Platform Engineer / DevSecOps

Cleared platform engineer building and operating Kubernetes infrastructure in DoD environments.

14 years in IT operations and systems engineering. Professional experience across Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force programs in AWS GovCloud. Independently own and operate a live Kubernetes platform with GitOps, a full CI/CD release pipeline, and verified backup/restore.

14 yr IT & systems engineering

Active Secret clearance

900+ automated tests

2:40 cutover downtime

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About

Platform engineering grounded in production operations.

I work in AWS GovCloud performing STIG compliance assessments, ACAS vulnerability scanning, and CUI handling in IL-4 and IL-5 environments, supporting systems under active ATO and NIST 800-53 governance.

Outside of work, I own and operate a live Kubernetes platform (Talos Linux) with ArgoCD GitOps, serving real users in production. The platform has been through a zero-data-loss blue/green cluster migration, multiple schema migrations, and a structurally resolved production incident with a published postmortem. I care about release safety, verified backups, and knowing exactly where the gaps are.

Skills

Core technologies

Platforms

Kubernetes (Talos, k0s)
ArgoCD / GitOps
AWS GovCloud
CloudFormation

CI/CD & Automation

GitHub Actions
GitLab CI/CD
Bash / Python
Alembic

Security & Compliance

STIG Viewer / RHEL
ACAS scanning
NIST 800-63B
CUI handling

Data & Infrastructure

PostgreSQL (CNPG)
RHEL 9 / Linux
Longhorn / NFS
Cloudflare / DNS / TLS

Certifications

Active credentials

CompTIA SecurityX (2023) AWS Solutions Architect Associate (2025) CompTIA Security+ (2023) CompTIA A+ (2005)

Projects

What I build and operate

Cartarch

FastAPI / PostgreSQL / Kubernetes · GitHub

Full-stack MTG collection and deck management platform running in production on Kubernetes with real users since v1.

Full CI/CD release pipeline: tag, build, publish, ArgoCD Image Updater promotion, PreSync Alembic migration hooks, and post-deploy verify/soak
900+ automated tests with CI release-record guard preventing unverified deployments
CloudNativePG PostgreSQL with WAL archiving to R2; backup chain verified through full restore drills (99s recovery, effectively zero RPO)
OAuth-gated service exposure behind Cloudflare Access with auth flows aligned to NIST SP 800-63B
Root-caused and structurally prevented a production availability incident; postmortem documented
Self-hosted image mirror (525,000+ card images) with daily automated price ingest

Migration Case Study Source Code

Kubernetes Platform (Talos)

Talos Linux / ArgoCD / Longhorn · GitHub

Multi-node Talos Kubernetes cluster with ArgoCD GitOps managing 10+ applications, all Synced/Healthy.

Blue/green cluster migration from k3s to Talos with simultaneous SQLite-to-PostgreSQL data migration, zero data loss, minimal planned downtime
HA control plane (3 stacked-etcd nodes) with API VIP
Longhorn distributed storage on enterprise SSDs; Cloudflare DNS and TLS termination
Vaultwarden, Obsidian MCP, and Cartarch MCP deployed with Cloudflare Access and Managed OAuth

Source Code

Experience

Professional background

DevSecOps Engineer

HumanIT Solutions (DAF Program) · Oct 2025 - Present · Remote

AWS GovCloud infrastructure with CloudFormation, RHEL/k0s deployment, STIG compliance assessments (RHEL 9, STIG Viewer), ACAS scanning, CUI handling in IL-4/IL-5 environments.

DevOps Engineer

Clarity (Department of the Army Program) · Nov 2022 - Jun 2025 · Remote

GitLab CI/CD, AWS GovCloud IAM, Bash automation, and platform operations in a classified DoD contractor environment under active ATO and NIST 800-53 governance. Position eliminated due to program funding reductions.

Earlier roles

2012 - 2022

IT Support (L3Harris, classified DoD facility), AV/Simulation systems (Ascension St. John), field engineering (NCR), Tier 2 support (Open Options, PACS/SQL Server). Full resume.