Lawrence Gil

Senior DevOps Engineer at Assembly Global

Valencia, Spain

About Me

Seasoned Senior DevOps Engineer and IT Specialist with a track record of delivering high-impact solutions across diverse sectors. Specialized in architecting and deploying serverless infrastructures, optimizing business scalability using AWS services and Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform, AWS CDK, CloudFormation, Troposphere, and Sceptre. Possessing a broad array of technical skills, including Kubernetes, GitOps, Ansible, Docker, Python, ArgoCD, Jenkins, and full-stack application development, primarily using Python and JavaScript to develop custom internal tools. A lifelong learner and FOSS advocate, with a Telecommunication Engineering degree, commended for leadership skills, remarkable ability to thrive under pressure, multitask effectively, and communicate fluently in English and Spanish. Passionate about tinkering with systems, creating personal projects utilizing new and interesting tools, and leveraging this hands-on experience to drive business performance and growth.

Work Experience

Assembly Global

Senior DevOps Engineer

2022 -

● Established a Kubernetes-driven Fargate EKS cluster, seamlessly integrating with resources such as AWS Secrets Manager, Route 53, ELB, and EFS. This setup facilitated the automatic creation and synchronization of AWS resources from within the EKS Kubernetes ecosystem. ● Orchestrated the transition of legacy monitoring services from ECS-based containers to the newly established Kubernetes-driven Fargate EKS cluster. Implemented a unified monitoring solution using Grafana and VictoriaMetrics, facilitating interoperability with pre-existing ECS services like Loki, Tempo, and other VictoriaMetrics agents, while leveraging Kubernetes functionalities for automatic configuration. ● Enhanced a pre-existing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) environment that was orchestrated with Python, and utilized Troposphere and Sceptre. Improved its effectiveness and introduced new features such as an automatic documentation generator, custom error reporting, status tracking, and support for concurrent executions in multiple accounts, improving the infrastructure's transparency and maintainability. Additionally, conceptualized and implemented a tailored serverless CI/CD solution for this specific infrastructure deployment approach, employing AWS services such as API Gateway, Lambda, CodePipeline, SQS, and CodeBuild. ● Participated in the deployment of diverse applications and services to meet internal and external needs, maintaining adherence to high-security standards and industry best practices. Additionally, created AWS Lambda functions that automated maintenance and reporting tasks within the infrastructure. ● Encouraged an environment of collaboration and knowledge-sharing within the team, aiding in the achievement of shared objectives.
ViacomCBS

Engineer Cloud and Data Services

2020 - 2022

● Orchestrated and executed the migration of key services from on-premises datacenter to AWS Public Cloud, improving scalability and cost-efficiency. ● Facilitated the team's adoption of new Public Cloud technologies, enabling a smoother transition and knowledge transfer. ● Designed and implemented an S3-backed AWS Transfer SFTP server with a custom identity provider. This system utilized passwords and asymmetric keys via AWS API Gateway, Python Lambda, and Secret Manager. The deployment process was automated using a custom Terraform module and Jenkins pipelines. ● Undertook the development a web application to manage user credentials and details for the Transfer server, employing: - FastAPI for backend with OAuth2 authentication support. - Vue.js with Vuetify and Nuxt.js for frontend and SSR. - Okta for additional authentication. - Docker for containerization. - Helm charts and Kubernetes for deployment. ● Provided regular maintenance and troubleshooting for pre-existing services running on Debian, CentOS, and Ubuntu, ensuring their consistent performance.
AWTG Ltd

System Engineer

2020 - 2020

● Directed the design, deployment, and management of internal Private and Public Cloud infrastructure, along with corporate network oversight, optimizing system architecture for operational efficiency. ● Managed on-premises servers running a variety of Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Debian, Kali, and Arch, ensuring optimal performance and security. ● Oversaw a remote development team, advising on application architecture design to ensure efficient and robust systems. ● Assumed responsibility for cybersecurity, implementing measures to safeguard data integrity and system resilience. ● Served as a consultant on corporate network design for numerous company clients, offering end-to-end solutions from requirement analysis and proposal stages, through to network design, deployment, and troubleshooting, guaranteeing robust and reliable network systems. ● Executed deployment of critical services leveraging Docker, Docker Compose, and Kubernetes, enhancing system reliability and scalability. ● Automated routine maintenance tasks via Configuration-as-Code tools, primarily Ansible, to minimize human error and maximize operational efficiency.
SwagUp

DevOps Engineer

2019 - 2020

● Entrusted with the design, deployment, and maintenance of the company’s AWS Cloud-based infrastructure utilizing a variety of services including AWS Elastic Beanstalk, AWS Cloudfront, EC2 instances running Linux AMIs, and Route 53, delivering efficient and reliable cloud solutions. ● Orchestrated continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) for the development team utilizing Jenkins with GitHub integration, entailing the creation of project-specific Jenkinsfiles and robust management of the Jenkins server (user management, plugin administration, updates, maintenance, and troubleshooting). ● Developed and maintained AWS Lambda functions, written in Python, to automate critical infrastructure operations, integrating with AWS S3 and Cloudfront and deployed via AWS CDK, driving automation and scalability of the system. ● Devised and deployed the company's logging and monitoring solution employing InfluxDB, Telegraf, Grafana, and Promtail. Implemented with Docker-compose running on AWS ECS, facilitating seamless tracking, and real-time reporting on system performance.
Self employed

Freelance Programmer

2018 - 2019

● Worked on diverse projects across sectors, including the music industry and corporate internal tools, leveraging technologies like Vue.js, Nuxt.js, Python, and Flutter. ● Incorporated a DevOps approach and agile methodologies to enhance software development processes, employing Git flow for version control and Docker for consistent development and deployment environments. ● Contributed to frontend and backend development, as well as API integration, with a focus on user-centric design and service interoperability. ● Developed a user-friendly budget tracking mobile application available on Android and iOS platforms, showcasing versatility in skills and solutions.
Universidad Tecnólogica de La Habana "Jose Antonio Echeverría", CUJAE

Network Administrator

2017 - 2019

Key member of a team that engaged in the design and management of the University’s network and servers, during that time some of the tasks included: ● Designing, deploying and managing the network’s monitoring solution using Zabbix . ● Deploying a Deep Packet Inspection solution using ntopng. ● Maintaining the local Linux repositories. ● Day-to-day maintenance, update and securing of the private datacenter.

Education

Universidad Tecnólogica de La Habana "Jose Antonio Echeverría", CUJAE

2014 - 2019

Telecommunications Engineering

Projects

TerraHome •

Mostly Automated setup to deploy k3s and additional services on your home cluster

Automated setupk3sHome Cluster

Skills

System Administration
Amazon EKS
Linux
Python (Programming Language)
Microservices
Telecommunications
JavaScript
Web Development
Amazon CloudWatch
Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Docker
Amazon S3
Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)
Troubleshooting
Helm Charts
Ansible
English as a Second Language (ESL)
Problem Solving
Customer Service
Jenkins
Grafana
AWS CloudFormation
Spanish
Kubernetes
Web Services
Cloud Computing
Amazon EC2
JSON
FastAPI
REST APIs
Computer Networking
Vue.js
Teamwork
DevOps
Git
Apache
SCEPTRE
Cybersecurity
Written Communication
Bash
Troposphere
Software Development
Terraform
Leadership
Shell Scripting
Log Management
AWS Lambda
HTML