Allen Deon Saunders, Developer in Oakland, CA, United States
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Allen Deon Saunders

Verified Expert  in Engineering

DevOps Engineer and Developer

Oakland, CA, United States

Toptal member since August 6, 2024

Bio

Allen has over seven years of proven experience in technical solutions engineering, specializing in API development, machine learning, DevOps, and cloud technologies. He has successfully collaborated with cross-functional teams to deliver innovative solutions, including implementing CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and containerization technologies to streamline development and deployment processes. Allen can contribute effectively to any development team to help drive business success.

Portfolio

Humanity Pathways Global
Node.js, Python 3, Cloud, DevOps, Linux, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)...
CloudBees
Jenkins, AWS CLI, Cloud, Terraform, SaaS, Platform as a Service (PaaS)...
OSF Digital
Datorama, PySpark, SQL, REST APIs, Linux, FastAPI...

Experience

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Linux, Python 3, Go, Terraform, DevOps

The most amazing...

...solutions I've built were back-end APIs for Salesforce to deliver systems integrations at scale and help solve issues their platform had with large data sets.

Work Experience

VP of Technology

2023 - PRESENT
Humanity Pathways Global
  • Acted as the operations and technology lead for a newly formed fiscal sponsor.
  • Managed a small Agile software team to deliver a learning management system (LMS) at scale in the cloud.
  • Architected a learning management system (LMS) and related CI/CD systems.
Technologies: Node.js, Python 3, Cloud, DevOps, Linux, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Computer Science, Test Automation, Docker

Enterprise Solutions Architect

2021 - 2023
CloudBees
  • Acted as a pre-sales solutions architect specialist for CloudBees' DevOps SaaS and PaaS platform.
  • Supported the global solutions team's infrastructure in GCP and AWS while managing over $40 million in ARR as an individual contributor.
  • Produced documentation for our API library and SDK integrations.
  • Managed and monitored Kubernetes production, operations, and verification (POV) infrastructure with Datadog on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to increase service level agreements by 10%.
Technologies: Jenkins, AWS CLI, Cloud, Terraform, SaaS, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Kubernetes, Datadog, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Linux, Computer Science, Test Automation, Docker

Solutions Architect

2020 - 2021
OSF Digital
  • Worked as an API engineer and pre/post-sales solutions architect for a premier Salesforce partner.
  • Developed REST APIs deployed to AWS targets for the Salesforce SaaS Datorama with the distributed computing library Celery, achieving a 100x increase in requests handled and a 20x increase in speed.
  • Created marketing dashboards using PySpark and SQL for Fortune 500 clients.
Technologies: Datorama, PySpark, SQL, REST APIs, Linux, FastAPI, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Computer Science, Test Automation, Docker

Lead Data Scientist

2018 - 2020
Tuuyi INC
  • Built, tested, and deployed novel ML models with TensorFlow in a Linux-based on-premise environment to produce numerical models.
  • Delivered effective dashboards to our engineering team.
  • Performed exploratory data analysis, data wrangling, and feature engineering with proprietary datasets to improve classification by 2.11%.
  • Deployed visualization tools for complex spatiotemporal datasets, improving the engineering team's efficiency.
Technologies: Data Science, Linux, Spark SQL, TensorFlow, REST APIs, SQL, Computer Science, Docker

Production API with Python's FastAPI

https://github.com/degrasse-python/ml-api
This project involved creating a FastAPI with ML, utilizing libraries such as TensorFlow or scikit-learn in conjunction with Python's FastAPI framework. The repository, one of two developed, was designed to streamline the development of production ML containerized services. The available source code facilitates containerization, enabling seamless deployment on modern cloud platforms using Kubernetes or other container orchestrators.

Wine Quality Prediction Using Scikit-learn

https://github.com/degrasse-python/portfolio/tree/master/wine_quality
The project involved creating a model that classifies the rank and type of wine by quality using the data generated by the source. The report shows the relationships between wine characteristics and quality for the red and white variants of the Portuguese "Vinho Verde" wine. For vineyards that produce this wine variety, a single report can change their perspective on how their winemaking process affects wine quality. Understanding the characteristics of which properties contribute to the quality of wine means being ahead of the rest. The winemaking process differs from company to company, but even the best creators always seek new insights.

Terraform Multi-cloud Deployments Repo

https://github.com/degrasse-python/TFMultiCloud
This repo demonstrates how to manage multi-cloud deployments using Terraform. It uses Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and AWS as modules inside a Terraform project. In addition to Terraform, some examples of Ansible have been added.

PySpark Service for Kubernetes

https://github.com/degrasse-python/spark-sql-srv
This project involved setting up a straightforward MLOps pipeline that retrieves data from a service and merges it with a Spark database. The "cron-add.py" file located in the "data-ops" folder serves as a template for a live application. Additionally, the "spark-server" application is designed to receive authentications and execute operations once authenticated.

This project functions as a monolithic repository and is compatible with various CI/CD tools, providing a user-friendly introduction to implementing MLOps. It serves as a practical example for deploying a single ML model prediction system that undergoes training against a Spark SQL database.
2017 - 2019

Bachelor's Degree in Earth Science

San Francisco State University - San Francisco, USA

2015 - 2017

Associate Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science

City College of San Francisco - San Francisco, USA

2013 - 2015

Associate Degree in Biomedical Engineering

City College of San Francisco - San Francisco, USA

JUNE 2023 - PRESENT

Certified Jenkins Engineer

CloudBees

Libraries/APIs

REST APIs, PySpark, TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, Python API, Node.js

Tools

Jenkins, Terraform, AWS CLI, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Spark SQL, Ansible, Datorama

Languages

Python 3, Go, SQL

Paradigms

DevOps, Test Automation

Frameworks

Spark

Platforms

Linux, Kubernetes, Docker

Storage

Datadog

Other

Cloud, Mathematics, Science, Machine Learning, SaaS, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Data Science, Bioengineering, FastAPI, APIs, Computer Science

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