Ran Tao
Verified Expert in Engineering
DevOps Engineer and Cloud Developer
Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Toptal member since March 25, 2024
Tao is a senior cloud and DevOps engineer with 12+ years of experience building robust and secure multi-cloud platforms and automation. He has performed cloud-native development in companies like Prudential, Microsoft, and HSBC—improving the stability of multiple projects and achieving an 80% reduction in daily tickets at Prudential. Tao specializes in multi-cloud development, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and Go and has built an MLOps platform to host embedding SaaS offerings.
Portfolio
Experience
- Linux - 12 years
- Cloud - 8 years
- Kubernetes - 8 years
- Azure - 8 years
- DevOps - 8 years
- Python 3 - 6 years
- Terraform - 6 years
- Go - 5 years
Availability
Preferred Environment
Linux, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
The most amazing...
...thing I've built is Jina Embeddings, a SaaS that brings value to users by providing secure, scalable AI for long-context, multi-language embedding services.
Work Experience
Cloud Architect
Jina AI
- Led the infrastructure team in designing and implementing scalable MLOps solutions with multiple cloud platforms—allowing thousands to use embedding services.
- Boosted developer release speed and secured the entire process by designing and building a DevOps platform for the company to bring standard, modern CI/CD processes.
- Reduced daily costs from $200+ to $50 after managing a multi-cloud platform product operation and development.
Senior DevOps Engineer
Prudential Technology
- Designed and implemented secure DevSecOps engineering solutions, including automating pipelines and integrating security tools. Architected and built a Jenkins shared pipeline for multiple projects, which all branches used for automation.
- Improved the stability of multiple projects—reducing daily tickets from 50+ to only 10—by designing and configuring Azure, Aliyun (known as Alibaba Cloud), and GCP infrastructure for computing, network, and security and automating with Terraform.
- Dockerized the application with Istio or Dapr. Maintained Helm charts and the Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
Support Engineer
Microsoft
- Provided solutions and insights to assist clients in migrating or deploying applications and Linux systems to the Azure environment.
- Supported clients in container services like AKS or Azure Container Instances for additional issues, like how to integrate AKS in their CI/CD environment.
- Consulted and collaborated with immediate peers or colleagues worldwide for problem-solving, driving the incident from the technical perspective.
Senior System Engineer
HSBC
- Implemented and engineered in Linux, architecting and deploying solutions based on shareholders or business requests, covering changes, incidents, and problems.
- Delivered high-quality technical Unix provisioning with built-in support, including troubleshooting, configuration, software provision and optimization, and auto deployments.
- Maintained and supported various vendor equipment, including Linux, VCS, VMware, HP, and EMC, and provided technical expertise in resolving complex issues.
Linux System Administrator
IBM
- Supported IBM internal accounts and users, including Australia's largest department store, Myer, for two years. Provided Linux system solutions, including support, troubleshooting, migration, tuning, and optimization.
- Coordinated internal resources to identify and provide solutions to client requests or problems relating to product or application installation or other aspects of IT products and services.
- Handled security administration on a managed system, including implementing and maintaining action solutions. Fixed all security issues and vulnerabilities found or reported.
Experience
Jina Embedding
Certifications
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect
Microsoft
Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
The Linux Foundation
Skills
Tools
Terraform, Shell, Istio, GitHub, Jenkins, Ansible
Paradigms
DevOps, DevSecOps
Platforms
Linux, Kubernetes, Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
Languages
Go, Python 3
Other
Cloud, Linkerd, Prometheus, Monitoring, Cloud Security, IT Security, Security, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Machine Learning Operations (MLOps), VM
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