Chris Bean
As a platform engineer with 10 years of experience designing and building highly scalable systems I can help you build the tools you need to operate securely and reliably in the cloud native era.
Headline Skills
Technical Leadership
I am an accomplished team leader with a proven track record of successfully guiding engineering teams ranging from 3 to 10 members. I offer clear strategic direction while empowering engineers to take initiative and innovate in delivering project plans.
- I am adept at leading junior and senior engineers, cultivating an environment that allows individuals to bring their strengths to a project.
- I am experienced in collaborating with C-suite executives to deliver platforms aligned with product requirements, budgets, and timescales.
AWS
I am a highly skilled AWS developer with a focus on containerisation, serverless, and cost optimisation. I have led several projects and deployments onto AWS, leveraging my substantial experience with the primary AWS services to achieve project goals.
- I have developed several “Control Tower” implementations complete with guardrails to protect the security and compliance of multiple accounts and environments throughout the SDLC without compromising developer experience.
- I have a thorough understanding of AWS products which I have used to save one customer 50% on their monthly AWS bill.
Containerisation and Orchestration
I have substantial experience in leveraging containerisation and orchestration technologies to build platforms that have appropriate controls for user security and reliability, while still prioritising developer experience and product velocity.
- I have worked with kubernetes as a developer, and also developing IBM’s managed kubernetes service itself.
- I have an advanced understanding of the internal workings of docker images and how to leverage that in production software, as highlighted by the Basset open source project.
Previous Roles
Senior Site Reliability Engineer - Network Intelligence
I was responsible for the boundary protection, network automation, and network availability of the IBM Managed Kubernetes service. In this role I evangelised infrastructure as code and policy as code techniques in order to reduce the time required for development and operational decisions.
- Golang, Terraform
- Building network automation security and systems in go
- Designing and implementing multi-stage Terraform architecture
- Improving the reliability of the Kubernetes service through SRE practices
Consultant Engineer
My role comprised several aspects from the design, development, and operation of software to platform engineering on cloud native projects. I developed re-usable automated tools for cross-project use to lower operational burdens while guiding other members of the organisation in leveraging AWS and a DevOps mentality.
- Python, Terraform
- Technical Lead on a cloud native project
- Platform Engineering on cloud native projects
- Evangelist for ‘golden path’ infrastructure
Lead Infrastructure Engineer
I led the development of a cloud based Hardware In Loop simulation software for satellite payload development. I developed CI/CD pipelines for the satellite software and beeApp product while organising discrete siloed teams into one focused product team.
- C++, Java, Terraform
- Led the ‘Hardware in Loop’ and beeApp teams for major releases
- Developed automated deployment of the software platform
- Created general purpose CI pipelines for use across teams
Senior Engineer
Multiple roles on confidential projects. Technical Lead C++/Python project, DevOps Engineer for a Ruby project
Graduate/Junior Engineer
Multiple roles ranging from GPGPU modifications to the IBM Java SDK, to DevOps work on IBM IoT Foundation.
Misc Internships
WebSphere ESB Level 3 Service. Extreme Blue building a prototype for a ‘conversational internet’ using unstructured data.
Projects
Basset
Basset analyses a given docker image for secrets that have accidentally been baked into it during the build process. It is written in rust and designed to run as part of a continuous integration suite.
D&D toolkit
A 'fantasy costco' implementation using websockets. A GM can create a shop, transmit it to player's devices and update it in real time. Written using Python and deployed using a serverless model to AWS.
IoT Gesture Controlled Robotic Arm
Uses a Myo armband to track and transmit positional data of the wearers arm over MQTT to a mosquitto broker. A robotic arm subscribes to the stream and positions itself to match the user. Written using C++ deployed onto an Arduino and linux OS.
Information
Patents
- Lead or co-inventor on 10 patents filed at the US or EU patent office