Vishal Patel, Developer in Ottawa, ON, Canada
Vishal is available for hire
Hire Vishal

Vishal Patel

Verified Expert  in Engineering

DevOps Engineer and Software Developer

Ottawa, ON, Canada

Toptal member since May 6, 2022

Bio

Vishal is a DevOps and Kubernetes architect with over four years of experience designing, implementing, and managing production-ready Kubernetes infrastructure and its cloud-native tools in hybrid environments. He has worked on setting up Infrastructure as code and CI/CD process baselines and helped in organization-wide adaptation.

Portfolio

Self-employed (Project Based)
Kubernetes, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Terraform, DevOps, Azure...
Microsoft Professional Service (via a Consulting Company)
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure DevOps, Terraform, Azure Blobs, Azure...
Priceline - GCP
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Kubernetes...

Experience

  • Continuous Delivery (CD) - 5 years
  • Kubernetes - 4 years
  • Terraform - 4 years
  • DevOps - 4 years
  • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) - 4 years
  • Azure - 4 years
  • Docker - 4 years
  • Argo CD - 4 years

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Kubernetes, Linux, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), Docker, Azure, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

The most amazing...

...achievement I’ve had is learning new DevOps tools and Kubernetes-related concepts, achieving all three certifications of Kubernetes in a short period.

Work Experience

Senior Consultant/Lead | DevOps | SRE | Kubernetes Cloud Architect

2019 - PRESENT
Self-employed (Project Based)
  • Handled the managed cloud and Kubernetes on-prem infrastructure. Acted as a Kubernetes architect and trainer. Trained the Linux administrator team for Kubernetes and OpenShift applications and managed the container infra, including lifecycle.
  • Worked in the government sector. Automated an on-premise Kubernetes infrastructure using a Terraform/Crossplane framework and GitLab pipeline. Architected an AKS using IaC practices per the enterprise's landing zone practices.
  • Introduced DevOps practices to developers by creating a knowledge base and setting up a local environment with Docker, Kubernetes, and Kind. Tools like Kaniko and Skaffold helped streamline development, allowing developers to focus on coding and release often.
  • Led the design and architecture of landing zones in GCP Azure for sectors. Established a flexible infrastructure setup for single and multi-tenant environments, ensuring compliance with frameworks like NIST 800-53.
  • Implemented protected B landing zones in the cloud, customizing them to meet team needs. Developed Terraform modules for networking, security, and infrastructure and led sessions on automating infra while integrating metrics, scaling, alerts, and backup.
  • Played a hands-on role in migrating workloads across cross-cloud by creating detailed migration checklists and automating the process. Helped development teams containerize and move legacy applications.
  • Built and managed ArgoCD in a pull-based GitOps setup, ensuring reliable deployments across multiple clusters. Tweaked sync settings, automated rollback strategies, and fine-tuned application sets for better efficiency.
  • Worked with GitHub Actions to complement ArgoCD, setting up deployment gates and approval workflows. Focused on security and compliance while maintaining a smooth CI/CD process.
  • Designed and implemented progressive deployment strategies using Tekton and Argo Rollouts. Set up canary and blue-green releases to reduce risk and improve rollback mechanisms.
  • Streamlined GitOps workflows by leveraging Kargo for automated promotion across environments. Easy interface to view all details on a single dashboard.
Technologies: Kubernetes, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Terraform, DevOps, Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Docker, Linux, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Solution Architecture, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Containers, Python, Kubernetes Operations (kOps), Infrastructure, Linux Administration, Bash, New Relic, Amazon EKS, CI/CD Pipelines, Vulnerability Management, Vulnerability Identification, Cloud, Cloud Computing, AWS IAM, Microsoft Azure, DevSecOps, Sentinel, Scripting, Helm, Git, Cloud Infrastructure, YAML, Pipelines, Azure DevOps, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS DevOps, Amazon EC2, Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR), Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), SonarQube, Technical Hiring, Task Analysis, Source Code Review, Interviewing, Security, APIs, High-availability Systems, Systemd, Back-end, VPN, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), AWS CloudFormation, Load Balancers, GitLab CI/CD, Jenkins, Kibana, Vagrant, Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Azure API Management, API Management, DigitalOcean, DevOps Engineer, Cloudflare, Containerization, Continuous Integration (CI), GitLab, Architecture, Markdown, OAuth 2, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon API Gateway, Site Reliability, GitOps, Flux, OpenStack, Hypervisors, Continuous Delivery (CD), Networking, Grafana, Terragrunt, Apache Kafka, Apache, Ubuntu, Management, GitHub, Jira, Team Leadership, HashiCorp, Cloud Security, IT Support, Kubernetes HorizontalPodAutoscaler (HPA), Prometheus, GitHub Actions, Splunk, Linux Server Administration, Ansible, Microservices, Service Meshes, DNS Debugging, Istio, OpenShift, Microservices Architecture, ELK (Elastic Stack), Shell Scripting, Azure Virtual Networks, Azure Blobs, Azure Key Vault, Docker Compose, Azure Network Security Groups, Confluence, Artifactory, Cost Reduction & Optimization (Cost-down), CircleCI, ECS, Kong, High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR), Scalability, Continuous Development (CD), Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), DDoS, HSM, Elasticsearch, Orchestration, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Windows PowerShell, Argo CD, Crossplane

Senior Consultant

2022 - 2023
Microsoft Professional Service (via a Consulting Company)
  • Recommended best practices for cloud service integration multi-region deployments (Terraform, Azure ARM, Bicep).
  • Evaluated client requirements for a container-based architecture and architecture-designed landing zones using Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure Red Hat OpenShift solutions. Also helped with cloud migration from AWS to Azure or GCP to Azure when necessary.
  • Delivered security awareness sessions for cloud services and cloud-native tools. Provided a plan of action to implement.
  • Showcased how to containerize legacy applications with modern frameworks and microservices benefits. Promoted blue-green/canary deployments.
  • Automated Kubernetes upgrades and enhanced observability through logging and monitoring data.
  • Partnered with stakeholders to build effective teams based on skill sets and business needs. Worked with the client for team formation and aligned day two operations based on organization process and procedure.
  • Architected infrastructure automation with Crossplane and Azure Service Operator, allowing Kubernetes-native management of Azure resources. Created reusable modules to simplify provisioning and scaling.
Technologies: Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure DevOps, Terraform, Azure Blobs, Azure, Azure PaaS, Azure AI Studio, Terragrunt, Apache Airflow, Crossplane

Google Cloud Platform Engineer

2022 - 2022
Priceline - GCP
  • Wrote Python script to generate a multi-cluster manifest of Cloudability and New Relic and encrypted secrets using sops.
  • Investigated and debugged pod and node scaling, pod disruption, and budget-related issues to minimize business impact from unavailable applications when performing lifecycle management of GKE or related cloud-native tools.
  • Enabled webhook admission controller to forcefully apply and mutate limits to manifest new workloads, including renewing certificate pairs. Suggested patterns to automate this process by using a cert-manager.
Technologies: Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Kubernetes, Continuous Integration (CI), GitLab, Architecture, Markdown, OAuth 2, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon API Gateway, Site Reliability, GitOps, Flux, OpenStack, Hypervisors, Continuous Delivery (CD), Networking, Grafana, Terragrunt, Apache Kafka, Apache, Ubuntu, Management, GitHub, Jira, Team Leadership, HashiCorp, Cloud Security, Splunk, Linux Server Administration, Ansible, Microservices, Service Meshes, Istio, OpenShift, Microservices Architecture, ELK (Elastic Stack), Shell Scripting, Azure Virtual Networks, Azure Blobs, Azure Key Vault, Docker Compose, Azure Network Security Groups, Datadog, Confluence, Artifactory, Cost Reduction & Optimization (Cost-down), CircleCI

Experience

Kubernetes Infrastructure on Premises | Cloud Agnostic Bare-metal

Designed RKE. A Kubernetes-based infrastructure and cloud-native tools can run on any cloud provider, virtual machines, and Bare-metal using Terraform's IaC pipelines.

It can also be deployed in the air gap zone when the container images are imported to the registry successfully.

Education

2015 - 2016

Master’s Degree in Electrical and Computer

Carleton University - Ottawa, Canada

Certifications

MARCH 2022 - MARCH 2024

Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist

The Linux Foundation

FEBRUARY 2021 - PRESENT

AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies

Microsoft

FEBRUARY 2021 - FEBRUARY 2023

Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert

Microsoft

NOVEMBER 2020 - NOVEMBER 2024

Aviatrix Certified Engineer Multicloud Network Associate

Aviatrix

SEPTEMBER 2020 - SEPTEMBER 2023

Certified Kubernetes Application Developer

The Linux Foundations

SEPTEMBER 2020 - SEPTEMBER 2023

Certified Kubernetes Administrator

The Linux Foundations

Skills

Libraries/APIs

Azure API Management, Terragrunt

Tools

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Helm, Grafana, Apache, Terraform, Git, Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR), Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), GitLab CI/CD, Jenkins, Vagrant, GitLab, GitHub, Jira, HashiCorp, Kubernetes HorizontalPodAutoscaler (HPA), Splunk, Ansible, Istio, ELK (Elastic Stack), Azure Key Vault, Docker Compose, Azure Network Security Groups, Confluence, Artifactory, Amazon EKS, AWS IAM, Sentinel, SonarQube, Systemd, VPN, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), AWS CloudFormation, Kibana, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), CircleCI, Kong, Apache Airflow

Paradigms

DevOps, Azure DevOps, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Management, Microservices, Microservices Architecture, DevSecOps, Continuous Development (CD), DDoS

Platforms

Kubernetes, Docker, Amazon Web Services (AWS), DigitalOcean, Ubuntu, OpenShift, Linux, Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Rancher, New Relic, Amazon EC2, OpenStack, Apache Kafka, Azure PaaS, Azure AI Studio

Languages

Python, YAML, Markdown, Bash

Frameworks

Flux, Windows PowerShell, Crossplane, OAuth 2

Storage

Azure Blobs, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Datadog, Elasticsearch

Other

Task Analysis, High-availability Systems, DevOps Engineer, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Solution Architecture, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Containers, Infrastructure, CI/CD Pipelines, Cloud, Cloud Computing, Microsoft Azure, Scripting, Cloud Infrastructure, Pipelines, Technical Hiring, Source Code Review, Interviewing, Security, APIs, Back-end, Load Balancers, Azure Resource Manager (ARM), API Management, Cloudflare, Containerization, Amazon API Gateway, Site Reliability, GitOps, Cloud Security, IT Support, Prometheus, GitHub Actions, Service Meshes, DNS Debugging, Shell Scripting, Azure Virtual Networks, Cost Reduction & Optimization (Cost-down), ECS, Scalability, Orchestration, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Argo CD, Flux CD, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), Virtualization, Kubernetes Operations (kOps), Linux Administration, Vulnerability Management, Vulnerability Identification, AWS DevOps, Architecture, Hypervisors, Networking, Team Leadership, Linux Server Administration, High Availability Disaster Recovery (HADR), Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), HSM, Aviatrix

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.

1

Share your needs

Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.
2

Choose your talent

Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.
3

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