Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Accomplishments
Timeline
Generic
Kai Janson

Kai Janson

Chattanooga,TN

Summary

Award-winning Senior DevOps Engineer focused on sustainable design. Highly effective at working with teams of designers and builders to accomplish projects on-time and according to cost constraints. Detail-oriented team player with strong organizational skills. Ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously with a high degree of accuracy, utilizing interpersonal skills, excellent time management and problem-solving skills.

Overview

19
19
years of professional experience

Work History

Principal Engineer

Taos Mountain, LLC an IBM Company
01.2021 - 12.2022
  • Oversaw two teams (“Pods”) with 8 DevOps Engineers ranking from DevOps 1 to DevOps 3 and Tech Lead
  • Escalation point for technical issues for anyone in said Pods
  • Lead standups for Pod members and customers
  • Coached pod members on skills required or desired by customers
  • Held meetings including kick-offs with new clients
  • Managed and directed pod to customer projects
  • Conducted one on one’s with pod members
  • Oversaw client facing standups with teams to identify client needs and potential enhancements
  • Tutored and mentored pod members
  • Acted as escalation point for all pod members
  • Point of contact for clients
  • Defined procedures for on- and offboarding pod members
  • Reviewed resumes and conducted interviews for new talent
  • Maintained documentation in Confluence
  • Oversaw timecards for Pod members against client budgets

Senior DevOps Engineer/Developer

BridgeConnector, LLC
08.2019 - 12.2020
  • Designed and maintained secure LINUX servers
  • Set up ELK stack
  • Responsibilities shifted towards Software Development
  • Designed and developed application to integrate external databases into company’s workflow engine in Elixir
  • Company shifted gears towards AWS Lambda based application development, created JSON models of vendor API’s and common data model for workflow engine
  • Peer programming

DevOps Engineer

SRE of Terminus Software, Inc
03.2018 - 08.2019
  • Worked as Senior SRE with focus on Amazon AWS, Terraform, DataDog and convox
  • Integration of acquired company’s repositories and services, updates to convox racks, creating monitors in DataDog
  • Internal customer support person
  • Created and developed scripts for repeatable tasks, building custom AWS AMI’s using Packer
  • Docker environments for development and production
  • Maintained drone server for CI/CD purposes on site., with focus on efficiency of automated code deployment for development, test and production

Senior CloudOps Engineer

Kaplan Test
10.2016 - 11.2017
  • CloudOps Engineer with focus on Amazon AWS CloudFormation to create and maintain QA, Staging and Production environments by code (IaaS)
  • Enhanced and maintained in-house developed IaaS tools written in Ruby
  • Bugfixes, enhancements and new features were developed and rolled out in two-weeks sprints
  • Used GitHub to maintain repositories

Senior DevOps Engineer

ThinkingFunctional, LLC
02.2015 - 10.2016
  • Worked as a DevOps Engineer with focus on efficiency of automated code deployment for development, test and production.
  • Worked extensively with Amazon AWS (EC2 + S3) to create and maintain development, staging and training environments for developers and trainees in the medical field.
  • Worked with XenServer to create a production environment for medical studies.
  • Used GitFlow to incorporate changes and setup and maintained Jenkins projects for automated build and rollout of code.

Software Developer II

Rackspace Managed Hosting
04.2011 - 02.2015
  • Designed and developed software for large-scale cloud-based services
  • Fanatical about quality and efficiency
  • Implemented proof of concept, prototypes and production-grade software
  • Created unit and acceptance tests
  • Automated deployment
  • Implemented bug fixes

Systems Developer II

Rackspace Managed Hosting
02.2010 - 04.2011
  • Developed and maintained business intelligence framework
  • Built operational and ad-hoc reports
  • Built executive dashboards
  • Worked with customers to define their requirements and created successful delivery solutions
  • Developed POPS using Groovy, Grails, Ruby and Erlang, to monitor and track health, usage, uptime, and stack traces of servers in production environment
  • Developed dashboard using Ruby on Rails, to monitor server health and server load, along with functional interface that simplified access to server logs

Software Developer III

Rackspace Managed Hosting
11.2008 - 02.2010
  • Wrote new applications and performed various programming assignments using prescribed specifications
  • Coded, modified, tested and debugged applications using Agile Methodologies
  • Used source debuggers and visual development environments to maintain and modify applications
  • Consulted with peers to create, implement and/or resolve applications and associated changes
  • Documented complications and resolutions of applications
  • Designed and developed "Peer Eval" using Ruby on Rails for Managed, Intensive and Overseas Rackers
  • Developed "Escalation Tool" using Ruby on Rails for NetSec functional leads and Escalations Specialists
  • Inherited and enhanced "Fail App" using Ruby on Rails

Test Engineer

Crossroads Systems
04.2007 - 10.2008
  • Executed test cases and revisions of test suites
  • Defined test plans of product installation, feature verification, usability, performance and release integrity
  • Identified bugs of unit under test, worked with Development and Test Team to troubleshoot issues
  • Created test cell for reliable, dependable testing
  • Formulated testing framework for multi product testing
  • Designed tools to automate testing process
  • Developed and executed both automated and manual tests
  • Created test suite for GUI testing using Selenium
  • Designed Automated Cartridge System Library Software (ACSLS) emulator, using Ruby to win $2M contract

Application Administrator

Hire.com
08.2005 - 11.2006
  • Upgraded customer sites on demand, modified data for customers in their databases
  • Coordinated, installed application patches and releases on test, quality assurance, and production systems
  • Ensured reporting of downtime on production environment
  • Monitored incoming alerts and analyzed log files for errors
  • Maintained existing applications
  • Analyzed performance trends to optimize application
  • Served as a key person in troubleshooting system problems
  • Participated in disaster recovery planning, including assisting with fault tolerance and disaster recovery plans
  • Maintained personal Wiki of daily work and knowledge base
  • Created batch updating program using Ruby, SOAP and ClearQuest Web API
  • Designed Update Tracker, a 50-item checklist, using MySQL and PHP
  • Introduction and implementation of MediaWiki for internal documentation

Mac OS X System Administrator Lead

Apple, Inc
04.2005 - 07.2005
  • Built and improved new systems using MacOS X Server, NetBoot and Apple Remote Desktop
  • Developed and deployed new tools
  • Provided 24x7 support and served as technical resource for Data Center
  • Maintained 220 XServe and XServe RAID running MacOS X Server
  • Resolved technical issues and provided documentation
  • Regularly contributed creative ideas to improve existing systems

AppleCare Support Representative

Apple, Inc
04.2004 - 04.2005
  • Provided professional phone support of Apple server products for Enterprise and Education clients
  • Provided deployment, integration and recovery support for mixed-platform, mission-critical environments
  • Worked with Development to resolve complex issues
  • Appointed Management responsibilities of server lab
  • Performed Tier 3 backfill duties
  • Performed leadership practices as walk-up agent
  • Mentored new recruits
  • Prepared flow charts and walk-through documentations
  • Created "ACESbase", knowledge base using LAMP
  • Recipient of 2005 Austin Site Award for Outstanding Performance and Positive Impact at Austin Site.

AppleCare Support Representative

Adecco, Inc
10.2003 - 04.2004
  • Performed duties as AppleCare Tier 1
  • Provided skillful phone support for Apple portable and wireless products
  • De- bugged call-in issued and guided clients to resolution through coaching
  • Prepared procedural documentations
  • Exceeded call center metrics, including average handle time, schedule adherence and accuracy
  • Demonstrated leadership skills as walk-up agent.

Education

High School Diploma -

Carl-Bantzer Gesamtschule
Ziegenhain, Germany
08.1984

Skills

  • Elixir, Ruby, C, Erlang
  • Awk, bash, sed, fish
  • PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, SQLite
  • SOAP, REST
  • Ansible, Terraform
  • DataDog, PagerDuty
  • AWS, Azure, GCP
  • Phoenixframework, Ruby on Rails
  • UN*X, LINUX, macOS, Windows
  • DNS, DHCP, NFS, SMB
  • Networking, Backup, and Storage
  • MS Office

Accomplishments

  • Out of the Box Thinker
  • Passionate about solving problems
  • ChaDev member and mentor of the Elixir Group in Chattanooga, TN


  • Industry experience in systems administration since 1989 and software development since 2005
  • Demonstrated resourcefulness and guidance skill as a technical lead, with a think outside the box attitude


  • "Train the Trainer Program" as Apple Certified System Administrator Trainer - Apple, Inc (December 2004)

Timeline

Principal Engineer

Taos Mountain, LLC an IBM Company
01.2021 - 12.2022

Senior DevOps Engineer/Developer

BridgeConnector, LLC
08.2019 - 12.2020

DevOps Engineer

SRE of Terminus Software, Inc
03.2018 - 08.2019

Senior CloudOps Engineer

Kaplan Test
10.2016 - 11.2017

Senior DevOps Engineer

ThinkingFunctional, LLC
02.2015 - 10.2016

Software Developer II

Rackspace Managed Hosting
04.2011 - 02.2015

Systems Developer II

Rackspace Managed Hosting
02.2010 - 04.2011

Software Developer III

Rackspace Managed Hosting
11.2008 - 02.2010

Test Engineer

Crossroads Systems
04.2007 - 10.2008

Application Administrator

Hire.com
08.2005 - 11.2006

Mac OS X System Administrator Lead

Apple, Inc
04.2005 - 07.2005

AppleCare Support Representative

Apple, Inc
04.2004 - 04.2005

AppleCare Support Representative

Adecco, Inc
10.2003 - 04.2004

High School Diploma -

Carl-Bantzer Gesamtschule
Kai Janson