Emmanuel is available for hire

Emmanuel Chebukati

Verified Expert in Engineering

DevSecOps Engineer and Developer

Location

Nairobi, Nairobi County, Kenya

Toptal Member Since

September 27, 2021

Emmanuel is a cloud security engineer with experience in systems auditing, application security, and secure cloud deployment. He has delivered sensitive technology projects across the East African region and globally in the public and private sectors. Emmanuel's experience is backed by three Microsoft Azure and two AWS certifications. He is a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH). Emmanuel holds an MSc in Information Technology from Carnegie Mellon and a BSc from USIU Africa.

Portfolio

Knowcrunch Inc.

PHP, System Administration, Web Hosting, LiteSpeed for SQL Server, MySQL...

Hepta Analytics

PHP, Apache2, Linux, Azure, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon EC2...

Wagner Technical Services

Azure, Office 365, IT Security, Azure SQL, Azure Active Directory, Deployment...

Experience

PHP - 10 years Information Security - 10 years Office 365 - 8 years Identity & Access Management (IAM) - 8 years Cloud Security - 7 years Azure - 7 years Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure - 7 years Python - 3 years

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Cisco, Office 365, GitLab, NGINX, Kubernetes, Relational Database Services (RDS), Networks, Cloud Security

The most amazing...

...thing I've done was transform the bottle-necked physical IT infrastructure of a fintech to a hybrid cloud that was modern, secure, and easy to administer.

Work Experience

PHP SysAdmin | DevOps Engineer

2024 - PRESENT

Knowcrunch Inc.

Conducted a comprehensive audit of the hosting infrastructure, focusing on server permissions and configurations. Recommend necessary changes to the hosting setup to mitigate downtime and optimize performance.
Implemented a GitHub Action-based CI/CD pipeline for the app, following the GitHub flow. Pull requests to "master" resulted in a deployment to the development environment, and deployments to production were one-click triggered.
Provisioned a file storage server to store media files of the application. The storage server was mounted appropriately and then symbolic links were set in the application directory to reference the storage server. No downtime or data loss was noted.
Set up a new environment to host the application's admin and new-admin platforms. While previously the monolith was hosted on one server, I was able to separate the admin functions from the user functions. Appropriate rewrite rules were configured.
Integrated the application with the Jelastic Cloud (now Virtuozzo Application Platform) to facilitate deployment of an archive solution. Implemented pre-deploy and post-deploy hooks to ensure minimal downtime during deployments.
Set up database recovery procedures and documentation in line with a recovery time objective (RTO) of 15 minutes and a recovery point objective (RPO) of 24 hours.
Troubleshoted a problem with the supervisor on the production server, resulting in more reliable Laravel queued jobs.
Cleaned up the server's file system by installing a fresh build archive of the application and then progressively adding the required files (e.g., .htaccess, env, etc) until the errors were all eliminated. Other files were discarded.
Implemented limited database access rights for both application and software developers, adhering to the least-privilege principles.

Technologies: PHP, System Administration, Web Hosting, LiteSpeed for SQL Server, MySQL, GitHub Actions, Laravel, Supervisor, Supervisord, Jelastic, Virtuozzo, Scaleforce, Monitoring

Cloud Security Engineer

2018 - PRESENT

Hepta Analytics

Co-founded the company, served as a director, led the IT infrastructure team of three, and led client engagements to define and deliver solutions.
Conducted an AWS Well-Architected Framework audit for a financial services firm. The audit identified 46 issues: 11 were categorized as high impact, and their potential remediations were shared with the client for action.
Migrated and rebuilt 24 production VMware virtual machine applications for a client and set up a Kubernetes cluster in a hybrid cloud set up with minimal consumer downtime. Set up secure remote access and connectivity between sites.
Migrated and maintained a Microsoft stack (IIS connected to SQL Server 2008 with multiple subdomains) from a local VM to Azure (App Services with managed databases). Set up a DevSecOps pipeline for the client with GitHub and swaps.
Investigated and responded to a downtime incident at a client's colocation facility. Migrated workloads to the cloud to mitigate the impact and wrote and presented the incident report, which led to the awarding of damages to my client.
Set up private email hosting on the client domain for over two dozen mailboxes. Migrated existing Office 365 user email addresses to the new email hosting set up. Designed an email security gateway solution to support multiple cloud solutions.
Identified potential risks to the continued operations of processes at a client's site. The risk assessment phase involved identifying risks and mitigation controls, following an identification exercise at the manufacturing plant outlets.
Developed a sturdy Android application that can cope with the complex internet connectivity environment to receive audio reports. Deployed a secure dashboard to view, organize, manage, and process case reports.
Brainstormed a potential fintech solution for a client and advised on potential challenges and workarounds. Developed and deployed an Android mockup code to demonstrate an initially intended functionality.

Technologies: PHP, Apache2, Linux, Azure, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon EC2, VirtualBox, Kubernetes, OpenVPN, Networking, Office 365, Mail Servers, Python, Classic ASP, Apache, Information Security, Cloud Security, VPN, Cloud Architecture, AWS Cloud Architecture, Role-based Access Control (RBAC), Azure Active Directory, Azure Key Vault, Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Amazon Web Services (AWS), DevOps Engineer, DevSecOps, Networks, DevOps, Azure DevOps, Docker, Ansible, IT Security, Security, Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Deployment, Security Policies & Procedures, IT Operations Management (ITOM), On-premise, Architecture, System Administration, Security Design, Code Auditing, AWS DevOps, Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP), Cybersecurity, MySQL/MariaDB, Postman, Kubernetes HPA, AWS VPN, AWS Secrets Manager, AWS Auto Scaling, Ubuntu, IT Infrastructure, Proxies, AWS IAM, WordPress, Asana, High-Availability Linux, Amazon EKS, Security Management, Controls, Security Architecture, Debian, Relational Database Services (RDS), Continuous Delivery (CD), Continuous Integration (CI), CI/CD Pipelines, Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, Grafana, Prometheus, Bash, Amazon API Gateway, Sentry, Amazon RDS, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Fintech, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure SQL Databases, Azure Container Registry, Azure Container Instances, Azure Files, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Synapse, Azure Functions, MariaDB, Data Centers, Business Continuity, Business Continuity Planning (BCP), Team Leadership, Leadership, Web App Design, Twitter API, IT Audits, IP Networks, Java, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Virtualization, Cloud Storage, Cloud Services, Azure Virtual Networks, Multi-factor Authentication (MFA), Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Storage, Load Balancers, Azure App Service, Azure Administrator, Network Security, Data Security, Cloud, Data Protection, Reverse Engineering, Cloud Computing, NGINX, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Istio, AWS Lambda, Monitoring, Windows PowerShell

Azure Platform Engineer

2022 - 2023

Wagner Technical Services

Prepared, documented, and implemented a plan to migrate from bare metal on-premise Windows servers into the Microsoft Azure cloud ecosystem.
Federated user identities from the on-premise Active Directory to Azure Active Directory using the password hash-sync method with Seamless Single Sign-On.
Synchronized multiple on-premise SMB file shares to Azure Files via Azure File Sync under a single storage account of one on one share mapping.

Technologies: Azure, Office 365, IT Security, Azure SQL, Azure Active Directory, Deployment, Security Policies & Procedures, IT Operations Management (ITOM), Infrastructure as Code (IaC), IT Infrastructure, Controls, Azure SQL Databases, Azure Files, Azure DevOps, DevOps Engineer, Business Continuity, Business Continuity Planning (BCP), Role-based Access Control (RBAC), IP Networks, Networks, VPN, Azure Key Vault, Virtualization, Cloud Storage, Cloud Services, Cloud Security, Azure Virtual Networks, Multi-factor Authentication (MFA), Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Storage, Load Balancers, Azure App Service, Azure Administrator, Network Security, Data Security, Cloud, Data Protection, Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Computing, Information Security, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Monitoring, Windows PowerShell

Senior DevOps Engineer

2022 - 2023

Rollee

Implemented continuous integration and continuous deployment and delivery (CI/CD) in GitLab for 10+ applications. The pipeline was complete with minimal downtime deployments to ensure customer requests were unaffected during production deployments.
Set up Airflow on Kubernetes with the Kubernetes Executor and migrated it from a VM using the SequentialExecutor. Migrated the database to managed database, installed dependencies in the container, and set up CI/CD and git-sync for DAGs.
Installed Prometheus for infrastructure and database metrics collection to aid business needs. Installed and secured Grafana to visualize the metrics collected, set up alerts, and created incident runbooks.
Migrated a monolith Go application to work and run on Kubernetes. Set up the service, deployment, PVC, ConfigMaps, secrets, and Ingress appropriately. Set up a managed database and NFS provisioner on top of the block storage for ReadWriteMany access.
Researched, recommended, and documented an appropriate Git workflow strategy for the company between Gitflow, GitHub flow, and GitLab flow. The recommendation was presented, discussed, and adopted without impacting operations. Implemented GitOps.
Implemented Grafana Loki and Promtail as an infrastructure and application logging solution. This enabled the collection of logs and seamless analysis of application and infrastructure logs.
Created a CI/CD pipeline for a React and React Native SDK to build and publish to an npm organizational account. Also implemented CI/CD for a Python application project with rollback support in GitLab.
Implemented CI/CD with rollback support in GitLab for a monorepo with three applications. The pipeline only ran when changes were reflected in the specific codebase folder.
Investigated and identified a shared lock issue on PostgreSQL preventing services from restarting. The problem was a long-running query that was not properly closed, which was placed down to the line of code for a swift resolution.
Led the company's technical side through a successful ISO 27001 audit by implementing recommendations, documenting decisions, and defending the company's position.

Technologies: DevOps, Bash, IP Networks, Ubuntu, Python, Linux, IT Infrastructure, Proxies, Prometheus, Grafana, PostgreSQL, GitLab, GitFlow, CI/CD Pipelines, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Shell Scripting, Deployment, Security Policies & Procedures, IT Operations Management (ITOM), System Administration, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Terraform, Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP), MySQL/MariaDB, Asana, Postman, Application Security, High-Availability Linux, Security Management, Debian, Fintech, Docker, DevOps Engineer, Business Continuity, Business Continuity Planning (BCP), Team Leadership, Leadership, IT Audits, Networks, VPN, Cloud Storage, Cloud Services, Cloud Security, Multi-factor Authentication (MFA), Load Balancers, Network Security, Data Security, Cloud, Data Protection, Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Computing, Information Security, NGINX, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Monitoring

LinkedIn Learning Instructor

2021 - 2023

LinkedIn Learning

Planned a cybersecurity course on fintech security essentials.
Wrote scripts for a cybersecurity course on fintech security essentials.
Recorded a cybersecurity course on fintech security essentials.
Planned a 14-video course on cybersecurity essentials highlighting the top 10 most commonly reported vulnerabilities in 2022.
Wrote scripts and prepared slides for a course on cybersecurity essentials.
Recorded a 14-video course on cybersecurity essentials, complete with demos for each video.

Technologies: Fintech, Information Security, Cybersecurity, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon EC2, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon Web Services (AWS), VPN, AWS VPN, OpenVPN, Amazon RDS, AWS WAF, Sentry, Amazon API Gateway, AWS Secrets Manager, Ansible, AWS Auto Scaling, Security Policies & Procedures, Lecturing, Application Security, Ubuntu, IT Infrastructure, AWS IAM, Debian, Continuous Integration (CI), Business Continuity Planning (BCP), Training, AWS Cloud Architecture, Cloud Architecture, Networks, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Cloud Storage, Cloud Services, Cloud Security, Azure Virtual Networks, Load Balancers, Network Security, Data Security, Cloud, Data Protection, PHP, Azure, Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Computing, Monitoring

DevSecOps Engineer

2022 - 2022

Freelance

Resolved a burst traffic issue on an Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster using a HorizontalPodAutoscaler (HPA) and a Cluster Autoscaler.
Researched and recommended an appropriate cloud-native data volume for Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) that supports concurrent access across multiple pods and horizontal scalability.
Architected a cloud-native infrastructure with the Web-Queue-Worker style for a new scalable, secure, resilient, and highly available application, which supports multi-tenant clients.
Deployed a Web-Queue-Worker sample infrastructure architecture and demonstrated how the client would transition into a big data architecture using Azure Synapse Analytics and other tools.

Technologies: Kubernetes, Docker, NGINX, MySQL, MariaDB, DevOps, DevSecOps, Azure Functions, Azure Synapse, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Files, Azure Storage, Azure, Kubernetes HPA, Azure Container Instances, Azure Container Registry, Azure SQL Databases, Azure Synapse Analytics, Linux, Deployment, IT Operations Management (ITOM), Architecture, Security Design, Cybersecurity, Postman, Ubuntu, IT Infrastructure, Security Management, Debian, Continuous Integration (CI), CI/CD Pipelines, Azure DevOps, DevOps Engineer, IP Networks, Networks, Azure Key Vault, Cloud Services, Cloud Security, Azure Virtual Networks, Azure Virtual Machines, Load Balancers, Azure Administrator, Network Security, Data Security, Cloud, Data Protection, PHP, Cloud Computing, Information Security, AWS Lambda, Monitoring

Security Trainer

2019 - 2022

e.KRAAL Innovation Hub

Taught the National Cybersecurity Training Program (NCSTP) third cohort of 20 trainees on cloud security, featuring 30+ hours of live, practical content, and nine practical labs on Azure, delivered over five days.
Taught the NCSTP first cohort of 40 trainees on critical information infrastructure protection (CIIP), featuring 24+ hours of live, practical content, and five practical labs on AWS, delivered over four days.
Received overwhelmingly positive reviews for each training performed.

Technologies: Training, Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ansible, IT Security, Security, Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Security Policies & Procedures, Lecturing, Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP), Cybersecurity, Application Security, Ubuntu, IT Infrastructure, Proxies, AWS IAM, Security Management, Debian, Relational Database Services (RDS), Continuous Integration (CI), Amazon API Gateway, Docker, DevOps Engineer, Business Continuity Planning (BCP), Team Leadership, Leadership, AWS Cloud Architecture, Cloud Architecture, IP Networks, Networks, VPN, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Virtualization, Cloud Storage, Cloud Services, Cloud Security, Azure Virtual Machines, Load Balancers, Azure App Service, Network Security, Data Security, Cloud, Data Protection, PHP, Cloud Computing, Information Security, NGINX, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Monitoring

Systems Developer

2015 - 2016

Nature Surf Systems

Designed and deployed bespoke IT infrastructure focused on security. This included wildcard SSL certificates, strong SSL cipher suites, reverse proxies and load balancers, remote access VPNs, and site-to-site VPNs.
Led the development team to release a new feature every week for two months straight.
Reduced an Android application size from 1MB to 40KB by creating a lite, minified version capable of running on entry-level smartphones.

Technologies: PHP, Android, MySQL, Reverse Engineering, Apache2, NGINX, Apache, Information Security, Java, Linux, Security Policies & Procedures, IT Operations Management (ITOM), On-premise, System Administration, MySQL/MariaDB, Postman, Application Security, Ubuntu, IT Infrastructure, Proxies, High-Availability Linux, Controls, Security Architecture, Debian, Continuous Delivery (CD), Continuous Integration (CI), Bash, DevOps Engineer, Business Continuity, Business Continuity Planning (BCP), Team Leadership, Leadership, IP Networks, Networks, VPN, Virtualization, Cloud Storage, Cloud Services, Cloud Security, Multi-factor Authentication (MFA), Load Balancers, Network Security, Data Security, Cloud, Data Protection, Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Computing, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Monitoring

Graduate Management Trainee

2015 - 2015

Presidential Digital Talent Program

Updated the immigration department's information security policy.
Reviewed the interior ministry's website and made recommendations for its redesign.
Led the entire team of 100 management trainees as their appointed representative.

Technologies: Web App Design, Leadership, Team Leadership, Security Policies & Procedures, Ubuntu, IT Infrastructure, Controls, Debian, Business Continuity, IT Audits, IP Networks, Networks, Network Security, Data Security, Data Protection, Information Security, Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

Experience

AWS Well-Architected Framework Audit for a Financial Services Firm

The client undertook an audit of its infrastructure hosted in AWS in order to identify any vulnerabilities, loopholes, and non-adherence to best practices that impact the performance, availability, security, and scalability of the applications. The client was also seeking recommendations on how to address the issues identified.

Our approach to implementing this audit was governed by the AWS Well-Architected Framework that guides cloud solution architects on the best practices to adopt while creating infrastructure in AWS. The framework consists of six pillars (security, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimization, operational excellence, and sustainability) that were all thoroughly audited during the engagement. We were granted access to the AWS, the demo, development, and UAT environments. Other documents, such as the AWS billing reports, were provided, as well as answers to questions asked.

The audit identified a total of 46 categorized issues: 11 issues were categorized as high impact, and their potential remediations were shared with the client for action.

Email Server Audit

This project was brought about by suspected malpractice on the ICT systems of a tour company—particularly the email system. The company owners were the project champions. The purpose of the project was to identify any possibilities of such malpractice on the ICT part, recommend solutions, and implement the solutions where possible.

This project was carried out in three phases remotely and through three regional trips to the Arusha headquarters:

Phase one involved a forensic analysis of the mail system to identify instances of foul play. Malpractice was indeed identified, and the evidence was presented to the project champions.

Phase two was implementing a solution that migrated the mail server to a secure cloud virtual private server running with encryption and email antivirus and anti-spam mechanisms in place. This migration was done seamlessly and successfully with minimal business impact.

The final phase was the optimization of office ICT systems for both performance and security. This phase further involved configuration of the mail server to suit organizational needs, such as particular accounts to be limited to internal-only communication.

Overall, the project was a great success.

HeptaPay

https://heptapay.com

An online agent for loading money to a mobile money wallet via debit or credit card. As the integrations engineer, I set up the card processing payment gateway and connections to the telecommunications partners; tested these connections for security and performance; and managed the back end, the internal transaction monitoring dashboard, and the platform's security.

Sentiment Analysis of the 2017 Kenyan Presidential Election

https://uchaguzi.today/

Kenya held a general election in 2017. We built Uchaguzi Today to show the trends behind each candidate's popularity and explain (via regular updates) the actions they performed that elicited a positive, neutral, or negative response. My involvement was setting up the infrastructure for collecting the data, interacting with the Twitter API to collect the tweets, designing and deploying the dashboard, and deploying an Android application to classify a sample dataset to help train the model.

Skills

Languages

PHP, Python, Java, Bash, JavaScript

Tools

NGINX, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), VirtualBox, OpenVPN, Azure App Service, VPN, Apache, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Ansible, Sentry, GitLab, Amazon EKS, AWS IAM, Postman, Azure Key Vault, Grafana, Terraform, Asana, Istio, Supervisor, Supervisord

Paradigms

Role-based Access Control (RBAC), DevOps, DevSecOps, Azure DevOps, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Web App Design

Platforms

Linux, Apache2, Azure, Amazon EC2, Kubernetes, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ubuntu, Debian, WordPress, Android, Docker, Azure Functions, Azure Synapse, Azure Synapse Analytics, AWS Lambda, Jelastic

Storage

MySQL, Azure Active Directory, MariaDB, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, Data Centers, Storage Area Networks (SAN), Azure SQL Databases, On-premise, Azure SQL, LiteSpeed for SQL Server

Industry Expertise

Network Security, Cybersecurity

Other

Office 365, Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Computing, Information Security, Application Security, Cloud, Azure Administrator, Azure Virtual Machines, Multi-factor Authentication (MFA), Identity & Access Management (IAM), Azure Virtual Networks, Cloud Security, Cloud Services, Cloud Storage, Virtualization, Networks, IP Networks, IT Audits, Cloud Architecture, AWS Cloud Architecture, Leadership, Team Leadership, Training, Business Continuity Planning (BCP), Business Continuity, Storage, Email Security, DevOps Engineer, Azure Files, Kubernetes HPA, Fintech, AWS VPN, Amazon RDS, AWS Secrets Manager, AWS Auto Scaling, IT Infrastructure, Proxies, IT Security, Security, GitFlow, Load Balancers, CI/CD Pipelines, Deployment, Security Policies & Procedures, IT Operations Management (ITOM), Architecture, System Administration, Relational Database Services (RDS), Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Security Design, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, Lecturing, Security Architecture, Controls, Security Management, Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP), High-Availability Linux, Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Monitoring, Reverse Engineering, Mail Servers, Data Security, Azure Storage, Data Protection, Azure Container Instances, Azure Container Registry, AWS WAF, Amazon API Gateway, Prometheus, Shell Scripting, Code Auditing, AWS DevOps, Networking, Cisco, Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Web Hosting, GitHub Actions, Virtuozzo, Scaleforce

Frameworks

Windows PowerShell, Classic ASP, Laravel

Libraries/APIs

Twitter API

Education

2016 - 2018

Master's Degree in Information Technology

Carnegie Mellon University - Pittsburgh, PA

2012 - 2014

Bachelor's Degree in Applied Computer Technology

United States International University-Africa - Nairobi, Kenya

Certifications

NOVEMBER 2023 - NOVEMBER 2026

AWS Certified Security – Specialty

Amazon Web Services

JUNE 2021 - JUNE 2024

Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate

Microsoft

DECEMBER 2020 - DECEMBER 2026

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Amazon Web Services

OCTOBER 2020 - OCTOBER 2024

Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate

Microsoft

AUGUST 2020 - PRESENT

Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals

Microsoft

APRIL 2015 - PRESENT

Associate - Information Storage and Management Version 2.0

Dell Technologies

NOVEMBER 2014 - DECEMBER 2026

Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)

EC-Council

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