Douglas is available for hire

Douglas Spencer

Verified Expert in Engineering

DevSecOps Developer

Location

Sioux Falls, SD, United States

Toptal Member Since

November 26, 2018

Douglas is an experienced consultant focused on DevOps, site reliability engineering, Kubernetes, Istio, Jenkins CI/CD, Linux, cloud, and automation. He has a range of skills gained from decades as a consultant that enables him to bring successful outcomes to difficult projects. Douglas currently has a publishing contract with a technical publisher and is writing an advanced Linux book.

Security Testing System Administration Security Architecture PKI SSH Cloud Migration Linux IPC Web Scraping Data Scraping Security Cryptography QA Automation Identity & Access Management (IAM)LDAP OAuth

Portfolio

Solo Workforce, Inc.

Linux, Bash, Perl, Helm, Istio, Kubernetes, Terraform, Docker, SIEM...

Stanford University - Center for Digital Health

Linux, Linux Administration, Access Control, User Permissions, Clustering...

Gaming Client (via Toptal)

Amazon Web Services (AWS), PHP, Laravel Forge, PostgreSQL, Istio, GitLab...

Experience

Bash - 20 years Linux - 20 years Security - 10 years DevOps - 6 years Google Cloud Platform (GCP) - 4 years Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) - 4 years Terraform - 3 years Docker Compose - 3 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Vim Text Editor, Git, Linux, Penetration Testing, CI/CD Pipelines, AWS DevOps

The most amazing...

...project I have worked on delivered more than 23x revenue growth for a client while reducing their ongoing costs.

Work Experience

DevOps and SRE Consultant

2007 - PRESENT

Solo Workforce, Inc.

Implemented DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering for multiple clients resulting in improved agility in development, improvements in stability, and revenue growth exceeding 23x.
Implemented site reliability engineering that improved availability to exceed 5 nines.
Experienced with Linux back to the 0.8x kernel versions circa 1993 and all major distributions.
Awarded Brainbench Most Valuable Professional for Linux Administration by scoring in the top 1% worldwide.
Received Brainbench Most Valuable Professional for Networking Concepts by scoring in the top 1% worldwide.
Achieved Brainbench Most Valuable Professional for Internet Security by scoring in the top 1% worldwide.
Experienced with a wide range of industries, from aviation to startups and technology.

Technologies: Linux, Bash, Perl, Helm, Istio, Kubernetes, Terraform, Docker, SIEM, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Architecture, DevSecOps, CI/CD Pipelines, AWS DevOps, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Cloud Migration, Containerization, GitHub Actions, REST, Redis, YAML, Redis Clusters, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Testing, Databases, Infrastructure, Continuous Integration (CI), Configuration Management, Azure DevOps, ITIL, Code Review, Data Protection, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Cloud Monitoring, Observability Tools, VPN, React, GitHub, System Administration, Startups, Amazon EC2, DevOps, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Apache HTTP Server, Security Architecture, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), API Design, API Testing, Audits, REST APIs, VMware, Networking, SQL, Chef, GitOps, AWS CLI, Automation, Cloud, CircleCI, JSON, APIs, Data Migration, Security Advisory, SecOps, Bitbucket, Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP), Monitoring, Release Management, Security Analysis, Software Architecture, Antivirus Software, PKI, Containers, AWS IAM, Amazon EKS, ISO 27001, SOC 2, Dependency Analysis, Dependabots, Risk Assessment, AWS Cloud Security, HIPAA Compliance, PCI, SAML, Single Sign-on (SSO), Quality Assurance (QA), SAML-auth, Google Cloud

Linux Cluster Administrator

2023 - 2023

Stanford University - Center for Digital Health

Helped to improve security within a high-performance supercomputer environment processing cancer research data.
Created scripts to help researchers to interact with the high-performance supercomputer cluster more easily.
Integrated Azure SSO authentication with Docker containers to access Azure Databricks databases.

Technologies: Linux, Linux Administration, Access Control, User Permissions, Clustering, DevOps, Cluster Management, Identity & Access Management (IAM), CI/CD Pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), YAML, Infrastructure, Continuous Integration (CI), Configuration Management, Azure DevOps, Security Audits, Data Protection, Observability Tools, GitHub, System Administration, Security Architecture, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Audits, Networking, SQL, GitOps, Automation, JSON, Bash, Security Advisory, SecOps, Release Management, PKI, Containers, Amazon EKS, ISO 27001, SOC 2, Dependency Analysis, Dependabots, Risk Assessment, HIPAA Compliance, SAML, Single Sign-on (SSO), SAML-auth

DevSecOps Engineer

2019 - 2020

Gaming Client (via Toptal)

Successfully worked to mitigate a DDoS attack that had taken them down for an extended period of time utilizing CloudFlare and performance tuning websites and PostgreSQL database.
Implemented tuning of client's PostgreSQL database and schema to significantly improve query performance.
Implemented network firewall rules to lock down access to servers.
Migrated client application to Kubernetes for improved availability, monitoring, and code deployments.
Performed security audit and performance tuning on client's custom Laravel PHP application.

Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), PHP, Laravel Forge, PostgreSQL, Istio, GitLab, DigitalOcean, Kubernetes, Cloudflare, Penetration Testing, Architecture, DevSecOps, CI/CD Pipelines, AWS DevOps, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Vulnerability Assessment, Cloud Security, Containerization, Infrastructure, Continuous Integration (CI), Security Audits, Code Review, Data Protection, Observability Tools, GitHub, System Administration, Startups, DevOps, Apache HTTP Server, Security Architecture, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Networking, SQL, GitOps, Automation, Bash, SecOps, Bitbucket, Release Management, PKI, Containers, ISO 27001, SOC 2, Dependency Analysis, Dependabots, PCI, Quality Assurance (QA)

DevOps Engineer

2019 - 2020

Personal Wellness Company (via Toptal)

Helped this client to implement test driven development processes.
Implemented CI/CD pipelines.
Created Kubernetes clusters and cluster management processes.
Taught client staff how to utilize new technologies and procedures.
Improved security.

Technologies: WordPress, Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes, Architecture, CI/CD Pipelines, AWS DevOps, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), AWS CloudFormation, Cloud Migration, Containerization, REST, YAML, Infrastructure, Continuous Integration (CI), Configuration Management, GitHub, System Administration, Startups, DevOps, Networking, SQL, GitOps, Automation, Bash, Release Management, PKI, Containers, HIPAA Compliance

DevOps Engineer

2019 - 2020

Biotechnology Company (via Toptal)

Helped a startup in biotechnology to model biological processes using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence applications.
Implemented Kubernetes with Terraform on Azure.
Utilized OpenFAAS to create functions as a service within a Kubernetes cluster.
Built Docker images using Packer within CI/CD pipelines.
Used Kafka for data handling; Istio for service mesh, security, and auditing; and Redis for caching.
Utilized a private Docker registry on Azure cloud.

Technologies: Terraform, Apache Kafka, Istio, Helm, Packer, Integration, GitLab CI/CD, Continuous Delivery (CD), Continuous Integration (CI), Docker, Custom BERT, Python, PyTorch, Azure, Kubernetes, Penetration Testing, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Architecture, CI/CD Pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), AWS CloudFormation, Vulnerability Assessment, Cloud Security, Containerization, GitHub Actions, YAML, Infrastructure, Configuration Management, Serverless, Azure DevOps, ITIL, Security Audits, Data Protection, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Observability Tools, GitHub, System Administration, Startups, DevOps, Security Architecture, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), API Testing, Networking, GitOps, Automation, JSON, APIs, Bash, Release Management, Security Analysis, Software Architecture, PKI, Containers, ISO 27001, SOC 2, Dependency Analysis, Dependabots, Risk Assessment, HIPAA Compliance

DevOps Engineer

2019 - 2019

Finance Company (via Toptal)

Utilized Terraform to deploy Kubernetes within a financial services environment and Terratest for TDD with Terraform.
Cleaned up deployment process by implementing Gitlab CI/CD with tests and deployment to Kubernetes.
Improved security with Hashicorp Vault secrets.
Built Helm charts for client's application within CI/CD pipeline.

Technologies: Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes, Penetration Testing, Architecture, DevSecOps, CI/CD Pipelines, AWS DevOps, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), AWS CloudFormation, Vulnerability Assessment, Threat Modeling, Java, JavaScript, Cloud Migration, Containerization, ECS, GitHub Actions, REST, Redis, YAML, Redis Clusters, Databases, Infrastructure, Continuous Integration (CI), Configuration Management, Serverless, ITIL, Security Audits, Code Review, Data Protection, Cloud Monitoring, Observability Tools, VPN, Node.js, GitHub, System Administration, Amazon EC2, DevOps, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Security Architecture, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), API Design, API Testing, Audits, Networking, SQL, Artifactory, GitOps, AWS CLI, Automation, JSON, APIs, Bash, Data Migration, Security Advisory, SecOps, Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP), Release Management, Security Analysis, Software Architecture, Antivirus Software, PKI, Containers, AWS IAM, API Gateways, AWS Key Management Service (KMS), Amazon EKS, ISO 27001, SOC 2, Dependency Analysis, Dependabots, Risk Assessment, AWS Cloud Security, PCI, Single Sign-on (SSO), Quality Assurance (QA)

Experience

USPS.COM Migration/DevOps/Site Reliability Enginering (SRE) Project

http://usps.com

USPS is not covered by NDA, so I can discuss it freely. As a result of my involvement in the USPS.COM project, outages improved from occurring weekly to having 99.999%+ availability. DevOps and SRE efforts were very successful and resulted in more than 23x revenue growth while reducing operational overhead by approximately 50%.

AWS to GCP Migration/DevOps

Worked within a team environment to meet the client's business objectives to migrate away from AWS to GCP.

Designed and created the GCP environment using:

• Terraform to deploy and manage infrastructure as code
• Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
• Helm to package resources and configurations to deploy to GKE
• Istio for security, monitoring, traffic shaping, Canary tests, CI/CD process improvement
• Hashicorp Vault in a highly available configuration for secured secrets management
• Jenkins deployed using Configuration as Code to scale worker nodes for large parallel code deployments to container builds using Hashicorp Packer to create Docker compact and secured Docker containers
• Spinnaker for continuous deployment and testing
• Migrated from Bitbucket to GitHub to improve webhook handling and improve the CI/CD process

Security Audit for Blockchain Company

Performed a security audit with recommendations for improvement with a blockchain company seeking to ensure security and trust for their customers. Discovered multiple security issues that can be corrected before they were exploited or exposed to sensitive data.

Skills

Languages

Perl, Bash, PHP, PHP 7, PHP 5, Java, C, SQL, Bash Script, YAML, SAML, Python, Python 3, Ruby, C++, Solidity, JavaScript

Frameworks

Catalyst, AWS HA, OAuth 2, Ruby on Rails 5, CFEngine 3, Ruby on Rails (RoR)

Libraries/APIs

OpenID, OpenSSL, REST APIs, jQuery, Facebook Login, PyTorch, Node.js, React

Tools

Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, Vim Text Editor, Istio, Helm, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), AWS CLI, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Terraform, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Puppet, ELK (Elastic Stack), Docker Compose, Docker Swarm, GitHub, Subversion (SVN), CVS, KVM/Qemu, Veritas Cluster Server, Shibboleth, OpenSSH, Grafana, Apache, Bazel, VPN, Apache HTTP Server, Artifactory, Bitbucket, AWS IAM, AWS Key Management Service (KMS), Amazon EKS, GitLab, EFK Stack, Nagios, VMware, CircleCI, Travis CI, Android Studio, AWS CloudFormation, Chef, Packer

Paradigms

Continuous Integration (CI), DevOps, Scrum, Agile, ETL, Penetration Testing, DevSecOps, REST, Testing, Automation, HIPAA Compliance, Azure DevOps, ITIL, Continuous Delivery (CD)

Platforms

Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, Embedded Linux, Ubuntu Linux, Kubernetes, Amazon EC2, Xen, Docker, Moose, KVM, Solaris, AIX, KornShell, Debian, Debian Linux, Heroku, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Ubuntu, Apache2, Spinnaker, AWS Lambda, Buildkite, WordPress, Oracle, Blockchain, Blockchain Platforms, OpenStack, Red Hat OpenShift, AIXL, Apache Kafka, DigitalOcean

Storage

MySQL, MySQLi, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Linux File Systems, Data Centers, SQLite, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, PostgreSQL 10, Veritas Volume Manager, Databases, JSON, Google Cloud, Redis

Industry Expertise

Network Security, Trading Systems, Cybersecurity, Security Advisory

Other

Relational Database Services (RDS), perlpod, Site Reliability, Linux IPC, Linux Administration, Linux System Calls, Amazon Mechanical Turk, Data Center Infrastructure, Scripting, Automation Scripting, Shell Scripting, Scripting Languages, Scraping, Web Scraping, Data Scraping, Security, Security Audits, Security Testing, Security Planning, PKI, Cryptography, QA Automation, QA Test Plan Management, Identity & Access Management (IAM), LDAP, OAuth, Network Protocols, Debian Packaging, Futures & Options, Futures, Options Trading, Stock Trading, Algorithmic Trading, Algorithmic Trading Analysis, Aviation, IoT Security, IoT Protocols, SSH, Prometheus, Kubernetes Expert, IT Security, Web Security, Architecture, SecOps, SIEM, Containers, AWS Cloud Architecture, Cloud Architecture, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), CI/CD Pipelines, Vulnerability Assessment, Exploits, AWS DevOps, Application Security, Cloud Security, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), NAT, Threat Modeling, Source Code Review, Cloud Migration, Containerization, ECS, GitHub Actions, Redis Clusters, Infrastructure, Configuration Management, Serverless, Code Review, Data Protection, Observability Tools, System Administration, Startups, Security Architecture, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), API Design, API Testing, Audits, Networking, GitOps, Cloud, APIs, Data Migration, Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP), Release Management, Security Analysis, Software Architecture, ISO 27001, SOC 2, Dependency Analysis, Dependabots, Risk Assessment, AWS Cloud Security, PCI, Single Sign-on (SSO), Cloudflare, RTMP, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud Monitoring, Monitoring, Antivirus Software, API Gateways, Quality Assurance (QA), SAML-auth, GPU Computing, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), Custom BERT, Integration, Laravel Forge, Wireless Networking, Access Control, User Permissions, Clustering, Cluster Management, Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Google BigQuery

Education

1992 - 1996

Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science

Illinois Institute of Technology - Chicago, IL

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