Vetted Infrastructure as Code Professionals

Kaustubh Rai

Screened ReferencesStrong rec.

Mid-level Software Engineer specializing in distributed systems and cloud-native microservices

PA, USA2y exp

“Software engineer with ~2 years at UnitedHealth Group plus CMU coursework/TA experience, spanning backend modernization and cloud-native operations. Worked on migrating a customized open-source EDI system from Python 2 to Python 3 while improving SQLite database traceability via JSON exports, and has hands-on Kubernetes microservices deployment on Azure using Helm, HPA, and Jenkins-based Git-triggered CI/CD. Also built a large-scale real-time ride-hailing simulation using Kafka + Samza with explicit fault-tolerance strategies.”

Andrew Fares

Screened ReferencesStrong rec.

Mid-level Data Engineer specializing in AI, GenAI, and cloud data platforms

Seattle, WA4y exp

“Built production AI systems inside AWS finance/procurement, including an LLM-based supplier quote classification and price-vetting workflow that drove $5M in savings over 3 months. Combines GenAI evaluation expertise, internal platform design, and reusable Python data-quality tooling with strong cross-functional execution across finance, accounting, and hardware engineering.”

“Backend/data engineer focused on production ML/LLM systems: built a real-time FastAPI inference API on Kubernetes with strong reliability patterns (timeouts, idempotent retries, centralized error handling). Delivered AWS platforms using EKS + Lambda with GitHub Actions/Helm CI/CD and built Glue-based ETL from S3/Kafka into Snowflake with schema evolution and data-quality controls; also modernized legacy analytics/recommendation workflows into Python services with safe, feature-flagged cutovers.”

“Engineering leader (12+ years Director, 17 years lead) focused on developer productivity and platform/framework work across Oracle, PlayStation, Workday, and CafePress. Notable for building distributed teams from scratch and delivering high-impact platform architecture—e.g., re-architected PlayStation’s upload pipeline to support 500GB–5TB submissions using browser-to-AWS chunked uploads with SNS/SQS and deduplication/resume support.”

“Engineering leader (Sr Director/VP) with healthcare marketplace and e-commerce/art marketplace experience who has shipped AI-driven pricing, scaled engineering teams rapidly, and navigated messy legacy integrations. Currently doing fractional tech advisory, leading a migration from self-hosted infrastructure to Google Cloud using IaC while mentoring a junior developer and modernizing security/patching posture.”

“Founder/idea lead behind InvantX, an AI-powered product helping people make better decisions with their own data. Developed the business model canvas and MVP plan, set up an early customer feedback loop, and iterates roadmap/architecture based on beta-user learning. Has participated in accelerators including FinAccelerate, Pegasus, and an NVIDIA program (AWS credits), and applies a metrics-driven, structured approach to traction building.”

Nagsen Dahat

Screened

Executive engineering leader specializing in FinTech platforms and cloud-native systems

New York, NY18y exp

“Motivated by the desire to work independently after spending significant time working for others. Demonstrated notable discipline and follow-through by completing a Master's program with great grades while managing a full-time job, family with two children, and a social life.”

“Engineering leader (Director of Development) with hands-on cloud and product experience who builds business-aligned technology roadmaps and scales teams. Delivered an enterprise cloud-migration enabler at UHG by implementing AD authentication and Terraform-based IaC for custom VM images while meeting 90-day InfoSec patch/rotation requirements, and drove a 20% lift in user consumption/retention by designing an interactive branded media portal experience for Sunkist.”

“Player-coach engineering leader focused on AWS ML infrastructure and deep learning image delivery: provisioned EKS/Kubernetes for multi-node training and automated image release pipelines (Python + AWS CDK) to cut release time from 2 weeks to 1. Also built customer migration tooling for SageMaker HyperPod and owned a security incident end-to-end, implementing prevention tests and process improvements.”

“Robotics software engineer with hands-on ROS2 experience building an audio conversion node and integrating Whisper LiveKit for streaming speech-to-text in a simulated hostile (outer space) robot environment. Also worked on a 2023 LiDAR + ML vision obstacle-detection project for a hospital-nurse-assistant robot, and has strong large-scale CI/CD deployment experience from AWS (2022–2024) across alpha/pre-prod/prod stages.”

“Engineering leader with experience building point-of-care diagnostics platforms (IoT-connected PCR device delivering results in <15 minutes) and scaling multidisciplinary teams (55+). Has led major data/IoT architecture decisions (multi-cluster Kubernetes with secure routing; Kafka + Gobblin over MQTT) and runs execution with Agile roadmaps tightly aligned to GTM and senior leadership.”

“ML/LLM engineer with Stripe and Adobe experience who productionized a transformer-based Payments Foundation Model for real-time fraud detection at global scale (billions of transactions). Built petabyte-scale ETL/feature pipelines (Spark/EMR, Airflow, dbt, Kafka/Flink) and achieved <100ms multi-region inference (EKS, TorchServe, edge/Lambda, GPU/CPU routing) with strong PCI-DSS/GDPR compliance and explainability (SHAP/LIME), reporting a 64% fraud accuracy improvement.”

“Unity/C# gameplay engineer who has shipped a modular, data-driven combat ability system with strong measurable outcomes (≈80% fewer GC allocations, 15–20% better frame times, 10–12% higher early retention). Also integrated an LLM-driven NPC dialogue/quest hint system with a C#/.NET backend, caching/guardrails, and telemetry-driven iteration, and shipped Photon PUN real-time 4-player co-op plus a shared codebase across Meta Quest VR and iOS/Android.”

“Built and owned end-to-end deployment and AI support workflows spanning CI/CD, Kubernetes, Terraform, and LLM/RAG systems. Stands out for combining DevOps delivery with production AI operations, including secure tool-calling, incident debugging, retrieval quality controls, and validation-first document ingestion for messy real-world inputs.”