Mikko is available for hire

Mikko Kokkonen

Verified Expert in Engineering

Cloud Engineer and Developer

Hamburg, Germany

Toptal member since April 13, 2022

Expertise

DevOps AWS DevOps Cloud Architecture Linux Git Jenkins SQL MySQL REST API Nginx AWS Amazon S3 Ruby

Bio

Mikko is an experienced DevOps engineer and developer with almost two decades of professional experience in programming and systems administration. He focuses on implementing modern production environments based on the cloud while utilizing the latest best practices. Mikko always ensures that companies have the best and most reliable infrastructure for production.

Portfolio

Self-employed

Terraform, GitHub Actions, GitHub, Kubernetes, Amazon EKS, Amazon EC2, ECS...

1KOMMA5˚ GmbH

Ruby on Rails (RoR), GitHub, SQL, Amazon RDS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP)...

Leap Technologies Inc.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Terraform...

Experience

Linux - 20 years
DevOps - 20 years
Ruby - 12 years
PostgreSQL - 10 years
Terraform - 9 years
Kubernetes - 9 years
Ruby on Rails (RoR) - 8 years
GitHub Actions - 3 years

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

DevOps, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ruby, Terragrunt, Terraform, Containerization, GitHub, Helm, Linux System Administration, AWS Cloud Computing Services

The most amazing...

...thing I've designed and implemented was a full web experience with automated CI/CD pipelines, including review environments for pull request reviews.

Work Experience

DevSecOps Engineer

2022 - PRESENT

Self-employed

Reduced AWS costs by 20% by migrating workloads from a static ECS environment to an auto-scaling Kubernetes cluster.
Migrated on-premises servers and workloads successfully to AWS cloud, reducing management overhead and cost by 30%.
Enhanced developer experience by fostering seamless collaboration between DevOps and development teams.
Built an automated deployment pipeline utilizing Argo CD and Crossplane to support independent development teams in delivering required infrastructure and application changes automatically.
Evaluated the state of the infrastructure and built a roadmap for improvements to a more robust and performant infrastructure.
Established a platform team to take control of the platform and SRE support for the team.

Technologies: Terraform, GitHub Actions, GitHub, Kubernetes, Amazon EKS, Amazon EC2, ECS, AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK), Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MySQL, AWS Deployment, System Administration, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Google Cloud, Vercel, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), GitLab CI/CD, REST APIs, Scalable Web Services, Helm, Incident Management, Grafana, Linux System Administration, NGINX, VPN, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Reliability Engineering, Observability Tools, Amazon CloudWatch, GitOps, Elasticsearch, AWS Control Tower, NoSQL, ELK (Elastic Stack), Redshift, Cloud Architecture, Datadog, DigitalOcean, Pulumi, DevOps, Python, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Security, Crossplane, Policy as code (PaC), Argo CD, Ruby, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Terragrunt, Docker, Git, Architecture, Team Leadership, Application Monitoring

Senior Software Engineer

2023 - 2024

1KOMMA5˚ GmbH

Evaluated the existing codebase and planned improvements for architecture and code quality to ensure the platform's scalability.
Introduced an event-based system design to a legacy monolithic application to support rapid scaling and expansion to multiple markets.
Improved development process by ensuring best practices of the Agile methodology are followed.
Implemented a continuous deployment pipeline for three environments (development, staging, and production).

Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), GitHub, SQL, Amazon RDS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Google Cloud, Vercel, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), REST APIs, Scalable Web Services, Helm, Incident Management, Linux System Administration, NGINX, VPN, Reliability Engineering, Observability Tools, Amazon CloudWatch, GitOps, NoSQL, Cloud Architecture, Datadog, DevOps, Python, CI/CD Pipelines, Security, Ruby, Terraform, GitHub Actions, Docker, Git, Architecture, Application Monitoring

Senior Site Reliability DevOps Engineer

2022 - 2023

Leap Technologies Inc.

Reduced the overall AWS bill by 20% with cost management and tracking. Utilized Spot instances, implemented observability to right-size workloads and per-customer cost tracking.
Implemented and ensured the company's SOC 2 controls were in place and followed. Successfully ensured the audit without any exceptions.
Planned and executed the successful migration of the legacy environment from AWS ECS to Kubernetes (EKS).

Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Terraform, DevSecOps, Scripting, Docker, Git, CI/CD Pipelines, Python, Bash, Kubernetes, Amazon EKS, DevOps Engineer, GitHub, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), SQL, Amazon RDS, AWS IAM, AWS Lambda, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), AWS DevOps, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), AWS Deployment, System Administration, REST APIs, Scalable Web Services, Helm, Incident Management, Grafana, Linux System Administration, NGINX, VPN, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Reliability Engineering, Observability Tools, Amazon CloudWatch, GitOps, Elasticsearch, NoSQL, ELK (Elastic Stack), Redshift, Cloud Architecture, Datadog, DevOps, Security, Terragrunt, GitHub Actions, Architecture, Team Leadership, Application Monitoring

Engineering Manager

2022 - 2022

Kwara GmbH

Set up a new engineering hiring process to ensure the fast and simple hiring of the best candidates.
Established regular one-on-ones and catchups with the team to ensure they were satisfied and that any issues affecting the team were quickly resolved.
Implemented the improved production environment using Kubernetes and AWS services.

Technologies: Engineering Management, DevOps, Ruby, Kubernetes, Python, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Linux, PostgreSQL, Amazon EKS, Terragrunt, Terraform, CI/CD Pipelines, GitHub Actions, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Git, Bash, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Infrastructure, DevOps Engineer, GitHub, SQL, Amazon RDS, AWS IAM, AWS Lambda, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), AWS DevOps, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), AWS Deployment, System Administration, REST APIs, Scalable Web Services, Helm, Incident Management, Linux System Administration, NGINX, VPN, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Reliability Engineering, Observability Tools, Amazon CloudWatch, GitOps, Elasticsearch, NoSQL, Redshift, Cloud Architecture, Security, Architecture, Team Leadership, Application Monitoring

CPO | Lead Developer

2018 - 2022

ItsMyCargo

Defined and executed product management framework and best practices such as Agile methodology, implemented Jira as a tracking tool, and followed up on important metrics in the development team.
Implemented a modern production infrastructure by defining everything as Terraform IaaC and implementing a Kubernetes-based environment.
Mentored and guided engineers on important design decisions and best practices within the codebase.
Implemented the best practices with strict code reviews and test-driven development within the development team, ensuring well-tested code and successfully reducing the number of customer-facing bugs.
Introduced Scrum methodology to the development team and improved the team's predictability of deliveries within the development process.

Technologies: Product Management, DevOps, Terraform, Ruby, Kubernetes, Python, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Linux, PostgreSQL, Amazon EKS, Terragrunt, PostGIS, CI/CD Pipelines, GitHub Actions, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Git, Bash, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Infrastructure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), DevOps Engineer, GitHub, Jenkins, Amazon EC2, SQL, AWS CodeBuild, Amazon RDS, AWS IAM, AWS Lambda, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), AWS DevOps, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), AWS Deployment, System Administration, Google Cloud, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), GitLab CI/CD, REST APIs, Scalable Web Services, Helm, Incident Management, Grafana, Linux System Administration, NGINX, VPN, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Reliability Engineering, Observability Tools, Amazon CloudWatch, GitOps, Elasticsearch, NoSQL, Cloud Architecture, Datadog, Security, Architecture, Team Leadership, Application Monitoring

Software Developer

2017 - 2018

Appear Here

Implemented the component-based rails applications (CBRA) approach to solve technical debt within the legacy codebase, allowing cleaner and better-organized code to be proceeds easier.
Defined the hiring process and helped scale the engineering team from five engineers to fifteen by screening candidates and conducting technical interviews.
Implemented a better and faster CI/CD pipeline using Jenkins and deployments on AWS Fargate.
Mentored and coached developers to help them with their daily coding challenges and ensured and shared knowledge on improving the codebase and using the best approaches and solutions.

Technologies: Ruby, Ruby on Rails (RoR), PostgreSQL, PostGIS, CI/CD Pipelines, DevOps, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Git, Bash, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Infrastructure, DevOps Engineer, GitHub, Jenkins, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon EC2, SQL, AWS CodeBuild, Amazon RDS, AWS IAM, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), AWS DevOps, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), AWS Deployment, System Administration, REST APIs, Scalable Web Services, Incident Management, Linux System Administration, NGINX, VPN, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Reliability Engineering, Observability Tools, Amazon CloudWatch, GitOps, Elasticsearch, NoSQL, Redshift, Cloud Architecture, Security, Architecture, Application Monitoring

Software Developer

2016 - 2017

Stratajet

Implemented new infrastructure based on AWS Auto Scaling groups, allowing atomic deployments with automatic healing in case of bad deployments and automated scaling.
Mentored and coached other developers on the best code practices and solutions to daily challenges.
Implemented the CI/CD pipeline using AWS CloudFormation for infrastructure automation and Jenkins with custom pipeline functions for running tests and deployments.

Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), PostgreSQL, DevOps, Ruby, Linux, Terraform, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Git, Bash, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Infrastructure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), DevOps Engineer, Jenkins, Amazon EC2, SQL, Amazon RDS, AWS IAM, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), AWS DevOps, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MySQL, AWS Deployment, System Administration, Google Cloud, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), REST APIs, Scalable Web Services, Incident Management, Linux System Administration, NGINX, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Reliability Engineering, Observability Tools, Amazon CloudWatch, GitOps, Elasticsearch, NoSQL, Cloud Architecture, Security, Kubernetes, Architecture, Application Monitoring

Founder

2007 - 2017

Owl Forestry

Gathered business requirements and provided production support to deliver a digital signage solution for the client.
Implemented the digital magazine publishing platform that included a Ruby on Rails-based management portal for publishers and an iOS application for iPad and iPhone to enable consumers to read published magazines.
Reimplemented an extensive ebook for a large Finnish publisher for the iOS platform; the ebook was initially developed for the Symbian platform that needed to be updated for iOS.

Technologies: Ruby, Ruby on Rails (RoR), PostgreSQL, Linux, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Git, Bash, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Infrastructure, DevOps Engineer, GitHub, Jenkins, Amazon EC2, SQL, Amazon RDS, AWS IAM, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), AWS DevOps, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MySQL, AWS Deployment, System Administration, GitLab CI/CD, REST APIs, Scalable Web Services, Incident Management, Linux System Administration, NGINX, VPN, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Reliability Engineering, Observability Tools, Amazon CloudWatch, GitOps, Elasticsearch, NoSQL, ELK (Elastic Stack), Cloud Architecture, Datadog, DigitalOcean, DevOps, Security, Architecture, Application Monitoring

Senior Software Developer

2015 - 2016

Wimdu

Migrated application from the managed servers to full AWS cloud infrastructure, allowing the application to auto-scale and auto-heal utilizing autoscaling groups.
Improved the developer productivity by implementing better Jenkins pipelines, decreasing build times, and allowing better notifications and error messages when tests failed.
Implemented the first production deployment pipeline for microservices using Jenkins pipelines and Puppet-managed servers for deploying Docker-based containers.

Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby, Linux, PostgreSQL, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Git, Bash, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Infrastructure, DevOps Engineer, GitHub, Jenkins, Amazon EC2, SQL, Amazon RDS, AWS IAM, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), AWS DevOps, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MySQL, AWS Deployment, System Administration, REST APIs, Scalable Web Services, Incident Management, Grafana, Linux System Administration, NGINX, VPN, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Reliability Engineering, Observability Tools, Amazon CloudWatch, Elasticsearch, NoSQL, ELK (Elastic Stack), Cloud Architecture, DevOps, Architecture, Application Monitoring

IT Manager

2014 - 2015

Asian Room Service Sdn Bdh

Transitioned the team to scrum to ensure more predictable deliveries.
Implemented the component-based rails application (CBRA) to allow easier rewrite and clean legacy Rails applications utilizing engines and isolation of the new code.
Mentored and managed the off-shore and in-house team to ensure all developers were performant and had all resources they needed.

Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), Engineering Management, Ruby, Linux, PostgreSQL, CI/CD Pipelines, Git, Bash, Product Management, Infrastructure, DevOps Engineer, SQL, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Amazon S3 (AWS S3), System Administration, REST APIs, Scalable Web Services, Incident Management, Linux System Administration, NGINX, VPN, AWS Cloud Computing Services, Reliability Engineering, Observability Tools, Amazon CloudWatch, NoSQL, Cloud Architecture, DigitalOcean, DevOps, Architecture, Team Leadership, Application Monitoring

Experience

Migration to Kubernetes

The project aimed to modernize the production environment to a fully automated CI/CD pipeline. The original production environment was based on AWS Beanstalk, where a single developer pushed code from their laptop to production.

I implemented a proper CI/CD pipeline where each successful main branch build was deployed to the Kubernetes cluster.

Legacy Platform Migration

Planned and migrated Infrastructure as Code from the old Terraform version and everything within a single IaC codebase to a highly modularised Terraform codebase with the latest version of Terraform and Terragrunt, thus reducing the risk of unintended infrastructure changes. Planned and executed migration of legacy workloads from AWS ECS to Kubernetes (EKS).

Digital Signage

A digital signage management platform consisted of back-end and player apps. The back end was done with Ruby on Rails allowing screen owners to assign and schedule content to be displayed on the right screens at the right moment. The screen players were implemented as a Chrome app in JavaScript, which was responsible for fetching content from the server and displaying it correctly.

Skills

Libraries/APIs

Terragrunt, REST APIs

Tools

Terraform, Amazon EKS, Git, GitHub, Jenkins, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), AWS IAM, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Helm, NGINX, VPN, Observability Tools, Amazon CloudWatch, Packer, AWS CodeBuild, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK), AWS Deployment, GitLab CI/CD, Grafana, ELK (Elastic Stack)

Languages

Ruby, Bash, SQL, Python

Frameworks

Ruby on Rails (RoR), Crossplane

Paradigms

DevOps, DevSecOps

Platforms

Kubernetes, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon EC2, AWS Cloud Computing Services, DigitalOcean, AWS Lambda, Vercel

Storage

Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MySQL, Elasticsearch, NoSQL, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, Google Cloud, Redshift, Datadog

Other

CI/CD Pipelines, GitHub Actions, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Infrastructure, Scripting, DevOps Engineer, AWS DevOps, ECS, Scalable Web Services, Incident Management, Linux System Administration, Reliability Engineering, GitOps, Cloud Architecture, Terraform Cloud, Security, Policy as code (PaC), Argo CD, Architecture, Team Leadership, Product Management, Engineering Management, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Amazon RDS, System Administration, Pulumi, Application Monitoring, AWS Control Tower

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