
Justin Menga
Verified Expert in Engineering
Serverless Developer
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Toptal member since July 5, 2021
Justin has 20+ years of experience as a technology architect, developer, and engineer with a proven track record of building innovative products in various technology and business environments. He's recognized as an expert in AWS, continuous delivery, and all things cloud. A self-starter and problem solver with a relentless passion for excellence, Justin leverages the power of technology and the cloud to its full extent to create world-class digital experiences and deliver key business outcomes.
Portfolio
Experience
- Continuous Delivery (CD) - 10 years
- Python - 7 years
- AWS CloudFormation - 7 years
- Docker - 7 years
- Kubernetes - 5 years
- AWS Lambda - 5 years
- Amazon DynamoDB - 3 years
- Serverless - 3 years
Availability
Preferred Environment
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Serverless Architecture, Docker, Kubernetes, Python, Java, NoSQL, SQL, Continuous Delivery (CD), TypeScript
The most amazing...
...product I've brought to market helped small businesses connect with customers by enabling them to publish a professionally designed website in minutes.
Work Experience
AWS DevOps Engineer
SB Technology, Inc.
- Developed an automated developer workflow and experience using EC2, Docker, and DevContainers to enable data scientists to develop Jupyter notebooks and run AI/ML workloads on GPU-accelerated cloud instances.
- Automated the build and publishing of multi-platform Docker images with GPU support to ECR.
- Integrated secrets injection using AWS Secrets Manager to enable secure publishing of AI/ML job metadata to third-party systems.
- Created a Packer script to build and publish base AMI suitable for running AI/ML workloads on GPU-accelerated hardware.
AWS MQTT and Redis Architect
Undisclosed
- Prototyped, architected, and developed a service capable of ingesting location updates from millions of vehicles and publishing alerts to vehicles within proximity of disabled/broken-down vehicles.
- Developed a scalable and efficient geospatial tracking system using Uber's H3, DynamoDB, TypeScript, Rust, and AWS Lambda.
- Implemented API gateway and Cognito for publishing vehicle hazard alerts to third-party navigation systems.
- Implemented CI/CD pipeline in GitHub for building, testing, releasing, and deploying code changes into production.
- Used AWS SAM to speed the development and deployment of AWS serverless infrastructure.
- Implemented REST API using TypeScript, ElectroDB (DynamoDB ORM), and Effect (functional programming library).
Solution Architect
Animation Research Ltd
- Designed and implemented a data analytics platform for Cricket, exposing key metrics and insights, including play-by-play telemetry and video analytics.
- Implemented a high-performance, low-latency data analytics API query layer capable of querying large data sets using Cube, Athena, API Gateway, and AWS ECS Fargate.
- Developed and implemented a cloud-based real-time engine for ingesting real-time scoring, officiating, timing, video, and telemetry data to support broadcast, scoring, and match referee operations at live cricket matches.
- Developed a local backup of the cloud-based real-time engine using AWS IoT Greengrass to support local messaging between local devices at cricket venues.
- Developed a real-time component to sync local DynamoDB and cloud-based DynamoDB tables using Python.
- Implemented REST API using TypeScript, AWS API Gateway, DynamoDB, and AWS Lambda for setting up game metadata (players, teams, coaches, umpires, venues, and matches) to support game day operations for Cricket matches.
- Built a video processing pipeline for real-time transcoding, analysis, and publishing of video clips from multiple live camera feeds.
- Built an ML pipeline that uses AI/ML to classify live and historical cricket video clips and add metadata, such as type of bowling delivery and type of batting stroke.
DevOps Consultant
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- Supported the North American Energy Resilience Model (NAERM), which provides advanced modeling and analysis of the nation's energy infrastructure and interdependent systems.
- Managed and scaled Kubernetes clusters for large-scale simulations.
- Implemented Prometheus and Grafana for observability.
- Developed custom Helm charts to define microservices and supporting applications.
- Developed reusable CI/CD templates for GitLab CI/CD to promote consistent, repeatable build, test, and deployment workflows.
- Used Terraform to deploy EKS clusters and supporting infrastructure.
- Managed and maintained Apache Airflow to orchestrate ETL pipelines.
CTO/SVP of Engineering
DevFactory
- Took on a hands-on technical leadership role, leading several teams of engineers to build and support a portfolio of over 100 SaaS products.
- Built a cost optimization SaaS product that saves tens of millions of dollars annually in AWS costs for hundreds of enterprise customers.
- Built a recommendation engine using AWS Glue/ML/AI services for an online news article product, providing article recommendations to 100,000 subscribers across 100 publishers.
- Managed and optimized costs for over 500 AWS accounts with an annual spend of over $15 million.
- Built a learning analytics platform for an online learning product on AWS, ingesting metrics from learning apps and producing learning productivity and mastery metrics to help students achieve a 2x increase in learning.
- Built a workflow management visualization UI using React Flow, TypeScript, and Next.js to help manage assembly lines of workers, identify high/low performers, and address resource bottlenecks.
- Integrated generative AI tooling into all elements of the engineering lifecycle, from design documentation to software development, testing, and code review.
- Developed a fully automated quiz generator for K-12 students that uses generative AI to generate and grade quizzes based upon a student topic of interest and a literary common core state standard.
DevOps Consultant
CISA
- Supported the Modeling Capability Transition Environment, which provides modeling and simulation of threat data.
- Implemented CloudWatch Container Insights, Prometheus, and Grafana for observability.
- Developed custom Helm charts to define microservices and supporting applications.
- Used kOps and Terraform to deploy the Kubernetes infrastructure.
Chief Architect
Yellow
- Ideated and created a new self-service digital platform that enables customers to manage their digital presence centrally and market to various digital and traditional media channels.
- Adopted cutting-edge cloud technologies powered by AWS and other providers to speed time to market, reduce development costs, and increase operational efficiencies.
- Modernized, simplified, and transformed legacy enterprise systems into a cohesive agile digital architecture that delivers outstanding customer service, reduces the cost to serve, and empowers staff to innovate without technology constraints.
- Established advanced continuous delivery tooling, patterns, and blueprints to accelerate the build, test, and deployment of apps to production.
- Led a team of 15 engineers in developing a cloud-based SaaS application using AWS serverless technologies, enabling 200,000+ small businesses to build and optimize their digital marketing and advertising presence online.
- Built Yellow websites, making it easy for businesses to develop and publish a fully optimized eCommerce-enabled website in minutes using React, Gatsby, Shopify, and Stripe.
- Implemented a new data lake and data insights platform using AWS Kinesis, Glue, S3, Athena, and QuickSight that provides rich business insights and surfaces key customer insights and recommendations.
Cloud Architect
Casebook
- Built fully automated continuous delivery pipelines using Ansible, Jenkins, CloudFormation, CodePipeline, and CodeBuild.
- Built a fully automated account provisioning pipeline, which deployed an entire AWS account with all applications and initial seed data within one hour.
- Adapted and migrated Docker container infrastructure from ECS/Fargate to EKS/Kubernetes.
- Developed a data pipeline for streaming events from Apache Kafka into Amazon S3 and Redshift.
Digital Practice Consultant
Air New Zealand
- Established a center of excellence for delivering continuous delivery and digital platform architectural patterns, tooling, and onboarding as part of a wider digital transformation initiative in the digital strategy business unit.
- Developed fully automated deployment templates using AWS CloudFormation for deploying complete application environments in AWS.
- Successfully introduced the use of Docker and containers with deployment all the way to production using AWS ECS.
Technology Architect
Spark
- Built a Wi-Fi subscriber management solution servicing 2,000 access points and hundreds of thousands of devices every month. The system was scaled to process millions of events every day.
- Provided architectural oversight of teams building a video-on-demand streaming platform that launched successfully with hundreds of thousands of customers.
- Worked with Spark Ventures team bringing innovative products to market including a video-on-demand streaming platform, broadband service provider, mobile virtual network operator, and an online self-service mobile application studio.
Experience
Yellow Websites
https://yellow.co.nz/our-solutions/website/I was the chief architect for this product and supported back-end development efforts. The solution was based upon storing content management data in Yellow's unified management platform, which was used to build and publish static customer websites built using GatsbyJS, React, and Tailwind CSS and served via CloudFront and S3. The platform also supported custom domain hosting, which was implemented using Traefik TLS proxies integrated with Let's Encrypt to provide fully automated certificate management/TLS support.
The core management platform included an AppSync GraphQL API, AWS Lambda functions written in Python, Step Functions for orchestrating workflows such as registering and updating site maps in Google Search Console, and an analytics pipeline implemented using AWS Glue to extract Google Analytics insights and create insights and reports in Yellow's unified management platform.
Online Digital Marketing Platform
http://yellow.co.nzI was the brainchild and chief architect of the website, self-service portal, and underlying digital platform built on top of an AWS serverless architecture that integrates with Stripe for payments and subscription management and HubSpot for customer service. The platform enables customers to purchase digital products such as managing your business locations in Google My Business, creating digital marketing campaigns using Google Ads, and getting your own website with optional Shopify eCommerce integration up and running within 15 minutes.
Spark Wi-Fi Zones
I was the architect and lead full-stack developer for the project, which included a React-based captive portal for authenticating access using SMS and offering paid offerings using Stripe as a payment provider.
The back-end services were integrated with Cisco routers and FreeRADIUS servers, providing subscriber management (e.g., registration and login) and session management (e.g., device authentication and bandwidth metering) APIs servicing over 200,000 customers per month and connecting hundreds of thousands of devices every day.
The back-end architecture was implemented in Java using a microservices approach based upon the Vert.x framework and used VoltDB as a real-time in-memory database supporting up to 50,000 transactions per second.
Continuous Delivery Using Docker and Ansible
https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/docker-ansible-continuous-deliveryStudents learn how to use Docker to supercharge continuous delivery workflows and fast-track applications from development to production, using modern tools and services including Docker, Docker Compose, Make, Jenkins, Ansible, GitHub, and AWS.
Docker on Amazon Web Services
https://www.amazon.com/Docker-Amazon-Web-Services-applications-ebook/dp/B07BJKNTS3Sports Platform for Cricket
I was responsible for defining the platform's solution architecture and leading a team of developers in building it. The cloud-native platform was built using AWS serverless technologies and leveraged AWS IoT green grass to support local game-day operations at cricket stadiums worldwide.
Real-time Vehicle Safety Alert Platform
I developed an efficient geospatial indexing and query system using Uber H3 and DynamoDB. I implemented advanced proximity detection and route protection mechanisms using Open Street Map data and the open source Valhalla routing platform (using MapBox and Tesla).
I also led a team of developers to build the platform using TypeScript, Python, and Rust.
Certifications
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
AWS
Skills
Libraries/APIs
RADIUS, API Development, React, Stripe, Shopify API, GitHub API, Node.js, Playwright, AWS Amplify, Segment.io, Google My Business API, Google Analytics API, Jenkins Pipeline
Tools
AWS CloudFormation, Amazon EKS, AWS Fargate, AWS CodeBuild, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon CloudFront CDN, AWS Step Functions, AWS IAM, AWS AppSync, Terraform, Git, GitHub, Ansible, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), VPN, Amazon Cognito, Helm, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), NGINX, Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), Docker Compose, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), AWS CLI, Jenkins, Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), RabbitMQ, GitLab CI/CD, Amazon ElastiCache, Uvicorn, Cisco Meraki, Postman, ChatGPT, Amazon SageMaker, VMware, AWS Glue, Google Analytics, Traefik, Certbot, Make, Docker Swarm, Grafana, GitLab, Apache Airflow, Microsoft Power BI, Apache Solr, Packer, Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR), Amazon Athena, MQTT
Languages
Python, Python 3, Bash, JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, Java, SQL, C#, GraphQL, Go, PHP, Rust
Paradigms
Serverless Architecture, Continuous Delivery (CD), DevOps, DevSecOps, Continuous Integration (CI), Automated Testing, Microservices, REST, Azure DevOps
Platforms
Docker, Kubernetes, AWS Lambda, Amazon EC2, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, Jupyter Notebook, AWS ALB, Shopify, HubSpot, Azure, Apache Kafka, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Vercel, AWS IoT Core, AWS IoT, AWS IoT Greengrass
Storage
Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon DynamoDB, PostgreSQL, NoSQL, Elasticsearch, Redis, DB, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Azure Cloud Services, Database Security, Data Lakes, Redshift, NetApp, SQL Server 2012, VoltDB, Amazon EFS, Memcached, Redis Cache
Industry Expertise
Cybersecurity, Network Security, Project Management
Frameworks
.NET, Next.js, Django, Vert.x, Tailwind CSS, Cypress, .NET Core, Flask, Cube.js
Other
Serverless, ECS, AWS CodePipeline, Cisco, Amazon Cognito User Pools, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon RDS, CTO, Containers, Load Balancers, Cloud, Agile DevOps, Architecture, AWS DevOps, Cloud Infrastructure, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Cloud Architecture, Web Applications, Configuration Management, Network Design, Container Security, Container Orchestration, Cloud Security, Secure Containers, Security Architecture, Cloud Migration, Networking, Network Architecture, Security, Technical Documentation, Monitoring, Data Engineering, APIs, AWS Certified Solution Architect, AWS Cloud Architecture, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Scalability, Single Sign-on (SSO), IT Security, Infrastructure, AWS VPN, Networks, DevOps Engineer, Amazon API Gateway, FreeRADIUS, Cisco Wireless, Gatsby, Amazon Kinesis, Amazon EventBridge, HubSpot CRM, SaaS, DNS, AWS X-Ray, Web Security, GitHub Actions, Control & Cost Analysis, Gunicorn, Web Server Gateway Interface (WSGI), Storage, Multiple Factor Analysis (MFA), Threat Modeling, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), AWS Database Migration Service (DMS), Data Visualization, Dashboard Development, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Orchestration, Manual QA, Data Privacy, Cisco UCS, Amazon Neptune, NetSuite, OData, Transport Layer Security (TLS), Docker Desktop, Amazon MSK, Prometheus, Kubernetes Operations (kOps), Hardware, Data Modeling, H3, Location Tracking, Geospatial Data, Amazon Redshift, Time Series, JupyterLab, GPU Computing, NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPU, DevContainers, AWS Secrets Manager, Zitadel, AWS Lake Formation
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