northcutted@gmail.com • +1 (618) 541-8770 • https://northcutted.github.io/resume/ • Charleston, Illinois, US • LinkedIn

Experienced Software Engineer with a strong focus on platform
engineering, DevOps, and secure, scalable cloud infrastructure.
Specializes in building shared systems; including enterprise container
images, CI/CD platforms, and developer tooling that simplify workflows,
reduce duplication, and drive efficiency at scale. Proven track record
of delivering solutions used by thousands of engineers, leading complex
migrations, and embedding automation and security into core development
platforms.

Skills

-   Programming/Scripting: Go, Python, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript,
    Ruby, HTML, CSS, Bash
-   Containerization & Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes, Red Hat
    OpenShift (ROSA), Multi-Arch Builds (ARM64/AMD64), Helm, Sysbox.
-   Cloud & Infrastructure: AWS (EC2, ECR, S3, IAM, CloudWatch),
    Fargate, VPC Networking, Red Hat Openshift, Terraform/OpenTofu,
    Ansible, Puppet
-   CI/CD & DevOps: GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Automated
    Vulnerability Remediation, Supply Chain Security.
-   Observability: Grafana, ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana),
    Prometheus, CloudWatch
-   System Design: JVM Tuning/Profiling, Linux System Administration,
    Distributed Systems, API Design, LLM workflow integration.

Experience

Lead Software Engineer II, State Farm (Bloomington, IL/Hybrid-Remote)

April 2024 - Present

Sole engineer responsible for transforming enterprise container image
management from ad-hoc community efforts into a governed,
multi-architecture product. Architected and delivered a standardized
base image ecosystem that now powers the majority of production
kubernetes workloads, reducing operational variance and accelerating
delivery across the enterprise.

-   Enterprise Scale & Adoption: Scaled adoption from zero to over 730
    unique applications leveraging official enterprise base images in
    2025, used in over 108,000 image builds.
-   Multi-Architecture & Optimization: Architected a modular image suite
    supporting both Linux/arm64 and Linux/amd64, enabling runtime cost
    savings. Implemented layered inheritance to maximize caching,
    minimize storage footprint and transfer costs.
-   JVM Middleware Innovation: Delivered a tool integrated into base
    image designed to optimize heap sizing and garbage collection for
    JVM applications on Kubernetes, significantly improving stability
    and reducing cognitive load for teams migrating from legacy
    platforms.
-   Security Automation: Slashed vulnerability remediation time to under
    24 hours (down from days) by implementing automated patching
    pipelines.
-   Observability: Built comprehensive OpenSearch/Kibana dashboards to
    visualize adoption trends and track legacy registry usage, enabling
    data-driven governance decisions.
-   Developer Enablement: Created searchable, RAG-optimized
    documentation to facilitate LLM-powered knowledge retrieval for
    engineering teams.

Lead Software Engineer, State Farm (Bloomington, IL/Hybrid-Remote)

August 2020 - April 2024

Directed and enhanced Source Control Management (SCM) and CI/CD
capabilities, supporting over 10,000 engineers. Focused on pipeline
architecture, service resiliency, and development best practices.

-   Shared CI/CD Service: Engineered a shared CI/CD service using GitLab
    Runners, enabling users to leverage isolated, secure container
    builds via Sysbox. By 2022, this system managed over half of all
    pipelines at State Farm.
-   Cloud Migration: Successfully migrated the CI/CD infrastructure from
    on-premises to AWS in 2023, implementing robust autoscaling to
    handle peak loads.
-   Inner-Source Leadership: Launched Terraform modules and container
    images for pipeline usage to accelerate development velocity.
-   Metrics & Observability: Developed a cloud-based solution to collect
    CI/CD metrics, using Grafana to visualize usage data for
    consumer-facing dashboards.
-   Platform Migration: Transitioned users from legacy Jenkins services
    to the shared GitLab CI/CD platform, providing custom solutions for
    complex migration challenges.

Software Developer, State Farm (Bloomington, IL)

June 2018 - August 2020

Collaborated with a team of seven engineers to maintain and enhance
proprietary tools for insurance product design, managing complex backend
validations and database integrations.

-   Security Tooling: Developed an internal tool to scan projects for
    vulnerable dependencies and provide automated upgrade suggestions.
    This tool was adopted by the application security team.
-   Legacy Modernization: Maintained REST endpoints and Java IMS
    services interacting with IBM MQ. Played a pivotal role in migrating
    applications from a legacy WAS platform to Pivotal Cloud Foundry
    (Postgres, RabbitMQ, Spring Boot).

IT/Systems Intern, State Farm (Champaign, IL)

Summer 2017 - Spring 2018

-   Developed a solution to assist with PCI DSS compliance audits as a
    full-stack developer.
-   Assisted business partners in writing recovery plans for business
    continuity.

Education

B.S. in Agricultural and Consumer Economics - Finance in Agribusiness (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Fall 2014 - Spring 2018

-   GPA: 3.55
-   CS 225 - Data Structures

Publications

-   DevSecFinOps: The Challenge of Implementing a Secure and
    Cost-Effective Container-Based CI/CD System – State Farm Engineering
    Blog (July 2025)
    -   Co-authored a technical deep dive detailing the architecture and
        implementation of a secure, cost-effective container-based CI/CD
        system, highlighting solutions to key engineering challenges.

Languages

-   English: Native speaker