Scope

Platform engineering on production DoD ATO’d cloud infrastructure serving internal and tenant development teams. Led platform expansion, security posture improvement, and build performance optimization.

Systems Influenced

AWS Image Builder Pipeline

  • Migrated AMI builds from local Packer/Ansible execution to AWS Image Builder
  • Integrated automated OSCAP security scanning and remediation
  • Impact: Build time reduced from 40 minutes to 5 minutes (87.5% improvement)

Container Build Tooling

  • Led migration from Kaniko to Buildah for rootless container builds
  • Solved multi-stage and resource-intensive mono-repo build issues
  • Maintained security posture while improving build reliability

Platform Technology Stack Support

  • Expanded platform to support Java (Maven), C# .NET, and PHP
  • Enabled broader tenant adoption across diverse technology stacks
  • Increased platform value through multi-language workload support

Security Scanning

  • Modernized dependency scanning with SBOM-based tooling
  • Replaced legacy scanning methods
  • Improved vulnerability detection accuracy

Architectural Decisions

Build Performance Architecture

  • Decision: Migrate from local tool execution to AWS Image Builder
  • Rationale: Eliminate local tooling dependencies, integrate native AWS security scanning, reduce build time
  • Outcome: 87.5% faster builds, automated security compliance

Rootless Container Builds

  • Decision: Migrate to Buildah from Kaniko
  • Rationale: Rootless execution, better multi-stage support, solve mono-repo resource constraints
  • Outcome: Maintained security posture, improved build reliability

Multi-Language Platform Support

  • Decision: Expand beyond initial language support to Java, C#, PHP
  • Rationale: Enable broader tenant adoption, increase platform utility
  • Outcome: Platform serves diverse workload types without custom infrastructure per language

Measurable Outcomes

  • 87.5% build time reduction (40min → 5min for AMI builds)
  • 3 new language stacks enabled (Java, C#, PHP)
  • Automated security scanning integrated into build pipelines
  • Tenant self-service pipeline for external image approval
  • Zero security regressions during tooling migrations

Key Technologies

AWS Image Builder, Buildah, Kaniko, OSCAP, SBOM scanning, GitLab CI, Kubernetes, ALB, SES