Donald Simpson

DevOps Engineer | SRE | Cloud & Platform Specialist
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

📇 Contact Details

📧 Email	donaldsimpsonATgmailDOTcom
🌐 Website	www.donaldsimpson.co.uk
💼 LinkedIn	linkedin.com/in/donaldsimpson

Profile

Senior DevOps Engineer and published technical author, experienced in building secure, scalable, automated cloud infrastructure using AWS, Kubernetes, and CI/CD tools. Strong advocate of DevSecOps and continuous delivery practices.

Core Skills

• Cloud: AWS (ECS, EKS, Lambda, CF, Kinesis), OpenShift, GCP, OVH
• CI/CD & Automation: GitHub Actions/Workflows, Jenkins, GitLab CI, ArgoCD, Docker, Terraform, CloudFormation, AWS Code*, AWS CDK
• Security: Prisma Cloud, AWS Shield/Security Hub etc, Twistlock, cfn_nag, Dynatrace, Mend etc
• Observability: Dynatrace, Prometheus, OpenSearch, ElasticSearch, Grafana, InfluxDB, ELK stack, DataDog, NewRelic, OTEL
• Tools/languages: Bash, Python, Ansible, Gradle, Artifactory, Java, JUnit, Selenium, and many more…

Recent Experience

Shell (Apr 2023 – Present)

• Developing CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions to manage infrastructure and application deployment
• Supporting AWS EKS-based Kubernetes platforms used by global teams
• Building shared tooling and automation modules with AWS best practices
• Setting up observability using Dynatrace, including synthetics, alerting and performance monitoring

Ubloquity (Nov 2022 – Apr 2023)

• Blockchain integration using Multichain
• Kubernetes management on AWS EKS and bare-metal OVH using Rancher
• Set up centralised logging using OpenSearch and Fluentd
• Built CI/CD pipelines with ArgoCD and DockerHub for container management

RS Components (Mar 2022 – Nov 2022)

• Developed reusable Terraform modules using Terragrunt for AWS infrastructure provisioning
• Built GitLab CI pipelines to build, test, promote and deploy containerised services
• Implemented secure deployment using GitLab Runners on AWS ECS and Nomad
• Migrated workloads from on-prem to AWS and replaced Jenkins with GitLabCI
• Integrated monitoring and DevSecOps tooling (DataDog, Prisma Cloud)

Registers of Scotland (Jan 2020 – Mar 2022)

• Built and automated cloud infrastructure using AWS CDK, CloudFormation, and StepFunctions
• Designed and deployed secure centralized logging platform using Kinesis Firehose, Lambda, and Cognito
• Created self-mutating pipelines with AWS CodeBuild/Deploy/Commit
• Integrated DevSecOps controls using Prisma, CFNGuard, AWS Inspector, WAF, GuardDuty, SecurityHub
• Built cross-account monitoring using CloudWatch, CloudTrail, Elasticsearch and Grafana
• Produced Architecture Decision Records, supported product roadmaps and governance

Royal Bank of Scotland (Oct 2019 – Jan 2020)

• Automated Kubernetes provisioning via Pivotal Cloud Foundry on VMWare
• Onboarded teams to CI/CD and container platforms with Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes
• Delivered DevSecOps pipelines with Twistlock integration

People’s Postcode Lottery (Apr 2019 – Oct 2019)

• Migrated infrastructure from VMWare ESX to AWS
• Automated backup and disaster recovery with AWS Lambda
• Built Jenkins/Docker CI/CD pipelines and integrated security scans (cfn_nag, Twistlock)
• Optimized cost-efficiency using SpotFleet, ECS and Fargate tasks

Tesco Bank (Nov 2018 – Apr 2019)

• Built cloud-native CI/CD pipelines using AWS CloudFormation, Lambda, Jenkins and Ansible
• Integrated Selenium, JMeter and accessibility/security testing tools
• Introduced Docker and Kubernetes proof of concept and adoption roadmap

Earlier Experience (1999 to 2018)

Back before ‘DevOps’ was a thing, I was a Build Engineer/Manager focusing on automating builds and deployments
having started off as a Middleware Developer (Java, Weblogic/Websphere with Oracle on Solaris)
 

• Registers of Scotland – Built OpenShift-based CI/CD pipelines using Docker, Jenkins, RHEL, Grafana & Prometheus
• RBS – Introduced CI pipelines, Docker, Red Hat Satellite, and continuous deployment strategies
• HSBC – Designed CI/CD systems for Oracle & middleware, using Jenkins, Docker, VMWare
• BSkyB – Led CI for mobile apps and automation for Red Hat/VMWare/ESX and Oracle environments
• Tesco Bank – SCM architect for greenfield bank, enabling fully automated builds and deployments
• Intelligent Finance – Migrated platforms from Solaris to HP-UX; automated J2EE builds and monitoring
• 3DMS – Designed email scanning software and managed IIS/Apache-hosted websites

Publications

• Extending Jenkins – Amazon | Sample Chapter
• Beginning Docker (Video) – Packt | Preview

Education & Certifications

• Postgraduate in Information Systems – Napier University
• Bachelor of Land Economy – University of Aberdeen
• MCP & MCSE (Microsoft)
• Advanced WebLogic Admin (BEA)

Projects & Interests

• Runs the Automated IT Solutions Meetup in Edinburgh
• Personal Kubernetes lab with CCTV, facial recognition, ML, and blockchain projects
• Woodturning: blog & gallery
• Guitar, motorbike maintenance, and home automation tinkering

References available on request. Full CV and download options: donaldsimpson.co.uk/my-cv-resume