18 Years of Building Infrastructure That Doesn't Break

I started as a systems administrator in 2007, managing Linux servers and on-prem data centers at Interactions LLC. Over nearly 14 years there, I migrated 500+ VMs from 4 on-premise data centers into AWS, introduced containerization and Kubernetes to replace legacy systems, and automated patching across hundreds of servers to achieve 100% compliance. By the time I left, I was managing a 5-person engineering team and overseeing $1.5M in infrastructure capital projects.

From there, I joined sFOX as a Senior Site Reliability Engineer, where I managed cloud infrastructure for a high-volume cryptocurrency trading platform processing millions in daily transactions. I consolidated three EKS clusters into one without downtime, cut AWS spend by 50% ($70K to $35K/month), modernized CI/CD from CircleCI to GitHub Actions + ArgoCD (reducing deployment time by 70%), and led a successful SOC 2 Type II audit. Four SOC 2 audits total across my career — zero major findings.

In 2025, I took 5 months to thru-hike the entire Appalachian Trail — 2,198 miles from Georgia to Maine. I came back sharper, calmer, and more intentional about the work I take on. Kernel Panic LLC is that focus: helping companies stop duct-taping their infrastructure together and actually ship systems that scale.

The name is a reminder that things will break. The difference is whether you break in dev or in front of your customers. I make sure it's the former.