TJ Smith
Senior Platform Engineer
Make the right way the easy way, if not, the only way.
About Me
Results-driven engineer specializing in enhancing developer productivity and automation. Proven expertise in building scalable internal platforms, automating infrastructure and security compliance, bolstering system reliability, and pioneering robust CI/CD pipelines. I apply Lean Management & Six Sigma principles to eliminate variance in processes spanning from initial onboarding to production deployment. The solutions I architect are designed to mitigate business and security risks, eliminate process variance, and minimize cost through ensuring adherence to best practices by design.
Experience
Senior Platform Engineer
May 2025 - Present- Automated the management of GitHub organization (120+ repositories, 100+ teams, 290+ users) using custom scripts, Terraform, and SCIM / Okta, standardizing repository setup and streamlining user lifecycle management
- Facilitated a critical AWS to GCP migration for 16 Kubernetes environments by providing SME guidance and rapidly developing tooling across the full stack (Python, Go, TypeScript) to mitigate downtime
- Led a security initiative to eradicate plaintext secrets from QA environments by scripting the encryption and consolidation of all secrets using SOPS/KSOPS, eliminating an entire class of security vulnerabilities
- Plan and scope interdepartmental projects and work assignments, drive adoption of engineering best practices across platform teams
Platform Engineer
Jan 2024 - May 2025- Authored a suite of standardized reusable GitHub Actions workflows to enable rapid, org-wide response to security threats and compliance updates
- Internal Developer Portal Owner & SME (Python BE, TS / React / Remix FE). Developed a full-featured companion CLI in Go (Cobra), enabling developers to manage app deployments and securely interact with platform resources
- Refactored the engineering onboarding process with a task-based automation suite (go-task, Bash), cutting setup from 3 days to under 3 hours
- Managed company GitHub Organization using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)
- Applied Lean Six Sigma Poka Yoke techniques to eliminate process variance
Associate Platform Engineer
Oct 2022 - Jan 2024- Security hardened Docker builds by hardening base images and templating multi-stage app builds, resulting in eradication of >95% of vulnerabilities
- Pioneered a proprietary shift-left CI/CD production deployment audit and gating mechanism, integrating signals from GitHub, Slack, Kubernetes, QA Wolf, and Allure, reducing Sev 1 incidents by >75%
- Maintained >99% uptime across 20 production-like QA Kubernetes environments via proactive monitoring and automated health checks
- Built full-featured CLI applications and shell scripts for task automation
- Contributed to GitHub Organization management and access controls
Education
Master's Degree
Engineering & Tech. Mgmt.
Louisiana Tech University
2018 - 2020
- Magna Cum Laude (GPA: 3.81)
Bachelor's Degree
Neuroscience
Washington State University
2012 - 2016
- GPA: 3.4
Bachelor's Degree
Psychology
Washington State University
2012 - 2016
- GPA: 3.8
Skills
Languages
Infrastructure
Cloud
Observability & Management
Practices
Certifications
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
Louisiana Tech University
2020
Python Black Belt
Coding Dojo
2022