BRIAN HOPKINS
Sharpsburg,GA
Summary
As a highly skilled and results-oriented professional with 8+ years of experience, I have consistently delivered innovative solutions and streamlined operations in fast-paced and complex environments. Expertise lies in designing and implementing scalable DevOps architectures, leveraging cloud services, and orchestrating containerized applications with Kubernetes or other technologies. Throughout my career, I have successfully implemented CI/CD pipelines, reducing deployment cycles and improving overall efficiency.
In previous roles, I spearheaded the redesign of Jenkins infrastructure as code end to end, resulting in improved scalability, reliability, and cost optimization. I led the implementation of containerization using Kubernetes, which significantly enhanced application deployment and management. Additionally, I championed the adoption of infrastructure-as-code principles, automating the provisioning of resources and ensuring consistent environments across development, testing, and production.
I possess strong leadership skills and thrive in cross-functional collaboration, effectively communicating complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. I am passionate about staying updated with emerging technologies and industry best practices, and I actively seek out opportunities to drive innovation and optimize processes.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
Work History
Lead DevOps Engineer
FanDuel
09.2023 - Current
- Monitor automated build and continuous software integration process to drive build/release failure resolution.
- Worked with software development and testing team members to design and develop robust solutions to meet client requirements for functionality, scalability, and performance. One of these was backstage and other developer experience solutions.
- Came up with POC's to improve our DevOps maturity while also eliminating old tech debt.
- Utilizing terraform built out vault infrastructure as code and utilizing POC to get rid of a old setup.
- Lead and mentor a team of 4 DevOps Engineers and ensure projects and new state launches are successful.
- Continuing to work closely with developers to try and improve their overall experience.
Experience Senior DevOps Engineer
Zip Co Remote
02.2023 - 08.2023
- Mentored junior DevOps team members and lead a few projects to completion.
- One project was to rebuild the Env0 infrastructure which is used to deploy the Terraform infrastructure. The new implementation cleaned up things a bit and setup things for more RBAC to allow better control over resources while also updating terraform versions. The entire process was written in code using Terraform.
- Assisted in re-writing/writing new terraform modules to also simplify the process of deploying infrastructure via Terraform.
- Also performed on-call duties supporting Azure, Kubernetes, Datadog Monitoring, Env0/Terraform related issues, and such.
Lead DevOps Engineer/Manager
Canoo Remote
05.2022 - 01.2023
- Had a team of 4 engineers that reported to me and I mentored them on DevOps related tasks
- My team managed a ServiceDesk where we have issues come in for Jenkins build issues, new job requests, new cloud setups, etc
- Also oversaw all things DevOps for the software operations side of the house and optimizing the process
- Helped manage and deploy via Terraform multiple AWS accounts and eks clusters and other resources inside of them
- Our AWS accounts were being setup entirely as code using Terraform
- Had a mix of vm’s and containers that were supported all primarily running some flavor of linux
- Some accolades so far:
- Rebuilt entire Jenkins infrastructure as code and now have 10 jenkins instances as code setup for bigger teams so we can patch and limit plugin creep across single instances
- This is all setup so it can be torn down and rebuilt on the fly and all the jobs are brought in again via code
- All the jobs are setup as code as well in repositories
- Utilized ArgoCD and Harness for deploying Jenkins instances and other applications to go along with our IaC initiatives
- Setup automated docs for confluence to update confluence pages from README’s from repos to help have better overall documentation everyone could see
- Built out a planning board in Jira for my team to sprint plan better and my team is consistently always above our goals each sprint and typically is the model team for others to base off
- Setup a chatops bot to start funneling Jenkins support questions and other topics to the confluence pages or service desk
- Optimized and built out standards for Jenkinsfiles and how we ship code and promote software/images
- Setup process in Artifactory to promote images and save time on builds, etc
- Making a big push for IaC through entire org and all new projects are setup completely as code, using codeowners for PR checks and such
- Used packer to setup AMI’s used in AWS for Jenkins nodes that require actual VM’s to run and cannot run on Kubernetes workers
- Also helped development teams with their failed builds and guided them on how to fix them and also best optimize them for faster and more reliable builds in Jenkins.
IT Operations Manager/DevOps Manager
TransImpact Remote/Emerald Isle
05.2020 - 05.2022
- Managed 3 total direct reports
- Assisted to get a security policy structure setup and I owned and managed the Jira and Confluence architecture for the company and improved processes utilizing it
- I have setup a lot of service desk type setups and other project automations to augment our workflows
- Managed all database aspects which was primarily Postgre
- Not a super huge DBA but came in and cleaned up a bunch of security and worked with a consultant to setup an automated ETL process to take data from prod into QA to have a safer place to code instead of devs coding straight to Prod
- Currently hiring a DBA
- Worked on setting up a fully automated patching platform for Windows/Linux/3rd Party patching and utilize a vulnerability scanning platform along with this to ensure zero days are patched when they are fixed
- Managed all Cloud aspects which was an AWS and Azure setup
- Taught the development team about containers, Kubernetes, and helm charts
- Oversaw AWS/Azure resources and costs, implementations, and more
- We currently have SaaS offerings running in both Clouds
- Desktop Central solution we use for asset management, patching, vulnerability scanning and such
- Managed VPN Solution
- IT Helpdesk - Had 3 reports that are also in charge of managing a Helpdesk queue of tickets, job failures, and new client setups.
DevOps Engineer
Cisco Security & Trust RTP
03.2020 - 05.2020
- Small contract I took while trying to find a permanent role
- Assisted a team within Cisco to containerize their application and setup a proper software delivery lifecycle for it
- Tested out a private cloud inside AWS for our new workloads to migrate to utilizing CDK for IaC with a ECS Fargate type setup with ALB
- Setup vault service and namespaces for multi-tenant for other applications under our umbrella
- Updated Jenkins jobs to build out images and update Fargate Task Def’s with image tag updates for auto deploys
- Helped architect a new DevOps culture for the team while also implementing DevOps at the same time
- Tech Stack: Docker, python, Redis, rabbit, AWS, Jenkins, Django, React, Vuejs
Solutions Engineer
Rasa Remote/Berlin
10.2019 - 02.2020
- Assisting our customers with their chatbot implementations and questions
- Troubleshooted our code and stack running on different platforms like Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift running in different environments like AWS, Google Cloud, or on prem
- Helped customers work on improving the Python code and platform and integrating new features and enhancements, we are receiving customer input
- Managed customers and their deployments and production setups
- Assisted in the whole process of implementation and support afterwards
- Wrote custom action code in Python for Rasa to communicate with ServiceNow and other ticketing systems for Helpdesk assistants
- Converted Travis pipelines into more proficient GitHub actions with conditions
- Tech Stack: Kubernetes, Docker, python, Redis, rabbit, Postgres, AWS, Google Cloud, GitHub actions, Travis
Senior DevOps engineer
Pearson
06.2019 - 10.2019
- I mentored junior DevOps team members and lead a few projects to completion
- One project was to rebuild the Env0 infrastructure which is used to deploy the Terraform infrastructure
- The new implementation cleaned up things a bit and setup things for more RBAC to allow better control over resources while also updating terraform versions
- The entire process was written in code using Terraform
- Assisted in re-writing/writing new terraform modules to also simplify the process of deploying infrastructure via Terraform
- Also performed on-call duties supporting Azure, Kubernetes, Datadog Monitoring, Env0/Terraform related issues, and such., focusing on implementing some DevOps standards around our Infrastructure as Code using AWS CDK and CloudFormation with Jenkins
- Built out a software portal via AWS for deploying new stacks
- Built an AWS Lex Bot/RASA chat bot to deploy our stacks, answer on boarding questions, etc
- The new portal allowed developers to easily redeploy or update their ECS fargate tasks via the AWS software portal
- Also worked on all things Jenkins and optimizing jobs and converting them to code.
Software Engineer
Hiringsolved
11.2018 - 06.2019
- Took their application stack that wasn’t containerized and containerized it for a DR project
- Also setup using Ansible, a one click option to restore the entire stack, restore backups, do indexes, all inside AWS in the event of a disaster at the datacenter
- Helped with their backup system to be more automated using ansible and verify backups and update us via slack
- Worked overall on Docker/Kubernetes and streamlining processes for deployment and building out a CI/CD pipeline for releases.
Cloud Trainer
ePlus/Onecloud Consulting
04.2018 - 11.2018
- Gave UCS Intersight training at multiple Cisco offices around the world training sales engineers on the product and why it is important to their customers
- Provided a Docker fundamentals/introduction class and received five-star survey results from multiple classes I gave
- Taught on cloud/CI/CD technologies like Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, python and more
- Engaging in post-sales engagements as well as building out new class material and working on automation projects or other things that came up
- Taught a Kubernetes course at multiple locations and focused more on Kubernetes in my personal time as well for some of my personal projects
- Developed and taught a Ansible programmability class as well as server/cloud class.
MSC Engineer III
ePlus
10.2017 - 04.2018
- Responsible for all Datacenter related cases coming in for the Managed Service Center
- Technologies include: UCS VMware, NetApp, Pure
- Other job functions included building a chatbot infrastructure to connect to existing systems and allow for escalations and troubleshooting help
- Ansible automation projects to help with updating/configuring UCS and other environments
- Provided recommendations based on best practices from vendors
- Created tools for myself and team to help automate my job more day to day and create more time to spend on projects
- Mentored Tier 1 and 2 engineers and help to build the relationships as well as fix escalation pain points and other issues
- Provided training for other engineers on UCS, VMware and other technologies including python development and such.
Customer Support Engineer
Cisco
10.2014 - 10.2017
- Moved to the UCS team from the MDS team (FC and FCoE) which I was on for a year and continued to support customers as well as wrote custom ansible modules to automate UCS labs
- Wrote scripts and automated programs to help diagnose known bugs or issues and resolve issues faster
- Traveled to Mexico to deliver training to other team members on using python technologies we have built to close cases faster and have happier customers
- Used docker, python, and ansible daily in my new role while building out a chatbot framework using open-source technologies
- Pulled off taking cases and helping in the tools/development space to build tools to help engineers
- Built some sample apps in angular and js with NodeJS
- I also used Jira for tracking project and tasks
- Provided Tier 1 support for VMware and Redhat while still taking cases
- Assisted other users with their devops needs whether it be creating ansible playbooks or just help them get containers and CI/CD pipelines setup
- Assisted the Cognitive/AI team in creating docker microservices using ansible to spin up chatbots for engineers as they requested them
- Used technologies Ansible, Jenkins, Quay, and others to setup an automation pipeline for our docker applications and services
- Started out on MDS/FC team supporting Fibre Channel and FCoE and wrote python scripts to help find bugs and other issues
- Created a gateway that was written in python to analyze show tech’s and find issues and bugs and connect to other scripts written by other engineers.
Senior Infrastructure Engineer/HIPAA Security Officer
TSI Healthcare
10.2013 - 10.2014
- Managed all aspects of the infrastructure including NetApp storage, shortel phones, VMware servers, and automation around VMware powercli and more
- Focused on keeping demands up for backend storage and compute
- Had a side role being the backup HIPAA Security Officer and maintaining security measures around things needed there
- In charge of all aspects of the infrastructure maintaining phones, networking, netapp filers, etc.
Technical Support Engineer
NetApp
10.2012 - 05.2013
- Was laid off at NetApp due to an org restructure where I was a Technical Support Engineer III L2
- Answered phones and work cases involving down filers, virtual server/NFS, ISCSI, SAN issues, and performance cases
- Worked with an average caseload of 20+ cases with updates daily in them
- Trained and worked daily with 7-mode filers and all ONTAP versions
- Knowledgeable in Virtual Storage Console (VSC), SAN and NAS technologies, hardware support, and other technologies in ONTAP
- Used an internal knowledge exchange forum and answered questions for other engineers to help on their cases, as of the day I was laid off I had helped to close over 50+ cases already using this system for other engineers, as well was the top contributor on Dedupe TSAP's and one of the leading contributors on the Virt TSAP's as well
- Was over 900 points in the period I was there
- Worked with Escalation Engineer's to help push cases to resolution and help others close cases that they might not be as knowledgeable in
- Had labs setup with physical and virtual filers and VMware infrastructures for testing and setup and use these products daily
- Achieved my NCDA in 7-mode and was beginning to work on cluster mode training.
Skills
- AWS
- Azure
- Docker
- Ubuntu/Debian/CentOS/RHEL/etc
- Doppler
- InworldAI
- Ansible
- CloudFormation
- Python
- Kubernetes
- Jenkins
- Terraform
- IaC
- CI/CD
- Postgres
- Teaching/Mentoring
- Project Planning
- Jira
- Active Directory
- EC2
- ECS Fargate
- Lambda
- API Gateway
Timeline
Lead DevOps Engineer
FanDuel
09.2023 - Current
Experience Senior DevOps Engineer
Zip Co Remote
02.2023 - 08.2023
Lead DevOps Engineer/Manager
Canoo Remote
05.2022 - 01.2023
IT Operations Manager/DevOps Manager
TransImpact Remote/Emerald Isle
05.2020 - 05.2022
DevOps Engineer
Cisco Security & Trust RTP
03.2020 - 05.2020
Solutions Engineer
Rasa Remote/Berlin
10.2019 - 02.2020
Senior DevOps engineer
Pearson
06.2019 - 10.2019
Software Engineer
Hiringsolved
11.2018 - 06.2019
Cloud Trainer
ePlus/Onecloud Consulting
04.2018 - 11.2018
MSC Engineer III
ePlus
10.2017 - 04.2018
Customer Support Engineer
Cisco
10.2014 - 10.2017
Senior Infrastructure Engineer/HIPAA Security Officer
TSI Healthcare
10.2013 - 10.2014
Technical Support Engineer
NetApp
10.2012 - 05.2013
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