Kwame Akuffo
London
Summary
Highly skilled DevOps Engineer with over ten years of experience managing cloud infrastructure, automating workflows, and maintaining CI/CD pipelines for scalable systems. Proven expertise in Windows system management, scripting with PowerShell, Bash, and Python, and troubleshooting complex technical issues. A proactive problem-solver with a strong ability to work independently in fast-paced environments while collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams. Passionate about optimising processes, ensuring device stability, and supporting innovative AI-driven projects. Proven track record of designing and managing AWS-native solutions and Kubernetes clusters in production environments. Extensive experience with observability tools (ELK, Prometheus, Grafana) and IaC tools (Terraform, Ansible). Strong scripting skills in Python and JavaScript, enabling automation and tooling for operational efficiency. Familiarity with cybersecurity principles and regulatory compliance (e.g., SEC 17a-4, GDPR). Adaptability to startup environments and ability to collaborate effectively in cross-functional teams.
Overview
18
18
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
DevOps Consultant
Crown Agent Bank
London
07.2024 - 12.2024
- Designed and delivered a scalable Bottomline stubbing solution within the CAB API ecosystem using AWS serverless architecture (API Gateway, Lambda, DynamoDB) to ensure high availability and cost-efficiency
- Automated critical processes, including access token generation and API request handling, ensuring compliance with stringent security protocols
- Employed Terraform for infrastructure as code (IaC) to provision and manage cloud resources, optimising AWS services for scalability and performance
- Developed Python-based Lambda functions for AWS API Gateway, ensuring robust, maintainable, and efficient code
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to implement CI/CD pipelines, enabling rapid deployment and continuous integration of updates
- Monitored and optimised system performance using AWS CloudWatch, ensuring high reliability and proactive issue resolution
DevOps Consultant
TPICAP
London
04.2023 - 10.2023
- Led a regulatory compliance project (SEC 17a-4) using GCP storage solutions, ensuring data integrity and compliance
- Identified and implemented data quality checks using Apache Beam and Dataflow in ETL processes
- Optimised the ETL pipeline for scalability and performance, processing millions of records daily
- Mentored junior developers in Python and JavaScript, focusing on clean coding practices and functional programming paradigms
- Automated reporting workflows using Python scripts, reducing manual effort by 60%
- Integrated third-party APIs for regulatory reporting, ensuring seamless data exchange
- Relevance to Role: Demonstrates expertise in GCP, ETL pipelines, Python, and mentoring
DevOps Consultant
Nominet
London
01.2023 - 03.2023
- Integrated early Infrastructure as Code (IaC) testing into CI/CD pipelines, ensuring robust validation and reducing deployment risks
- Enhanced Ansible infrastructure with Molecule tests, improving reliability and scalability
- Streamlined IaC processes by adding ansible-lint to CI pipelines for continuous testing and quality assurance
- Improved observability with Prometheus, leveraging PromQL for system health analysis and DNS issue identification
- Created Grafana dashboards with DNS metrics for real-time insights and configured Prometheus Alertmanager for proactive issue detection
- Used Zabbix for DNS monitoring, employing advanced templates for anomaly detection
Senior DevOps specialist L6 Engineering Global Banking
Broadridge
London
11.2021 - 03.2023
- Designed and implemented microservices architecture using Spring Boot and Node.js, ensuring scalability and fault tolerance
- Employed Terraform for IaC to deploy AWS infrastructure, supporting client applications
- Standardized AWS base OS/application stack using Packer and automated EC2 instance management with user data scripts
- Configured Jenkins CI/CD pipelines, reducing deployment times by 40%
- Containerized applications using Docker and orchestrated deployments with Kubernetes
- Built multithreaded applications in Java and Python to handle concurrent processing of financial transactions securely
- Relevance to Role: Highlights expertise in Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, CI/CD pipelines, and containerization
Senior DevOps/QA Lead L3 Engineering Global Health Delivery
IBM
London
04.2021 - 10.2021
- Led the development of monitoring for a COVID-19 application for the Department of Health/NHS, ensuring system reliability and compliance with security standards
- Automated API monitoring using Postman and implemented CI/CD pipelines with Azure Pipelines
- Configured Splunk for monitoring and alerting data pipelines, ensuring system reliability and proactive issue resolution
- Relevance to Role: Demonstrates experience with monitoring tools (Splunk), CI/CD pipelines, and API automation in a regulated environment
Senior DevOps/QA Lead Associate L2 Engineering Global Delivery
Publicis Sapient/Lloyds
01.2021 - 04.2021
- Led ETL test automation for a large-scale data migration project, ensuring data quality for 20 million records migrated to a GCP database
- Implemented defect prediction modelling and integrated Business Analysts into functional testing
- Spearheaded the automation of extraction APIs for source-to-target validation, ensuring file integrity
- Championed the production of test reports, DevOps runbooks, and Git process improvements
- Mentored a team of three QA engineers, upskilling them in Python and JavaScript for test automation
- Relevance to Role: Demonstrates expertise in ETL pipelines, test automation, and mentoring
QA Engineer – Government Project
VMD
07.2019 - 11.2019
- Supported a large cloud transformation project using Node.js, MongoDB, AWS, Kubernetes, and Elasticsearch
- Created and implemented a test governance framework to ensure conformance to corporate test processes
- Defined Ansible playbooks for deploying application microservices and automating performance/load testing
- Automated BDD process validation, infrastructure as code, and integration testing using tools like Webdriver
- Relevance to Role: Highlights experience with Kubernetes, Elasticsearch, Ansible, and cloud technologies
Automation QA Engineer
EDF Energy
09.2018 - 03.2019
QA Engineer
UK Government Project DWP
11.2017 - 09.2018
Automation QA Engineer
Nomura
03.2017 - 05.2017
Automation QA Consultant on Airline Project
Reply Ltd.
07.2016 - 10.2016
Automation QA Manager
Ericsson
01.2016 - 06.2016
QA Engineer Lead
Dentsu Aegis
10.2014 - 08.2015
QA Lead
TomTom Methodology
03.2014 - 09.2014
QA Consultant
Press Association
05.2012 - 11.2013
QA Consultant
Shop Direct
04.2013 - 08.2013
QA Consultant
A.P Moller, Maersk
05.2011 - 04.2012
Automation Consultant
Google.com
07.2010 - 02.2011
WinRunner Automation Engineer
Amdocs Pretoria
Pretoria
08.2008 - 06.2010
Test Manager
Cantor – BGC
09.2007 - 06.2008
Test Manager
Cantor – BGC
09.2006 - 07.2007
Education
Oxford Fintech Programme -
Saïd Business School
UKMSc Software Engineering -
Kellogg College, Oxford University
UKBEng Engineering -
Brunel University
Skills
- Deployment automation
- Continues Integration
- RESTful services
- ETL processes
- Continuous Delivery
- DevOps monitoring
- Validation techniques
- Data quality validation
- Extensive API knowledge and experience
- Pipeline as code
- Performance engineering
- Gitlab
- GitHub Actions
- Jenkins
- Ansible
- Docker
- Atlassian Bitbucket
- Jira
- Bamboo
- Confluence
- Terraform
- The Open Policy Agent (OPA)
- Scum
- Kanban
- Lean Startup
- Karate
- Cypress
- WebDriverIO
- Cucumber JS
- Rest Assured
- WebDriver
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- Software as a service (SaaS)
- Continuous Integration (Jenkins, Maven, and Git)
- Test Driven Development (TDD)
- Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD)
- XML
- Java
- Shell scripting
- JSON
- SQL
- AWS services
- GCP
- Azure
- GCP (Storage, Dataflow, BigQuery)
- Kubernetes
- Terraform
- Packer
- GitLab CI/CD
- GitHub Actions
- Azure Pipelines
- Prometheus
- Grafana
- Splunk
- Zabbix
- Python
- JavaScript
- SEC 17a-4
- GDPR
Affiliations
- Institution of Analysts and Programmers Member (MIAP)
- British Computer Society Member (MBCS)
- Institution of Engineering & Technology Member (IET)
Certification
- Zabbix Certified User
- AWS Certified Practitioner
Additional Information
BPSS, DBS
Education And Professional Development
- Oxford Fintech Programme, Saïd Business School, UK, Pass
- MSc Software Engineering, Kellogg College, Oxford University, Pass
- BEng Engineering, Brunel University, Pass
References
Available upon request
Software And Technical Exposure
- Mastery and proven recent hand-on experience with DevOps ecosystem tools: Gitlab, Github actions, Jenkins, Ansible, Docker Atlassian Bitbucket, Jira, Bamboo, and Confluence, terraform, The Open Policy Agent (OPA)
- Proven experience in multiple Agile environments: Scum, FDD, XP, Kanban, Lean Startup
- Mastery of automation Frameworks: karate, Cypress, WebdriverIO, Cucumber JS, Rest Assured, Webdriver
- Mastery and proven hands-on experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), software as a service (SaaS)
- Strong hands-on experience with Continuous Integration (Jenkins, Maven, and Git)
- Development Practices, Test Driven Development (TDD) and Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD)
- Relevant experience with XML, Java, Shell Scripting, JSON, SQL, using (cucumber, Junit, Java, Shell Scripting)
- Strong and recent experience using cloud technology: AWS services, GCP, Azure
- Cloud Platforms: AWS (EC2, Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB), GCP (Storage, Dataflow, BigQuery)
- Containerization & Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Terraform, Packer, Ansible
- CI/CD Pipelines: Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines
- Observability Stacks: ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana), Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, Zabbix
- Scripting Languages: Python, JavaScript, Ruby
- Security & Compliance: SEC 17a-4, GDPR, Cybersecurity best practices
Timeline
DevOps Consultant
Crown Agent Bank
07.2024 - 12.2024
DevOps Consultant
TPICAP
04.2023 - 10.2023
DevOps Consultant
Nominet
01.2023 - 03.2023
Senior DevOps specialist L6 Engineering Global Banking
Broadridge
11.2021 - 03.2023
Senior DevOps/QA Lead L3 Engineering Global Health Delivery
IBM
04.2021 - 10.2021
Senior DevOps/QA Lead Associate L2 Engineering Global Delivery
Publicis Sapient/Lloyds
01.2021 - 04.2021
QA Engineer – Government Project
VMD
07.2019 - 11.2019
Automation QA Engineer
EDF Energy
09.2018 - 03.2019
QA Engineer
UK Government Project DWP
11.2017 - 09.2018
Automation QA Engineer
Nomura
03.2017 - 05.2017
Automation QA Consultant on Airline Project
Reply Ltd.
07.2016 - 10.2016
Automation QA Manager
Ericsson
01.2016 - 06.2016
QA Engineer Lead
Dentsu Aegis
10.2014 - 08.2015
QA Lead
TomTom Methodology
03.2014 - 09.2014
QA Consultant
Shop Direct
04.2013 - 08.2013
QA Consultant
Press Association
05.2012 - 11.2013
QA Consultant
A.P Moller, Maersk
05.2011 - 04.2012
Automation Consultant
Google.com
07.2010 - 02.2011
WinRunner Automation Engineer
Amdocs Pretoria
08.2008 - 06.2010
Test Manager
Cantor – BGC
09.2007 - 06.2008
Test Manager
Cantor – BGC
09.2006 - 07.2007
Oxford Fintech Programme -
Saïd Business School
MSc Software Engineering -
Kellogg College, Oxford University
BEng Engineering -
Brunel University
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