James Lazo

Phoenix, AZ

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SUMMARY

Results-driven professional with a proven track record of leadership, process optimization and technical problem-solving, now transitioning into DevOps Engineering. Bringing years of experience mentoring teams, streamlining workflows and driving automation, complemented by a strong foundation in AWS, Linux, containerization, Terraform, and CI/CD pipelines. Adept at bridging technical and business needs through clear documentation, effective communication and hands-on engineering. Passionate about leveraging cloud-native technologies to build scalable, secure and efficient infrastructure.

SKILLS, CERTIFICATIONS & TRAINING

AWS

  • Serverless microstacks: Lambda, DynamoDB, S3, SNS, SQS, API GW
  • Container deployments: Fargate, ECS, ECR, EKS
  • Networking: VPC, subnetting, IGW, NGW, Route 53, endpoints
  • Data engineering: Glue, Athena, RDS, EventBridge
  • High availability: Multi-AZ deployments, ALB, auto-scaling, CloudFront
  • Security: IAM, STS, KMS, SSM, security groups

Languages

  • Bash: automation, admin, remote deployments, patching, backup/recovery, troubleshooting
  • Python: automation, unit testing, Lambda functions, data processing, integrations, web development
  • SQL: administration, data analysis
  • Other: YAML, JSON, JavaScript, HTML, CSS XML, R

CI/CD

  • Git version control: branching, rebasing, forking, pull requests, documentation
  • GitHub Actions: automated testing & deployments, matrices, semantic versioning, secrets

Containers

  • Docker: containerization, reverse proxies, registries, migration, troubleshooting
  • Kubernetes: Helm, monitoring (Prometheus/Grafana), config maps, security contexts, persistent volume claims

Infrastructure as Code

  • Terraform: modules, state-locking, remote states, user data, security, secrets management

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Automatic Data Processing | Tempe, AZ

EDI Implementation Specialist | February 2024 to present

  • Lead BPI adoption as Change Champion to mentor and upskill associates
  • Migrate 10+ legacy connections weekly, ensuring accurate data integration
  • Partner with Development Team to identify, track and resolve 15+ bugs through JIRA
  • Independently develop and distribute X12 834 Standard syntax highlighter, promoting 3x analysis speed
  • Secure transmission of insurance benefits PHI per HIPAA requirements, maintaining compliance
  • Analyze XML mapping templates and SQL queries, assisting in template enhancements as needed
  • Drive 50+ concurrent EDI implementations, ensuring organization and priority alignment using Agile methodology while delivering 67% of projects ahead of schedule

AGM Tech Solutions @ADP | Tempe, AZ

EDI Senior Specialist | August 2023 to February 2024

  • Developed and maintained documentation for team knowledge management
  • Restored client confidence by communicating with patience and clarity to resolve escalated cases with 65% closure rate under one week
  • Led team performance with 267 case closures among 43 members during peak season
  • Effective use of Customer Relationship Management platform Salesforce for case management and task creation

Duly Signified, LLC | Phoenix, AZ

Consultant | September 2017 - November 2023

  • Advised automotive multinational company on computer-assisted translation (CAT) project workflows, translation memory management and glossary distribution for 250% increase in consistency and 70% cost reductions in translations of thousands of engineering documents
  • Presented analysis of LLM-generated translations to e-commerce conglomerate for internal review to support business decisions
  • Consulted DOJ on bilingual recorded interview and gave expert testimony regarding the accuracy and reliability of evidence presented to the court
  • Leveraged cloud API services for automated translation validation, quality assurance, and terminology consistency
  • Collaborated with engineering teams to ensure accuracy in translated technical content

Cosmich, Simmons & Brown - Strategic Business Solutions | Scottsdale, AZ

Team Lead | January 2017 - October 2019

  • Identified overly-broad queries and consulted on sufficient and necessary scopes in special reviews, directly leading to cost savings approaching $500,000
  • Developed database queries to automate QC and validation assignments for fully compliant coding of 1M+ documents
  • Oversaw multiple teams and projects concurrently
  • Analyzed 100k+ document pools to identify key areas of interest, and reported insights to Director and legal counsel, enabling agile pivots in legal strategy
  • Maintained technical documentation, realigning large projects with client requirements
  • Implemented backup solution for business critical data

Ryley, Carlock & Applewhite - Document Control Group | Phoenix, AZ

Team Lead | July 2011 - December 2016

  • Coordinated and mentored teams of 35+ translators/attorneys to meet rolling production deadlines of up to 50,000 documents per month
  • Advised name partners, executives, reviewers and other stakeholders, providing clarity and nuance
  • Streamlined 130+ pages of protocol instructions into a fully indexed SOP reference guide, empowering associates to work independently and productively

PROJECTS

Kubernetes Migration | Kubernetes, Docker, Bash, Git, YAML

  • Containerized traditional app package and refactored configuration for k8s deployment
  • Monitoring and time series data graphing with Prometheus & Grafana
  • Developed ConfigMap to automate deployment updates with custom entrypoint.sh
  • Applied Security Contexts to run app as non-privileged user with no privilege escalation

Serverless Fargate Deployment | Terraform, Docker, GitHub Actions, AWS

  • Developed IaC for VPC architecture: subnets, security groups, route tables, etc.
  • Automated CI/CD workflow pushing Docker images to AWS ECR with GitHub Actions
  • Deployed fully serverless highlight processing application

Serverless Data Lake Pipeline | Terraform, AWS (Lambda, Glue, Athena), GitHub Actions

  • Provisioned entire data lake pipeline as IaC with Terraform
  • Automated CI/CD workflow deploying Lambda functions to AWS with GitHub Actions
  • Decoupled API call function from data extraction function with S3 bucket trigger
  • Configured CloudWatch logs for observability & troubleshooting

Kubernetes Course Project | Kubernetes, Helm, Docker, Calico, Bash, Git

  • Deployed website application to Kubernetes with manifests and Helm charts
  • Developed app container in Docker, ensuring portability and idempotent deployments
  • Managed Kubernetes network with Calico CNI

Containerized Wordpress Deployment | Terraform, Docker, AWS, Bash, Git

  • Designed a scalable, fault-tolerant WordPress deployment leveraging AWS services (EC2, ELB, RDS, EBS, S3, ECR, CloudFront, ACM) and Docker containers
  • Decoupled data plane with AWS RDS, designing correct network topology for multi-AZ failover
  • Developed extensive user data scripts in Bash to automate container deployment and external S3 and EFS volumes for shared persistent storage across instances

Cloud Resume Challenge | Terraform, GitHub Actions, AWS, Python

  • Deployed two-tier dynamic website on AWS CloudFront with TLS secure connections
  • Configured Route 53 zone records for domain routing and optimizing content delivery
  • Reduced release cycles by 40% through automated CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions

AWS API Mock/Unit Testing | AWS (Boto, Lambda), Python (Moto, unittest), Git

  • Designed and tested a serverless CRUD API for DynamoDB using AWS Lambda, employing the Moto framework for mock AWS resource provisioning
  • Formulated a battery of unit tests in Python to validate GET, POST, PUT and DELETE API operations, ensuring correct response codes and data integrity

Node.js RESTful API | Node.js, JavaScript, MongoDB

  • Developed a RESTful API for a CRM application using Node.js, Express, and Mongoose to manage customer data with CRUD operations
  • Connected to a secure MongoDB database via Mongoose with authentication
  • Designed modular route handling to promote scalability and maintain code clarity, adhering to RESTful principles

Landing Page | AWS Lambda, Python Flask, API

  • Designed and developed a lightweight webapp built on Flask deployed to AWS Lambda with Zappa for cost-effective scalability, demonstrating serverless architecture
  • The landing page leverages AWS API Gateway, Route 53, and Certificate Manager for secure, domain-specific routing

File Analyzer | AWS Lambda, API Gateway, Python, JavaScript

  • Applied test-driven development principles through the Pytest framework to emphasize software requirements

EDUCATION

Western Governors University

B.S. Cloud Computing | AWS Track | 3.5 GPA | March 2024

  • Founding member: WGU Cloud Computing Society
  • Micro-credentials: AWS Cloud Security, AWS Cloud DevOps