Placentia, CA 92870 · (714) 322-8772 · [email protected] · linkedin.com/in/thoughtoperator · github.com/thoughtparametersllc

Senior DevSecOps and Cloud Engineering Leader with over 15 years of experience architecting, automating, and securing complex, mission-critical infrastructure for enterprise leaders including Apple, Netflix, and Workday. Proven expert in driving business objectives through the strategic implementation of robust CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and multi-cloud solutions (AWS, GCP). Adept at fortifying security posture, ensuring regulatory compliance (HIPAA, FDA), and leading cross-functional teams to deliver resilient, scalable, and cost-optimized systems.

Thought Parameters LLC | Placentia, CA

Owner / Chief Executive Officer | Jun 2024 – Present

• Launched a computer systems design consultancy, establishing all legal, operational, and Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) frameworks to ensure 100% regulatory adherence from inception.
• Secured an average of 15% cost savings on initial operational expenditures by leading complex vendor negotiations for essential software and services.
• Reduced administrative overhead by 20% and accelerated content creation by 30% through the formulation of standardized client onboarding processes and the strategic use of AI-assisted documentation tools.

JL Miller Electric, Inc. | Placentia, CA

IT Engineer | May 2023 – Present

• Architected and integrated secure automation solutions that streamlined critical processes, accelerating the delivery of validated software features to stakeholders by 35% using Jenkins CI/CD pipelines.
• Boosted developer productivity on repetitive coding tasks by 30% by championing the adoption of AI-powered code generation tools, fostering an environment of rapid prototyping.
• Improved average server response times by over 20% across the Linux fleet through proactive performance tuning, kernel optimization, and continuous security hardening.

David’s Bridal Inc. | Conshohocken, PA

DevOps Engineer | Jan 2022 – Apr 2023

• Fortified multi-account AWS infrastructure by remediating hundreds of vulnerabilities identified by Orca Security, slashing high-priority security risks by 60% and elevating the overall cloud compliance posture.
• Reduced Mean Time to Respond (MTTR) to critical network security incidents by over 50% by operationalizing automated response actions for AlienVault SIEM and CloneGuard IPS appliances.
• Cut critical vulnerability exposure time by 40% for the EC2 fleet by deploying custom AWS Systems Manager (SSM) automation documents for streamlined patching, validation, and compliance reporting.
• Ensured critical WAF rulesets were deployed within 1 hour of new threat intelligence availability by automating CloudFormation deployments for WAF updates within the DevSecOps pipeline.

Fidelity Life Association | Chicago, IL

DevOps Engineer | Jan 2015 – Dec 2021

• Authored sophisticated Terraform (IaC) modules that reduced cloud misconfiguration incidents related to security groups and IAM policies by over 80%, enforcing secure-by-design principles.
• Engineered a compliance automation framework using MCollective that maintained a 98%+ continuous adherence to CIS security benchmarks across the server infrastructure.
• Eliminated risks of multi-million-dollar discrepancies and ensured 100% accuracy in transaction reporting by re-engineering EFT bank file generation processes with automated validation mechanisms.
• Governed the secure lifecycle of a large-scale Linux and Windows environment, reducing critical security patching windows by 30% through advanced automation with Octopus Deploy and MCollective.

Alma | Portland, OR

DevOps Engineer (Contract) | Oct 2014 – Jan 2015

• Architected and launched a fully automated IaC deployment system (Ruby, AWS APIs) that slashed environment provisioning time from over 4 hours to under 15 minutes (>90% reduction).
• Doubled application processing capacity and enhanced system scalability by reverse-engineering and refactoring a monolithic Bash deployment script into modular, service-specific automation.

Heartflow, Inc. | Redwood City, CA

DevOps Engineer (Contract) | Jul 2014 – Sep 2014

• Achieved 100% deployment uptime (zero-downtime rollouts) for FDA and HIPAA-compliant production services by designing and operationalizing a sophisticated A/B deployment framework using SaltStack and Python.
• Slashed 3D medical image processing times by over 70% by leading the technical evaluation and adoption of a GPU-accelerated cloud compute solution, significantly accelerating diagnostic turnaround.

Workday, Inc. | Pleasanton, CA

Infrastructure Engineering | Nov 2012 – Jun 2014

• Reduced environment provisioning times for a Big Data Analytics platform from multiple days to under 3 hours (>85% improvement) by designing a scalable infrastructure framework using CloudFormation and Chef.
• Improved average application response times by a sustained 30%+ by diagnosing and resolving critical performance bottlenecks in production Linux ecosystems.
• Engineered a highly available GlusterFS distributed storage solution that achieved 100% data redundancy across geo-distributed sites for critical datasets.

Apple, Inc. | Cupertino, CA

System Engineer | Jul 2011 – Nov 2012

• Championed Tier 3+ infrastructure support for a >4000-user R&D division, maintaining 99.8% availability for critical engineering services and minimizing disruptions to product development cycles.
• Re-architected XSAN storage infrastructure, improving utilization by 30% for 50TB of critical CDN logs and deferring significant near-term expansion costs.
• Slashed build environment inconsistencies by over 95% by devising a custom Gentoo Portage overlay to establish version-controlled, reproducible environments for mission-critical hardware engineering toolchains.

Netflix, Inc. | Los Gatos, CA

System Engineer | Feb 2011 – Jul 2012

• Orchestrated and executed a zero-downtime migration of the mission-critical Jenkins CI/CD build infrastructure during the Netflix-to-Qwikster transition, ensuring 100% continuity of software delivery pipelines.
• Automated bare-metal (Kickstart) and virtual (CloudStack) server provisioning, reducing manual system setup time by over 60% and establishing standardized, secure build processes.

Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems (Expected: Sep 2027)

DeVry University

Certificate in Cybersecurity (with Honors, Completed: Apr 2025)

DeVry University

Selected Professional Development (2025)

• Career Essentials in GitHub Professional Certificate | GitHub
• Essential Google Cloud Infrastructure: Foundation | Google Cloud
• Google Cloud Fundamentals: Core Infrastructure | Google Cloud
• Completed 15+ courses in SSCP domains, advanced networking, and collaborative leadership

• Author: Articles on DevOps, Cloud, and Cybersecurity topics published on LinkedIn and Substack.
• Member: The National Society of Leadership and Success; Linux Foundation (LFX); IEEE; OWASP Foundation.%