Publication
SSH Logging and Session Management Using AWS SSM
https://www.toptal.com/developers/aws/ssh-log-with-ssm
Vimal is currently unavailable
Vimal Paliwal
Verified Expert in Engineering
DevSecOps Engineer and Software Developer
London, United Kingdom
Toptal member since April 27, 2020
Bio
Vim has 9+ years of experience delivering secure, scalable cloud infrastructure using IaC and driving measurable cost optimisations. Certified across AWS and Kubernetes, with a strong focus on security, compliance, and DevSecOps best practices. Former AWS Authorized Instructor, AWS Community Builder, and contributor through technical blogs, open-source tools, and speaking engagements. Outside work, Vim enjoys badminton, yoga, and exploring new cafes.
Portfolio
McKinsey & Company
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD Pipelines, Scripting...
Modus Create
Shell, Terraform, Python, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Shell Scripting...
Pricemoov SaaS
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Helm, Kubernetes, Amazon RDS, CircleCI, Docker...
Experience
- Terraform - 6 years
- DevOps - 6 years
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 6 years
- CI/CD Pipelines - 6 years
- Python - 3 years
- Docker - 3 years
- Shell - 2 years
- Kubernetes - 1 year
Preferred Environment
Terraform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kubernetes, CI/CD Pipelines, Helm, Bash, Python
The most amazing...
...thing I've done is to independently build a payment gateway with a suite of services hosted on AWS and see client payments going through.
Work Experience
Principal Engineer
2022 - PRESENT
McKinsey & Company
- Built ISO 27001-compliant, multi-tenant AWS infrastructure using Terraform, handling 100,000+ daily requests.
- Delivered multi-tenant GenAI RAG chatbot utilising Amazon Bedrock, Claude LLM, PostgreSQL (pgvector), Lambda, and API Gateway.
- Wrote the MCP server to expose the back-end REST API for agents utilizing Python, Pydantic, and FastMCP.
- Drove significant annual cost savings: around $35,000 via infra optimisations; around $20,000 by migrating from MapBox to TileServer on ECS.
- Utilized Bash and Python for writing GitHub Actions workflows and serverless automations.
- Enabled self-provisioning via AWS Service Catalog; automated IAM key rotation, hardened IAM policies, and S3 malware scan.
- Managed and mentored two junior engineers, boosting velocity and implementing DevSecOps procedures across teams.
- Integrated DevSecOps practices utilizing Checkov for IaC, SonarQube for static analysis, and Trivy for container scanning.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD Pipelines, Scripting, AWS Key Management Service (KMS), Amazon CloudHSM, Web Application Firewall (WAF), Amazon CloudFront CDN, SFTP, AWS Lambda, Amazon RDS, Docker, DevOps, Amazon EKS, Git, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), AWS Certified Solution Architect, Linux, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Bash, Cloud Infrastructure, AWS DevOps, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), DevSecOps, APIs, GitHub Actions, Grafana, ISO 27001, Prometheus, GitHub, Model Context Protocol (MCP), Python 3, Pydantic, Retrieval-augmented Generation (RAG), Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), AI Chatbots
DevOps Engineer
2020 - 2022
Modus Create
- Migrated EKS clusters singlehandedly to the latest available version for the stage and production environments with zero downtime.
- Wrote shell and Python scripts for GitLab CI/CD to maintain an ephemeral development environment.
- Carried out a cost analysis and reduced the monthly AWS bill by nearly 40% by introducing Spot instances for the dev environment, implementing S3 lifecycle policies, and downsizing underutilized ElastiCache and Aurora clusters.
- Implemented an RDS Proxy with IAM authentication to securely and efficiently manage database connections.
- Replaced instance-level IAM roles with pod-level using K8s Service Account to achieve least privilege access.
- Hardened all EKS nodes by introducing CIS Level 1 AMI.
- Automated security patch on EKS nodes every weekend via AWS Systems Manager.
- Implemented Prometheus and Grafana for K8s monitoring using Helm charts.
- Set up site-to-site VPN connectivity for seamless on-prem connectivity.
Technologies: Shell, Terraform, Python, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Shell Scripting, GitLab CI/CD, Kubernetes, Amazon RDS, Docker, DevOps, Amazon EKS, Git, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), AWS Certified Solution Architect, Linux, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Bash, Cloud Infrastructure, AWS DevOps, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), DevSecOps, APIs, Grafana, Prometheus, GitHub, GitLab
DevOps Engineer
2020 - 2020
Pricemoov SaaS
- Improved the existing CI/CD pipeline to include the deployment of Lambda@Edge function using SLS framework and updated CloudFront with the latest deployed version.
- Implemented RabbitMQ broker for Celery workers via Helm Chart.
- Separated the Celery worker and Redis container from the back-end app container on K8s.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Helm, Kubernetes, Amazon RDS, CircleCI, Docker, DevOps, Amazon EKS, Git, AWS Certified Solution Architect, Linux, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Bash, Cloud Infrastructure, AWS DevOps, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), GitHub, GitLab
Cloud Lead
2018 - 2020
Coditas
- Automated the infrastructure deployment of a centralized logging framework, which includes Kinesis Firehose, S3, SQS, SNS, ELK, API Gateway, and Lambda using Terraform.
- Wrote custom RBAC roles for limiting user access to the Kubernetes cluster.
- Used Jira to keep track of issues/tasks along with time logging.
- Implemented a host monitoring solution using Sensu Core and Grafana.
- Automated the code deployment to EC2 instances using Jenkins Pipeline script in combination with AWS CodeDeploy.
- Handled the infrastructure and code deployment automation of a serverless application involving S3, CloudFront, Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, and more using Terraform and GitLab CI/CD.
Technologies: Shell, Terraform, Python, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Shell Scripting, Kubernetes, Jenkins, Amazon RDS, CircleCI, Docker, DevOps, Amazon EKS, Git, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), AWS Certified Solution Architect, Linux, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Bash, Cloud Infrastructure, AWS DevOps, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Grafana, Prometheus, GitHub, GitLab
Founder
2016 - 2017
Ezstrax
- Built and shipped a fintech product for offline businesses to collect e-payments; owned end-to-end delivery to the revenue stage.
- Used Terraform to automate the infrastructure and AWS CodeBuild and CodeDeploy for the CI/CD pipeline.
- Guided infrastructure to pass its ASV scan in the very first run.
Technologies: Terraform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon RDS, Git, Amazon API Gateway, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Cloud Infrastructure, AWS DevOps, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), GitHub
Experience
GuardDuty S3 Malware Protection Automation
https://github.com/paliwalvimal/guardduty-s3-malware-protectionA serverless workflow that automatically scans the files uploaded to S3 for malware using AWS GuardDuty in real time and stops them right at the gate, preventing them from reaching the production environment.
MCP Servers
https://github.com/paliwalvimal/mcp-serversMCP servers built using Python and FastMCP, leveraging Pydantic for strict type validation and structured output. Designed for modularity, these servers can seamlessly integrate with any MCP client via UV or Docker. The project emphasizes clean architecture, reusability, and ease of deployment.
TileServer on AWS
https://github.com/paliwalvimal/tileserver-on-awsSecurely self-host TileServer on AWS using only serverless services like CloudFront, WAF, API Gateway, ECS, EFS, and S3. Perfect for professionals looking for scalable and cost-effective solutions for a self-hosting tile rendering server.
AWS IAM Key Rotator
https://github.com/skildops/aws-iam-key-rotatorThis tool is responsible for generating a new IAM access key pair every X days and mails it to the user via SES. It will also delete the existing key pair after a few days of new key generation to allow the user to update the new key wherever required.
Terrablocks
https://github.com/terrablocksModular infrastructure blocks written in Terraform. This project contains a few basic infrastructure building blocks required to start most of the projects. I maintain this to make my and others' lives easier.
Secureaws
https://github.com/paliwalvimal/secureawsA Python application that will scan your AWS account to identify whether basic security services are enabled. If not, the app will help you enable or set them up.
Services covered include:
• CloudTrail
• Config
• Root MFA
• VPC flow logs
• Strong password policy
• Macie
• Guard duty
• S3 SSE encryption
• EBS encryption
Services covered include:
• CloudTrail
• Config
• Root MFA
• VPC flow logs
• Strong password policy
• Macie
• Guard duty
• S3 SSE encryption
• EBS encryption
Payment Gateway
A Java application helping people and businesses to collect payments online. Payments can be collected via creating an invoice using the portal or by creating interactive forms for users. I was responsible for building the application, hosting it, and keeping it secured.
Education
2014 - 2015
Master's Degree in Computer & Network Security
Middlesex University - London, UK
2011 - 2014
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Applications
MITSOM College - Pune, India
Certifications
JANUARY 2025 - JANUARY 2027
Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist
The Linux Foundation
OCTOBER 2024 - OCTOBER 2027
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
Amazon Web Services
DECEMBER 2023 - DECEMBER 2026
Certified Kubernetes Administrator
The Linux Foundation
JANUARY 2021 - JULY 2022
AWS Authorized Instructor - Champion
Amazon Web Services
DECEMBER 2019 - DECEMBER 2025
AWS Certified Solution Architect – Professional
Amazon Web Services
FEBRUARY 2019 - FEBRUARY 2025
AWS Certified Security – Specialty
Amazon Web Services
AUGUST 2018 - AUGUST 2024
AWS Certified Developer – Associate
Amazon Web Services
DECEMBER 2017 - DECEMBER 2024
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
Amazon Web Services
JUNE 2017 - DECEMBER 2025
AWS Certified Solution Architect – Associate
Amazon Web Services
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Pydantic
Tools
Terraform, Amazon EKS, AWS IAM, Jenkins, Shell, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), GitHub, GitLab, Helm, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Amazon CloudWatch, GitLab CI/CD, Git, AWS Key Management Service (KMS), Amazon CloudFront CDN, CircleCI, Grafana, Amazon CloudFront, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)
Paradigms
DevOps, DevSecOps, Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Platforms
Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Lambda, Kubernetes, Docker, Linux
Storage
Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon EFS
Languages
Bash, Python, Python 3
Other
CI/CD Pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Cloud Infrastructure, AWS DevOps, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon RDS, AWS Certified Solution Architect, Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), APIs, GitHub Actions, Shell Scripting, Scripting, Amazon CloudHSM, Web Application Firewall (WAF), SFTP, ISO 27001, Prometheus, Security, AWS WAF, AWS CloudMap, Retrieval-augmented Generation (RAG), Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), AI Chatbots, Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon EventBridge, Serverless
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