Professional Experience

Mark Phillips

Technical Lead - Platform Engineering

Professional Summary

Technical Lead and Platform Engineer with 8 years of specialized experience in platform engineering and cloud infrastructure. Azure-certified professional (AZ-104, AZ-400) with deep expertise in Terraform, CI/CD automation, and leading global engineering teams. Proven track record of delivering elite DORA metrics and building world-class platform capabilities.

Core Competencies

Platform Engineering & Leadership

  • Technical Leadership: Leading global platform engineering teams and driving technical strategy
  • Infrastructure as Code: Expert-level Terraform implementation and module development
  • CI/CD Excellence: Architecting and delivering pipelines achieving elite DORA metrics
  • Platform Services: Building enterprise-grade developer platforms and self-service tooling
  • DevOps Transformation: Implementing DevOps practices at scale across global teams

Azure Cloud Architecture

  • Azure Infrastructure: Expert in Azure Virtual Machines, AKS, Azure DevOps, Application Gateway
  • Azure Services: App Services, Azure Functions, Storage, Networking, Key Vault, Monitor
  • Azure Security: RBAC, Azure AD, managed identities, security center, compliance frameworks
  • Azure Automation: Logic Apps, Automation Accounts, runbooks, ARM templates
  • Cost Optimization: Azure Cost Management, reserved instances, right-sizing strategies

Monitoring & Observability

  • Metrics & Alerting: Prometheus, Grafana, CloudWatch, and DataDog implementations
  • Distributed Tracing: OpenTelemetry, Jaeger, and APM tool integration
  • Log Aggregation: ELK Stack, Loki, and centralized logging solutions
  • SRE Practices: SLO/SLI definition, error budgets, and incident response procedures

Security & Compliance

  • Security Automation: Vulnerability scanning in CI/CD pipelines
  • Identity & Access Management: IAM policies, RBAC, and secret management
  • Compliance: SOC2, GDPR, and security best practices implementation
  • Container Security: Image scanning, runtime security, and policy enforcement

Development & Automation

  • Programming: Python, Go, JavaScript/TypeScript, Bash
  • Infrastructure Testing: Terratest, InSpec, and policy-as-code
  • API Development: RESTful and GraphQL API design and implementation
  • Database Management: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, and DynamoDB

Professional Experience

Technical Lead - Platform Engineering

Global Technology Company | 2017 - Present (8 years)

Leadership & Strategy - Tech Lead of Global Platform Team: Leading distributed engineering team across multiple time zones - Drive technical strategy and architecture decisions for enterprise platform infrastructure - Mentor and develop team members, establishing engineering best practices and standards - Partner with stakeholders to align platform capabilities with business objectives - Foster culture of continuous improvement and innovation across global teams

Elite DORA Metrics Achievement - Achieved Elite DORA Performance: Delivered top-tier DevOps Research and Assessment metrics - Deployment Frequency: Multiple deployments per day with fully automated pipelines - Lead Time for Changes: Sub-1-hour commit-to-production cycle - Change Failure Rate: <5% through comprehensive testing and validation - Time to Restore Service: <1 hour MTTR with automated incident response

Azure Cloud Infrastructure - Architected and deployed enterprise Azure infrastructure serving global user base - Designed and implemented Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) clusters for container orchestration - Built Azure-native CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions - Implemented Infrastructure as Code using Terraform for all Azure resources - Established Azure governance, cost management, and security best practices

CI/CD & Platform Automation - Designed and delivered world-class CI/CD platform enabling rapid, reliable deployments - Implemented comprehensive automation reducing manual operations by 90% - Built self-service platform capabilities empowering development teams - Established GitOps workflows for declarative infrastructure management - Created reusable Terraform modules adopted across multiple teams and projects

Infrastructure as Code Excellence - Terraform Expert: Developed comprehensive Terraform infrastructure covering compute, networking, security - Built modular, reusable Terraform code following best practices and DRY principles - Implemented Terraform Cloud for state management, team collaboration, and policy enforcement - Established testing framework for infrastructure code validation - Created extensive documentation and training materials for Terraform adoption

Observability & Reliability - Implemented comprehensive monitoring using Azure Monitor, Application Insights, Log Analytics - Established SLO/SLI framework for critical services with automated alerting - Built centralized logging infrastructure processing TB+ of logs daily - Developed custom metrics and dashboards for platform health visibility - Achieved 99.9%+ availability across all platform services

Security & Compliance - Integrated security scanning throughout CI/CD pipeline (SAST, DAST, container scanning) - Implemented Azure security best practices including RBAC, managed identities, Key Vault - Established compliance frameworks meeting industry security standards - Automated security controls and policy enforcement using Azure Policy - Regular security audits and vulnerability remediation

Team Development & Culture - Mentored engineers across all levels from junior to senior - Established technical documentation standards and knowledge sharing practices - Led training sessions on Azure, Terraform, CI/CD, and platform engineering - Built collaborative, high-performing team culture focused on excellence - Championed DevOps principles and continuous improvement mindset

Technical Expertise

Microsoft Azure (Primary Platform)

  • Compute: Virtual Machines, VM Scale Sets, AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service), Container Instances
  • Platform Services: App Services, Azure Functions, Logic Apps, Service Fabric
  • Networking: VNets, Application Gateway, Load Balancer, Traffic Manager, Front Door, ExpressRoute
  • Storage: Blob Storage, File Storage, Disk Storage, Data Lake, Archive Storage
  • Databases: Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis Cache
  • DevOps: Azure DevOps (Pipelines, Repos, Boards), Azure Monitor, Application Insights
  • Security: Azure AD, Key Vault, Security Center, Sentinel, RBAC, Managed Identities
  • Management: Resource Manager, Policy, Blueprints, Cost Management, Automation Accounts

Infrastructure as Code (Terraform Expert)

  • Terraform Core: Advanced module development, state management, workspaces, backends
  • Terraform Cloud: Team collaboration, policy enforcement, remote operations, sentinel policies
  • Azure Provider: Comprehensive Azure resource provisioning and management
  • Best Practices: DRY principles, testing, documentation, versioning, CI/CD integration
  • Terraform Modules: Reusable, parameterized modules for standardized infrastructure
  • Testing: Terratest for automated infrastructure testing and validation

CI/CD & DevOps Tools

  • Azure DevOps: YAML pipelines, classic pipelines, release management, artifacts, service connections
  • GitHub Actions: Advanced workflows, custom actions, matrix builds, self-hosted runners
  • GitLab CI: Complex pipeline architectures, DAG pipelines, dynamic child pipelines
  • Jenkins: Pipeline as code (Jenkinsfile), shared libraries, distributed builds, plugins
  • ArgoCD: GitOps, application deployment, sync policies, multi-cluster management

Container & Orchestration

  • Azure Kubernetes Service: Production AKS cluster design and management
  • Kubernetes: Deployments, StatefulSets, DaemonSets, CRDs, operators, admission controllers
  • Docker: Multi-stage builds, image optimization, registry management, security scanning
  • Helm: Chart development, templating, release management, chart repositories
  • Service Mesh: Istio, Linkerd for traffic management, security, observability

Monitoring & Observability

  • Azure Monitor: Metrics, logs, alerts, workbooks, action groups, autoscaling
  • Application Insights: APM, distributed tracing, dependency tracking, live metrics
  • Log Analytics: KQL queries, log aggregation, custom tables, workspace design
  • Prometheus: Custom exporters, federation, long-term storage, PromQL
  • Grafana: Complex dashboards, alerting, data source integration, templating
  • ELK Stack: Logstash pipelines, Elasticsearch optimization, Kibana visualizations

Programming Languages

  • Python: Flask, Django, FastAPI, async programming, data processing
  • Go: CLI development, microservices, concurrent programming
  • JavaScript/TypeScript: Node.js, React, API development
  • Bash/Shell: Advanced scripting, system automation

Databases & Storage

  • Relational: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Aurora, query optimization
  • NoSQL: MongoDB, DynamoDB, Cassandra, Redis
  • Caching: Redis, Memcached, CDN strategies
  • Object Storage: S3, GCS, Azure Blob, lifecycle policies

Security & Compliance

  • Tools: Vault, SOPS, Trivy, Snyk, Checkov, OPA
  • Practices: Zero-trust architecture, least privilege, security scanning, compliance automation
  • Standards: SOC2, GDPR, HIPAA compliance frameworks

Education & Certifications

Professional Certifications

  • Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104)
  • Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ-400)
  • HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate (In Progress)
  • Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) (Planned)

Education

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
University of Technology | 2011 - 2015

Notable Achievements

  • Elite DORA Metrics: Achieved top-tier DevOps Research and Assessment performance across all four key metrics
  • Global Team Leadership: Successfully led distributed platform engineering team across multiple regions
  • 8 Years Platform Experience: Deep expertise built over 8 years specializing in platform engineering
  • CI/CD Excellence: Delivered enterprise-scale CI/CD platform enabling multiple daily deployments
  • Azure Expertise: Comprehensive Azure infrastructure design and implementation using Terraform
  • Cost Optimization: Achieved significant cost savings through Azure optimization and right-sizing
  • Reliability: Maintained 99.9%+ uptime SLA across all platform services
  • Security: Integrated comprehensive security scanning and compliance frameworks
  • Automation: Reduced manual operations by 90% through platform automation
  • Team Development: Mentored multiple engineers to senior and lead positions

Professional Interests

  • Platform engineering and internal developer platforms
  • Cloud-native architecture and Kubernetes
  • GitOps and declarative infrastructure
  • Site reliability engineering (SRE) practices
  • Infrastructure cost optimization
  • Developer experience and productivity
  • Open source contributions

Profile Last Updated: November 2024