Joshua Wells
Cloud & DevOps Engineer
Cleveland, OH
Architecting scalable infrastructure and automation solutions, connecting big-picture vision to technical execution and shaping standards that scale across teams and organizations. Driven by a passion for cloud technologies, container orchestration, and DevOps culture.
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.
Progressive Insurance
Consultant Data Engineer, AI & ML
Progressive Insurance
Consultant Data Engineer, AI & ML
Staff-level platform engineer, tech lead, and product owner for the Enterprise AI organization's Kubernetes platform. Operating as the resident cloud expert bridging the enterprise Cloud, enterprise AI, and other sibling IT organizations; architecting infrastructure direction and influencing standards across teams and organizations.
Key Responsibilities:
- Serving as Cloud Capability Leader, evangelizing cloud standards across the enterprise AI org as the two-way conduit to the enterprise Cloud organization. A decision-maker others consult before committing to a cloud or infrastructure direction
- Product owner for two platforms (a cloud self-service infrastructure product and an EKS-based Kubernetes PaaS), owning roadmap, long-term vision, and stakeholder priorities
- Tech lead for a team of DevOps and Data Engineers, driving technical direction, mentoring on both technical depth and soft skills, and delivering through a highly functional team
- Trusted advisor to leadership as a general organizational expert, and an active voice in team hiring and structure
- Partnering with ML, Data Science, and sibling organizational product and platform teams to shape paved-road patterns that balance self-service with security and compliance
Accomplishments:
- Designed an EKS-based Kubernetes platform and led its implementation, including GitOps delivery, automated image builds, platform APIs, and opinionated paved-road patterns
- Modernized home-grown infrastructure tooling by deprecating the legacy generation in favor of a rebuilt platform aligned and paired with with IT Security, Developer Capability, and Cloud organizational tools and patterns.
- Mentored and grew a small team, directly supporting member's promotions to higher levels and helped shape the team's hires and structure
- Strengthened security and compliance posture across multiple platforms by driving tech debt initiatives, deprecation timelines, and new platform features
Progressive Insurance
Lead DevOps Engineer, Cloud
Progressive Insurance
Lead DevOps Engineer, Cloud
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 internal custom Python libraries for HashiCorp Vault, GitHub Enterprise, and Terraform Enterprise
- Created, led, and maintained a self-service internal developer platform
- Led adoption of modern cloud technologies and CI/CD practices
- Served as cloud ambassador while leading a DevOps Community of Practice
- Worked cross-functionally and on multiple teams, including the OpenShift/Kubernetes platform team
Accomplishments:
- Onboarded and deployed HashiCorp Terraform Enterprise from POC through Production.
- Envisioned the need for a full Cloud self-service platform, evangelized it, pitched it, and built it -- a container-first, cloud-native (and focused) IDP for multi-system integrations
- Automated all Progressive AWS account creation and management, saving thousands of manual hours
- Developed, in conjunction with the IT Security organization, HashiCorp Vault Enterprise patterns for Terraform Enterprise integration, global dynamic AWS access, and self-serve Kubernetes secret synchronization and enablement that served all Cloud and Kubernetes users.
AXS Ticketing
Senior Systems Engineer
AXS Ticketing
Senior Systems Engineer
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
Union Home Mortgage
Network and Systems Administrator
Union Home Mortgage
Network and Systems Administrator
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
Earlier Positions
Various Technical Roles
Earlier Positions
Various Technical Roles
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
AssociateAWS Certified SysOps Administrator
AssociateAWS Certified Developer
AssociateCertified Kubernetes Administrator
CKACertified Kubernetes Application Developer
CKADCore Competencies
Technology Stack
Cloud Platforms
Container Technologies
Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
CI/CD & DevOps
HashiCorp Stack
Monitoring & Observability
Database Technologies
Web Technologies
Cloud-Native Tools
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
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.