Mike Ajala

Led automation efforts to reduce deployment pipeline job runtimes, improving reliability and reducing support burden from failing jobs. Drove cost and reliability improvements by reducing Kinesis event stream volume, unifying monitoring, transforming logging with OpenSearch/Grafana Loki, and building SLO/SLI and incident response frameworks.

Engineered SLOs/SLIs as the foundation for reliability across mission-critical systems and worked with platform/backend teams to implement indicators, error budgets, and burn rates. Led Kubernetes deployment architecture improvements, championed secure CI/CD in GitHub Actions, contributed to zero-trust integration, and architected observability solutions across Datadog, New Relic, Grafana, and Spl

Worked with data scientists and engineers to build a business model from legacy data and extracted/transformed data in a Cassandra environment. Remodeled data schema for more efficient access and built data pipelines using R (Shiny) and Python, including designing an MLOps platform for predictive analytics.

Built and scaled robust CI/CD pipelines at a YC21 fintech startup to enable faster time-to-market. Ensured mission-critical operations in data stores, monitored/responded to incidents (including automated client-facing deployments), and mentored engineers in continuous delivery, infrastructure as code (IaC), and automated testing.

As the first infra/devops hire in a small startup, helped manage development workflow for Nigeria’s identity organization. Supported a hybrid cloud setup with NIMC, oversaw physical data center setup, created DataStax Enterprise clusters, implemented MySQL fail-over replication, and built pipelines for backend and mobile engineers.

Developed simulation software and GIS solutions for tactical military applications and served as a go-to technical expert in the center. Led scenario-based exercise and real-time combat simulation design and supported operational methodologies for managing technical assets, procurement, and maintenance.

Developed and deployed backend and full-stack software solutions for university use, including automated systems serving thousands of staff and students. Re-architected and refactored a legacy PHP 5.4 codebase for improved security, performance, and reliability, and managed zero-downtime deployments and critical infrastructure maintenance.

Set up software and hardware solutions for academic clients and mentored undergraduates and postgraduates in coding and software engineering best practices. Led cybersecurity innovation efforts, trained staff using VNC and RDP, curated and taught technical short courses, and supported stakeholder coordination and lab spin-offs.

Built functional web applications and websites for clients and advised on domain acquisition and hosting optimization to reduce operational costs. Worked with tools including SFTP, cPanel, and WordPress.

Earned the Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer certification.

Completed WorldQuant University scientific computing and Python for data science training.

Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Science and Engineering. The program was listed as incomplete in 2017.

Bachelor of Technology in Physics (Electronics), beginning April 2013. End date was not provided.

Completed high school education and earned distinctions in Mathematics, English, Biology, and Economics (WASSCE). Also earned distinctions in Mathematics, English, and Biology (NECO).

Completed Udacity Cloud DevOps nanodegree.

Completed Udacity Data Engineering nanodegree.

Completed Udacity AI Programming with Python nanodegree.