Clark Winters
Verified Expert in Engineering
DevOps Engineer and Developer
Seymour, MO, United States
Toptal member since December 14, 2023
Clark is an experienced DevOps engineer with a strong background in systems integration and programming. He has expertise in web, cloud, and database ecosystems and an affinity for the Go programming language and tools like Terraform and Docker. Clark helps clients build scalable cloud infrastructure, web services, REST APIs, and automation scripts, prioritizing efficient, tailored solutions with a commitment to on-time delivery and quick adaptability to new projects.
Portfolio
Experience
Availability
Preferred Environment
Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Linux, Go, Terraform, Docker, Bash, Vim Text Editor, PostgreSQL, Markdown, GitHub, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Containers
The most amazing...
...thing I’ve built is a user-friendly, reliable, and fast web app for my mom's dog rescue, facilitating efficient adoption placements with good homes.
Work Experience
Lead Cloud Engineer
2nd Watch
- Introduced infrastructure as code configuration and other automated solutions to optimize clients' systems and streamline internal processes.
- Developed an intuitive full-stack application, enabling a streamlined process for the patching team to categorize and patch customers' Amazon EC2 instances.
- Performed system administration tasks such as installing software, applying patches, and maintaining file systems on Linux and Windows Virtual Machines.
- Delivered exceptional customer experiences through on-time delivery, consistent communication, and technical expertise.
- Collaborated regularly with other engineering teams to ensure system reliability and durability.
- Mentored and collaborated with team members, which allowed for increased delivery quality and skill development for all involved.
Systems Integration Specialist
Boeing
- Configured and maintained Linux servers to ensure proper operation and security.
- Authored automation scripts to streamline operating system builds and delivery.
- Crafted custom, security hardened ISOs containing commonly required software packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Linux, Ubuntu, and SUSE.
- Implemented and administered a self-hosted GitLab instance, empowering the team with enhanced source control and continuous deployment capabilities.
- Created intranet websites that allowed internal customers to learn about the team's offerings, release cycles, and maintenance schedules.
Database Administrator
2nd Watch
- Managed daily operations for hundreds of database instances residing on both Amazon EC2 virtual machines and Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), including introducing strategic automation to minimize human error and time requirements.
- Implemented automated, volume-based backup and restore for databases using Amazon EC2 snapshots, decreasing backup and restore times by 90% on average.
- Initiated the database migration process standardization for increased efficiency and reduced error rates.
- Pioneered the creation and integration of the database support service, revolutionizing the role of database support within the managed cloud services business.
- Established high-quality production enterprise support for Oracle, SQL Server, and MySQL databases.
- Proposed strategic infrastructure recommendations to customers that often allowed clients to decrease cloud spend on database services by up to 30%.
Oracle Database Administrator
Boeing
- Served as the tech lead for the internal Oracle Database on Linux managed service offering at Boeing, overseeing 65% of all Oracle Database infrastructure for the company, which amounted to nearly 8,000 databases on Oracle RAC clusters.
- Implemented, maintained, troubleshot, and planned the capacity of Oracle RAC clusters, including the orchestration of round-the-clock operational support.
- Composed run books and automation scripts to minimize errors and reduce delivery times.
- Produced Oracle Database on Linux golden images used on VMware instances for Boeing's internal cloud-managed database service offering.
Database Administrator
IBM
- Maintained Oracle, IBM Db2, and SQL Server databases hosted on Linux and Windows, including 24/7 on-call support.
- Ensured that all database instances were highly available and recoverable.
- Improved daily health check processes by creating shell scripts that ran on Cron schedules and automatically delivered results to the appropriate stakeholders, replacing high-touch and manual procedures.
- Migrated Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) backup jobs to Oracle Enterprise Manager, resulting in greater scheduling flexibility and consistent alerting.
Experience
Cloud Custodian
Additionally, it provides internal users with a consistent URL for the environment, making it more convenient to access. I designed and implemented this solution using Go, HTML templates, and WebSockets. The service runs on a virtual server within the client's Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) account, where the target environment is also configured.
Devon Farm Rescue
https://forms.devonfarmrescue.comOne of the interesting features of the project is the implementation of a workflow that automatically sets up a new live environment whenever a new pull request is opened in the GitHub repository. This workflow plays a crucial role in validating the application's functionality in a real environment, eliminating the common issue of "it works on my computer" before changes reach the production application. The setup of the validation environment is facilitated using GitHub Actions and Terraform.
GoMap
https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/cwinters8/gomapInclusive Care Colorado
Skills
Libraries/APIs
REST API, Node.js, React.js, Vue.js
Tools
Terraform, Vim Text Editor, GitHub, AWS IAM, AWS CLI, Git, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon EKS, AWS CodeBuild, Ansible, Bitbucket, Jira, Git, Oracle Development, GitLab CI/CD, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Cognito, Auth0
Languages
Bash, Markdown, HTML, Go, SQL, JavaScript, CSS, Python, TypeScript
Paradigms
DevOps, Continuous Integration (CI), Agile Development, Automated Testing
Platforms
Linux, Docker, AWS, AWS Lambda, AWS ALB, Visual Studio Development, Oracle Database, Kubernetes, Vercel, Unix, Windows Development, DigitalOcean, New Relic
Storage
Amazon S3, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Database, SQL Server, Oracle Development, MongoDB, Redis, NoSQL
Frameworks
Next.js, Windows PowerShell, Tailwind CSS
Other
CI/CD Pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), DevOps, Serverless, Containers, Cloud Engineering, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Cloud Architecture, Architecture, AWS DevOps, AWS, ECS, GitOps, Monitoring, Performance Analysis, Web Development, Windows System Administration, Amazon API, Oracle Development, WebSockets, Jmap, Email, Lint
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