Dan Slinky 
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Introduction¶
- Technical experience and leadership on diverse projects in Platform Engineering, SRE, and DevSecOps roles, focussing on container orchestration and seamless integration.
- Proficient in Docker, Kubernetes, and the wider Cloud Native ecosystem, with expertise in GitOps, CI/CD, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) on AWS, GCP, and Azure.
I’m an experienced Engineer, adept at designing, developing, and maintaining diverse projects, specialising in platform optimisation, ensuring security, and integrating self-service. I can collaborate effectively across multidisciplinary teams, tackling technical challenges and enhancing organizational processes. I’m committed to delivering functional, maintainable, scalable, and observable solutions, and I’m passionate about driving innovation, fostering continuous learning, and promoting team growth.
Career¶
Hergersheimer GmbH¶
2024-time.now() Freelance sysadmin¶
- Focussing on Linux health information systems management and document retrieval, platform documentation, and Lua scripting. I'm responsible for the deployments of OPNSense, XCP-ng, self-hosted Infisical and Cloudflare.
Adarga¶
2022/23 Lead Platform Engineer¶
- Led technical operations for a cutting-edge AI SaaS platform catering to Enterprise and Defense customers, leveraging IaC tools such as Terragrunt, Terraform, and Kubernetes. My leadership ensured seamless, scalable, and secure services across various services and teams.
- Achieved a substantial reduction in monthly cloud expenditures by approximately $100,000 within the first six months. This was accomplished through meticulous infrastructure and code reviews, alongside the implementation of FinOps initiatives aimed at enhancing service ownership and accountability within Microservice architecture.
- Pioneered the adoption of opencost.io, integrated with Prometheus and Grafana, complemented by a suite of other FinOps tools. This initiative significantly improved cloud spend transparency and management, enabling more informed decision-making.
- Championed the implementation of alternative Identity and SSO solutions to mitigate the risks associated with PaaS vendor lock-in, fostering a more flexible and secure cloud infrastructure. This strategic move would have enhanced organizational adaptability and security posture.
- Advanced our security and secrets management practices to meet the rigorous demands of our customers, embedding SecOps principles directly into our deployment pipelines. Through the adept use of CI/CD tools such as GitHub Actions, CircleCI, and ArgoCD, I have streamlined deployments, ensuring they meet the highest standards of reliability and security compliance.
- Expanded the platform's SSO capabilities by integrating SAML and Azure AD, supported by Auth0, enhancing our authentication offerings.
2017/19 DevOps Engineer¶
- Instrumental in establishing the foundation of a Kubernetes SaaS platform using a microservices architecture with Kafka, Python, Java, Node.js, and React SPAs. Contributed OAuth2, API management with Kong, nginx, and collaborated closely with engineering and data science teams.
Cookpad¶
2021 Site Reliability Engineer¶
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Transitioned to the SRE team, assuming a broader global platform responsibility and collaborating closely with colleagues at Cookpad Japan. Embraced learning Golang and leveraged the power of Jsonnet.
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Collaborated with SRE team members to enhance documentation, address on-call incidents, lead Kubernetes migrations, and fulfill ad hoc support requests. Additionally, contributed to platform stability and automation by utilizing Helm and Ruby within our infrastructure.
2020 Machine Learning Infrastructure Engineer¶
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Initially joined the MLOps team on a short-term contract, concentrating on Kubernetes observability before transitioning to a permanent role. Focused on deploying Elastic and Prometheus, Thanos for extended metric storage, coupled with Grafana, Loki to promote ownership of ML applications during deployment.
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Revamped Kubernetes application distribution and deployment methods by utilizing Kustomize and Flux CD. Also evaluated Kubeflow/Argo Pipelines for potential future investment, solidifying our commitment to enhancing ML application deployment processes and promotting machine learning capabilities in the organisation.
Systems Administrator, Torchbox, 2015-2016¶
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Supporting agency business and customer digital infrastructure including Drupal and Wagtail deployments.
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Led the relocation of the Bristol office, ensuring a seamless transition. Established a fully operational workspace by Monday morning through deployments of fibre optic, Ubiquiti unifi, VOIP, and MikroTik.
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Explored a Kubernetes deployment alongside Sensu, Consul and Riemann to enhance the agency's infrastructure. I also demonstrated my resilience in June 2016, tackling challenges with determination and composure.
Operations Engineer, Future, 2013-2015¶
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Managed global web properties utilizing CDNs, nginx, PHP, RabbitMQ, and Puppet for infrastructure as code (IaC), with continuous deployment facilitated by
rmq://. -
Led initiatives for data center and Xen/XCP infrastructure consolidation and upgrade. Designed and implemented enhanced storage solutions, incorporating recommended LACP groupings and integrating an advanced storage array for improved reliability and performance.
Drupal DevOps Engineer, Eurostar, 2011-2013¶
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Lead DevOps for the successful relaunch of eurostar.com, utilizing Drupal and ActiveMQ, collaborating with SNCF. Implemented CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, Puppet, and Capistrano.
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Provided technical guidance, overseeing Global Load Balancing solutions and provided training for Mumbai teams, fostering global collaboration.
Operations Engineer, Sift, 2009-2011: Drupal, CentOS, Xen, VMWare/ESXi¶
BA (Hons) Information Systems Analysis at UWE, Bristol, 2009¶
Technical Student, CERN, Switzerland, 2007-2008¶
Linux, PXE, kickstart, ia64, Perl, XML/RPC & Oracle. Some of it still in production.
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