Mike Rhonek
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARYResults-driven Senior Full Stack Developer and DevOps Engineer with 25 years of experience bridging enterprise-grade software architecture and infrastructure engineering. Highly adept in building scalable applications using modern JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks while designing robust cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure). Combines frontend and backend development excellence with Kubernetes orchestration, microservices, and infrastructure-as-code implementation through Terraform. Proven track record optimizing application performance across the entire technology stack, from compelling UIs to multi-tenant containerized environments and secure networking. Skilled at integrating AI technologies while maintaining system security, scalability, and reliability. Balances technical architecture expertise with creative problem-solving to deliver maintainable solutions that evolve with client needs, consistently enhancing both developer experience and user satisfaction.EXPERIENCEDirector of Solutions Engineering
RHNK Digital LLC, Cupertino, CA, 2022–Current
• Spearheaded 0-to-1 application development and product engineering of a comprehensive platform enabling mental health professionals to transition into coaching, including end-to-end business automation, and service delivery tools
• Quarterbacked technical pre-sales and solutions engineering initiatives, delivering technical proof of concept demonstrations (POV) that showcased reduction in implementation timelines from 12 weeks to 6 through automated DevOps tools and asynchronous processing models
• Devised architecture design documents and solutions by gathering customer requirements, defining success criteria to deliver features aligned with customer needs and elicit customer success
• Orchestrated cross-functional technical partnerships with third-party vendors, developing integration playbooks and solution diagrams that accelerated customer onboarding from 45 days to 3 hours
• Influenced product roadmap through continuous strategic account feedback collection and market analysis, gaining alignment with emerging mental healthcare industry trends
• Conducted product demonstrations, enhancing product development efforts through sales engineering and across marketing teams by leveraging specifications and creative approaches to deliver value
• Led infrastructure management initiatives to ensure platform reliability, scalability, and cost efficiency across multi-cloud environmentsSenior Solutions Architect
Harness.io, San Francisco, CA, 2021–2022
• Leveraged MEDDPICC methodology and technical subject matter expertise to qualify opportunities and drive technical sales through POVs, helping increase pipeline conversions with strong technical qualification
• Designed and implemented DevOps architectures on AWS/GCP, integrating REST APIs, VPN-based secure access layers, and asynchronous pipelines to meet enterprise-grade requirements
• Facilitated collaborative code reviews and helped resolve performance issues, ensuring adherence to security, maintainability, and reliability standards
• Authored best practices for deployment, governance, and management tools, contributing to improved internal enablement and customer success via detailed internal wikis
• Advocated for modern programming languages and frameworks to support scalable microservices and cloud-native initiativesSenior Site Reliability Engineer
Build.com, Chico, CA, 2017–2021
• Architected cloud-native solutions on AWS and Azure using Docker and Kubernetes, enabling secure deployments and resilient network architecture with advanced firewall configurations and load balancing strategies
• Reduced deployment rollbacks from 32 minutes to 32 seconds by automating deployment pipelines and proactively resolving performance issues
• Prevented $250k monthly revenue loss via advanced bot mitigation, behavioral analytics pipelines, and real-time business intelligence delivery to stakeholders
• Participated in CNCF events and KubeCon, enhancing technical leadership and industry knowledge in security, observability, and cloud platform resilience
• Maintained operational runbooks and infrastructure documentation to support team-wide infrastructure management
• Drove adoption of configuration and provisioning standards with tools like Terraform and Puppet, increasing automation, cost efficiency, and auditabilitySenior Systems Administrator
EXL Healthcare, Chico, CA, 2014–2017
• Led efforts to virtualize legacy environments, implementing high-availability (HA) systems and secure network architecture, improving service reliability
• Ensured regulatory compliance (HIPAA/SOC2) through hardened security frameworks, custom network segmentation, and governance-aligned implementation of HL7/FHIR protocols
• Played a key role in technical leadership and IT budget discussions, supporting cloud migrations and long-term infrastructure planning
• Designed remote-access strategies using encrypted VPN tunnels to facilitate secure employee connectivity across regional healthcare centersSenior Systems Administrator / DBA
SunGard Public Sector, Chico, CA, 2007–2014
• Delivered cloud platform solutions for 40+ public sector institutions, enhancing operational uptime and supporting over 30,000 users
• Managed mission-critical UNIX and Windows server environments with a focus on high availability, load distribution, and infrastructure management
• Provided hands-on technical leadership and client engagement, promoting proactive governance and adoption of new tools across long-term engagementsSystems Administrator
Travdia, Chico, CA, 2003–2007
• Worked directly with CTO to prioritize and manage system infrastructure including project management for deployment of products and services for Client sites.
• Administered over 80 servers and services in a co-located environment. Regularly conducted requirement and process analysis for internal and Client projects.
• Designed and presented training curriculum in various applications and procedures for staff and clients.Systems Administrator
California State University, Chico, CA, 2001–2003
• Active Directory domain administrator for over 3,500 faculty and staff. Responsible for managing and operating Exchange email, AS400 mainframe, peripheral equipment and related network services.
• Performed backup and disaster recovery procedures. Scheduled and managed repairs to mainframe and related equipmentHardware Services Consultant
PCI Computer Services, Chico, CA, 2000–2001
• Performed primary construction and maintenance on computer and network hardware.
• Consulted with Clients on system needs and advised them on the design and components required.TECHNICAL SKILLSCloud & DevOps: AWS (EKS, ECR, IAM, OIDC, VPC), GCP, Azure, Terraform, CloudFormation, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Harness, Artifactory, Git/GitHub, Jira, Slack
Containerization/Orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes, EKS
Provisioning: Foreman/Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Terraform
Programming & Development: Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Bash, React, Node.js, Express.js, JSON, YAML, SQL, VCL, HTML, CSS, Tailwind CSS
Data & Analytics: ETL Pipeline Development, Pandas, SQLAlchemy, Streamlit, Matplotlib, Postgres, MongoDB, Oracle, MSSQL, Mysql, Redis, Elasticsearch
AI & Natural Language Processing: OpenAI GPT-4o, Anthropic Claude, LangChain, spaCy, Prompt Engineering
Monitoring & Observability: New Relic, Grafana, SumoLogic
System Administration: *Nix (RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu, HP, Sun, AIX), Windows Server, Apache, Nginx, Tomcat, IIS, AD, DNS, LDAP, RabbitMQ
Virtualization: ESXi, VMware vSphere, VirtualBox, Vagrant
Network & Security: F5, Cisco, Brocade, SonicWall, CheckPoint, Fastly, PerimeterX, CyberArk, HAProxy, Okta, JWT, OAuth
Hardware: HP Blade, EMC SAN, APCEDUCATION
California State University, Chico: 2001 – 2003