avatar

Rob Pleau
DevOps / Cloud / Platform Engineer

About

Security oriented DevOps/DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineer with over 10 years of experience. Driven by a desire to continually optimize processes, learn, and share knowledge. Experienced in designing, implementing, and managing complex cloud and container infrastructure and associated CI/CD pipelines. Experienced writer of code, skillful in scripting and building CLI tools as well as writing Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

Work Experience

Lacework
Remote
March 2023 – Present
Solutions Engineer
Consult with customers to design and implement Lacework's cloud security platform.
Highlights
  • Consulted with customers with simple to very complex AWS environments on requirements and steps to implement Lacework.
  • Developed custom tooling using Go, PowerShell, and Python. This included building a new integration to Azure DevOps as well as a Go utility for customers to pull aggregated GCP compliance reports.
  • Utilized Terraform and CloudFormation to deploy components of Lacework.
  • Assisted customers to meet audit needs for SOC2, ISO 27001, NIST, HIPAA, or to meet general CIS benchmarks for hardening their cloud/container environments.
  • Helped customers integrate CI/CD pipeline security to meet their security needs.
FM Global
Remote
August 2021 – March 2023
Technical Product Owner
Led the Cloud Platform team as a Technical Product Owner (as well as interim Product Owner for the Cloud Operations team) during large scale Digital Transformation.
Highlights
  • Led two teams of engineers through a large scale Digital Transformation project.
  • Standardized Terraform as IaC framework and architected repository structure and pipelines for cloud infrastructure.
  • Developed internal Terraform modules to create re-usable Azure components for other teams.
  • Designed and deployed initial data tier architecture for Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, and Azure Data Factory.
  • Developed initial AKS infrastructure and worked with product teams to deploy initial application workloads.
  • Consulted with customers with simple to very complex AWS environments on requirements and steps to implement Lacework.
FM Global
Remote / Johnston, RI
June 2017 – August 2021
Lead DevOps Engineer
Built and managed cloud infrastructure on AWS and Google Cloud platforms.Implemented Docker containerization and automated deployment using Jenkins.Configured and maintained Ansible playbooks for infrastructure automation and configuration management.Conducted regular security audits and implemented measures to improve security posture.
Highlights
  • Assisted in building out the initial CI/CD pipelines for both existing brownfield applications as well as greenfield applications.
  • Led the effort to migrate entire development organization transition to Git.
  • Built initial life cycles and processes for support of CentOS Linux workloads within the environment for new Linux native applications.
  • Led the 'Configuration as Code' project to standardize all Linux and Windows configuration leveraging Salt Stack.
  • Evangelized building a DevOps/DevSecOps culture within the organization and took point on working with Human Resources to develop the new job families.
FM Global
Johnston, RI
November 2011 – June 2017
Lead Server Automation Engineer
Managed and maintained internal server infrastructure. Leveraged automation to reduce manual tasks and improve efficiency. Worked with various teams to implement new technologies and improve existing processes.
Highlights
  • Completely automated internal server provisioning process reducing time to provision from 5 days to 15 minutes.
  • Developed a process to automate the setup of the NetApp storage arrays for disaster recovery tests, reducing setup from 8 hours to 15 minutes.
  • Implemented Git version control as the standard for all infrastructure scripts and code.
  • Automated most aspects of on-premises server and ESXi host patching.
  • Created supporting administration tooling for 4 teams to reduce toil of manual tasks, increase efficiency, and reduce errors.
Techsnips.io
Remote
April 2018 – December 2019
Content Contributor
Techsnips content contributor.
Highlights
  • Created tech snip videos of various DevOps and scripting topics.
Atrion Networking
Warwick, RI
March 2010 – November 2011
Advanced Systems Specialist
Staff augmentation at FM Global assisting client and server teams with various new and ongoing projects.
Highlights
  • Completed P2V process for all remaining Microsoft SQL servers.
  • Took the lead of monthly Windows patching process for all Windows servers.
eClinicalWorks
Westborough, MA
March 2009 – March 2010
Network Administrator
Managed and maintained internal network and server infrastructure for a large electronic medical record software firm.
Highlights
  • Facilitated the migration to an entirely new Active Directory domain.
  • Implemented OpenFire chat server for the company to have internal corporate instant messaging.
  • Standardized all internal client and server hardware to Dell.
  • Implemented entirely new Nortal routing and switching infrastructure.
Tinio Consulting
Bellingham, MA
November 2008 – March 2009
Consultant Engineer
Provided IT consulting services to small businesses in the eastern Massachusetts and northern Rhode Island area.
Highlights
  • Assisted clients with various IT projects and troubleshooting.
  • Centralized logging and monitoring with Cacti.
FM Global
Johnston, RI
February 2008 – July 2008
Co-Op Data Network Engineer
Assisted the Data Network team with Cisco switch upgrades and project work.
Highlights
  • Staged and configured Cisco Catalyst 6509e switches for branch office replacement.
  • Sized corporate network for Cisco Wide Area Application Engine (WAE) deployment.

Volunteer

PowerShell + DevOps Summit 2018
https://github.com/ephos/PSSummit2018-Plaster
April 2018 – April 2018
Speaker
Creating PowerShell Projects and More with Plaster
PowerShell + DevOps Summit 2023
https://github.com/ephos/PSSummit2023-LinuxShells
April 2023 – April 2023
Speaker
Linux Shell Debates or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love PowerShell
The DevOps Collective
https://devopscollective.org/
January 2019 – Present
Volunteer
Volunteer with The DevOps Collective to help organize OnRamp related tasks for the PowerShell+DevOps Global Summit.
Highlights
  • PowerShell + DevOps Summit 2019 OnRamp Buddy System Organizer.
  • PowerShell + DevOps Summit 2020 OnRamp Scholarship Program Organizer.
  • PowerShell + DevOps Summit 2024 Session Content Evaluator.
Agile RI
https://www.agileri.com/
July 2017 – July 2019
Volunteer Speaker
Speaker for Agile RI
Highlights
  • Speaker on how to build a DevOps culture in your organization.
P-Tech
https://www.ptech.org/
January 2017 – December 2019
Volunteer Mentor
Highlights
  • Mentored PCTA student on career and college readiness.

Contact

Uxbridge, Massachusetts US
(508) 498-2648
rj.pleau@gmail.com
https://ephos.github.io
LinkedIn
rob-pleau
GitHub
ephos

Education

  • 2005 2008

    New England Institute of Technology

    Bachelor of Science (BS)

    Network Engineering

Skills

CI/CD Master
Git Branching Strategies Release Patterns (Canary, Blue/Green, Ring, etc) Custom Step Authoring (Github Actions/Azure DevOps Pipelines) Testing Strategies (Unit, Integration, Functional, etc) Git Providers (Github, Gitlab, Azure DevOps, Bitbucket) Octopus Deploy Package Management (Nexus, Proget, Artifactory, Azure DevOps) Jira Trello Git
Security Advanced
Compliance Frameworks Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Software Composition Analysis (SCA) Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) OWASP IaC Scanning Vulnerability Management IAM
IDEs Advanced
Neovim/Vim Visual Studio Code Visual Studio Vi
Configuration as Code Advanced
Chef Salt Stack Ansible
Terraform Advanced
Terraform Cloud State management Terraform imports Modules IaC Code Security Scanning
AWS Advanced
EKS Lambda IAM RDS S3 ECR SQS SNS EC2 ECS Fargate CloudFormation CloudTrail Control Tower
Azure Master
Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) Azure Landing Zone architecture Azure VMs and VMSS Azure App Services Azure Function Apps Azure Container Registry (ACR) Azure Active Directory Azure Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) Azure Data Factory Azure SQL/Postgres Azure Resource Management (ARM) Azure CLI (az cli) Azure Container Instances (ACI)
Linux Master
Debian Ubuntu Red Hat Rocky Linux CentOS Arch Linux
Concepts Master
Scrum Kanban Agile TCP/IP 4 Golden Signals Troubleshooting Mentoring Leadership
Docker/Kubernetes Advanced
Kubectl Helm Docker Compose Docker Swarm Docker CLI
PowerShell Master
Modules Functions Classes CI/CD Pipelines DSC
Python Intermediate
Scripts Functions
Go Intermediate
CLI Tools Cobra Binaries/Packages
IDEs Advanced
NeoVim/Vim Visual Studio Code Visual Studio Vi Langage Server Protocols (LSP) Debug Adapter Protocols (DAP)

Publications

The PowerShell Conference Book
LeanPub
08 September 2018
https://leanpub.com/powershell-conference-book

Chapter author of: "Scaffolding PowerShell Projects and More with Plaster".

The PowerShell Conference Book: Volume 3
LeanPub
10 October 2020
https://leanpub.com/psconfbook3

Chapter author of: "Spice Up Your Console Output or Prompt with ANSI".

Blog
Self
01 January 2017
https://ephos.github.io/

Blogger of Linux, PowerShell, etc.

Interests

Linux 🐧
Crossfit 🏋️‍♂️
Kayaking 🚣
Brewing 🍺
Mechanical Keyboards ⌨
Coding 👨‍💻