Rafal is available for hire

Rafal Jankowicz

Verified Expert in Engineering

DevOps Engineer Developer

Dunbar, United Kingdom

Toptal member since April 3, 2023

Expertise

Software Engineering DevOps AWS Cloud Cloud Architecture Automation Linux Windows Development AWS Amazon S3

Bio

Rafal is a Python-focused DevOps back-end engineer. An AWS enthusiast and open-source contributor to Moto, he is exceptionally proficient with Python and AWS, including CloudFormation, CDK, SAM, Terraform, Lambda, ECS, and Docker. Rafal is an AWS architect and DevOps professional.

Portfolio

Freelance DevOps Python Engineer @ ICE

Concourse CI, Terraform, Python 3, Pytest, Docker, Boto 3, ECS, AWS Fargate...

Freelance AWS DevOps Python Engineer @ Maplecroft

TypeScript, AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM), AWS CloudFormation...

Freelance DevOps / SRE Engineer @ OSL

Python 3, GitLab CI/CD, Terraform, Terragrunt, Amazon EC2, ECS, NGINX...

Experience

DevOps Engineer - 12 years
AWS CloudFormation - 8 years
Python 3 - 8 years
Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 8 years
Boto 3 - 7 years
AWS Lambda - 7 years
Terraform - 6 years
AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) - 5 years

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

PyCharm, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Slack, Docker, Amazon Web Services (AWS), MacOS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

The most amazing...

...thing I've achieved is becoming one of the top 4% of contributors on Stack Overflow (Stackoverflow.com/users/3153152/raf).

Work Experience

Freelance DevOps Python Engineer

2022 - 2023

Freelance DevOps Python Engineer @ ICE

Advised on the general health of the AWS environment and migration from AWS CDK to Terraform.
Created a Python and Lambda integration between Slack and Jira, enabling pulling custom reports from Jira based on the channel subscribed and the calling user. This resulted in a better ChatOps experience and less work on the scrum master's behalf.
Migrated CI/CD pipelines from CodePipeline and CodeBuild to Concourse CI pipelines. Optimized pipelines for Node.js applications, resulting in deployment time going down from around 25 mins to just under two minutes.

Technologies: Concourse CI, Terraform, Python 3, Pytest, Docker, Boto 3, ECS, AWS Fargate, AWS CodeBuild, DevOps, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Cloud Architecture, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Configuration Management, Linux, Cloud Architecture, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), CI/CD Pipelines, Shell Scripting, SQL, Node.js, Continuous Integration (CI), GitOps, Scripting, Datadog, Containers, Containerization, Software Engineering, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Orchestration, Scalability, AWS CloudTrail, Automation

AWS DevOps Python Engineer

2022 - 2022

Freelance AWS DevOps Python Engineer @ Maplecroft

Helped the global risk intelligence company set up and optimize their new data platform, saving thousands of dollars of AWS costs annually.
Wrote Prefect flows in Python to import data sources, replacing some of the Glue and Athena services, replacing costlier AWS services.
Created Python tools for data/environment migrations and transformations. Promoted Glue, Athena, S3, and DynamoDB data between environments. Improved an integration testing tool, reducing the error rate and increasing deployment cadence.
Maintained and optimized GitLab pipelines. Created a shared library of common pipeline constructs resulting in massive component reuse and reducing lines of code required to create a pipeline.

Technologies: TypeScript, AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM), AWS CloudFormation, AWS Fargate, Amazon DynamoDB, GitLab CI/CD, AWS Lambda, Boto 3, Pydantic, Python 3, AWS Glue, Amazon Athena, Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Docker, Prefect, DevOps, AWS Cloud Architecture, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Configuration Management, Linux, Cloud Architecture, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Networking, Cost Control, CI/CD Pipelines, Shell Scripting, SQL, REST APIs, Amazon RDS, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), GitOps, Scripting, AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK), Containers, Containerization, Software Engineering, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Orchestration, AWS CloudTrail, Automation

DevOps Site Reliability Engineer

2021 - 2022

Freelance DevOps / SRE Engineer @ OSL

Helped Hong Kong's first regulated crypto exchange migrate to a modern architecture, namely Terraform and Terragrunt.
Wrote Terraform modules for deploying common application components, resulting in greater Terraform and Terragrunt adoption over manual processes.
Created build jobs in GitLab CI, enabling migration away from Jenkins and giving greater agility and control to application developers.
Replaced the FTP server and job runner with a custom serverless application written in Python, enabling the company to retire an existing legacy solution.

Technologies: Python 3, GitLab CI/CD, Terraform, Terragrunt, Amazon EC2, ECS, NGINX, AWS Fargate, Docker, Pytest, Ansible, Packer, AWS Lambda, Boto 3, Jenkins, AWS CodeBuild, AWS CodePipeline, DevOps, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Cloud Architecture, Blockchain, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Configuration Management, Linux, Cloud Architecture, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Networking, Cost Control, CI/CD Pipelines, Shell Scripting, SQL, REST APIs, Amazon RDS, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Continuous Integration (CI), GitOps, Scripting, Containers, Containerization, Software Engineering, Load Balancers, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Orchestration, Scalability, AWS CloudTrail, Automation

DevOps and Python AWS Engineer

2021 - 2021

Freelance DevOps /Python AWS Engineer @ Chetwood

Optimized CI/CD pipelines and GitOps processes, allowing an improved cross-environment artifact promotion.
Created back-end Python APIs to drive the credit card journeys, allowing for a timely launch of the bank's product.
Built serverless microservices in Python 3 using SAM, Lambda, API Gateway, and Step Functions, driving credit checks and anti-money laundering processes of the credit card application.

Technologies: Python 3, Amazon DynamoDB, AWS CodeBuild, AWS CodePipeline, AWS CloudFormation, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), AWS Step Functions, AWS Lambda, Docker, Postman, AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM), Pytest, Pydantic, Chalice, GitHub, DevOps, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Cloud Architecture, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Configuration Management, Linux, Cloud Architecture, Networking, Cost Control, CI/CD Pipelines, Shell Scripting, SQL, REST APIs, Flask, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Scripting, Monitoring, Software Engineering, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Orchestration, Scalability, AWS CloudTrail, Automation

DevOps Consultant

2020 - 2021

Freelance DevOps Consultant @ Waracle

Worked for a healthcare client on patient registration and data ingestion systems for clinical trials.
Developed back-end API for a new clinical mobile application in Python 3.7, allowing the clinical trial data to be stored securely in blob storage.
Wrote Azure Function microservices in Python 3 and Node.js. Handled integration tests using Postman and the Django REST framework, resulting in a low cost of running of the platform.

Technologies: Python 3, Django, Azure, Azure Functions, C#, Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Cloudflare, Azure App Service, DevOps, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Configuration Management, Linux, Windows, Cloud Architecture, Azure DevOps, Networking, Cost Control, CI/CD Pipelines, Shell Scripting, SQL, REST APIs, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Continuous Integration (CI), GitOps, Scripting, Monitoring, Containers, Containerization, Software Engineering, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Orchestration, AWS CloudTrail, Automation

DevOps Engineer

2018 - 2020

Freelance DevOps Engineer @ People's Postcode Lottery

Acted in a project with AWS ProServe to create a greenfield data warehouse in Redshift, data ETL using Glue jobs, pandas, and a mix of Jenkins pipelines and Airflow, resulting in a legacy data platform being migrated to AWS.
Assisted the lottery with core DevOps functionality, including a transit gateway and managed backups, image bakery, CI/CD-ification of existing processes, and automating infrastructure deployments, resulting in faster time to market.
Migrated Java and Node.js applications to AWS ECS. Created the underlying infrastructure via AWS CDK, which allowed developers to take fuller ownership of their stacks and accelerate their deployment cadence.

Technologies: AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK), Redshift, AWS Glue, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon EC2, Ansible, ECS, Docker, Jenkins, AWS CloudFormation, AWS Lambda, Bash, Groovy Scripting, Jenkins Job DSL, AWS Transit Gateway, AWS Database Migration Service (DMS), AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM), DevOps, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Cloud Architecture, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Configuration Management, Linux, Cloud Architecture, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Networking, Cost Control, CI/CD Pipelines, Shell Scripting, SQL, REST APIs, Node.js, Amazon RDS, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), PostgreSQL, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Scripting, Monitoring, Containers, Containerization, Software Engineering, Load Balancers, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Orchestration, Scalability, Cloud Migration, AWS CloudTrail, Automation

DevOps Consultant

2018 - 2018

Freelance DevOps consultant @ Skyscanner

Acted as a senior AWS consultant for an SME in the DevOpsGuys team, creating strategy and process to enable a high-velocity data center migration.
Created tooling using Python, Boto3, troposphere, CloudFormation, Sceptre, and Ansible to enable high-velocity data center migrations, allowing less experienced team members to migrate services quickly.
Integrated existing CI/CD, including TeamCity and Octopus Deploy pipelines with AWS services, helping Skyscanner close data centers before meeting a deadline.

Technologies: Python, Troposphere, AWS CloudFormation, Ansible, TeamCity, Windows PowerShell, C#, AWS Server Migration Service (SMS), DevOps, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Cloud Architecture, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Configuration Management, Linux, Windows, Cloud Architecture, Networking, Cost Control, CI/CD Pipelines, Shell Scripting, SQL, REST APIs, Amazon RDS, eCommerce, Microsoft Servers, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Scripting, Monitoring, Windows Server, Software Engineering, Load Balancers, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Orchestration, Scalability, Cloud Migration, AWS CloudTrail, Automation

Lead Cloud Engineer

2017 - 2018

Tesco Bank

Built core AWS infrastructure, governance, and compliance tooling, including AWS Config rules, allowing the bank to move workload safely to the cloud.
Created AWS tooling from Ansible cloud modules to Ansible wrapping troposphere and Cloudformation, allowing other engineers to reuse common components.
Developed AWS Config and Lambda integrations, including Python and Boto3, for automatic compliance enforcement, allowing the bank to maintain a defined security posture.

Technologies: Python, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Direct Connect (DC), Ansible, Troposphere, DevOps, AWS Cloud Architecture, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Configuration Management, Linux, Windows, Cloud Architecture, Networking, CI/CD Pipelines, Shell Scripting, SQL, Microsoft Servers, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Continuous Integration (CI), Monitoring, Load Balancers, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Orchestration, Cloud Migration, AWS CloudTrail, Automation

Cloud Systems Engineer and Cloud Architect

2014 - 2017

Cloudreach

Worked on cloud projects for multiple leading brands and enterprises, enabling them to move workloads to AWS or, rarely, Azure.
Helped River Island take its first steps into the cloud using Chef to automate deployments of some of their applications into AWS.
Assisted Penguin Random House in migrating workloads from existing data centers into AWS, vastly slashing costs.

Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Chef, Azure, DevOps, AWS Cloud Architecture, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Configuration Management, Linux, Windows, Cloud Architecture, Azure DevOps, Networking, Cost Control, Shell Scripting, SQL, REST APIs, Flask, Amazon RDS, eCommerce, Microsoft Servers, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), PostgreSQL, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Scripting, Ruby, Microsoft SQL Server, Datadog, Monitoring, Windows Server, Containers, Containerization, Software Engineering, Load Balancers, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Orchestration, Scalability, Cloud Migration, AWS CloudTrail, Automation

Experience

Moto | Open-source AWS Mocking Library

https://github.com/getmoto/moto

Moto is a library that allows your tests to mock AWS easily. Anyone who coded in Boto3, the leading Python AWS SDK, and added tests will know Moto. I was a Python developer who contributed to the project by adding features and fixing bugs for ECS, Glue, DynamoDB, EC2, and more.

A list of contributions can be found at: https://github.com/getmoto/moto/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed+author%3Arafcio19.

Python-semantic-release | Open-source Semantic Versioning Library

https://github.com/python-semantic-release/python-semantic-release

I was a Python developer who added a couple of features allowing python-semantic-release to operate on git tags exclusively, without the need for a local config file.

https://github.com/python-semantic-release/python-semantic-release/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed+author%3Arafcio19

Education

2001 - 2005

Certificate of Higher Education in Computer Science

University of Edinburgh - Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Certifications

APRIL 2020 - APRIL 2023

AWS Certified Database - Specialty

AWS

FEBRUARY 2018 - APRIL 2024

AWS Certified Security - Specialty

AWS

JANUARY 2018 - JANUARY 2021

AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty

AWS

JANUARY 2017 - MARCH 2020

AWS Certified Big Data - Specialty

AWS

JUNE 2016 - APRIL 2024

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional

Amazon Web Services Training and Certification

AUGUST 2015 - OCTOBER 2024

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional

AWS

JUNE 2015 - PRESENT

Microsoft Certified Professional - Architecting Azure Solutions

Microsoft

MAY 2011 - PRESENT

VMWare VCP

VMWare

Skills

Libraries/APIs

REST APIs, Pandas, Pydantic, Terragrunt, Jenkins Job DSL, Node.js

Tools

AWS IAM, AWS CLI, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, Boto 3, AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK), Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), AWS Glue, GitLab CI/CD, Jenkins, Pytest, AWS Fargate, VMware, Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), AWS CloudTrail, Concourse CI, Amazon Athena, Amazon CloudWatch, Prefect, NGINX, Ansible, Packer, AWS CodeBuild, AWS Step Functions, Postman, GitHub, Azure App Service, TeamCity, PyCharm, Slack, Chef

Languages

Python 3, Python, Bash, SQL, TypeScript, C#, Ruby

Paradigms

DevOps, Continuous Integration (CI), Automation, Serverless Architecture, Continuous Delivery (CD), Azure DevOps

Platforms

Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Lambda, Linux, Windows, Azure, Docker, Amazon EC2, Windows Server, Azure Functions, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), MacOS, Blockchain, Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Storage

Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon DynamoDB, Redshift, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Datadog

Frameworks

AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM), Chalice, Django, Windows PowerShell, Flask

Other

DevOps Engineer, AWS Cloud Architecture, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Configuration Management, Cloud Architecture, CI/CD Pipelines, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, AWS Certified Solution Architect, Scripting, Containers, Containerization, Software Engineering, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Orchestration, Cloud Migration, Relational Database Services (RDS), Security, AWS Transit Gateway, Big Data, ECS, Networking, Cost Control, Shell Scripting, Amazon RDS, Microsoft Servers, GitOps, Monitoring, Load Balancers, Scalability, Networks, AWS VPN, Direct Connect (DC), VMware ESXi, VMware vCenter, IT, AWS CodePipeline, Amazon API Gateway, Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Cloudflare, Groovy Scripting, AWS Database Migration Service (DMS), Troposphere, AWS Server Migration Service (SMS), eCommerce

Collaboration That Works

How to Work with Toptal

Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.

Share your needs

Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.

Choose your talent

Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.

Start your risk-free talent trial

Work with your chosen talent on a trial basis for up to two weeks. Pay only if you decide to hire them.

Top talent is in high demand.

Start hiring