Joshua Wells

Cloud & DevOps Engineer

Cleveland, OH

Building scalable infrastructure and automation solutions with a passion for cloud technologies, container orchestration, and DevOps culture.

Contact Me Learn More

About Me

Hey! I'm Josh.

I am an avid technology enthusiast, geek, and lifelong learner. I have loved tech as long as I have known it. There is something incredibly satisfying in solving a complex problem, or learning a new thing.

While I cannot sum up my entire being in a short paragraph, there is one piece of advice that lingers with me every day of my life. It comes from my late Grandfather. Despite not having this vast world of technology at his fingertips like we do, he still found a way to master any new challenge. As he raised me, one thing he was adamant that I understood was to…

Learn something new every day

Professionally

A strong influencer and technical leader who is passionate about solving complex problems with creative and scalable solutions. I love learning and implementing new technologies, exchanging knowledge, automating everything that gets in my way, and fostering relationships all along the way

An expert in most areas of infrastructure and networking, scripting, modern application development, continuous integration and delivery, application delivery, monitoring and logging, public and private cloud technologies, and container orchestration.

My Experience

A highly experienced, detail oriented, and motivated cloud, devops, and platform engineer. A passionate learner with the technical aptitude to match.

July 2021 - Present

Progressive Insurance

Consultant Data Engineer, AI & ML

Remote

Cloud advocate for AI/ML & Data Science teams, guiding infrastructure and platform engineering direction while aligning bespoke tools with enterprise patterns and security compliance.

Accomplishments:
  • Implemented Kubernetes platform to provide PaaS for AI/ML/Data community
  • Re-aligned home-grown tools with Enterprise-supported patterns
  • Enhanced security and compliance across multiple data science platforms
  • Introduced DevOps best practices to data science workflows
July 2017 - July 2021

Progressive Insurance

Lead DevOps Engineer, Cloud

Mayfield, OH

Drove self-service software and infrastructure solutions in a newly-formed Cloud Organization. Guided and influenced solutions and standards throughout the organization.

Key Responsibilities:
  • Developed Python libraries for HashiCorp Vault, GitHub Enterprise, and Terraform Enterprise
  • Created Python/Flask RESTful APIs for multi-system integration
  • Led adoption of modern cloud technologies and CI/CD practices
  • Served as cloud ambassador while leading a DevOps Community of Practice
Accomplishments:
  • Deployed HashiCorp Terraform Enterprise from POC through Production
  • Developed a container-first, cloud-first, self-service API initiative
  • Automated AWS account management saving thousands of manual hours
Aug 2016 - Jul 2017

AXS Ticketing

Senior Systems Engineer

Cleveland, OH

Owned delivery of high-traffic ticketing applications on scalable cloud infrastructure, working alongside a team of talented software engineers.

Key Responsibilities:
  • Implemented and maintained highly available applications and services
  • Engineered AWS cloud solutions for ticketing systems (RDS, CloudFormation, WAF, CloudFront)
  • Established CI/CD pipelines with TeamCity and Octopus Deploy
  • Monitored systems using NewRelic, PRTG, and SolarWinds
Accomplishments:
  • Led datacenter to cloud legacy application migrations
  • Automated hours-long deployments down to minutes
  • Implemented centralized logging with Graylog
  • Created ChatOps system for legacy system integrations
Apr 2014 - Jul 2016

Union Home Mortgage

Network and Systems Administrator

Strongsville, OH

Sole Network and Systems Administrator for a rapidly growing company, handling all network, hardware, software, and cloud infrastructure needs.

Key Responsibilities:
  • Maintained on-premises servers/SAN and AWS cloud infrastructure
  • Managed Cisco network hardware and security systems
  • Oversaw technology deployment for 75+ satellite offices
  • Served as top-level escalation for the support team
Accomplishments:
  • Pitched and drove lift-and-shift migration from on-premises datacenter to AWS
  • Executed company-wide migration from Google Apps to Office 365
  • Established vendor leasing program for laptops and office equipment
  • Restructured dozens of branch offices with cloud-managed Cisco Meraki infrastructure
2008 - 2014

Earlier Positions

Various Technical Roles

Ohio
Invacare Corporation (2012-2014):

Field Services Support Technician handling laptop/desktop deployments and automation solutions.

  • Developed MDT environment for machine deployments
  • Provided nationwide remote support for enterprise systems
ConSun Food Industries (2008-2012):

IT Systems Administrator responsible for all IT infrastructure at corporate and 24 retail locations.

  • Overhauled POS systems and linked locations via site-to-site VPN
  • Managed servers using Hyper-V virtualization

Skills

Certifications

AWS Certified Solutions Architect

Associate

AWS Certified SysOps Administrator

Associate

AWS Certified Developer

Associate

Certified Kubernetes Administrator

CKA

Certified Kubernetes Application Developer

CKAD

Core Competencies

Cloud Architecture & Engineering
Container Orchestration
DevOps & Platform Engineering
Infrastructure as Code
Software Engineering
Automation & Scripting
Observability & Monitoring

Technology Stack

Cloud Platforms

AWS
Azure
GCP
OpenStack

Container Technologies

Kubernetes
OpenShift
Docker
EKS
OKD
Talos

Infrastructure as Code

Terraform
CloudFormation
Ansible
Packer

Programming Languages

Python
Go
Shell
PowerShell
JavaScript

CI/CD & DevOps

GitHub Actions
Jenkins
Azure DevOps
TeamCity
Octopus Deploy
ArgoCD
FluxCD

HashiCorp Stack

Terraform Enterprise
Vault Enterprise
Consul
Packer

Monitoring & Observability

Grafana
Prometheus
Graylog
NewRelic
OpenTelemetry
Splunk

Database Technologies

MySQL
MSSQL
Aurora
Snowflake
PostgreSQL

Web Technologies

Nginx
Apache
IIS
API Gateway
HAProxy

Cloud-Native Tools

Helm
Istio
Flux
Kustomize
Cilium
Tekton

After Work

Hobbies

  • • All-things-tech - exploring new technologies and implementing them in practical ways
  • • PC Gaming – FPS, Co-Op, MMO, Couch gaming with friends and family - current favorites include Satisfactory, Baldur's Gate 3, and co-op survival games
  • • Cooking indoors, outdoors, on a flat top or in a smoker - Anywhere I can make some delicious food for my friends and family
  • • Modern board gaming - strategy games, deck builders, and cooperative experiences alike
  • • BBQ & Smoking meats while enjoying the company of others - perfecting brisket, beef, and pork ribs on a wood offset
  • • Learning as much as I can about it all - AI, technical vlogs, and online courses/certifications to stay current with industry trends

Homelab

  • • HA Hyperconverged Proxmox/Ceph cluster with many nodes for redundancy and distributed storage
  • • Talos Kubernetes clusters managed through GitOps practices with FluxCD. Automate everything!
  • • All-things-Ubiquiti (EFG, UniFi Switches, APs) providing enterprise-grade networking at home
  • • VLANs, IoT network segmentation, guest access, and strict east/west firewall rules for enhanced security
  • • Monitoring stack with SNMP, PRTG, LibreNMS, Grafana dashboards, and Prometheus metrics
  • • Self-hosted services including this website, home automation, and personal productivity tools
  • • Automated backups with off-site replication for disaster recovery

Let's Connect

Contact Information

Based in

Cleveland, OH

Drop me a line

[email protected]

Professional Inquiries

I'm open to discussing new opportunities and professional collaborations in cloud architecture, DevOps, and platform engineering.

Feel free to reach out if you're interested in my background or would like to discuss how my experience might benefit your organization.

I'm currently based in Cleveland, OH, but am open to remote positions with the right team and technical challenges.

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