Building systems that areScalable by Design.Secure by Default.Built to Last.
10+ years building and securing the platforms businesses run on.
Building Reliable, Secure Systems
Over a decade of cloud infrastructure, security engineering, and automation — from datacenter racks to Kubernetes at scale.
I'm a senior infrastructure and security engineer with over ten years of experience building, securing, and scaling platforms for modern businesses. My expertise covers the full spectrum of cloud operations, from provisioning bare-metal servers in data centers to designing cloud-native production workloads.
Throughout my career, from Systems Administrator to Director of IT, my focus has remained consistent: building reliable, secure systems and automating processes wherever possible. I have developed modular, reusable infrastructure components that enable rapid deployment and reduce costs. I achieved ISO 27001 certification on the first audit with zero non-conformities, reduced incidents by 60%, shortened detection times to under two hours, and implemented AI-powered tools that automated manual business processes, delivering results in minutes.
I apply the same dedication to building side projects and SaaS products as I do to enterprise infrastructure. Outside of work, I enjoy basketball, hiking, and planning new travel adventures.
What I Bring to the Table
Deep, hands-on expertise across the full stack of cloud infrastructure, security, and automation.
Cloud Infrastructure & Platform Engineering
Design, build, and operate production cloud environments across AWS, GCP, and Azure. Deep expertise in EC2, ECS, EKS, RDS/Aurora, S3, Lambda, VPC networking, CloudFront, and multi-cloud architectures. Proven track record managing 200+ microservice platforms at 99.99% uptime while reducing costs 25-30% through rightsizing, migration strategies, and capacity planning.
Security Engineering & Compliance
End-to-end security program ownership — from building security programs from the ground up to hardening mature environments. Hands-on with Splunk SIEM, CrowdStrike EDR, vulnerability management (Semgrep, Trivy, Snyk, Prowler), threat modeling (STRIDE), incident response, and detection engineering. Delivered ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, and FedRAMP readiness across regulated SaaS environments.
Infrastructure as Code & DevOps
Terraform at scale — authored modular, security-hardened IaC repositories enabling self-service infrastructure provisioning. CI/CD pipeline design with GitHub Actions, CircleCI, and Argo. Blue/green and canary deployment patterns. GitOps workflows that give engineering teams velocity without sacrificing reliability.
Identity, Access & Zero Trust
Architected Zero Trust controls across production Kubernetes clusters with policy-as-code (Kyverno, OPA/Rego). Implemented IAM governance programs with SSO/MFA, SCIM provisioning, PAM, Vault-based secrets management, and JIT access — eliminating 80% of standing admin privileges across organizations.
Observability & Reliability
Built observability platforms from the ground up using Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, and CloudWatch. SLO/SLA dashboards, automated alerting, structured incident response with blameless RCA. Reduced MTTD from 24 hours to under 2 hours and production incidents by 60%+.
AI & Automation
Early adopter and builder of AI-powered operational tooling. Built LLM-driven code review systems, security knowledge engines, and compliance automation using Claude and other LLM APIs. Python and Bash automation for infrastructure provisioning, access management, audit workflows, and self-service tooling at scale.
Where I've Made an Impact
A track record of building secure platforms, driving compliance, and delivering measurable outcomes.
Senior Security & Infrastructure Engineer
EdTech SaaS Platform
Own production AWS infrastructure (EC2, EKS, ECS, RDS/Aurora, S3, VPC) for 200+ cloud-native microservices. Manage Terraform IaC, CI/CD, and Docker orchestration ensuring 99.99% uptime.
- 30% infra cost reduction (Fargate→EC2 migration, rightsizing, autoscaling) while supporting 3x user growth
- Built observability platform (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog) — MTTD from 24h to <2h
- 60% production incident reduction through blameless RCA, automated triage, and detection engineering
- IAM hardening and Vault secrets management for 150+ microservices; SOC 2 Type II enabling $2M+ ARR enterprise deals
- CI/CD security with Semgrep SAST/SCA, blue/green & canary deployments — 50% faster deploy cycles, 60% fewer production vulnerabilities
- Network defense: CrowdStrike, Splunk SIEM, WAF/Shield blocking 15K+ malicious requests/month; 70% attack surface reduction with mTLS/OAuth/OIDC
- AI-powered code review automation reducing manual security assessments from days to minutes
Director of IT & Infrastructure Engineering
Telecom/SaaS
Led all technology, security, and compliance functions. Transformed traditional IT into an engineering-driven, automation-first program.
- Universal Terraform module repository — deployment time from 3+ days to <1 day
- Legacy monolith migration (ColdFusion, Ruby) to Docker/ECS + Lambda serverless — 99.99% availability
- 25% AWS cost reduction via serverless migration and auto-scaling
- ISO 27001 with zero non-conformities on first audit (114 controls in 6 months) + SOC 2 Type II zero findings
- Centralized SIEM/observability (Prometheus/Grafana, 200+ log sources, 50+ detection rules) — MTTD reduced 65%
- IAM governance across 1,200+ devices, SSO/MFA for 40+ SaaS platforms — 60% account sprawl reduction, 75% fewer unpatched vulnerabilities
- GRC automation with Python — audit prep from 3 weeks to 3 days
Lead Systems & Infrastructure Engineer
IT Services / Fintech
Owned infrastructure and datacenter ops for 2,500+ production systems. Managed server provisioning, network security, and identity management for 800+ users.
- 99.9% recovery with defined RPO/RTO across 2,500+ production systems
- Identity infrastructure (Active Directory, LDAP, PKI) for 800+ users with Linux/Windows server hardening
- 50% unauthorized access reduction through hardening and access controls
- Technical advisor to fintech clients on infrastructure security and compliance
Things I've Built
Side projects and SaaS products that showcase end-to-end engineering — from architecture to production.
AI-Powered Resume Optimization Engine
Built a full-stack job application automation platform that uses AI to iteratively optimize resumes for specific job descriptions. The system ingests job postings, scores resumes across multiple weighted dimensions (HR screening, technical fit, ATS alignment, culture match), and refines content through multiple optimization cycles until meeting quality thresholds. Includes automated cover letter generation, real-time scoring dashboards, and a feedback loop for guided refinement.
Workforce Time Management Platform
A production SaaS application and mobile app for businesses to manage employee timekeeping at scale. Employers can schedule shifts, validate hours, approve timecards, and run payroll-ready reports. Employees get a clean punch-in/out experience with real-time visibility into their hours and intuitive dashboards. Built for reliability and ease of use across distributed workforces.
SMB Acquisition Intelligence Platform
An AI-driven deal sourcing and enrichment engine for small business acquisitions. The platform scrapes business-for-sale listings, performs automated market research and competitive analysis, enriches each opportunity with financial and operational data, scores and ranks deals by risk profile, and delivers curated deal feeds via email to prospective buyers. Turns weeks of manual due diligence into automated, data-driven deal flow.
Results That Speak
Measurable outcomes from real production environments
Cut infrastructure costs while tripling capacity through compute optimization and capacity planning.
Reduced production incidents through structured incident response and automated triage.
Maintained near-perfect uptime across all production environments.
Implemented all 114 ISO 27001 controls in 6 months, achieving certification with zero non-conformities.
What People Say
Feedback from colleagues, managers, and clients.
“Akshay is the person you want on the other end of a 2 AM page. When we were scaling from our microservices, he redesigned our entire observability stack and cut incident detection from 24 hours to under two. He doesn't just fix problems — he builds systems that prevent them from happening in the first place.”
“I've managed engineers for 10+ years, and Akshay is in a class of his own. He delivered our ISO 27001 certification with zero non-conformities on the first audit — something our compliance advisors we're surprised about. He thinks like a business leader, not just a technician, and that's what makes him exceptional.”
“Akshay transformed our entire technology operation. What used to take the team days and hours, he automated down to minutes. He also reduced our AWS spend by 25% while simultaneously improving reliability. This directly enabled deals we couldn't have closed before.”
How I Can Help
Hands-on infrastructure, security, and cloud engineering — from startups to enterprise.
For Startups & Scale-ups
Cloud Infrastructure Foundation
Stand up production-ready AWS/GCP/Azure environments from scratch. VPC design, Kubernetes clusters, CI/CD pipelines, Terraform IaC, observability — the entire platform foundation your engineering team needs to ship fast and sleep at night.
Security & Compliance Accelerator
Get SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001 certified without slowing down your product team. I build the controls, write the policies, automate the evidence collection, and prepare you for audit — based on having done it with zero findings.
AI/LLM Integration
Bring AI into your operations, security workflows, or product features. From Claude API integration to building evaluation frameworks and production guardrails — practical AI that delivers measurable ROI, not science projects.
For Mid-Market & Enterprise
Cloud Modernization & Cost Optimization
Migrate legacy workloads to cloud-native architectures, rightsize infrastructure, and implement automated scaling. I've delivered 25-30% cost reductions while improving reliability and supporting multi-fold growth.
Security Program Assessment & Buildout
Evaluate your current security posture, identify gaps, and build or mature your security program. Covers vulnerability management, SIEM/detection engineering, incident response, IAM governance, and Zero Trust architecture.
Infrastructure as Code Transformation
Migrate from manual/ClickOps infrastructure to Terraform-managed, GitOps-driven environments. Modular, reusable, security-hardened IaC with self-service patterns that scale with your team.
DevOps & Platform Engineering
Design and implement CI/CD pipelines, observability platforms, deployment strategies (blue/green, canary), and developer self-service tooling. Reduce deployment friction while strengthening reliability and security posture.
Let's Build Something Together
Whether you need cloud infrastructure, security engineering, or AI automation — I'd love to hear about your challenge.