Aaron (AJ) Levinson
Fenton,MO
Summary
Professional architect specializing in crafting innovative, scalable solutions. Proven ability to design and implement robust systems that meet client needs and drive business success. Strong focus on collaboration and adaptability, ensuring seamless integration with team objectives and evolving project requirements. Proficient in cloud computing, system architecture, and software development, with results-oriented approach.
Overview
28
28
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Solutions Architect
Maritz
10.2023 - Current
- Established architectural patterns for existing and upcoming projects using industry best-practices for working within a multi-cloud environment (Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Amazon Web Services (AWS)), leveraging Python, Go, and Bash scripting, and supported development teams using Java 17 and Node.js.
- Worked with the DevOps team to improve use of Terraform, Jenkins, Google Cloud Build, and GitOps best practices (BitBucket).
- Focus heavily on establishing and documenting secure use cases for services employed, working closely with the Security and Auditing Teams to ensure alignment with corporate security guidelines
- Worked closely with senior leadership to effect technical decisions for current and upcoming initiatives, both with new clients and internal projects
- Mentored development teams on architectural patterns and worked closely with DevOps teams to establish standards
- Work in a multi-cloud environment (Azure, AWS and GCP) across a new Platform as a Service (PaaS) and a separate stand-alone project to allow for integration to other internal resources from other teams, including configuring B2C
- Developed comprehensive documentation for technical specifications, project plans, and user guides, streamlining communication across teams.
- Evaluated emerging technologies to stay current on industry trends, making informed decisions for technology adoption.
- Collaborated with development teams to design scalable and efficient applications tailored to client requirements.
- Promoted collaboration between cross-functional teams by serving as a liaison between developers, product managers, and stakeholders during all phases of projects.
- Enhanced application performance by integrating cloud technologies and microservices architecture.
- Increased security measures by implementing robust authentication and encryption protocols, protecting sensitive data from potential breaches.
- Reduced time-to-market by automating deployment processes using CI/CD pipelines.
- Championed a culture of continuous improvement by conducting code reviews and providing constructive feedback to peers.
Senior Technical Architect
1218 Global (formerly Axcero Global)
02.2016 - 01.2024
- Primary focus on Bullhorn integrations
- Served as Project Manager for engagement with the client, including interviewing and hiring of 2 junior engineers
- Responsible for delivery and budget management for both maintenance work and capital projects
- Worked with the client’s middleware team to alter the deployment process, including provisioning new EC2 servers in AWS and changing deployments from a pull model to a push model, allowing the client to eliminate all inbound SSH connections
- Migrated all of the US Randstad companies to new AWS accounts, provided guidance on proper use of AWS services, created several AWS Lambdas (and learned how to address the cold-start issue inherent with those), and built out scheduling to optimize costs
- Served as independent consultant for professional services customization / integration
- Leveraged technologies included Java 8, Spring 4, jQuery, Maven and Lucene consuming data from 3rd party SOAP and REST APIs
- Setup AWS environment and guided client to building out scalable environment based on core configuration
- Reduced operational costs through the implementation of automated processes and tools.
- Mentored junior team members to foster professional growth and enhance team capabilities.
- Provided technical leadership to team members during system design.
Principal Cloud Engineer
OCI
07.2018 - 09.2023
- Performed numerous duties for client engagements, including Cloud Engineering, Java Architecture, and DevOps
- Served on the pre-sales team, which included project estimations, presentations, and client technical assessments
- Performed two full implementations of AWS Direct Connect for two clients within the metropolitan region, an opportunity many do not get to experience due to cost and complexity
- Served as a mentor to others within the organization as a PDL leader
- Provided training and articles on several topics, including CloudFormation, Terraform, DevOps, and GitLab CI/CD
- Notable client engagements include: Boeing: Migrated all existing DevSecOps workflows from Jenkins to Gitlab Runners, including establishing patterns and mentoring junior engineers
- This will allow for decommissioning of the Jenkins pipelines
- Created initial architecture for migration to AWS workflows
- Authored initial Terraform templates for AWS, including (but not limited to) EC2, S3, EFS, EKS, and IAM, deploying successfully to the newly created AGA DSO AWS Account
- Performed initial onboarding for one of the group teams within AWS (I&T), allowing for deployment and testing of needed applications
- Established guidelines for processes within Gitlab for the team to match, at least closely, GitFlow processes
- Created new Artifactory repositories within the Boeing Enterprise environment, which will (alongside decommissioning of the Jenkins builds mentioned above) allow for removal of Nexus within the BCloud environment
- Performed various Proof-Of-Concept initiatives to validate the feasibility of using certain tools within the Boeing network
- Created the full infrastructure (IaC) to allow the environments to be replicated across 2 GCP projects (our internal and the actual Purina project)
- CI/CD Pipelines for automated server builds using Jenkins and Chef
- Created automations to leverage Infrastructure as Code (IaC) both on premise and in an isolated training environment
Cloud Solution Architect
Connectria Hosting
02.2018 - 07.2018
- Built out a cost-estimation process that has been adopted by their Solutions Architects, which entailed providing ranges when requirements were ambiguous using the AWS cost estimation tool
- Identified VPC / networking issues that prevented the secure flow of traffic, and resolved
- Migrated a large customer from AWS Beanstalk applications to a smaller EC2 footprint, optimized and migrated customer database instances to leverage AWS Aurora
- Created 2 new AWS accounts under a consolidated billing account to provide separate PCI compliant environments for the development and automation teams to work that mirrored actual production environments
- Created new Azure subscriptions in client multi-cloud environments
- Functioned as one of the Beta users for the Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), and helped containerize the internal applications for deployment to EKS
- Provided compliance auditing for a major client (Verifone) across several of their accounts
- Implemented the Simple Email Service from AWS, and successfully moved out of the 'Sandbox' to a production ready environment
- This entailed requesting an increase in quota to the AWS support team, and thus allowed sending of emails outside of those email addresses that are confirmed directly in AWS
- Set up alerts to ensure that bounces were handled appropriately, as there is a defined threshold for this service that could result in disruption in service if it is exceeded
Senior Software Engineer
Monsanto
08.2015 - 03.2016
- Worked on a myriad of projects to address breeding pipeline (TSM), including core java projects, several java / backbone web applications, and both SOAP and Rest APIs
- Developed Trait Project APIs using Spray, Slick and Swagger, build-out of Kafka consumers and producers to aid in forecasting, and fixes for critical issues related to transactional boundaries
- Served as technical lead, interfacing with several other teams and end-user groups to facilitate improvements while helping reduce technical debt within large (240K lines of code) legacy code base
Senior Software Engineer
Bullhorn, Inc.
11.2014 - 08.2015
- Served as Senior Software Engineer for break/fix and new functionality within ATS system, comprised of Java, Coldfusion 7, Angular.js, Grails, and various internally developed libraries
- Created stored procedures for consumption by hybrid Angular.js widgets
- Helped guide and mentor junior developers with development tools and code practices
- Converted massive core java project (100+ modules) from using ANT builds to SBT, which helped in decoupling projects, creating interactive builds, and improving code coverage
- Architected ELK stack that consolidates all logs from all QA environments to single data source / dashboard, and creation of initial metrics to instrument core calls within ATS system
- Serving as prototype for future production system
- Served as lead for both Artifactory instances
- Functioned as Lead architect, responsible for conversion of .war file configurations to migrate from JBoss application servers to Tomcat containers
- Presented several courses, including SBT, ELK, and Messaging principles
- Upgraded web automation / load testing tools from Gatling 1.x to 2.x
- Updated development tools (written in Python) to take advantage of infrastructure / build process improvements
- Served as primary architect of 'Faster Find,' that queried both Lucene and SQL Server data stores to return top matches based on user input across multiple entities, with sub-second result processing
Senior Support Engineer
Maritz
08.2014 - 11.2014
- Provided support for several legacy applications running on JaCORB, JBoss, and JRun
- Initiated effort to aggregate logs as a first-step towards standardizing on log standards and improving supportability
- Performed complex queries against both Oracle (PL/SQL) and SQL Server 2008 RDBMS
- Installed Jenkins and Nexus to introduce automated builds and began converting legacy projects from Ant to Gradle builds
- Performed code reviews and high-level design documents
- Created ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibanna) stack to aid in searching logs from various applications in real-time
Senior Java Developer
BJC
10.2008 - 08.2014
- Directed all aspects of development for team during initial development and subsequent certification development 3 years later
- Leveraged Spring, Hibernate, jQuery, JSON, XML / XQuery, JDBC, AD/LDAP interfaces, SAML connectivity to external patient portal, and web services
- Architect and Technical Lead
- Followed development activity
- Replaced several scripted processes and an obsolete MS Access system with a third-party vended application (Health Language International)
- Provisioned and configured Linux (CentOS and RedHat) servers, configuration of vended applications and web services on these platforms (first installation for vendor with either Glassfish or DB2)
- Developed 5 internal modules, including a batch importation process (combination of Java and Groovy), several batch exportation processes, internal web services (SOAP and RESTful), and a web interface for use by MED modeling team
Application Developer
Alter Trading Corporation
07.2007 - 10.2008
- Developed customized web-based Contact Relationship Management (CRM) software
- Application integrated with several existing applications to provide customer-specific codes, products and assets
- This was a complete rewrite of the existing application to include modification of the data schema, data entry, and reporting options
- The application allowed users to input or edit a variety of information based on a client or competitive company, and also provided management reporting tools to better direct sales efforts
- Functioned as the Developer / Architect of web-based Contact Relationship Manager application which involved Java 1.5 within Eclipse IDE / Maven build technologies
- Migrated existing Java-based web-applications to LifeRay portal applications
- Capitalized on previous business experience to help application owners identify new opportunities within the application, including the implementation of a market-share tracking feature
Manager of Information Technology / Sales & Marketing Director
Centrifugal & Mechanical Industries
03.1997 - 07.2007
- Developed internal applications and provided network administration for Windows and AS/400 systems
- Applications included: A web-based application to allow users to retrieve real-time inventory and pricing using Java with Swing (and later JSPs) technologies
- A marketing and support website (including multi-language functionality) leveraging Java 1.4 to integrate with existing CRM application
- A predictive sales analysis program (based on RPG III/IV originally, which was migrated to Java in 2005)
- Developed application for use by field engineers and international network of distributors to query inventory availability
- Created Predictive Sales Analysis program to identify customer purchase / operating trends and direct sales efforts to capture new business
- Technologies leveraged included RPG and SQL Server / DB2 (via ODBC)
- Management of technical staff (in-house and contract) to improve network communications, maintain hardware and software, and perform special projects as needed
- Implemented unique solution using latent phone lines to connect office and manufacturing facilities without incurring additional costs for permitting and below-street tunneling
Education
Master of Science - Information Systems
University of Phoenix
Master of Business Administration - Marketing / Technology Management
University of Phoenix
Bachelor of Science - Information Technology
University of Phoenix
Skills
- Windows (XP/7/8,10)
- Apple (OSX, IOS)
- Linux (Various distributions)
- UNIX
- Java (18)
- GoLang
- Python
- Groovy
- Grails
- Scala
- C/C
- C#
- SQL
- Shell Scripting
- HTML
- CSS
- Javascript
- JQuery
- Angularjs
- Nodejs
- React
- Vuejs
- TypeScript
- Nuxtjs
- Spring (v25 and up)
- Spring Boot
- JSON
- XML
- Hibernate
- SoapUI
- JUnit
- TestNG
- SBT
- Maven
- Jenkins
- Gradle
- Apache
- Tomcat
- J2EE (Servlets, JSP, EJB)
- Atlassian tools (Jira, Confluence)
- REST / SOAP web services
- Selenium
- ScalaTest
- Gatling
- OpenAPI
- EasyMock
- JMock
- Mockito
- Jmockit
- Elasticsearch, LogStash, and Kibana (ELK)
- Splunk
- Git (Github, Gitlab, Bitbucket)
- Intellij
- Visual Studio Code
- BigQuery
- Firestore
- DB2
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Oracle (8x )
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
- Neo4j
- Microsoft Office (expert)
- Technical architecture
- Application security
- Network design
- Integrating designs
- Managing schedules
- Leading meetings
- Continuous integration
- Continuous deployment
- Selecting products
- Customer implementation
- Systems design
- IT strategy development
- Migration strategies
- Architecture review
- Infrastructure development
- Problem-solving abilities
- Team building
- Cloud Computing
- Agile Methodologies
Certification
Hashicorp Terraform – Associate, AWS Developer – Associate, AWS Cloud Practitioner, AWS Solutions Architect – Associate (renewing 01/2024), AWS SysOps Administrator – Associate (renewing 02/2024)
Activities
- Member, St. Louis Community College Computing and Information Technology (CIT) Advisory Board, 2022 - 2023
- Lifetime Member, Black Data Processing Associates (bdpa.org), 2022
Affiliations
- Lifetime Member - BDPA
- Advisory Board - St. Louis Community College CIT Group
- Lifetime Member - VFW
- Lifetime Member - Marine Corps League
Work Availability
monday
tuesday
wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
morning
afternoon
evening
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Timeline
Solutions Architect
Maritz
10.2023 - Current
Principal Cloud Engineer
OCI
07.2018 - 09.2023
Cloud Solution Architect
Connectria Hosting
02.2018 - 07.2018
Senior Technical Architect
1218 Global (formerly Axcero Global)
02.2016 - 01.2024
Senior Software Engineer
Monsanto
08.2015 - 03.2016
Senior Software Engineer
Bullhorn, Inc.
11.2014 - 08.2015
Senior Support Engineer
Maritz
08.2014 - 11.2014
Senior Java Developer
BJC
10.2008 - 08.2014
Application Developer
Alter Trading Corporation
07.2007 - 10.2008
Manager of Information Technology / Sales & Marketing Director
Centrifugal & Mechanical Industries
03.1997 - 07.2007
Master of Science - Information Systems
University of Phoenix
Master of Business Administration - Marketing / Technology Management
University of Phoenix
Bachelor of Science - Information Technology
University of Phoenix
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