Damon Beldner
Fate,USA
Summary
Lead Cloud Architect with over 14 years of experience designing, implementing, and optimizing enterprise AWS and hybrid cloud environments. Proven leader in multi-account architecture, Amazon EKS platforms, infrastructure automation, cost optimization (FinOps), and secure cloud governance within regulated environments. Recognized for driving modernization initiatives, improving system reliability and performance, and leading cross-functional engineering teams to deliver scalable, secure, and business-aligned cloud solutions. Active U.S. Secret Security Clearance.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Staff Cloud Architect
Smart Data Solutions
Plano
06.2023 - Current
- Lead enterprise AWS cloud architecture strategy supporting healthcare data platforms and high-volume document processing systems in a regulated environment.
- Architect and manage production-grade Amazon EKS clusters, implementing autoscaling strategies (HPA and Cluster Autoscaler), optimized node group configurations, workload isolation, and platform reliability standards.
- Design and govern secure multi-account AWS environments using Terraform and AWS Organizations, enforcing IAM standards, SCP guardrails, and centralized logging controls.
- Drive enterprise-wide cloud cost optimization initiatives including rightsizing, Savings Plans and Reserved Instance strategy, Graviton adoption, storage lifecycle management, and automated scheduling for non-production environments.
- Implement FinOps governance including cost allocation tagging standards, budget alerting, forecasting models, and executive-level reporting dashboards to improve financial transparency and accountability.
- Architect secure CI/CD pipelines supporting automated container builds, image scanning, compliance validation, and controlled EKS deployments aligned with DevSecOps best practices.
- Conduct AWS Well-Architected Framework reviews and implement proactive monitoring and automated remediation to enhance system reliability and operational maturity.
- Modernize legacy workloads into containerized and serverless architectures, improving scalability, resilience, and deployment velocity.
- Design and implement enterprise data models leveraging Amazon RDS, Aurora, Redshift, S3 data lakes, AWS Glue, and Database Migration Service (DMS); integrate on-premises SQL environments via AWS Direct Connect and secure VPN connectivity to support Snowflake analytics and enterprise business intelligence initiatives.
- Provide technical leadership and mentorship to cloud engineers across DevOps, Kubernetes, and infrastructure disciplines.
Lead Cloud Computing Application Architect
Booz Allen Hamilton
Remote
02.2021 - 06.2023
- Team lead with 10+ years of experience in leading teams to success. Proven track record of delivering projects on time and within budget while driving employee engagement and productivity • Managed a team of 6 engineers that established full cloud integration of a Air Force Flight wing, comprising of more that 8000 airmen, and DOD civilians. • Design and Architect a new and improved system and features within AWS, to better sustain and improve our client's environments for a more stable network and system interface. • Led employee relations through effective communication, coaching, training, and development. • Work within the DoD space for the Air Force Civil Engineering Center, to provide support and sustainment for more current systems. In the AWS environment. • Implement new features from AWS, such as transit gateways, VPC endpoints, SSM agents, AWS Directory services, Open DNS, and design new CLI automated infrastructure. • Engineering backups for a more cost-effective solution in AWS for our clients and to ensure minimal downtime. • Collaborate with teams across Booz Allen for Recovery solutions, and knowledge base insight into other more effective client solutions. • Create a documentation library for current and future work for ease of use for my team members. • Designed a more effective ticketing solution and agile environment for better tracking of current work and duties within JIRA. • Provide System and network knowledge to other team mates on new solutions to better benefit our environment but also cost savings. • Analyzed business requirements and converted them into software designs and implementations. • Designed and developed service-oriented architectures with web services for enterprise application integration. • Utilized version control systems such as GIT and SVN for source code management and deployment activities. • Deployed web applications on production servers using container-based technologies like Docker and Kubernetes. • Created custom components using Java Server Pages, servlets, JavaBeans, JDBC and Struts framework. • Delivered cost-effective solutions by leveraging open-source tools and frameworks where appropriate. • Streamlined communication among team members through effective use of Agile methodologies and tools. • Optimized system performance with thorough application testing and continuous integration practices. • Provided technical expertise during project planning stages, contributing valuable input on technology selection and implementation strategies. • • Increased system reliability by identifying and resolving architectural bottlenecks. • Boosted employee satisfaction through regular performance reviews, constructive
Senior System Engineer / Site Reliability Engineer
Alkami Technologies
Plano, TX
02.2018 - 02.2021
- Planning, implementing, and maintaining all infrastructure in our Enterprise Cloud Environment (AWS) to include Production, Disaster Recovery and Sales environments. Ensuring infrastructure such as S3 Buckets, Server and Serverless resources, Security Groups, Subnets, all were maintained via HashiCorp' Terraform. • Ensuring AMI's were built and maintained via Packer to be used in conjunction with Terraform. Assisted in moving 85 Customer Financial Institutions behind Cloudflare and DynDNS • Worked on the provisioning CI/CD pipeline for new Production environments in AWS that leveraged TeamCity jobs to call Terraform to build infrastructure and Ansible to further install particular third party applications. • Worked to harden the enterprise for PCI compliance by coordinating with our Security Operations team to utilize Nessus scans and perform external and internal remediation's which resulted in almost 1000 ticket closures. This was carried out by both GPO and Microsoft Desired State. • Provide SFTP troubleshooting and availability to our customer Financial Institutions to produce sensitive data and a repository store to make this data available to them across the enterprise. Built out Multiple SFTP solutions in AWS transfer service family for a clients serversless experience. • Utilize the full Systems Administrations team to ensure the operability and high availability of over 1000 servers spread across three domains which consists of trusted/non-trusted environments, Group Policy management, DNS, DHCP, VMware, Nimble storage, On and Off-Premises. • Designed and maintained a backup solution for the entire corporate and production environments using Veeam and AWS S3 and Glacier applications. • Maintained and upgraded our VCenter environment from 5.0 to 6.0 for ease of use to better serve the end users and for future migration to AWS.
System Administrator
SmartStart, Inc.
Grapevine, TX
12.2016 - 01.2018
- Administered enterprise IT systems including Active Directory, Exchange, Office 365, virtualization platforms, SAN infrastructure, and network systems.
- Led migration of 1,200+ users from on-premises Exchange to hybrid Exchange Online.
- Implemented enterprise mobile device management (MaaS360) and enhanced backup and disaster recovery solutions.
Infrastructure / Cloud Engineer
Kodiak Networks
Plano, TX
09.2015 - 12.2016
- Managed Windows Server environments, Office 365, VMware infrastructure, DNS/DHCP services, and enterprise VoIP systems.
- Led infrastructure upgrades and virtualization initiatives to improve operational efficiency and platform stability.
Security Network Administrator (Battalion IT NCOIC)
U.S. Army
03.2006 - 06.2023
- Directed secure network operations across SIPR and NIPR environments supporting mission-critical communications.
- Installed and maintained Cisco switches, routers, VoIP systems, and tactical communication platforms.
- Managed Active Directory, SQL Server databases, secure data transmission protocols, and operational security compliance in both domestic and deployed environments.
Education
High School Diploma -
West Side High
Augusta, GA05.2005
Skills
- AWS Architecture & Multi-Account Strategy
- Amazon EKS & Kubernetes Platform Engineering
- Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation)
- CI/CD & DevSecOps Automation
- Cloud Cost Optimization & Financial Governance (FinOps)
- Hybrid Cloud & Enterprise Data Architecture
- IAM, SCPs & Cloud Security Governance
- Disaster Recovery & High Availability Design
- Observability (CloudWatch, Cloudtrail, Observium)
- Cloud Migration & Modernization Strategy
- Agile Leadership & Technical Mentorship
Certification
- Active U.S. Secret Security Clearance
- AWS Solutions Architect – Associate
- AWS SysOps Administrator
- AWS Developer – Associate
- AWS Cloud Practitioner
- Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
- CompTIA Security+
- CompTIA A+
- MCSA: Office 365
- VMware VCA
Timeline
Staff Cloud Architect
Smart Data Solutions
06.2023 - Current
Lead Cloud Computing Application Architect
Booz Allen Hamilton
02.2021 - 06.2023
Senior System Engineer / Site Reliability Engineer
Alkami Technologies
02.2018 - 02.2021
System Administrator
SmartStart, Inc.
12.2016 - 01.2018
Infrastructure / Cloud Engineer
Kodiak Networks
09.2015 - 12.2016
Security Network Administrator (Battalion IT NCOIC)
U.S. Army
03.2006 - 06.2023
High School Diploma -
West Side High