Najim Lawal, Developer in Dallas, TX, United States
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Najim Lawal

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Software Developer

Dallas, TX, United States

Toptal member since June 25, 2021

Bio

Najim is a cloud solution architect with over six years of experience in information technologies. He's an expert in designing and deploying scalable, highly available, secured, and fault-tolerant systems. Najim can lift an existing on-premise application to the cloud with experiences in technologies like microservices, Azure blob API, ECS, Kubernetes, cloud formation, and Terraform.

Portfolio

Footright LLC
Cloud Security, Kusto Query Language (KQL), Open-source Intelligence (OSINT)...
Microsoft
Azure PaaS, Azure Blobs, Azure Marketplace, SQL, Azure Queue Storage...
CTDI
Terraform, Linux, Networks, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon EC2, AWS...

Experience

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Windows, Azure Virtual Networks, Azure Files, Kubernetes, Microservices, Docker, Azure, Azure Active Directory, Azure Blob Storage API, Cloud Architecture

The most amazing...

...things I've developed are cloud-native architectures, monolithic architectures, and event-driven serverless solutions.

Work Experience

Cybersecurity SIEM/SOAR Engineer

2022 - PRESENT
Footright LLC
  • Researched emerging cyber threats to recommend appropriate countermeasures.
  • Implemented security measures such as firewalls, encryption technologies, and authentication systems to protect critical information assets and conducted vulnerability scans on servers and workstations.
  • Analyzed network traffic data, system logs, intrusion detection alerts, and other sources to identify potential security issues.
Technologies: SIEM, Kubernetes, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP), IDS/IPS, IoC, NIST, Malware Analysis, Sentinel, Microsoft Defender XDR, Amazon GuardDuty, IBM QRadar, Incident Response, System Security, Web Application Firewall (WAF), Threat Modeling, Cloud Security, Kusto Query Language (KQL), Open-source Intelligence (OSINT), System Security, GCP Security, Security Architecture Assessment, IT Security, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Cloud Engineering, Logging, System Security, VPC

Cloud Infrastructure Engineer | Azure Technical Trainer

2021 - 2022
Microsoft
  • Helped several clients build, deploy, and manage their custom web apps using various popular native tools and programming languages.
  • Used the Azure Pricing Calculator and the total cost of ownership (TCO) framework to help clients reach a consumption-based pricing structure that allows large enterprises to manage their IT budgets better.
  • Designed storage architecture to help businesses own and operate on-premises data storage equipment, reducing upfront costs and consistent overhead.
Technologies: Azure PaaS, Azure Blobs, Azure Marketplace, SQL, Azure Queue Storage, Azure DevOps, Identity & Access Management (IAM), SSO Engineering, IT Governance, Group Policy, Server Backups, Azure, Billing & Collections, Cost Management, Azure, Cost Estimation, Cost Modeling, Cost Analysis, Azure Synapse, Cloud Architecture, Python, CI/CD Pipelines, Jenkins Pipeline, DevOps, Java, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Ansible, Bash, AWS DevOps, Google Storage Development, IT Security, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Threat Modeling, Cloud Engineering, Logging, System Security, VPC

Azure Cloud Architect

2018 - 2021
CTDI
  • Developed an eCommerce application using a microservices architecture. Each microservice was built to focus on a single business capability, such as the shopping cart, search, and customer review.
  • Built solutions and ideal architectures for organizations that do not have to worry about maintaining a server.
  • Helped develop solutions for organizations into cloud security, big data, and mobility, helping organizations scale and grow with 50% revenue.
Technologies: Terraform, Linux, Networks, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon EC2, AWS, Azure, Azure Files, Kubernetes, Docker, Azure Network Security Groups, Azure Storage, Azure DevOps, Azure, Billing & Collections, Cost Management, Azure, Cost Estimation, Cost Modeling, Cost Analysis, Azure Synapse, Cloud Architecture, CI/CD Pipelines, Jenkins Pipeline, Java, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Windows PowerShell, Google Storage Development, Threat Modeling, Cloud Engineering, Logging, System Security

Cloud Administrator

2014 - 2018
Creative Edge Innovative Services
  • Helped Creative Edge Innovative Services reduce the processing time six-fold and increase the delivery of customer quotes by almost 30%.
  • Helped the organization cut IT capital expenditure and operational costs by 70% and 50%, respectively, while delivering a highly available, low-latency IT service with AWS.
  • Built an agile infrastructure platform that allowed Creative Edge Innovative Services to reduce development and testing environment costs by 75%.
Technologies: AWS IAM, JSON, AWS, AWS, Azure Design, Architecture, Azure DevOps, Azure, Billing & Collections, Cost Management, Azure, Cost Estimation, Cost Modeling, Cost Analysis, Azure Synapse, Cloud Architecture, CI/CD Pipelines, Jenkins Pipeline, DevOps, IT Security, Threat Modeling, Cloud Engineering, System Security, VPC

Data Analyst

2011 - 2014
Creative Edge Innovative Services
  • Built key-value stores with embedded systems, URL shorteners, configuration data, application variables and flags for web applications, state information, and data represented by a dictionary or hash to enable speed, scalability, and flexibility.
  • Maintained the database by the service provider, as organizations only charged for usage of service. I made it cost-effective and zeroed upkeep, but with data stewardship and potential network limitations.
  • Built databases, schema-on-read, schema-on-write, SQL and NoSQL, and ETL processes to help with data transformation.
Technologies: SQL Server, Excel VBA, Business Intelligence Development, Architecture

News Application

A secure and robust news web application that I deployed on the Azure cloud by defining a solution and using architectural design principles and best practices based on customer business needs and requirements.

Migration to the Cloud

A nonprofit greenfield migration to the cloud. My role on this project was to conduct cloud migration readiness, client skill analysis, workload inventory, and assessment. After a week of inventory and assessment, 60% of the applications were planned through a migration wave for lift and shift, while 25% required refactoring and modernization, and the rest needed to be retained and retired due to compliance. Over 134 applications were migrated.

Escalation Manager

I handled numerous projects, such as interfacing with cloud providers to create tickets and manage tickets to be closed. I also supported clients in resolving storage and backup solutions from on-premise to the cloud, reviewed security operations, and served as an advisor.
2005 - 2010

Bachelor's Degree in Urban Planning

Federal University of Technology Minna - Minna, Nigeria

JUNE 2024 - PRESENT

Microsoft Security Operations Analyst SC-200

Microsoft

JUNE 2023 - PRESENT

AWS Certified Solutions Architect

AWS

JUNE 2023 - PRESENT

AZ-305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions

Microsoft

DECEMBER 2022 - DECEMBER 2024

Certified YugabyteDB Developer

Yugabyte University

AUGUST 2022 - PRESENT

Microsoft Global Hackathon

Microsoft

MARCH 2022 - PRESENT

AZ 900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

Microsoft

APRIL 2021 - PRESENT

Fortinet FortiWeb Cloud WAF-as-a-Service

Cybrary

MARCH 2021 - PRESENT

CyberArk Certified Trustee

CyberArk

Libraries/APIs

Azure, Jenkins Pipeline

Tools

Terraform, AWS IAM, AWS, Azure Network Security Groups, Git, GCP Security, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Ansible, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Logging, AWS, Business Intelligence Development, Sentinel, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK), Google Compute Engine (GCE), AWS CLI, IBM QRadar

Languages

Bash, Java, Excel VBA, Python, Kusto Query Language (KQL)

Paradigms

DevOps, DevSecOps, Microservices Development, Azure DevOps

Platforms

Windows Development, Linux, Kubernetes, Docker, AWS, Azure Design, Amazon EC2, Azure Synapse, Azure PaaS, Azure, Azure Marketplace, Cloud Engineering

Storage

Azure Storage, Azure, Azure, Google Storage Development, JSON, SQL Server, Azure Blobs, SQL, Azure Queue Storage, Amazon S3

Industry Expertise

System Security

Frameworks

Windows PowerShell

Other

System Security, IT Security, Azure, Architecture, Billing & Collections, Cost Management, Cost Modeling, Cost Analysis, Cloud Architecture, AWS Certified Solution Architect, CI/CD Pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), AWS DevOps, Threat Modeling, VPC, Networks, Azure Files, Cost Estimation, Security Architecture Assessment, Cloud Storage, IP Networks, Monitoring, YugabyteDB, Identity & Access Management (IAM), SSO Engineering, IT Governance, Group Policy, Server Backups, Cloud Services, Migration Engineering, Modernization, Cost Reduction & Optimization (Cost-down), Microsoft Defender XDR, Malware Analysis, NIST, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP), IoC, IDS/IPS, Cloud Engineering, Cloud Security, Cyber Defense, Forensic Investigation, System Security, Cyber Threat Hunting, Web Application Firewall (WAF), Amazon GuardDuty, Open-source Intelligence (OSINT), System Security, Incident Response, SIEM

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