Allen Hillman, Developer in Sarasota, FL, United States
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Allen Hillman

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) Developer

Location
Sarasota, FL, United States
Toptal Member Since
September 14, 2020

Allen has extensive experience across the entire development stack from database storage through various middleware implementations and front-end development as needed. He has been managing cloud-based services for many years, including Kubernetes, centralized logging, and event management and storage. Allen is experienced in developing with multiple compiled and scripting languages, including Go, Java, and JavaScript/TypeScript. He also enjoys researching and learning new things.

Software DevelopmentAWS DevOpsJavaSQLPostgreSQLAmazon EKSAmazon Web Services (AWS)KubernetesDevOpsDockerAWS Certificate ManagerInfrastructure as Code (IaC)Java 8LinuxAmazon EC2

Portfolio

Anthem - AI
Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Python, Terraform, DevOps, Site Reliability...
Anthem, Inc.
Amazon EKS, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon Web Services (AWS)...
Potion AI, Inc
DevOps, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Infrastructure as Code (IaC)...

Experience

Linux - 15 yearsAmazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) - 5 yearsSite Reliability Engineering (SRE) - 5 yearsAmazon EC2 - 5 yearsAmazon EKS - 5 yearsKubernetes - 5 yearsAmazon Web Services (AWS) - 5 yearsTerraform - 2 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Linux, TextMate, Git, GoLand, OS X

The most amazing...

...thing I've ever developed is a WebSocket proxy service hosted in Kubernetes to support an Angular-based account management system.

Work Experience

DevOps Engineer

2023 - PRESENT
Anthem - AI
  • Helped develop and maintain Terraform-based infrastructure on Google Cloud Platform, including Kubernetes and automated pipelines in GitLab.
  • Maintained and deployed the Rancher system for Kubernetes cluster management.
  • Assisted with implementing new services and resources as needed to support development groups.
Technologies: Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Python, Terraform, DevOps, Site Reliability, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Kubernetes, Docker, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux Administration, NGINX, AWS DevOps, PostgreSQL, SQL

Solutions Engineer

2021 - 2023
Anthem, Inc.
  • Helped implement a CI/CD pipeline using GitLab in Amazon EKS.
  • Developed infrastructure as code (IaC) to support multiple teams using Terraform and Terragrunt.
  • Assisted in developing a standard set of tools for developers to deploy their applications, including databases, Amazon EKS clusters, authentication services, public and private ingresses, and several other tools needed by the development teams.
Technologies: Amazon EKS, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Certificate Manager, Amazon Route 53, Amazon EC2, DevOps, Docker, AWS CodePipeline, Git, Go, GoLand, IntelliJ IDEA, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Terraform, Software Development, NGINX, AWS DevOps, PostgreSQL, SQL

DevOps Engineer

2022 - 2022
Potion AI, Inc
  • Managed repeatable infrastructure in Terraform on AWS.
  • Managed resource allocation on multiple Kubernetes clusters across multiple environments.
  • Coordinated with the client on continuing and future needs while keeping cloud spending under control.
  • Investigated and evaluated new technologies as required by the client to ease development and deployment.
Technologies: DevOps, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Cloud Infrastructure, Amazon Machine Learning, NGINX, AWS DevOps

Senior Software/DevOps Engineer

2016 - 2020
Clare Controls, LLC.
  • Deployed and managed the Kubernetes installation over several years, adjusting over time to reduce costs.
  • Created and deployed a WebSocket proxy service in Kubernetes for our Angular-based front-end management tool.
  • Designed and developed a reliable event handling process involving RabbitMQ, Kubernetes, and InfluxDB, supporting thousands of home automation hubs worldwide.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Certificate Manager, Amazon Route 53, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Amazon EC2, IntelliJ IDEA, Kubernetes, Java 8, Go, GoLand, Elasticsearch, Amazon EKS, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Jenkins Pipeline, Kibana, Actions on Google, Software Development, Amazon Alexa, AWS DevOps, Java

Master Developer

2014 - 2016
Star2Star Communications, LLC.
  • Managed and did development with the API development team.
  • Enhanced and maintained the public/private RESTful API services developed internally, written in Java using Jersey.
  • Started the initiative to move to microservices deployed in a locally hosted Kubernetes cluster.
Technologies: Java 8, Software Development, Java

WebSocket Proxy for Angular Front End Written in Go

I designed, implemented, and maintained a WebSocket proxy that was hosted in Kubernetes, and provided the secure gateway to services required of our Angular based account management tool.

The proxy:
1) managed logins via Firebase
2) Created, validated and expired sessions for each logged-in user
3) Provided a consistent JSON based request/response structure to support the various services that were interacted with to provide a rich experience in the UI.
4) I created, and made accessible, DB functions to improve performance on queries the UI needed to make to provide summary information to the users.

I continued to provide additional functionality and maintenance after the initial release to production.

Infrastructure as Code Targeting Terraform

Reverse engineered existing AWS resources, including EKS, and networking infrastructure, into Terraform for portability and consistency to allow environment reproduction in different accounts as needed. Added support for simplified deployments to Kubernetes, using Kubernetes controllers supporting external DNS, certificate management, and ingresses. Provided guidance on adding additional components via Terraform or Kubernetes controllers to support developers' ease of use. Provided documented set up and instructions to educate developers on the process being provided.

Languages

SQL, Java, Go, Java 8, Python

Tools

Amazon EKS, GoLand, IntelliJ IDEA, Kibana, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), GitLab CI/CD, Auth0, NGINX, Actions on Google, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Git, Terraform

Paradigms

DevOps

Platforms

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kubernetes, Docker, OS X, Linux, Amazon EC2, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Rancher, Amazon Alexa

Storage

PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch

Other

Software Development, AWS DevOps, Amazon Route 53, AWS Certificate Manager, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Infrastructure as Code (IaC), AWS CodePipeline, Cloud Infrastructure, Amazon Machine Learning, Site Reliability, Linux Administration

Libraries/APIs

Jenkins Pipeline

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