Chase Farrant's terminal

Coordinated releases

• Worked with management and lead developers to define a unified version number across 27 services, allowing a coordinated release to be deployed with a single version.
• Built deployment orchestration in Python using multithreading. The largest environment spanned 1,000+ EC2 instances, 30+ load balancers, and 20+ Auto Scaling groups. Reduced deployment time from 12 hours to 35 minutes without downtime.

Deployment tooling

• Replaced legacy Ruby deployment tooling with Python for 60+ Docker containers across multiple business units, reducing the deployment code by 96%.
• Standardized the deployment model across services and environments. Added deployments driven by configuration, clearer logging, error handling, and tests.
• Maintained and debugged existing build and deployment scripts, simplified code paths, and added features needed by the engineering teams.

Build and operations infrastructure

• Provisioned EKS clusters with Terraform and used ArgoCD and Helm charts to deploy operational services.
• Moved legacy Jenkins infrastructure onto Kubernetes and managed its configuration as code with Groovy.
• Migrated builds to GitHub Actions. Containerized builds and applications with Docker, and reduced build times for multiple applications.

Client architecture and onboarding

• Built infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines for seven new projects across AWS and Azure.
• Reduced client onboarding from months to days with reusable infrastructure and pipeline templates. Used CloudFormation, CodeBuild, and CodePipeline on AWS, and ARM/Bicep and Azure DevOps templates on Azure.
• Worked with clients and lead developers to design solutions around their requirements, balancing cost, quality, and delivery time.
• Owned infrastructure as code, Dockerfiles, build pipelines, and deployment processes for 15+ clients.

Existing infrastructure and ongoing operations

• Brought a large client's manually created infrastructure into Terraform by first standardizing resources across environments, then importing them into code.
• Refactored and updated Terraform templates for multiple clients.
• Provided ongoing infrastructure support and consulting for four long-term clients. Supported legacy systems while gradually refactoring them to make maintenance easier.
• Wrote Python functions and scripts for infrastructure automation, and served as a primary contact for cloud architecture, CI/CD, and infrastructure troubleshooting.

Account organization and engineering practice

• Documented and rolled out an AWS Organizations structure with multiple accounts, SSO access, and account switching through the CLI.
• Developed a method for managing CloudFormation StackSets across organizational AWS accounts.
• Established shared practices and guidelines for managing infrastructure as code.
• Prepared documentation and architecture diagrams for client handovers so clients could operate and maintain the systems after offboarding.
• Provided technical guidance and feedback to two direct reports on the Cloud Engineering team.

Infrastructure and service delivery

• Reduced setup time for new single-tenant application environments by 95% with CloudFormation templates, while making existing environments easier to maintain.
• Established CloudFormation as the standard for AWS resources, used exports to connect stacks, and brought infrastructure and application changes into the same delivery pipelines.
• Automated CodePipeline setup and maintenance across multiple AWS accounts for 30+ services, with deployment roles scoped to individual services.
• Developed CloudFormation custom resources in Python for Auth0, Cognito, and Okta. The Auth0 tooling managed applications, clients, and scopes through code rather than manual console changes.

Account organization, access, and auditability

• Implemented a multi-account AWS Organizations strategy, planned migration paths, and automated account creation and management through a pipeline.
• Introduced SSO for the AWS console and CLI, using Python to obtain and store temporary credentials.
• Built a shared pipeline for managing IAM users, policies, roles, and KMS keys.
• Developed an Access Provisioner Lambda in Python to grant access to EC2 and RDS instances through Systems Manager commands.
• Centralized CloudTrail and VPC logs across AWS accounts and made them queryable with Athena for audits and investigation.
• Assisted with SOC audit work and AWS Partner certification.

Patching, recovery, and operations

• Automated patching for 100+ Windows and Linux servers without downtime using Systems Manager maintenance windows, patch groups, documents, and patch baselines. Replaced roughly 20 hours of manual patching each month.
• Managed Systems Manager documents through code and deployment pipelines rather than maintaining them individually.
• Implemented AWS Backup and wrote a Python Lambda to email backup summaries.
• Migrated three on-premises applications to AWS and configured customer VPN tunnels.
• Purchased EC2 and RDS reserved instances and monitored utilization.
• Maintained GitLab, TeamCity, Octopus Deploy, TFS, and Auth0, and handled cloud architecture and CI/CD troubleshooting.

Application architecture

• Helped developers design AWS services and standardize a stack built around API Gateway, Lambda, DynamoDB, and SNS/SQS.
• Advised development teams on DynamoDB table design and helped them apply new design practices.

Continuous Integration Engineer

February 2016 – May 2017

• Automated deployments and database migrations for 17 applications across all environments with Ansible Tower. Replaced error-prone manual releases and substantially reduced deployment issues and downtime.
• Maintained Jenkins, Ansible, and AWS delivery tooling, and standardized build and release pipelines with push-button deployments.
• Led the migration of three web applications to AWS, using EC2 instances and load balancers.
• Implemented deployments without downtime using AWS load balancers, EC2 replacement, and instance initialization scripts.
• Used database snapshots to support repeatable SQL migration scripts.
• Wrote a SQL Server script to restore the entire UAT environment from production, saving about two days of manual work per refresh.
• Worked with developers, QA, project managers, and IT to identify recurring delivery problems and resolve them through automation.

Network Administrator

June 2014 – February 2016

• Managed, monitored, and maintained SaaS environments, including deployment and configuration of 20+ in-house applications and web services across QA, UAT, and production.
• Created 30+ SQL jobs for index maintenance, daily backups, and weekly restore testing to improve database reliability and recovery readiness.
• Managed disk and tape backups for virtual servers with Veeam Backup & Replication.
• Implemented PRTG monitoring for 150+ servers and devices, with dashboards for shared and internal use.
• Built an ASP.NET Web Forms intranet application for managing clients.
• Developed a C# application to automate customer data processing.
• Built a C# tool to search and traverse WatchGuard firewall XML configurations for auditing.
• Managed the internal network for 70+ users.
• Set up a company wiki for shared documentation.
• Created a simulated phishing website to assess employee susceptibility.

Endpoint automation

• Wrote 15–20 VBScript installers for application deployment through Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.
• Deployed an SCCM script to remove unwanted applications and malware from 1,200+ PCs.

Servers and store networks

• Helped upgrade three Windows Server 2003 systems to Windows Server 2008 across test and production environments.
• Reorganized a VMware environment containing 120+ virtual machines and reclaimed 30% of previously used resources.
• Reconfigured 20+ Juniper routers for company stores.

Workstation deployment

• Helped upgrade office computers to Windows 7.
• Reduced the number of Windows 7 images from eleven to two, covering x86 and x64 systems.
• Simplified Windows installation through USB deployment using ImageX, Sysprep, and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.
• Deployed printers through Active Directory and Group Policy.

Day-to-day IT support

• Maintained computer systems in Anderson and Fairchild Hall, covering network administration, machine imaging, software and operating system installation, and troubleshooting.
• Wrote scripts, maintained websites, and improved the organization of the network.