as Glue, EMR (Hadoop), Apache Airflow, Kinesis, Lake Formation
• Specialized in ETL and drove AWS-service features, bug fixes and owned projects
• Consultant at enterprise customer engagements including banks and energy companies
• Assisted on architecture planning, incident resolution, and service engagements
• Led team performance initiatives, mentored engineers, and facilitated internal training events
• Authored public Knowledge Center articles and internal documentation

Technical Solutions Architect at Adept ICT (2010-10 – 2017-01)

Progressed from Junior Technical Support to Solutions Architect. Designed custom data center solutions for small-to-medium businesses and managed on-premise infrastructure.

• Joined Adept as Jnr. Tech support, progressed to Solutions Architect
• Designed custom data center solutions for small-to-medium businesses
• Technologies included Cisco devices, Unix servers, Microsoft Exchange, web applications, SANs, and Xen-based virtualization
• Managed on-premise infrastructure: installation, configuration, monitoring, upgrades, and support
• Researched and developed new product offerings
• Delivered internal training to senior tech support, developers, and managers
• Owned the internal documentation platform
• Managed partnerships and certification competencies for Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco

Diploma/Certificate in Network Engineering, IT System Administration & Information Sciences – CTU Tech College (2008-01 – 2009-09)

National Senior Certificate – Piketberg High School (2002-01 – 2007-12)