Principal Platform Engineer · AI/ML Infrastructure & Cloud Strategy | RHCA
I architect large scale infrastructure where every second of downtime costs millions.
Principal Platform Engineer with 15+ years orchestrating mission-critical systems for global fintech and media. Red Hat Certified Architect. AI/ML infrastructure specialist. I bridge the gap between reliability engineering and modern AI workloads.
Numbers that tell the story
Where I've made an impact
Lead Platforms Engineer / Principal Architect (DevOps & Edge)
Strategic leadership of the Mastercard's Edge Platform, overseeing infrastructure for 200+ global payment gateways processing millions of transactions daily.
- Spearheaded migration of 200+ mission-critical Virtual MIPs from CentOS 7 to Oracle Linux 8 with zero data loss and 100% service continuity
- Architected physical-to-virtual conversion across 200+ global endpoints in under 2 months, increasing platform scalability by 300%
- Designed centralized Next-Gen Certificate Management System (NECMS) integrating Venafi and Ansible for mTLS automation under strict PCI compliance
- Reduced upgrade cycles from 2 weeks to 1 day and configuration time from 2 days to 30 minutes, cutting operational costs by 30%
- Improved platform performance by 20% through resource optimization, directly contributing to revenue increase
- Reduced platform downtime by 50% with advanced monitoring, resulting in 90% decrease in customer complaints
DevSecOps Consultant
Led a team of 6 engineers deploying next-generation API Gateway infrastructure for Mastercard.
- Deployed NGINX Plus API Gateway handling 5 million+ concurrent requests/day
- Optimized XML Gateway efficiency, reducing policy deployment costs by 30% and errors by 90%
- Designed zero-downtime CI/CD pipelines using Chef Habitat and XL Release
DevOps Architect
Designed CI/CD infrastructure and release engineering strategy for financial services platform.
- Designed 20+ CI/CD pipelines using SaltStack and Python, reducing release cycles from 6 weeks to 2 weeks
- Saved $75,000 per release through pipeline automation
- Engineered 'No-Conflict' branch strategy, reducing merge conflicts by 82%
- Automated database deployments via Flyway DB, reducing deployment time by 75%
Site Reliability Engineer
Architected headless CMS infrastructure for Marvel's digital presence.
- Architected headless Drupal/MEAN stack on Rackspace, reducing time-to-market by 50% and TCO by 30%
- Automated infrastructure using Python and Ansible, improving reliability to 99.9%
- Reduced provisioning time for new environments by 75% with Ansible PaaS/CaaS integrations
DevSecOps Engineer
Implemented enterprise-scale Identity & Access Management across large server fleet.
- Implemented Centrify IAM across 6,000 servers, reducing provisioning from 2 hours to 20 minutes
- Reduced security incidents by 50% and vulnerability remediation time by 75%
- Automated DirectControl AD joins and compliance audit reporting
DevSecOps Consultant
Led cloud migration and performance optimization for global cruise line infrastructure.
- Spearheaded AWS infrastructure with Akamai caching, delivering 50% performance boost and 30% cost savings
- Orchestrated Rackspace-to-AWS migration achieving 99.99% availability
- Implemented AppDynamics and Splunk, reducing MTTR by 15 minutes and saving $100K annually
DevSecOps Engineer
Designed hybrid cloud deployment blueprints for major financial services firm.
- Developed enterprise blueprints for hybrid cloud deployments using Puppet DSL, Vagrant, and Git
- Designed and implemented Anthill-Pro and UrbanCode Deploy pipelines for Java, .NET, and Unix
- Created custom migration scripts and RESTful APIs for Puppet Enterprise Node Classifier
Lead DevOps Engineer (via HCL America)
Managed Configuration-as-a-Service for Disney Parks & Resorts infrastructure.
- Oversaw Configuration-as-a-Service for 5,000+ servers within Disney Parks & Resorts
- Developed Chef recipes with Test Kitchen, Foodcritic, and Rubocop for automated compliance testing
- Managed CI systems (Bamboo, Rundeck, Jenkins) for high-traffic guest-facing applications
Lead DevOps Engineer
Cloud migration and infrastructure automation for global consumer goods company.
- Migrated applications to AWS Elastic Beanstalk with high-availability auto-scaling groups
- Automated infrastructure operations using Perl scripts, resolving recurring issues permanently
Software Engineer
Healthcare platform engineering focused on reliability and environment management.
- Reduced MTTR by 65% for Claims Processing batch jobs through new validation environments
- Achieved 100% on-time delivery and 99.9% uptime for critical batch jobs
Deep dives into real problems I've solved
Zero-Downtime Migration of 200+ Payment Gateways
Mastercard's Virtual MIP fleet of 200+ nodes was running CentOS 7 approaching end-of-life, creating compliance and security exposure for systems processing millions of daily payment transactions.
Designed a phased migration strategy with custom pipeline logic that handled node-by-node OS transitions from CentOS 7 to Oracle Linux 8. Built automated validation gates ensuring each node was fully operational before proceeding to the next.
Achieved zero data loss and 100% service continuity across the entire fleet. No customer-facing impact during the migration window.
Global Virtualization: Physical to vMIP at Scale
Mastercard needed to convert physical payment infrastructure to virtualized nodes across 200+ global endpoints to improve scalability and reduce provisioning bottlenecks from weeks to minutes.
Architected an ISO-based deployment solution that standardized the conversion process. Created reusable automation templates that could be applied across diverse hardware and network configurations globally.
Completed the conversion of 200+ endpoints in under 2 months — a timeline previously considered impossible. Provisioning dropped from weeks to minutes.
Next-Gen Certificate Management for PCI Compliance
Manual mTLS certificate management across Mastercard's payment gateway fleet was error-prone, audit-risky, and consumed significant engineering hours — a critical liability in a PCI-regulated environment.
Designed NECMS (Next-Gen Certificate Management System) integrating Venafi for certificate authority and Ansible for automated lifecycle management. Built self-service workflows for high-value client onboarding.
Eliminated manual certificate toil entirely. Achieved continuous PCI compliance with automated rotation, monitoring, and audit trail generation.
API Gateway Serving 5M+ Daily Requests
Mastercard needed a next-generation API Gateway capable of handling 5 million+ concurrent requests per day with zero-downtime deployment capability.
Led a team of 6 engineers to deploy NGINX Plus with automated policy management. Built CI/CD pipelines using Chef Habitat and XL Release for seamless upgrades. Optimized XML Gateway through Groovy/Jenkins automation.
Successfully deployed gateway handling 5M+ requests/day. Reduced policy deployment costs by 30% and deployment errors by 90%.
Technical depth across the stack
Strategic Leadership
AI & Data Infrastructure
Cloud & Infrastructure
Automation & IaC
CI/CD & DevOps
Observability
Security & Identity
Languages
How I lead engineering organizations
Technical Strategy & Vision
Defined platform roadmaps for Mastercard's Edge Platform, aligning infrastructure investments with business growth targets and regulatory requirements across 200+ global endpoints.
Team Building & Mentorship
Led and mentored cross-functional engineering teams of 6–12 engineers across DevOps, SRE, and platform disciplines. Established engineering culture focused on ownership and continuous improvement.
Cost Optimization (FinOps)
Drove FinOps initiatives that reduced infrastructure costs by 30% across multiple engagements through right-sizing, automation, and cloud migration strategies.
AI-Ready Infrastructure
Bridging traditional reliability engineering with modern AI workloads — designing MLOps pipelines, RAG architectures, and GPU resource management systems for next-generation platforms.
Academic credentials & professional recognition
Professional Certifications
Red Hat Training & Courses (14 courses completed)
- Red Hat OpenShift Developer I: Introduction to Containers with Podman (DO188) - Ver. 4.14 (Feb 2025)
- Managing Virtual Machines with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization (DO316) - Ver. 4.14 (Jan 2025)
- Developing Advanced Automation with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform (DO374) - Ver. 2.2 (Mar 2024)
- Red Hat OpenShift Administration III: Scaling Deployments in the Enterprise (DO380) - Ver. 4.10 (Feb 2024)
- Red Hat Virtualization (RH318) - Ver. 4.3 (Feb 2024)
- Introduction to Kubernetes Applications (DO100) - Ver. 1.22 (Feb 2024)
- Introduction to Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift (DO121) - Ver. 4.10 (Feb 2024)
- Introduction to Red Hat OpenShift Applications (DO101) - Ver. 4.6 (Feb 2024)
- Introduction to Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (DO120) - Ver. 4.12 (Feb 2024)
- Managing Enterprise Automation with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform (DO467) - Ver. 2.2 (Feb 2024)
- Multicluster Management with Red Hat OpenShift Platform Plus (DO480) - Ver. 2.4 (Feb 2024)
- Red Hat DevOps Pipelines and Processes: CI/CD with Jenkins, Git, and Test Driven Development (DO400) - Ver. 4.6 (Feb 2024)
- Red Hat OpenShift Administration I: Managing Containers and Kubernetes (DO180) - Ver. 4.12 (Feb 2024)
- Red Hat OpenShift Development I: Introduction to Containers with Podman (DO188) - Ver. 4.12 (Feb 2024)
O'Reilly Media Courses (7 courses completed)
- AWS Certified SA-Pro Course (May 2025)
- EKS Microservices (May 2025)
- Containers Specialist (Mar 2025)
- AWS Tech Essentials (Mar 2025)
- AWS Cert Solutions Arch Course (Feb 2025)
- Kubernetes Course (Feb 2025)
- Linux Under the Hood (Feb 2025)
Legacy Certifications
- Certified Chef Developer
- IBM Certified Deployment Professional (UrbanCode Deploy)
- Certified Akamai Web Performance Administrator
- ITIL Foundation (IT Service Management)
Let's build something remarkable
Open to principal engineering, architecture, and technical leadership roles — especially where infrastructure meets AI.