Darien Buchanan
Site Reliability Engineer, QA Automation Engineer,, QA Analyst
Sanford,NC
Summary
Accomplished IT professional with strong work ethic, specializing in Site Reliability, implementing and automating quality assurance standards, performance testing, monitoring, system and application alerting, incident management.
(22+ years) with various full system development life cycle experience.
Qualifications include:
- 12+ years of QA software testing experience
- 7+ years testing in Retail environment (including POS systems like Cash Registers).
- Excellent communication and presentation skills, self starter, quick learner, team player.
- 6+ years of Site Reliability experience,
- 4+ years of Selenium test automation experience (functional and performance testing)
- Solid work history with familiar companies such as Scratch.mit.edu, VirtuStream (Dell company), LexisNexis, Bed Bath & Beyond, JPM Chase, Princeton Review, McGraw Hill, etc...
- Certified Scrum Master and AWS Architect Associate
Overview
28
28
years of professional experience
6
6
Certificates
1
1
year of post-secondary education
Work History
Cloud Infrastructure Sandbox & Technical Study
Independent Professional Development & Systems Engineering Lab
06.2024 - Current
- Dedication to continuous technical modernization, cloud architecture upskilling, and deep-dive laboratory environments during an intentional career sabbatical.
- Formulated, built, and launched a public-facing technical resource architecture hub (https://www.sreconcepts.com/) designed to host production-grade observability and automation guides.
- Developed and provisioned cloud-native infrastructure leveraging AWS S3 static web hosting, optimizing resource delivery pipelines and integrating live architecture deployments.
- Engineered and maintained a public repository of open-source automation tools, infrastructure-as-code patterns, and testing mock-ups hosted on GitHub.
- Conducted extensive technical training and advanced preparation for the renewal of core cloud capabilities, including rigorous coursework for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate curriculum.
Site Reliability Engineering Manager/Coach
Insight Global Consulting (for The Hartford)
02.2024 - 06.2024
- Architected new cross-functional SRE structures and instituted comprehensive management oversight for internal engineering processes.
- Engineered enterprise-level SLI/SLO standards and telemetry systems to synthesize critical system health data into intuitive, unified dashboards.
- Delivered weekly SLO alignment compliance reporting to key organizational stakeholders to drive transparency, reliability, and business accountability.
- Designed reusable CI/CD infrastructure templates and coached engineering teams on modern cloud deployment workflows.
Site Reliability Engineer
Scratch Foundation
08.2022 - 07.2023
- Observability Architecture: Consolidated disjointed monitoring systems by migrating legacy infrastructure from Pingdom, New Relic, and Sentry into a unified Datadog deployment. Built tailored APM dashboards for AWS serverless (Lambda) architectures, synthetic checks, and on-prem storage hosts.
- Incident Response Frameworks: Designed and executed a comprehensive corporate Incident Management Process in Jira and Slack covering registration, communication matrix paths, resolution, and post-mortem templates.
- Operational Optimization: Implemented dynamic alert severity routing via custom PagerDuty event rules to eliminate notification noise and prevent team alert fatigue. Acted as periodic Release Captain and on-call engineer resolving critical tier-1 platform anomalies.
- Data & Security Engineering: Configured Fastly CDN access log streaming to an AWS infrastructure pipeline utilizing S3, Glue tables, and Athena. Implemented TLS encryption at rest and in flight for secure data transit back to the VPC.
Site Reliability Engineer
Virtustream
02.2021 - 10.2021
- Agile Governance: Served as Scrum Master across multiple infrastructure teams, coaching the organization on Agile practices and refining sprint velocity.
- Container Security: Containerized highly available HashiCorp Vault architectures for enterprise-wide credential and secret management. Developed a successful proof-of-concept for containerizing ServiceNow Midservers using Docker.
- ITSM Alert Automation: Constructed automated alerting and incident responses within Zabbix for a ServiceNow VM provisioning workflow, cutting resolution windows via custom runbooks and automated PagerDuty routing.
Site Reliability Engineer
Virtustream
06.2020 - 02.2021
- Infrastructure Automation: Utilized Terraform for VM provisioning and AWX (Ansible) playbooks to automate system configuration workflows, seamlessly deploying Splunk agents, Trend Micro security agents, and Active Directory joins on VM builds triggered by automated ServiceNow steps
Site Reliability Engineer
LexisNexis
12.2019 - 03.2020
- Core Telemetry Engineering: Developed a highly scalable SLO/SLI documentation and instrumentation process targeting 4 mission-critical applications (and eventually expanding to top 100). Successfully recorded structural RED metrics for vital user transactions using New Relic and mostly Splunk.
Site Reliability Engineer
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
11.2016 - 09.2019
- E-Commerce Monitoring: Orchestrated application and pipeline alerting for an entire microservices-based e-commerce platform using New Relic, Sumo Logic, GCP Stackdriver, and Runscope. PagerDuty integration and maintenance.
- Automation Infrastructure: Authored custom Python automation scripts to automatically provision and enforce default New Relic Alert Policies and operational dashboards within the active CI/CD pipeline.
- Special Projects Integration: Spearheaded the infrastructure and network configuration for a high-availability, ISO 8583-compliant 3rd party store transaction monitoring network using network TAPs and dedicated Windows server topologies. Automated a series of Selenium (java) smoke tests for our CI Pipeline. Admin for Google Analytics, Runscope and New Relic
QA Automation Engineer
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
01.2013 - 10.2016
- Test Architecture: Designed and maintained a scalable Page Object Model (POM) test framework of over 130+ multi-step automated tests executing seamlessly across desktop web, iOS, and Android applications and three websites (Bed Bath Beyond, Bed Bath Beyond Canada and Buy Buy Baby).
- Performance Engineering: Conducted intensive system load and endurance tests using Rational Performance Tester to evaluate server limits and isolate underlying processing performance bottlenecks.
QA Analyst
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
12.2006 - 12.2012
- Lead QA Analyst for Buying Office to Field
- Responsible for QA efforts relating to launch of a new ATG BBBY, buybuyBaby & BBBCanada Websites, Mobil Web & Applications
- Responsible for QA efforts relating to launch of a Canadian Stores
- Responsible for QA efforts relating to suite of Planning System Applications
- Responsible for QA efforts relating to product acquisition, validation and forecasting for all BBBY, buybuyBaby, BBBY Canada, Harmon and CTS stores
- Validation of product forecasting calculations, defect management
- Net Testing, Web Testing (Bed Bath & Beyond intranet and internet sites), Flash Testing (Bridal Tool Kit Web Application)
- Web 2.0-2.1 Testing: ATG – BBBY, Baby, BBBY Canada Web, DS order processing, Warehouse fulfillment
Quality Assurance Analyst
Grow Network McGraw Hill
03.2006 - 08.2006
- Key projects: Texas Parent Student Study Guide Web, Florida Parent Student Web, New York State Integrated Reports Web
- Defect Management via Test Director (Mercury product)
- Client Server Testing, Web Testing, Report Testing, Data Integrity Testing, Automated Testing
Quality Assurance Analyst
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
08.2005 - 04.2006
- Defect Management via Track Record (Compuware product)
- Automated Testing via Test Partner (Compuware product)
- Responsible for QA efforts relating to the Bed Bath & Beyond Bridal Tool Kit
- Responsible for QA efforts relating to Demand Forecasting Management tool
- Client Server Testing, Web Testing (Bed Bath & Beyond Registration and Store Finder Web Pages), Flash Testing (Bridal Tool Kit Web Application)
Quality Assurance Analyst
Kaplan Test Prep
02.2005 - 04.2005
- Software quality assurance lead for the Kaptest website
- Managed weekly software releases and defect management
- Client Server testing, Web Testing (Kaptest Website), Flash Testing (Kaptest Website, Various Kaptest products)
Lead Quality Assurance Analyst
Chase
05.1998 - 12.2003
- Strict adherence to the Software Development Life Cycle & Capability Maturity Model (level 3) guidelines
- Involved in all aspects of the Waterfall & V-Model methods of software development from a quality assurance perspective
- Decreased testing efforts by 30% through developing a TAPS (Tandem System) automated regression test that previously required manual testing and around the clock support
- Developed automated SQL validation test scripts for the conversion of eight highly complex financial pricing & billing systems into one new Multi-currency DB2 Mainframe system - this effort decreased data validation time by 70 %
- Client Server and Web Test Automation via Rational Robot (Visual Basic)
Education
Associate of Applied Science - Computer Programming
Bramson ORT College
Forest Hills, NY 01.1996 - 07.1997
Skills
Observability & Monitoring Ecosystem: Datadog, New Relic, Splunk, Sumo Logic, GCP Stackdriver, Zabbix, Pingdom, Sentry, CA UIM, CA Spectrum, Runscope, Google Analytics
Reliability & Operational Frameworks: SLI/SLO Engineering, Error Budgeting, Production Readiness Standards, Incident Management Automation, PagerDuty Integration & Rules Architecture, Root Cause Analysis (RCA) & Post-Mortems, RED Metrics Extraction, Runbook Authoring
Agile & Organizational Leadership: Certified Scrum Master (CSM/PSM I), Cross-functional Team Coaching, Agile Framework Evangelism, Team Chartering, SDLC Governance (Waterfall, V-Model, Agile/Scrum)
Cloud, Containers & Infrastructure: AWS Architecture (S3, CloudFront, Lambda, Glue, DB2 Mainframe, Serverless Pipelines), GCP, HashiCorp Vault, Docker Containerization, AWX / Ansible Configuration Management, VMware vCenter
QA Automation & Performance Engineering: Selenium WebDriver (Java), Page Object Model (POM), Rational Performance Tester, Rational Functional Tester, Rational Robot (Visual Basic), Test Partner, API Smoke Testing, Server Operating Limits & Load Testing
Defect Tracking & ITSM Tools: Jira, ServiceNow (SNOW Workflow / Midserver), Test Director, Track Record, Slack Integration Ecosystems
Languages & Data Standards: Python, Java, SQL, Visual Basic, ISO 8583 Compliance Standards, TLS Encryption Infrastructures
Certification
Professional Scrum Master 1 (Scrum.org)
Timeline
Cloud Infrastructure Sandbox & Technical Study
Independent Professional Development & Systems Engineering Lab
06.2024 - Current
Site Reliability Engineering Manager/Coach
Insight Global Consulting (for The Hartford)
02.2024 - 06.2024
Site Reliability Engineer
Scratch Foundation
08.2022 - 07.2023
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
03-2022
Site Reliability Engineer
Virtustream
02.2021 - 10.2021
Site Reliability Engineer
Virtustream
06.2020 - 02.2021
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
03-2020
Site Reliability Engineer
LexisNexis
12.2019 - 03.2020
Sumo Logic - Sumo Power User
10-2018
Sumo Logic - Sumo Security User
10-2018
Professional Scrum Master 1 (Scrum.org)
05-2018
New Relic - Certified Performance Pro
05-2018
Site Reliability Engineer
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
11.2016 - 09.2019
QA Automation Engineer
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
01.2013 - 10.2016
QA Analyst
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
12.2006 - 12.2012
Quality Assurance Analyst
Grow Network McGraw Hill
03.2006 - 08.2006
Quality Assurance Analyst
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
08.2005 - 04.2006
Quality Assurance Analyst
Kaplan Test Prep
02.2005 - 04.2005
Lead Quality Assurance Analyst
Chase
05.1998 - 12.2003
Associate of Applied Science - Computer Programming
Bramson ORT College
01.1996 - 07.1997
Education
Forest Hills, NY
Contact
- SRE Website - https://www.sreconcepts.com/
- LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darien-buchanan-ba226846/
- Emails - qaconcept@gmail.com, qaconcepts@yahoo.com, sreconcepts@gmail.com