Summary
Seasoned infrastructure engineer and technical leader with 8+ years of experience leading large-scale infrastructure initiatives in cloud-native environments. Justin specializes in AWS, Kubernetes, GitOps, infrastructure-as-code, reliability engineering, and cloud governance, with a strong record of improving uptime, reducing spend, and enabling teams with reusable platform patterns.
Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Justin currently serves as Senior Infrastructure Engineer at HeroDevs. Public LinkedIn profile data currently shows 900 followers and 500+ connections.
Core Strengths:
- AWS platform architecture & multi-account governance
- Kubernetes (EKS) operations, scaling, and security
- GitOps (Argo CD / Flux CD) and CI/CD automation
- OpenTofu / Terraform / Terragrunt infrastructure-as-code
- Reliability engineering, observability, and incident response
- FinOps and cost optimization (rightsizing, spot, savings plans)
- Cloud security, policy-as-code, IAM/RBAC, least privilege
- Technical leadership, mentoring, and stakeholder communication
Work History
HeroDevs
Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Own platform reliability and delivery across a multi-cluster EKS environment, using GitOps, policy-as-code, and observability to keep customer-facing systems stable and secure. Built reusable CI/CD and IaC patterns (OpenTofu/Terraform/Terragrunt + GitHub Actions) that improved delivery consistency, reduced drift, and accelerated engineering workflows.
Drove measurable cost and resiliency outcomes, including major EC2/EKS and RDS savings, improved scheduling efficiency via Karpenter/Spot, and stronger disaster recovery posture across critical workloads.
UPMC Enterprises
Lead Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
Led cloud strategy and delivery across 80+ AWS accounts and 25+ incubated products, managing a small engineering team supporting healthcare IT and AI startup initiatives. Partnered closely with stakeholders on solution design, feasibility, and risk/cost analysis to move projects from concept through production.
Implemented organization-wide governance controls and supported data/ML platform initiatives, including de-identification pipelines and SageMaker/MLflow operationalization.
UPMC Enterprises
Senior Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
Architected the migration from on-prem infrastructure to AWS and helped establish scalable, secure cloud foundations for enterprise healthcare products. Served as a Terraform/IaC subject matter lead and advanced GitOps/Kubernetes delivery patterns that significantly improved deployment speed and operational consistency.
Led multiple reliability, security, and cost optimization initiatives, including autoscaling modernization, DR improvements, and savings programs that reduced cloud spend while strengthening compliance posture.
FedEx Services
Software Engineer
Developed and maintained Java/Spring Boot applications deployed to Android-based field environments. This role strengthened production engineering fundamentals across backend services, CI pipelines, and operational support in a high-scale enterprise context.
Education
Robert Morris University
Master of Science · Organizational Leadership
Pittsburgh, PA
Robert Morris University
Graduate Certificate · Leadership and Organizational Change
Pittsburgh, PA
Pennsylvania State University
Bachelor of Science · Computer Engineering
Erie, PA
Certifications
AWS
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional - Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Issued Sep 2024 · Expires Sep 2027)
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate - Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Issued Jan 2023 · Expires Sep 2027)
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate - Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Issued Feb 2024 · Expires Feb 2027)
AWS Certified AI Practitioner - Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Issued Aug 2025 · Expires Aug 2028)
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Issued Dec 2021 · Expires Sep 2027)
Infrastructure & Kubernetes
HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate (002) - HashiCorp (Issued Jan 2023 · Expires Jan 2025)
KCNA: Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate - The Linux Foundation (Issued Feb 2023 · Expires Feb 2026)
Technical Skills
Cloud & Platform Engineering
AWS, Kubernetes (EKS), Docker, Platform Engineering, Solutions Architecture, Multi-Region Architecture, Disaster Recovery (RPO/RTO), Cloud Networking & VPNs
Infrastructure as Code & Automation
OpenTofu, Terraform, Terragrunt, AWS CDK, Ansible, Bash, Python
GitOps & Deployments
Argo CD, Flux CD, Helm, Kustomize, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD
Observability & Reliability
Prometheus, Grafana, AlertManager, Blackbox Exporter, Monitoring & Alerting, SLA/SLO Design, Incident Response
Security & Governance
IAM, Least Privilege Design, IRSA, Policy-as-Code (Kyverno), Compliance & Governance Controls, Microsoft Entra ID
Data & Persistence
PostgreSQL, MySQL, AWS RDS, Backup & Recovery Strategies
