James White
AVP - Software Engineering at Moody's
Technology Professional | Software Engineer | Cloud Architect | Cybersecurity guru
- Located in Charlotte, NC
- Contact me: james.d.w.3 at Google Mail
- Cell: eight oh three... five five 3...six 7 nine 2
- Site: jamesdw.com - Linked In
- Contact me: james.d.w.3 at Google Mail
- Cell: eight oh three... five five 3...six 7 nine 2
- Site: jamesdw.com - Linked In
Experience
-
Moody's
Mar 2023 - Present
AVP - Software Engineering & Cloud Architect
- Helping to lead the design, development and implementation of next - generation financial rating applications for the Structured Finance Group (SFG) at Moody's
- Performing cloud migration impact analysis for existing rating analysts' applications, and then lead the implementation and deployment of these same apps
- Interfaced with multiple teams to ensure we are arriving at the best solution from an architecture, cost and efficency standpoint
- Utilizing cloud - native services from AWS to architect and build new rating solutions that utilize step functions and ECS clusters to perform millions of complex matrix calculations to deliver better insights, faster results and financial models - to ultimately bring better value to our market analysts, researchers and clients
- Helped reduce complex, multi-variable model run time down to 30 minutes from 8 hrs - a 16x increase in performance using ECS clusters and AWS cloud
- AWS Services used regularly
- - VPCs, Subnets, Regions, AZs, ALB/NLB, WAF, Ingress/Egress, CIDR, Route53
- - API Gateway, API Routing, RESTful patterns, Authorizers (oAuth gateway) security using JWT tokens
- - EC2 instances, Lambda, Fargate; AWS Step Functions Images
- - ECS clusters initiated by a AWS State Machine
- - S3, RDS and DB solutions, CloudWatch, CloudTrail
- - IaaC - CloudFormation templates and building resources; Terraform
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Accenture
May 2020 - Feb 2023
Manager, Tech Lead, Senior Software Engineer
- Spearheaded a business wide, technology transformation to implement a query interface layer using GraphQL to query thousands of REST API endpoints for a banking client
- Assisted with two different teams to implement the query layer in different languages(GO,NodeJS) and different architectures (Lambda, Containers)
- Utilized K6 for performance testing the two solutions as well as AWS Cloudwatch, AWS X-Ray & Splunk
- Modernized a financial services clients infrastructure by utilizing serverless, event - driven architecture using AWS Lambda, SQS, SNS, IAM and other AWS cloud components
- Successfully managed 18+ onshore & offshore resources for multiple, complex cloud & mobile engagements for a HCM client - Awarded Tech Lead of the FY21
- Collaborated with key client stakeholders to review client engagements, promote and increased services presence, discuss risks, rates, staffing and mitigation plans
- Technologies used daily
- - NodeJS, AWS API GW, AWS Lambda, GraphQL, Apollo Server, Terraform, JIRA, OpenTelemetry, AWS X-Ray, CloudFormation; RESTful patterns
Skills & Tools
- 15+ years of Enterprise application planning, development, implementation
- Enterprise Solution Architecture, Development & Management
- Proven leader having led 15+ implementations across the USA, UK and Asia
- Capable of leading multiple teams and workstreams, and delivering on-time & under budget - Awarded Accenture Ultimate Tech Lead (FY21)
- Skilled in Cloud strategy, cloud-native architecture & cloud migration
- Performed many cloud migration analysis, and then tasked with the implementation and deployment
- Provides thought leadership, process improvement and innovation
- Superb client relationship management and development
- Worked with Pre-Sales, performed Demos to VPs, CTOs; Responded to RFPs - provided estimates, project & resource plans
- Adept at REST API patterns & SOAP protocol
- Proficient in Linux, command line and bash scripting
- Agile, Scrum & Kanban Methodology
- Infrastructure as Code (AWS CloudFormation, Terraform)
- Cloud & Cybersecurity guru (Purple, yellow, red & blue)
- Architectural design patterns: MicroServices, Tiered, MVC, Monolith
- Training development & presentation to all types of audiences
- Capable of performance and load Testing with Grafana K6
- 27+ years of coding & following the internet revolution since 1996, on my first computer, a compaq 100Mhz WIn95
- Autodidactic, aspiring polymath w/ a unique vision & perspicacity
- AWS Certified Solution Architect
- - VPCs, Subnets, Routing, ALB/NLB, Regions, AZs, WAF, Ingress/Egress, Route53 (DNS)
- - API Gateway, RESTful practices, API Routing; Authorizers: Secure your gateway with oAuth and JWT tokens
- - EC2, Lambdas, Fargate, RDS, S3, Route53, VPC, WAF, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, AWS X-Ray
- - ECS, ECS Clusters, Step Functions, State Machines
- CloudFormation, CloudFormation Templates
- Languages:
- - .NET6, Dot NET, C#10, ASP.NET; NodeJS, Python; PHP, Java, JavaScript; Learning GO; Bash/Shell scripting
- DevSecOps:
- - CI/CD patterns, WAF, Security Groups, ACLs; Jenkins, GitHub Actions, AWS CodePipeline
- Databases:
- - SQL Server, MySQL, Postgres, DynamoDB, AWS RDS, AWS DocumentDB
- Networking:
- - TCP/IP, HTTP, OSI model, VPCs, Subnets, Regions, AZs, Firewalls, Routing, ALB/NLB, SMTP, TLS, DNS, DHCP, ARP
- Infrastructure as Code (IaaC):
- - CloudFormation, CloudFormation Templates, AWS CDK2, Terraform
- Responsive web design:
- - HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Bootstrap, Flask, jQuery; Angular, React
Certifications
Education
- Major: Computer Science
- Bachelor of Science, College of Engineering and Computing
- University of South Carolina (USC) - Columbia, SC - 2008
- President's List, Dean's List
- Computer Science & Math Tutor
- Intramural indooor & outdoor soccer
- BioInformatics Team
- - Co-Founder and developer under the tutalage of Dr. Valafar at USC
- - Performed millions of complex matrix calculations using C++ to aid in the dev of
- - Developed complex advanced artifical nueral networks (ANNs) to perform analysis on residual dipolar couplings (RDCs) to help fold proteins
- - Coded a super fast, non - recursive permutation and combination algorithm that is still used
- - Papers published by the team after I graduated are available at Google Scholar;
- Selected/Earned a Summer Scholoarship with the USC College of Engineering & Computing, out of 100s of applicants
Further Reading & Interests
- Technology & Computing
- - Hacker News: Stay up-to-date with technology; run by a huge group of tech investors, Y Combinator click here
- - AWS Certifications: I encourage everyone in technology, regardless of role, to get the Cloud Practitioner certification from AWSverify
- - Browser Fingerprinting: VPNs are essentially useless except to hide your ip. Everyone's browser has a unique fingerprint. learn more
- - Linux: Get off windows, use the command line, better for greyhat activities*** - Linux Upskillinghere; LPI Linux Certs: here
- - USC College of Enginnering: College of Engineering & Computing, class of 2008 at THE University of South Carolina; Go Gamecocks! best school in SC
- - PinePhone: Take back control of your phone - a true linux smart phone with physical switches for wifi, bt, camera & removeable battery all for $200 Pine64
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Learn to Code
- - Build your own website: Learn HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript! w3Schoolsis here;
- - Learn to Code: You have to start somewhere, so start with python! Tons of resources: here; Free Intro Class from Harvard: CS50
- - Learn GIT git is THE source control (code) management tool. Easily learn git by completing exercises Site one; Site two
- - Networking: Network fundamentals are an essential tool now that software can emulate hardware; Start here: OSI model; Internet Protocols: are here
- Interests
- - Cyber Security: There is no such thing as totally secure network, but you can strive for one. learn cryptography; Sec+ Cert; Router Security: is a joke
- - Portugal. The Man: The best band that I know of. Innovative, psych-chill, indie pop rock from Alaska: website; new album: listen; summer of luv: here; so younghere
- - NC Hiking: great hike with ladders, ropes & great views grandfather trail
- - GreyHat Activities: Reverse shells, phishing, network exploitation, ARP/DNS/Cache poisioning. Learn the tools of the trade: Grey Hat Hacking
- - Others: Learning new things, reading, spending time with family and friends, table tennisß, exploring the world, music and adventures
- Recommended Reading (these are not affiliate links)
- - AWS Cookbook: Great for beginners and neophytes to learn AWS learn cryptography; Security+ Cert
- - TCP/IP Guide: Almost 2k pages, this is THE guide to the TCP/IP protocol: website;
- - The GHIDRA Book: The tool the NSA uses to reverse engineer malware: GHIDRA Open Source RE Tool
- - AI Revolution: Written in 2015 before GPT3, this lengthy article explores the advantages, disadvantages and FATAL dangers of AI. A must read Part 1; Part 2 is here
- - Michael Crichton: My favorite author, I have read every book he has published: Sphere, Airframe, Disclosure, Andromeda Strain, Next, Rising Sun, Prey, Congo, Sphere, Jurassic Park, Lost World are some greats
- - Kurt Vonnegut: 2nd favorite author, Vonnegut will expand your mind and touch on advanced/complex subjects with such ease
- Travel
- - Quote: The world is a big book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
- - Countries: USA, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Brazil, China, Macau, India, St. Maarten, Mexico, Jamaica, Belize
- - Upcoming: Central Europe, Northern Africa, Peru