Vimal is available for hire

Vimal Paliwal

Verified Expert in Engineering

DevSecOps Engineer and Software Developer

London, United Kingdom

Toptal member since April 27, 2020

Expertise

AWS DevOps Amazon S3 Terraform DevOps AWS AWS RDS AWS Solutions Amazon API GitHub AWS Lambda AWS IAM Docker Git Jenkins

Bio

Vim is a cloud engineer with 8+ years of experience designing and deploying secure, scalable solutions on AWS using a wide range of DevOps tools for businesses of all sizes. He’s an AWS Community Builder and former AWS Authorized Instructor who has trained over 1,000 professionals. Passionate about sharing knowledge, Vim regularly writes about real-world implementations and best practices. Outside work, he enjoys badminton, yoga, and exploring new cafes and cuisines.

Portfolio

McKinsey & Company

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD Pipelines, Scripting...

Modus Create

Shell, Terraform, Python, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Shell Scripting...

Pricemoov SaaS

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Helm, Kubernetes, Amazon RDS, CircleCI, Docker...

Experience

Terraform - 6 years
DevOps - 6 years
Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 6 years
CI/CD Pipelines - 6 years
Python - 3 years
Docker - 3 years
Shell - 2 years
Kubernetes - 1 year

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Terraform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kubernetes, CI/CD Pipelines, Helm, Bash, Python

The most amazing...

...thing I've done is to independently build a payment portal with a suite of services hosted on AWS and see client payments going through.

Work Experience

Principal Engineer

2022 - PRESENT

McKinsey & Company

Established cloud infrastructure compliant with ISO 27001 on AWS from the ground up for a single-tenant application with multi-region support, demonstrating strong technical expertise in cloud architecture and security implementation.
Developed and implemented infrastructure as code (IaC) practices in Terraform, streamlining the provisioning and management of cloud resources in multiple regions.
Provided technical leadership and mentorship to junior team members upon onboarding and regular training sessions, enabling them to contribute effectively to projects.
Implemented DevSecOps practices by integrating tools such as Checkov, SonarQube, and Trivy.
Led the implementation of foreign data wrapper and migration to Graviton, reducing database cost by around 70%.
Collaborated with cross-functional teams to understand business requirements and align cloud strategies with organizational goals.

Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD Pipelines, Scripting, AWS Key Management Service (KMS), Amazon CloudHSM, Web Application Firewall (WAF), Amazon CloudFront CDN, SFTP, AWS Lambda, Amazon RDS, Docker, DevOps, Amazon EKS, Git, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), AWS Certified Solution Architect, Linux, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Bash, Cloud Infrastructure, AWS DevOps, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), VPC, DevSecOps, APIs, GitHub Actions, Grafana, ISO 27001, Prometheus, GitHub

DevOps Engineer

2020 - 2022

Modus Create

Migrated EKS clusters singlehandedly to the latest available version for stage and production environment with zero downtime.
Wrote shell and Python scripts for GitLab CI/CD to maintain a dynamic development environment.
Carried out a cost analysis and reduced the monthly AWS bill by nearly 40% by introducing Spot instances for the dev environment and downsizing underutilized ElastiCache and Aurora clusters.
Implemented an RDS Proxy with IAM authentication to securely and efficiently manage database connections.
Replaced instance-level IAM roles with pod level using K8s ServiceAccount to achieve least privilege access.
Hardened all EKS nodes by introducing CIS Level 1 AMI.
Automated security patch on EKS nodes every weekend via AWS Systems Manager.
Implemented Prometheus and Grafana for K8s monitoring using Helm charts.
Set up site-to-site VPN connectivity for seamless on-prem connectivity.

Technologies: Shell, Terraform, Python, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Shell Scripting, GitLab CI/CD, Kubernetes, Amazon RDS, Docker, DevOps, Amazon EKS, Git, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), AWS Certified Solution Architect, Linux, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Bash, Cloud Infrastructure, AWS DevOps, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), VPC, DevSecOps, APIs, Grafana, Prometheus, GitHub, GitLab

DevOps Engineer

2020 - 2020

Pricemoov SaaS

Improved the existing CI/CD pipeline to include the deployment of Lambda@Edge function using SLS framework and updated CloudFront with the latest deployed version.
Implemented RabbitMQ broker for Celery workers via Helm Chart.
Separated the Celery worker and Redis container from the back-end app container on K8s.

Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Helm, Kubernetes, Amazon RDS, CircleCI, Docker, DevOps, Amazon EKS, Git, AWS Certified Solution Architect, Linux, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Bash, Cloud Infrastructure, AWS DevOps, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), VPC, GitHub, GitLab

Cloud Lead

2018 - 2020

Coditas

Automated the infrastructure deployment of a centralized logging framework, which includes Kinesis Firehose, S3, SQS, SNS, ELK, API Gateway, and Lambda using Terraform.
Wrote custom RBAC roles for limiting user access to the Kubernetes cluster.
Used Jira to keep track of issues/tasks along with time logging.
Implemented a host monitoring solution using Sensu Core and Grafana.
Automated the code deployment to EC2 instances using Jenkins Pipeline script in combination with AWS CodeDeploy.
Handled the infrastructure and code deployment automation of a serverless application involving S3, CloudFront, Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, and more using Terraform and GitLab CI/CD.

Technologies: Shell, Terraform, Python, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Shell Scripting, Kubernetes, Jenkins, Amazon RDS, CircleCI, Docker, DevOps, Amazon EKS, Git, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), AWS Certified Solution Architect, Linux, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Bash, Cloud Infrastructure, AWS DevOps, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), VPC, Grafana, Prometheus, GitHub, GitLab

Founder

2016 - 2017

Ezstrax

Built a payment gateway surrounded with a suite of services such as invoicing, form creation, or multi-cart options.
Used Terraform to automate the infrastructure and AWS CodeBuild and CodeDeploy for the CI/CD pipeline.
Guided infrastructure to pass its ASV scan in the very first run.

Technologies: Terraform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon RDS, Git, Amazon API Gateway, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Cloud Infrastructure, AWS DevOps, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), VPC, GitHub

Experience

TileServer on AWS

https://github.com/paliwalvimal/tileserver-on-aws

Securely self-host TileServer on AWS using only serverless services like CloudFront, WAF, API Gateway, ECS, EFS, and S3. Perfect for professionals looking for scalable and cost-effective solutions for a self-hosting tile rendering server.

AWS IAM Key Rotator

https://github.com/skildops/aws-iam-key-rotator

This tool is responsible for generating a new IAM access key pair every X days and mails it to the user via SES. It will also delete the existing key pair after a few days of new key generation to allow the user to update the new key wherever required.

Terrablocks

https://github.com/terrablocks

Modular infrastructure blocks written in Terraform. This project contains a few basic infrastructure building blocks required to start most of the projects. I maintain this to make my and others' lives easier.

Secureaws

https://github.com/paliwalvimal/secureaws

A Python application that will scan your AWS account to identify whether basic security services are enabled. If not, the app will help you enable or set them up.
Services covered include:
• CloudTrail
• Config
• Root MFA
• VPC flow logs
• Strong password policy
• Macie
• Guard duty
• S3 SSE encryption
• EBS encryption

Payment Gateway

A Java application helping people and businesses to collect payments online. Payments can be collected via creating an invoice using the portal or by creating interactive forms for users. I was responsible for building the application, hosting it, and keeping it secured.

Education

2014 - 2015

Master's Degree in Computer & Network Security

Middlesex University - London, UK

2011 - 2014

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Applications

MITSOM College - Pune, India

Certifications

JANUARY 2025 - JANUARY 2027

Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist

The Linux Foundation

OCTOBER 2024 - OCTOBER 2027

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional

Amazon Web Services

DECEMBER 2023 - DECEMBER 2026

Certified Kubernetes Administrator

The Linux Foundation

JANUARY 2021 - JULY 2022

AWS Authorized Instructor - Champion

Amazon Web Services

DECEMBER 2019 - DECEMBER 2025

AWS Certified Solution Architect – Professional

Amazon Web Services

FEBRUARY 2019 - FEBRUARY 2025

AWS Certified Security – Specialty

Amazon Web Services

AUGUST 2018 - AUGUST 2024

AWS Certified Developer – Associate

Amazon Web Services

DECEMBER 2017 - DECEMBER 2024

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate

Amazon Web Services

JUNE 2017 - DECEMBER 2025

AWS Certified Solution Architect – Associate

Amazon Web Services

Skills

Tools

Terraform, Amazon EKS, AWS IAM, Jenkins, Shell, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), GitHub, GitLab, Helm, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Amazon CloudWatch, GitLab CI/CD, Git, AWS Key Management Service (KMS), Amazon CloudFront CDN, CircleCI, Grafana, Amazon CloudFront

Paradigms

DevOps, DevSecOps

Platforms

Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Lambda, Kubernetes, Docker, Linux

Storage

Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon EFS

Languages

Bash, Python

Other

CI/CD Pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Cloud Infrastructure, AWS DevOps, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon RDS, AWS Certified Solution Architect, VPC, APIs, GitHub Actions, Shell Scripting, Scripting, Amazon CloudHSM, Web Application Firewall (WAF), SFTP, ISO 27001, Prometheus, Security, AWS WAF, AWS CloudMap

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