Aaron Martell

MAGIC LEAP - SUNNYVALE, CA (REMOTE)

• Technical lead for developer tools, Gitlab (infra, app config, runners), Vault, Harbor, Cloudflare, and Cloud onboarding (AWS, GCP); backup Engineer for remaining SRE services, ArgoCD, and observability stack.
• Lead initiative to convert all management config-as-code to Terragrunt from in-house Terraform wrapper. Created terraform modules, publishing pipelines, and pipeline templates to aid the full scale conversion. Vault service, Enterprise + OSS, work has been completed as has Gitlab, Cloudflare and Okta configurations. Cloud onboarding work currently in progress.
• Lead design and implementation of two-tiered Vault service integrated into developer platforms, Gitlab, ArgoCD, Cloud Services (GCP, AWS) with PubSub backed sync. Includes grant-based workflow for Vault secret access across Gitlab projects that allows for simplified self-serve privileges.
• Wrote Terragrunt backed Gitlab management configuration, along with dynamic CI job creation and is fully self-serve. Custom tooling affected zero downtime conversion from terraform only code base. Reduced time to deployment by 95% with scaling driven almost exclusively by job concurrency.
• Created program management scaffolding in use by entire team to manage all sub-team initiatives and deliverables.

MAGIC LEAP - SUNNYVALE, CA (REMOTE)

• Brought onboard to explicitly cut company cloud spend. Total savings amongst various endeavors resulted in over 1.5m (+12% total Cloud spend) in immediate savings and an annual Opex savings over 500k.
• Converted AI/ML cloud fleet to DevOps backed methodologies with built in cost controls and monitoring.
• Took over Github decommissioning project, resulting in a two-fold increase in user base and projects hosted in Gitlab. Rapidly scaling up service to accommodate increased load in the middle of a code base re-write.
• Expanded pipeline backed documentation service increasing documentation publishing metrics.

LAIKA - HILLSBORO, OR

• Recruited to lead a number of active and future projects and upskill, train, mentor team of Junior Engineers and SysAdmins.
• Main area of focus during brief tenure was another Office 365 Suite deployment. Initial rollout was focused on Email, Calendaring, and core security posture. Before leaving, expanded to include Intune and overhauled SaaS integrations with on-prem resources.
• Speared security and WINfrastructure organizational changes and updated existing tooling to a current and supported codebase.
• Laid down foundational pieces for transition to IAC framework and Devops workflows from click ops and one-off tooling.

WETA DIGITAL - WELLINGTON, NZ

• Initial member of cross departmental team driving and developing workflows in two cloud platforms, AWS and Azure. Dynamic team was a merging of both Infrastructure and Pipeline methodologies, pushing towards a single vision of future workloads both on premise and cloud native.
• Designed a multi-regional, scalable and secure network backbone for rendering in cloud project utilizing custom Terraform modules explicitly tailored for customized Terragrunt deployment.
• Built out cloud infrastructure driven by GitOps terraform workflows, with a POC on Azure and finalizing production on AWS.
• Lead developer for all infrastructure code modules and established architecture.

WETA DIGITAL - WELLINGTON, NZ

• Responsible for WINfrastructure, VMware, O365, k8s clusters, logging, metrics, monitoring, and VDI.
• Wrote PS modules to drive O365, VMware, Windows, and Weta integrations and automation.
• Deployed O365 in a non-internet facing environment maintaining strict segregation and tenancy.
• Re-wrote interfaces for ingesting end user data from Weta built data systems, tying closely into the O365 workflows.
• Authored RFP and executed VMware hardware refresh and a greenfield vCenter deployment with zero downtime migration.
• Lead design and implementation of moving to a WINfrastructure backed DNS/DHCP from bind.
• Implemented monitoring system overhaul, migrated from legacy Icinga/Nagios to Sensu.

EPIC HOSTING - VERONA, WI

• Responsibilities included but not limited to managing all hardware deployments at core and DR sites - switches, UCS infrastructure, storage, dev environments, tailoring infrastructure based on load.
• Senior UCS Engineer for entire platform. Deployment became case study for scaling architecture in UCS market.
• Proposed and implemented HVAC expansion which allowed for a reduction of critical floor space cooling by 50% and subsequently increased compute capacity by 50%. ROI was seen within two months.
• Project Manager for all DC Operations projects and lead implementation, installation for all sites.
• Principal Design Engineer and Technology Coordinator for Secondary Site. Designed renovation and increased footprint in 2.4MW facility and oversaw final installation of both tech and infrastructure. Designed and executed first expansion, a 2x increase in critical floor space capacity for compute, storage, and services. Reduced cost per cabinet by over 11% by analyzing deployment trends and better projecting future needs.
• Authored RFP requirements document, met with and selected International colocation spaces for expansion in the UK market.
• Established and managed second DC Operations team - training personnel in Enterprise practices.

EPIC - VERONA, WI

• Lead strategic planning for future operations at multiple data center facilities. Established policies, procedures, and practices still in use and duplicated across more than three sites in excess of 5MW of capacity.
• Established first formal DC Operations team - responsible for training and managing technicians.
• Chaired panel for the the physical design and layout of green-field 3MW facility with modular build out design and was decision maker for power scale.
• Aided in design and execution of expansion in pre-existing data center including prototyping cabinets, network switches, PDUs, and codified an asymmetrical cable management system.
• Lead capacity planning and managed hardware deployments, power, cooling, and expansion coordination for two DC sites.

Chicago, Illinois

• Visual Effects & Motion Graphics

Minneapolis, Minnesota

• B.S. Physics + B.S. Astrophysics, aka Particle Smasher and Rocket Scientist