James Lazo
Results-driven professional with a proven track record of leadership, process optimization and technical problem-solving, transitioned 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.
Certifications
Skills
Cloud Resume Challenge
Containerized CMS Deployment
Deployed WordPress in a Multi-AZ load-balanced configuration, decoupling the data and application layers
Data Lake Pipeline
Provisioned data lake pipeline with Terraform and developed automated CI/CD workflow for Lambda deployments
Game Reel Highlight Processor
Video highlight processor deployed to AWS Fargate through ECR, with GitHub Actions CI/CD
Kubernetes Migration
Containerized traditional app package and refactored configuration for k8s deployment with Grafana/Prometheus monitoring
Personal Website
Static website built with DevOps principles including dev container and per-branch CI/CD workflow
Explore all projects
View my Deployments page to see more.
GitHub Actions Workflow
Developed GitHub Actions workflow to update commits to KubeCraft Community documentation
Experience
AWS Infrastructure & DevOps Engineer
Provide business solutions to drive automation, streamline development processes and strengthen security postures.
- Develop and automate CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions, reducing deployment times by 150%
- Migrate traditional apps to Kubernetes, leveraging high-availability, orchestration and automation
- Automate unit/regression testing and reporting, boosting development time by up to 20%
- Contribute to open source projects, supporting more sophisticated or stable integrations
- Provision Infrastructure as Code with Terraform & CloudFormation, improving deployment consistency while reducing deployment times by up to 300%
- Design Multi-AZ failover deployments provisioned from the VPC up entirely in IaC, decoupling application and data tiers for 4x app resilience
- Monitor deployments to efficiently resolve problems and reduce mean time to recovery by 5-10 times
- Test on-premises and cloud API routes, ensuring secure and reliable cross-service communication
EDI Implementation Specialist
Drove optimization and mentored associates in upskilling for improved processes.
- 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, tripling 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
Consultant
Applied expertise in industry tools and workflows to cut costs and shape efficient pipelines.
- Advised automotive multinational company on translation system implementation with 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
Team Lead
Identified and executed on opportunities for automation, process improvement and cost-savings.
- 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
- 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
Team Lead
Developed documentation and organized project processes for improved transparency.
- 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
Education
Western Governors University
AWS Track