Architect / AI Engineer | North York, Ontario, Canada

Certifications: AWS Solutions Architect – Professional · Azure Solutions Architect Expert · Azure DevOps Engineer Expert · View all →

About

Architect and AI Engineer with 10+ years of IT experience, specializing in designing and implementing AI-based and cloud infrastructure solutions. Currently focused on building GenAI solutions with Microsoft Copilot Studio, Azure AI Services, and RAG architectures. Proven track record in cloud migrations, DevOps transformations, and container orchestration across Azure and AWS.

Publications

• Accelerate Microsoft Workload Modernization on AWS with Softchoice – AWS Partner Network Blog, Nov 2024

Experience

Softchoice

5 yrs 11 mos

Architect

Jan 2024 – Present

Architect / AI Engineer responsible for designing and implementing AI-based solutions in the cloud.

• Designed and developed a sales Copilot Studio agent allowing sales agents to streamline information retrieval across multiple sources (SharePoint, PowerBI, SalesForce) using GenAI to summarize the information and highlight key insights
• Designed an IT Support Copilot Studio agent integrated with Azure AI Search, allowing end users to ask IT and HR questions using RAG, and create FreshService support tickets from Microsoft Teams
• Developed an insurance Copilot Studio agent integrated with Azure AI Speech and Communication Services for telephony services, allowing insurance providers to query member information in Azure SQL, and summarize with GenAI
• Designed and implemented the required Azure infrastructure for Document Intelligence to assist with paperless initiatives
• Helped to pass the AI Platform on MSFT Azure Specialization v1.65 audit presenting my projects as evidence

Cloud Infrastructure Architect

Dec 2021 – Dec 2023 · Toronto, Ontario

Cloud Infrastructure Architect responsible for designing and implementing solutions in the cloud on Azure and AWS.

• Conducted DevSecOps workshops to leadership at an enterprise attempting to transform their IT practice
• Designed and implemented BC/DR solutions in Azure with Terraform and Azure DevOps
• Designed and implemented Azure monitoring solutions with Terraform having Splunk pull from Event Hub
• Designed and implemented landing zones in AWS with Control Tower utilizing Account Factory for Terraform for customizations, utilizing Transit Gateway for cross-region/account connectivity with firewall inspection. This directly resulted in the organization receiving the Control Tower delivery program badge
• Migrated misconfigured AKS cluster to a production-ready AKS cluster
• Cloud Adoption Framework based migration to Azure assessments

DevOps Engineer

Feb 2020 – Dec 2021 · Toronto, Ontario

DevOps Engineer Consultant responsible for guiding clients on their cloud journey on Microsoft Azure or AWS. This includes various projects around DevOps assessments, IaC (Infrastructure as Code), governance, and container orchestration.

• Provided DevOps assessments for customers inexperienced with CI/CD
• Developed landing zones using Azure Blueprints templates (CAF, PCI, PBMM, etc.) or customized Blueprints based on clients organizational policies
• Developed various container solutions on App Service/AKS paired with Application Gateway, Traffic Manager, Key Vault, Log Analytics, and Container Registry deployed using IaC via Terraform using Azure Pipelines
• Migrated on-premise applications to AWS using an ALB, EC2 (with auto scale groups), EFS, RDS and Elasticache using IaC via Terraform
• Provided proof-of-concept demos for Kubernetes GitOps deployments using ArgoCD
• Provided comprehensive BC/DR assessments for various IaaS and PaaS services in Azure
• Migrated Docker container workloads from EC2 to ECS using IaC via Terraform
• Lab facilitator for GCP (Google Cloud Platform) bootcamps

Condos.ca

DevOps Engineer

Jun 2019 – Feb 2020 · 9 mos

DevOps engineer responsible for the CI/CD solutions that make up Condos.ca, Property.ca, and MrLoft.ca. This includes managing the BitBucket repositories and pipelines, on-premise and co-location infrastructure, maintain Docker containers for new and existing services, and production operations.

• Developed monitoring solutions using the open source tools EFK (Elasticsearch, Fluentd, Kibana) for log aggregation and Grafana/Prometheus for infrastructure monitoring
• Configured DataDog in production for log aggregation, infrastructure monitoring and APM
• Developed performance test scripts using JMeter
• Developed database backup and restore pipelines with PII data sanitization
• Developed a cloud migration solution on AWS using EKS, RDS (MySQL), ACM, S3 and EFS using Terraform for IaC
• Reviewed AWS billing reports reducing unnecessary consumption on a regular basis

NexJ Systems

6 yrs 9 mos

Senior Consultant, Deployment Solutions

Jan 2015 – May 2019 · 4 yrs 5 mos

Professional services DevOps consultant responsible for developing custom solutions for the NexJ Contact CRM solution. This includes developing automation to deploy Java applications to Tomcat, JBoss, and WebSphere as well as integrating with Active Directory and Exchange. Consultation was a mixture of remote support, as well as on-site in Toronto and out of country in the United States, India, Dubai, and Australia.

• Modernized build and deployment processes with CI/CD principals using Jenkins
• Developed monitoring solutions for various clients using ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana), Grafana, AppDynamics, and Splunk
• Modernized application by developing Docker containers
• Developed a Kubernetes solution for GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine)
• Provided workshops around best practices for environment management, code promotion, database maintenance, and security

Desktop Support Specialist

Sep 2012 – Dec 2014 · 2 yrs 4 mos

Team lead responsible for providing technical support to over 250 users. This includes troubleshooting various OS, Desktop application, and printer issues as well as managing Active Directory, SharePoint, and SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager). Other responsibilities include interviewing and managing co-op students.

• Implemented and managed System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
• Automated employee on-boarding process (PowerShell)
• Documented internal processes

Education

Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology

Computer Networking and Technical Support
2010 – 2013

Certifications

Skills

AI & GenAI

• Microsoft Copilot Studio
• Azure AI Search (RAG)
• Azure AI Speech & Communication Services
• Azure Document Intelligence

Cloud Platforms

• Microsoft Azure
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Infrastructure as Code

• Terraform
• Azure Blueprints
• AWS Control Tower / Account Factory

Container & Orchestration

• Kubernetes (AKS, EKS, GKE)
• Docker
• ArgoCD (GitOps)

DevOps & CI/CD

• Azure DevOps
• Jenkins
• BitBucket Pipelines

Monitoring & Observability

• ELK / EFK Stack
• Grafana / Prometheus
• Splunk
• DataDog
• AppDynamics