Hello, I'm Jakob

About

I solve problems with the tools available. I am a DevOps engineer with a bias for action that will get the job done. That isn’t hollow resume fluff. I served as a Sergeant in the Army deploying to Baghdad as a combat medic where action saved lives. After a master’s degree in Microbiology and Immunology, I worked in an infectious disease lab where, in the very early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, my effort and resolve lead my hospital to have one of the first non-health department COVID-19 tests validated in the state. Following a career transition into cloud architecture and engineering, I continue to level up and push myself so that I will be equipped and ready to take action. When I take a job, I get it done.

Certifications and such

  • AWS Community Builder (serverless) – (2021 - Present)
  • ACloud.Guru Community Influencer/Insider – (2020 - Present)
  • AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
  • AWS Certified Solutions Architect-Associate
  • Scaled Agile Certified SAFe 5 Practitioner

Skills
  • Git
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  • AWS
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  • GCP
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  • Artifactory
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  • Kubernetes
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  • Linux/Bash
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  • Terraform
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  • Python
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  • CI/CD pipelines
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  • Go
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  • Serverless
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  • JavaScript
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  • Docker
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  • MySQL
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  • Visual Basic for Applications     
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  • HTML/CSS
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    Experience

    December 2021 - Present
    DevOps Engineer, Yello.co - Chicago, IL

    Also developing resilient, highly available solutions supporting global cloud operations.

    • AWS | GitLab | CICD | Kubernetes
    April 2021 - December 2021
    Associate DevOps Engineer, Mitel - Chicago, IL (Remote)

    Developing resilient, highly available solutions supporting global cloud operations.

    • Maintained microservice platform on Google Cloud Platform with Kubernetes
    • Maintained CI/CD pipelines for deployment on GCP using BitBucket pipelines and Terraform
    • Provided service desk support for developers and operations personnel to enable cloud best practices
    • Participated story creation, planning and retrospectives, sprint work, and all aspects of an Agile development team
    December 2016 - April 2021
    Laboratory Software Developer, Lurie Children’s Hospital - Chicago, IL

    Supported clinical testing and research in government and industry sponsored clinical trials in HIV/AIDS, Influenza, and COVID19 by developing, deploying, updating, and maintaining applications to increase efficiency and decrease errors.

    • Developed and deployed a custom Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for recording, tracking, and reporting internal patients, tests, and results saving thousands of hours and greatly reducing errors.
    • Maintained and provided regular feature updates to applications based on user requests.
    • Developed and maintained a database for a multi-site national clinical trial with >2000 study participants.
    • Regularly created custom scripts to crawl through files of loosely structured data for one-off projects.
    July 2015 – April 2021
    Clinical Research Technologist, Lurie Children’s Hospital - Chicago, IL

    Supported clinical testing and research in government and industry sponsored clinical trials in HIV/AIDS, Influenza, and COVID-19 by developing and performing high complexity testing.

    • Developed and validated a protocol for detection of HIV in newborns which was approved for clinical and Aids Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) usage for 1/50th the cost and ½ the time of commercially available tests.
    • Led hospital effort to rapidly validate and efficiently scale high throughput COVID-19 testing decreasing turnaround time from 6+ days to <1 day.
    • Performed in lead and support roles in industry sponsored IVD development trials by global pharmaceutical companies such as Alere/Abbott, and BD, helping get their products FDA approval and to market.
    • Performed in lead and support roles in multiple COVID-19 therapeutic (REGN-COV2 (Regeneron) & remdesivir (Gilead)) and vaccine (JNJ-78436735 (Janssen) & AZD1222 (AstraZeneca)) studies.
    • Advocated within the Lurie Children’s network for just distribution of COVID-19 testing capacity to underserved populations.
    August 2010 – June 2015
    Graduate Student Researcher, Loyola University Chicago - Chicago, IL

    Conducted research on the role of central metabolism and electron transport in biofilm formation and symbiotic association by Vibrio fischeri.

    • Developed a protocol for targeted introduction of genes into the V. fischeri chromosome.
    • Streamlined conjugation protocols to allow isolation of desired strains from 5 to 2 days.
    • Mutagenized and screened 47,000+ mutant strains for desired phenotype.
    • Utilized molecular, genetic, and bioinformatic methods to identify mutation location of 200+ mutant strains.
    • Regularly presented research findings at department meetings and scholarly conferences to multidisciplinary audiences.
    • Mentored junior graduate, undergraduate, and high school students during the development and implementation of their research projects.
    February 2003 – February 2008
    Medical Sergeant, United States Army
    • Supervised and evaluated the performance of a squad of junior medics.
    • Coordinated acquisition and maintained medical supply for a 500+ cavalry squadron throughout a 15-month combat deployment.

    Education

    May 2015
    M.S. Microbiology and Immunology, Loyola University Chicago

    Thesis: The Role of Central Metabolism in Biofilm Formation by Vibrio fischeri.

    May 2010
    B.S. Biology, North Park University

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