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Joel Merrick

DevOps Engineer / Cloud Architect

An accomplished, professional Systems Administrator with extensive experience covering all aspects of server builds and maintenance, security, DevOps, Machine Learning/AI and architecture. Industry sector experience includes Telecommunications, ISP, Hardware and Software Consultancy, Pharmaceutical, Service Provision and Public Sector.

Contact Information

Professional Experience

Senior Platform Engineer | Origami Energy

October 2023 – Present

  • Provided support to squads by delivering a robust platform for developers
  • Migrated Kubernetes clusters and infrastructure from kops to EKS
  • Utilized cdktf with TypeScript to manage Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
  • Developed and maintained applications using Java and Spring Boot
  • Designed and optimized GitLab CI/CD pipelines
  • Managed OpenSearch and Kafka (via Confluent Cloud)
  • Acted as Technical Authority for IdP replacement, transitioning from Keycloak to Zitadel

Site Reliability Engineer | The Sporting News

Jan 2023 – Sep 2023

  • Created Jenkins pipelines and GitHub Actions for CI/CD process management
  • Managed EKS and Cloudflare at ingress using Terraform
  • Deployed ECS clusters using Terraform
  • Migrated from Drupal PHP to Django Python
  • Setup security scanning for code repositories
  • Maintained and improved PostgreSQL Clusters for fault tolerance

DevOps Engineer | Clinigen

Dec 2021 - Aug 2022

  • Led SVN to Git migration, creating comprehensive training documentation
  • Built CI/CD system based on Jenkins on AWS
  • Implemented deployment hooks integrating Jenkins pipeline with EBS
  • Created Prometheus monitoring backend with Grafana dashboards
  • Built Vagrant-based Oracle EBS setup for developer testing
  • Developed ETL system using Apache Airflow

Senior DevOps Engineer | Sky UK

Oct 2020 - May 2021

  • Deployed Video on Demand architecture from US to EU
  • Managed multiple AWS environments using Terraform and Puppet
  • Built Cloudwatch scrapers for Prometheus integration
  • Created visibility dashboards in Grafana
  • Improved security through encrypted AMIs and enhanced logging
  • Implemented CVE scanning and static analysis in pipelines

Cloud Platform Engineer | Datacentred

May 2016 – Oct 2017

  • Managed and maintained a public cloud using OpenStack
  • Part of G-Cloud government initiative
  • Worked with high-profile clients like HMRC
  • Planned and executed OpenStack upgrades
  • Implemented containerization of backend services
  • Managed InfluxDB monitoring solution

Senior System Administrator | BBC

Sept 2011 – Apr 2016

  • Built and maintained R&D cloud platforms using OpenNebula
  • Implemented Ceph-based storage solutions
  • Created automated build pipelines
  • Managed configuration using Puppet
  • Developed system management tools and APIs
  • Spoke at conferences including OpenNebula Berlin

Technical Skills

Infrastructure & Cloud

  • Virtualization/Cloud: KVM, VMware vSphere, Docker, Kubernetes, OpenStack, OpenNebula, OpenShift, AWS, GCP, Azure
  • Container Management: Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, K3S, OpenShift, Rancher, RKE
  • Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, Puppet, Ansible, CloudFormation

Development & CI/CD

  • Languages: Python (10+ years), Ruby (14+ years), Bash (17+ years), TypeScript, Java
  • CI/CD Tools: Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD
  • Monitoring: Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, Datadog

Database & Storage

  • Databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB
  • Message Queues: Kafka, RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ
  • Storage: Ceph, S3, EBS, GCS

Public Speaking

  • Invited Speaker at OpenNebula Conference, Berlin
  • "Adventures In Research" Watch Presentation

Languages

  • English (Native)
  • French (GCSE - A*)
  • Spanish (GCSE - A)

Expertise Duration

  • AWS (9+ years)
  • Azure (3+ years)
  • GCP (6+ years)
  • Cloud Configuration Management (12+ years)
  • DevOps (12+ years)
  • Infrastructure as Code (7+ years)
  • Kubernetes (6+ years)
  • Linux (20+ years)
  • Storage (15+ years)
  • Virtualisation (15+ years)