Francis Watson

Mesquite,TX

Summary

Strategic Azure Cloud Engineer with extensive experience in designing and automating secure Azure environments. Achievements include reducing cloud costs by 18% and improving deployment speed by 40%, while ensuring 100% compliance with SOC2 and ISO 27001. Expertise in implementing Zero Trust and managing CI/CD pipelines enhances operational efficiency.

Overview

years of professional experience

Certification

Work History

Azure Cloud Engineer

Tata Consultancy Services(Client: Citi Bank)

02.2022 - Current

Designed and deployed a robust Azure infrastructure involving Azure deployments, hybrid integrations, and virtualization platforms, delivering results within time and budget.
Engineered Zero Trust security across enterprise tenants using PIM, Conditional Access, and RBAC, ensuring 100% compliance with SOC2 and ISO 27001 standards.
Migrated 200+ legacy workloads to Datadog and Azure Monitor, improving system performance visibility and cutting MTTR by 40%.
Applied Infrastructure-as-a-code (IaC) principles using Terraform and integrated workflows with CI/CD pipelines for automated, zero-downtime deployments.
Built secure CI/CD pipelines with Key Vault integration and role-based security controls, accelerating application delivery across environments.
Hardened containerized workloads using Docker, AKS, and Defender for Containers, including runtime protection and secret injection via Key Vault.
Performed application fitment analysis and gap remediation for legacy .NET and Java apps migrating to Azure.
Automated Azure deployments with Terraform and PowerShell, reducing infrastructure provisioning time and eliminating configuration drift.
Engineered the deployment, configuration, and management of Postgres databases and GraphQL APIs in Azure cloud.
Enforced tagging, encryption, and location policies via Azure Policy and Blueprints to ensure compliance.
Conducted quarterly scans with Nessus and Wireshark to identify network vulnerabilities in critical systems.
Implemented VPN solutions to secure remote access for over 1000 employees, configuring firewall rules to allow only authorized traffic.
Utilized SSL and IPSec protocols to encrypt data transfers, reducing unauthorized access attempts by 30% and ensuring seamless connectivity.
Configured ExpressRoute, VPN Gateways, Application Gateways with WAF, and Private Endpoints to enforce network segmentation and protection.
Collaborated with DevOps and Agile teams, fostering close collaboration to align development workflows with cloud infrastructure needs.
Delivered expert-level tier 2/3 support for 200+ end users, resolving escalated M365, AVDs, and Entra ID issues with a high satisfaction rate.
Partnered with development, security, and architecture teams to align infrastructure roadmaps with business goals.
Developed and implemented advanced scaling strategies for applications and databases, enabling dynamic scaling based on traffic and resource utilization to minimize downtime and enhance user experience while optimizing cloud resource consumption.
Created and tested disaster recovery strategies with Azure Site Recovery, achieving robust data protection and recovery capabilities.
Created runbooks, architecture diagrams, and SOPs for cloud security operations and mentored junior engineers.

Cloud Systems Administrator

Proserve Marketing

07.2020 - 02.2022

Planned and migrated on-premises data/applications to Microsoft Azure, using Azure Migrate and DevTest Labs, cutting infrastructure costs by 20%.
Configured diagnostic settings, custom alerts, and health dashboards in Azure Monitor and Log Analytics to enhance monitoring and incident response.
Streamlined DevOps pipelines with secure key handling, build approvals, and automated rollback.
Strengthened Active Directory security by configuring Group Policies to enforce multi-factor authentication and restricting administrative access to sensitive resources. Introduced periodic account audits, removing inactive or compromised accounts and reducing security vulnerabilities by 25%.
Hardened environments with Azure Blueprints, ARM policies, and RBAC to ensure baseline compliance.
Automated patch management and vulnerability scanning tasks using PowerShell and Bash scripts, reducing manual labor hours by 50% and allowing security teams to focus on strategic incident response activities.
Configured VM availability sets via Azure Portal to enhance resiliency for IaaS solutions and utilized Azure Resource Manager for network traffic management.
Integrated Azure AD with Microsoft 365 to secure hybrid identity with SSO, MFA, and conditional access policies.
Streamlined network configurations using PowerShell and Azure CLI to automate VNet/subnet creation, NSGs, and diagnostic settings.
Deployed and managed virtual instances in AWS, including configuring IAM, VPCs, and Security Groups for secure operations.
Resolved cloud environment issues using a ticketing system (Zendesk), minimizing downtime and facilitating efficient issue resolution.
Presented cloud strategies to management and collaborated with vendors on licensing and resource planning to align resources with organizational needs.

Education

Bachelor of Science - Computer And Information Sciences

Southwestern College

Winfield, KS

12-2021

Associate of Science - Cyber Security

Valley Forge Military College

Wayne, PA

05-2019

Skills

Cloud Platforms: Microsoft Azure (IaaS, PaaS), AWS
Infrastructure & Networking: VNets, ExpressRoute, VPN Gateway, Load Balancer, Application Gateway, NSGs, Private Endpoints
Operating System: Windows Server (2012-2022), Linux (Ubuntu, RHEL, CentOS)
Containerization: Docker, AKS, Container Registry, Kubernetes Security, Key Vault CSI Drivers
Collaboration: Agile/Scrum, Documentation, Stakeholder Communication

Security & Identity: Azure AD, Entra ID, PIM, RBAC, MFA, Conditional Access, Zero Trust, Defender for Cloud, Azure Key Vault
Automation & IAC: Terraform, PowerShell, ARM Templates, Azure CLI, YAML, Bicep
DevOps & Monitoring: Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipeline, GitHub Actions, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, CrowdStrike, Dynatrace, Datadog
Compliance & Governance: Azure Policy, Blueprints, SOC2, ISO 27001, Fitment Analysis, Risk Mitigation