James Nesta

Bedford, MA j.nesta@gmail.com jamesnesta.com

Key Competencies

  • DevOps lead with 20+ years in software and infrastructure, focused on automating all the things.
  • Runs production systems across Azure, AWS, and on-premises environments. Hands dirty with Kubernetes, Docker, NixOS, virtual machines on vSphere and Nutanix, and good old-fashioned bare metal.
  • Builds secure CI/CD pipelines with automated tests, linting, and code-review controls. Adores type safety.
  • Eclectic background spanning the infrastructure trifecta: server ops, networking, and information security.
  • Automates infrastructure deployment and configuration with Terraform, Pulumi, Ansible, and Puppet. When the tools fall short, writes the missing pieces in TypeScript, Python, and Go.
  • 13 years of open-source work on GitHub, including 21 merged pull requests to typescript-eslint.
  • Communicates clearly in writing and on the mic: a technical essay on developer tooling and charity speedrun co-commentary (as "Zamiel") viewed over 1 million times.

Work Experience

DevOps Lead, LogixHealth

2024-Present
  • Led a team of 10 to deploy Azure Kubernetes Service clusters and migrate 178 on-premises Windows servers to Azure VMs and Linux containers, modernizing the company's application infrastructure.
  • Rebuilt the company's CI/CD platform on Argo Workflows with a single shared container image. Expanded basic compilation checks to 53 linters and custom tools, including ESLint, Ruff, and TFLint.
  • Authored Azure DevOps tooling that emulates GitHub CODEOWNERS, enforcing over 500 granular ownership rules across the company's monorepos and strengthening security through required code review.
  • Consolidated scattered SharePoint documentation into a centralized Docusaurus site backed by Git and Markdown, creating a searchable, version-controlled source of truth.

Senior InfoSec Engineer, MITRE

2017-2023
  • Operated MITRE's InfoSec production fleet across datacenters and the cloud, protecting employees and sponsors from nation-state and criminal cyber threats.
  • Engineered and implemented InfoSec's Puppet infrastructure, keeping configuration consistent across 300+ production systems and eliminating drift, with every change version-controlled in Git.
  • Managed a 32-node Elasticsearch cluster with custom tooling written to automate deployment and upgrades, serving over 100 terabytes of data for InfoSec analysts.
  • Authored software to create custom environments in a sensitive InfoSec lab by interfacing with software-defined networking in Cisco Nexus, pfSense routers, and vSphere ESXi hosts, speeding up deployments from 14+ days to a single day.

Full Stack Engineer, Symantec

2013-2017
  • Architected and implemented the Symantec Cyber Readiness Challenge and the Symantec Cyber War Games, a series of over 50 offensive hacking challenges that were held both online and in over 30 locations around the world.
  • Authored in-house solutions including customer-facing web applications (PHP & JavaScript), datacenter provisioning (Perl & vSphere CLI), and automated cloud deployment (Packer & Ansible in AWS EC2).

Staff Sergeant Select, United States Air Force (Honorably Separated)

2005-2010
  • Rapid-response communications technician, prepared to deploy anywhere in Europe or Africa within 72 hours to support military and humanitarian missions.
  • Responsible for maintenance and deployment of eight network infrastructure and computer system suites worth $3,700,000.
  • Deployed on missions to Baumholder, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Hungary, requiring a Top Secret security clearance.

Education

University of Nebraska at Omaha, College of Information Science and Technology

2009-2013
  • Bachelor's degree in Information Assurance with a minor in Computer Science.

Interests

Avid reader of Astral Codex Ten, pickleball maniac, creator of the biggest Hanabi website, and 10% Pledger.