Dan Slinky ¶

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 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¶

As a technical leader in the Platform Engineering and SecOps team, I oversaw operations for a multi-tenanted AI SaaS platform for Enterprise and Defense customers utilizing Terragrunt, Terraform, on , and other platforms.
Promoted robust security and secrets management, aligning with stringent customer requirements and integrating SecOps practices into deployment pipelines. Utilized CI/CD tools such as GitHub Actions, CircleCI, and ArgoCD to facilitate efficient and reliable deployments while ensuring compliance with security standards and protocols.
Spearheaded a significant AWS cost reduction initiative, championing FinOps practices and optimizing cloud cost reporting using tools like opencost.io, kubecost, Prometheus, and SysDig. I implemented strategies to foster service ownership and identified areas for further optimisation, emphasising the importance of financial responsibility and efficiency within the organisation.
Collaborated on OpenTracing/Telemetry implementation to enhance application observability and performance, particularly in environments utilizing Kafka and Benthos for message routing.
I expanded the platforms SSO offering by implementing SAML, Azure AD integration, supported by Auth0. I also assessed the technical feasibility of Plausible web analytics and contributed to implementations of Tigergraph and Neo4j.

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¶

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.
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¶

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.
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¶

Supporting agency business and customer digital infrastructure including Drupal and Wagtail deployments.
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.
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¶

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¶

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.
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, tftpboot, ia64, Perl, XML/RPC & Oracle