Thomas D Blersch
Technology Lead /Solutions Architect
Rockville,MD
Summary
Dynamic Solutions Architect with a proven track record at TRIA Federal, enhancing security posture and driving automation in cloud environments. Expert in Azure and DevOps, I excel in stakeholder communication and delivering impactful results, significantly improving application performance and availability while managing complex CI/CD pipelines.
Overview
23
23
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Solutions Architect/Cloud Architect/Security Lead
TRIA Federal
02.2023 - Current
- Solutions Architect and Cloud Architect for FEMA FACTRAX system
- Security lead. Responsible for maintaining and enhancing security posture of systems, managing the overall security picture, and planning and implementing security improvements.
- Led security audit process for A123 and ATO audits, including defining and managing work to remediate findings. Contributed to Plans of Action and Milestones related to audit findings.
- Leading client engagement on technical enhancements and issues.
- Documented policies and procedures for architectural standards, security standards, Azure architecture, audit logging, and account management.
- Managed CI/CD pipelines and CM and delivery process. Improved overall automation and delivery speed.
- Documented and managed non-functional requirements in cooperation with client project management.
- Maintained architectural road map for the project.
- Implemented improvements for application performance and application performance and availability monitoring. Improved performance and availability significantly at cost savings to FEMA.
- Managed the maintenance and improvements of FACTRAX Azure environment using Azure Resource Manager, Powershell, and ADO.
- Acting deputy project manager.
- Tools used: Azure, Azure DevOps. Jira. .NET 4.8, 6, and 8. Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. Sparx Enterprise Architect. Powershell, Python. Fortify, WebInspect, Tenable, AppDetective.
Team Lead/Senior Developer
ERP, Inc.
07.2017 - 02.2023
- Solutions Architect for USAF DMAPS Transformation
- Defined and designed technical solution to transform elements of DMAPS software suite from PowerBuilder/Cobol system to a modern, cloud-based microservices implementation.
- Developed prototypes and reference implementations of solutions in Java/Spring Boot framework
- Developed effective working relationships with USAF Program and Product Managers, and effective cross-team collaboration with other AF teams and programs.
- Defined and customized Agile processes to migrate USAF programs to Agile, and to be effective and compatible with USAF project management practices.
- Defined and implemented DevSecOps processes and tools to provide continuous delivery and integration of features as compatible with USAF IT practices and requirements.
- Developed and managed integrated development environment in AWS Gov Cloud.
- Responsible for implementation of DevOps pipelines and practices, configuration management, and installation procedures and documentation.
- Technical writer responsible for creation and delivery of all required technical documentation.
- Tools used: AWS, Java and Spring Framework, React, npm, Docker, Redhat tools and technologies, Kubernetes, CRI-O, Docker, Atlassian tool suite (Jira, Bitbucket, Confluence), DevOps and CI/CD tools (Jenkins, Nexus, SonarQube, Fortify, Checkmarx, Ansible), Oracle 19.
- Solutions Architect and Team Lead for FEMA FLMA PIVOT programs.
- Established close, effective working relationship with FEMA FMLA staff.
- Maintained existing ETL code and objects in the Pentaho ETL framework and PostgreSQL.
- Developed ETLs for financial reporting and statement mailings.
- Managed sprints: sprint scope, individual workload and tasking. Coordinated closely with stakeholders, users, and other PIVOT teams for requirements definition.
- As Scrum Master, instituted improvements in configuration management, deployment processes, operational maintenance, and test processes. Achieved measurable improvements in each.
- Tools used: Pentaho ETL, Postgres, Python, Java, Atlassian tool suite (Jira, Bitbucket, Confluence).
- Solutions Architect for DHS S&T OIP Portal program
- Assisted in setting up microservice framework and SDLC processes in DHS S&T OIP Portal project.
- Senior developer on the ELIS2 development project at US Citizens and Immigration Services.
- Responsible for maintenance, deployment, and conversion to RESTful web service of VERIFI tool.
- Technical lead for team of 8 developers, tester, and business analyst in a CI/CD environment. Under my guidance, team projects included:
- Successfully developed and delivered RESTful microservice for integration with external systems for background checks. Improved timeliness and accuracy of background checks for citizenship applications.
- Support of development of several USCIS product lines.
- Lead development team for implementation of USCIS products supporting the Violence Against Women Act.
- Innovated improvements to SDLC processes.
- Performed dev/ops tasks: monitored and managed build pipelines and code/security scanning tools, performed application and microservice deployments, provided tier 3 user support on applications.
- Environment and tools: Docker, Node.js, Java 8 and Spring Framework, Angular 4 and Angular JS, EJS, React, PostgreSQL, Jenkins, Gradle, Groovy, OpenShift, Nexus, AWS.
Solutions Architect, FSIS
Customer Value Partners
Fairfax, VA
09.2014 - 01.2017
- Technical Lead for CMS QMARS project.
- Responsible for integrating Pega PRPC and Oracle 11g for data extraction and data warehouse framework for CMS QMARS application.
- Developed deployment and configuration management processes and procedures for QMARS project.
- Documented system design, including Pega data model.
- Task Coordinator and Solutions Engineer for the FSIS ATA project.
- Responsible for documenting and analyzing system architecture and providing technical guidance of project to completeness across multiple hardware and software implementation efforts.
- Assisted in creation of required SDLC documentation for projects.
- Developed and documented cloud requirements and architecture for system design and deployment.
- Fairfax, VA
Master Software Engineer
SRA International, Inc.
Fairfax, VA
12.2010 - 09.2014
- Lead Technical Analyst for the Billing Release in the EPIC Transformation for Federal Investigative Services at the Office of Personnel Management.
- Led a team of seven developers in the development of the transformed Billing system through all phases of the SDLC.
- Mentored development team in the use Java, Spring, JavaScript, CSS, Hibernate, and Corticon Business Rules Engine.
- Instituted agile development practices that led to the development team delivering features weeks ahead of schedule with near-zero defects.
- Introduced and managed Configuration Management processes for reverse engineering of existing system.
- Assisted in project management tasks, including planning and scheduling and resource estimates and allocations, to the Technical Release Leads for Billing release.
- Developed SOA for implementation of transformed Billing system.
- Performed prototyping and developed reference implementations of architectural patterns to guide development process.
- Assisted in developing and validating transformed RDBMS target schema against release requirements.
- Analyzed the existing mainframe system, and closely coordinated with end users and SMEs to define and validate business processes and requirements for the transformed system.
- Created architecture, design, and deployment documentation for the transformed Billing system.
- Coordinated testing across all life cycle phases: defined and planned unit testing, assisted integration and user acceptance test teams in definition and validation of test plans and test cases.
- Defined server architecture for business rules engine servers, and coordinated provisioning and deployment of servers. Advised on acquisition and procurement of BRMS hardware and software.
- Fairfax, VA
Senior Software Architect
Elevate Talent Solutions
Cambridge, MA
07.2010 - 10.2010
- Participated in migration of CLAIMS 3.NET application from DOS/VB6 application to .NET 3.51 framework within an Agile environment.
- Documented requirements, defined and designed system and object-oriented software architecture for n-tier .NET system, aided developers in detailed design of reusable UI components.
- Delivered documentation and a proof-of-concept of complete system architecture, using domain driven design and leveraging O/R mapping design patterns.
- Cambridge MA
Senior Technologist
Exeter Government Services, LLC
Rockville, MD
06.2003 - 05.2010
- Senior software engineer and technical lead with experience throughout all phases of the SDLC, focused on Microsoft .NET, SharePoint, web technologies, and data modeling and database design and development.
- Acting as Requirements Lead, Technical Lead, and Product Integration Lead for CMMI Level 3 SDLC Development and Assessment Efforts, successfully led a distributed development team for the development and deployment of internal software applications for Exeter Government Services within a CMMI Level 3 environment.
- Senior developer and team lead on Ginnie Mae enterprise-wide Reporting and Feedback System.
- Led development of a portal-based solution for RFS applications, integrating the .NET web environment with a Java-based BEA WebLogic Portal environment.
- Performed architectural analysis and design as well as business analysis of major system components.
- Provided analysis and development support to database development team and QA team.
- Assisted DBA team with data modeling and data definition.
- Responsible for design, development, deployment, and support of server components and processes for use in verifying mortgage data with the Federal Housing Administration’s FHAC B2B interface as part of Ginnie Mae’s due diligence requirements.
- Developed accessibility evaluation procedures for Exeter, and performed accessibility analyses for web sites for conformance to Section 508 and W3C Accessibility requirements.
- Rockville, MD
Education
M.A. - Physics
State University of NY at Buffalo
Buffalo, NYA.B. - Astronomy
Vassar College
Poughkeepsie, NYSkills
- Java
- C#
- C
- Javascript
- PostgreSQL
- Oracle 11g
- MS SQL Server
- CM tools
- Continuous integration tools
- Jenkins
- Git
- Docker
- Requirements management tools
- JIRA
- Code quality tools
- Security tools
- SonarQube
- Fortify SCA
- Spring Framework
- Hibernate
- Object oriented design
- Nodejs
- ReactJS
- Service Oriented Architecture
- RESTful APIs
- Microservices
- OAuth
- Unit testing frameworks
- Component integration
- Business solutions prowess
- Systems design analysis
- Containerization technologies
- Stakeholder communication
- Security and compliance
- Process evaluation
- API design and management
- Cloud computing expertise
- Software development lifecycle
- Web applications
- Requirements gathering
- Microservices architecture
- Serverless architecture
- Business process analysis
- Software deployment support
- Enterprise architecture design
- DevOps implementation
- Application modernization
- Technical project management
- Infrastructure automation
- Systems design
Certification
- Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge
- SAFe Certified Scrum Master
Timeline
Solutions Architect/Cloud Architect/Security Lead
TRIA Federal
02.2023 - Current
Team Lead/Senior Developer
ERP, Inc.
07.2017 - 02.2023
Solutions Architect, FSIS
Customer Value Partners
09.2014 - 01.2017
Master Software Engineer
SRA International, Inc.
12.2010 - 09.2014
Senior Software Architect
Elevate Talent Solutions
07.2010 - 10.2010
Senior Technologist
Exeter Government Services, LLC
06.2003 - 05.2010
M.A. - Physics
State University of NY at Buffalo
A.B. - Astronomy
Vassar College