AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate

Cloud architecture shaped by real operations work.

I am an internal Amazon technical SME building toward cloud architecture roles, with a background in quality operations, automation, self-hosted infrastructure, hardware diagnostics, and cost-aware system design.

My best work sits where systems thinking meets the floor: turning operational signals into event-driven designs, protecting public interfaces from abuse, and choosing managed AWS services that solve the problem without adding unnecessary spend.

2 AWS certificationsSolutions Architect Associate and AI Practitioner

Live serverless buildsRealtime multiplayer, telemetry, contact, authenticated demos, and cost controls

Amazon operationsQuality analysis, process flow, and technical SME work

View Architecture Work Public Resume Contact LinkedIn

Technical focus

My portfolio work is centered on secure, inspectable AWS patterns that connect directly to real operational problems.

Serverless security Cognito, API authorization, private S3 access, KMS, IAM boundaries, and audit trails.

Event-driven systems SQS, Lambda, Step Functions, S3 events, retries, queues, and failure isolation.

Cost-aware architecture Scale-to-zero services, lifecycle rules, budgets, quotas, and right-sized managed services.

Operations translation Applying logistics, quality, and troubleshooting experience to cloud design decisions.

Selected architecture work

These working applications and briefs document systems I have designed and deployed, with emphasis on requirements, tradeoffs, security posture, and operating cost.

Live Game Collection

Games by Jake

Live LobbiesServerless AWSPhone FriendlyReal-time Play

Browse every playable game in one place, with screenshots and direct launch links. The collection includes team tournaments, social deduction, group word games, AI creativity, Bingo, and photo caption battles.

Explore all games

7 live experiencesBuilt for coworkers, friends, shared displays, and individual phones.

Two new lobby gamesServer-verified Bingo and anonymous Caption This! voting.

Scale-to-zero hostingPrivate CloudFront delivery with bounded serverless backends.

Featured Live Application

Office Olympics

API Gateway WebSocketLambdaDynamoDBCognitoCDK

A browser-based multiplayer party game for team sessions, with mobile players, a host presentation flow, configurable arcade rounds, validated scoring, and a protected admin configuration surface.

Launch live application Read case study

Realtime room playAPI Gateway WebSocket rooms built for phone and desktop players.

Protected operationsCognito-gated admin configuration with server-side owner validation.

Cost-aware deploymentExisting S3, CloudFront, and DynamoDB reused with TTL cleanup and bounded traffic.

Implemented Live App

BracketForge

LambdaDynamoDBCloudFrontS3Realtime UX

A Rock Paper Scissors tournament platform with phone-based players, a separate host dashboard, animated broadcast reveals, configurable timers, and reusable bracket logic.

Launch live application Read case study

New Team Game

Peccy Plunge

LambdaDynamoDBGroup VotingMobile UXHost Dashboard

A workplace-friendly reimagining of Hangman where a live lobby votes on each letter together, the host controls the secret phrase, and every miss nudges Peccy closer to a playful dunk-tank splash.

Launch team game Open host dashboard

New Team Game

Truth or Bluff

LambdaDynamoDBLive LobbiesPrivate VotingMobile UX

Two truths, one convincing lie. A team icebreaker with shareable lobbies, rotating storytellers, private votes, timed reveals, and a live scoreboard. Built for phones and a shared team screen.

Play Truth or Bluff

New AI Game · Phase 1

AI Judge

OpenRouterLambdaDynamoDBWebSocketsCDK

A multiplayer creativity game where an AI generates absurd scenarios, anonymously grades a batched set of answers, and picks the winner. The live route is backed by a cost-conscious serverless stack.

Play AI Judge

Implemented Feature

Cloud Resume Telemetry

API GatewayLambdaDynamoDBCloudWatch

A privacy-safe visitor counter for the static portfolio using a serverless API and aggregate-only DynamoDB counters.

Read build note

Implemented Demo

Secure Asset Dead Drop

CognitoAPI GatewayLambdaS3KMS

An authenticated file exchange demo using Cognito, API Gateway, Lambda, private S3 objects, short-lived presigned URLs, and audit metadata.

Try authenticated demo Read build note

Implemented Demo

Lambda Background Remover

CognitoAPI GatewayLambdaS3Python

A gated image-processing demo that uploads PNG files to private S3, invokes Lambda, and returns a short-lived transparent PNG output.

Try authenticated demo Read build note

Implemented Demo

Warehouse Throughput Simulator

SQSLambdaStep FunctionsDynamoDBCloudWatch

An authenticated SQS-backed package-flow demo that maps operations concepts to buffering, backpressure, processing state, and observability.

Try authenticated demo Read build note

Architecture Brief

Asynchronous Neon Generator

SQSECS FargateS3SES

A design for moving long-running 3D rendering work behind a queue so web requests stay fast while compute scales down when idle.

Read architecture brief

Implemented Demo

Single-Table Inventory

CognitoLambdaDynamoDBTTL

An authenticated inventory state demo that records machine/SKU updates and event history with a DynamoDB single-table access pattern.

Try authenticated demo Read build note

Implemented Demo

Prompt Cost Guard

CognitoLambdaDynamoDBCost Controls

A prompt estimation guardrail that checks token size and estimated model cost before an AI request would reach paid inference.

Try authenticated demo Read build note

Implemented Demo

Edge Latency Probe

CloudFrontAPI GatewayLambdaDynamoDB

A browser-side latency probe that compares static edge delivery with authenticated regional API calls and records a tiny DynamoDB sample.

Try authenticated demo Read build note

Implemented Demo

DR Pattern Selector

Route 53BackupsLambdaRunbooks

A recovery-objective selector that recommends backup/restore, pilot light, or warm standby patterns based on RTO, RPO, and criticality.

Try authenticated demo Read build note

Architecture Brief

IoT Sensor Data Lake

IoT CoreFirehoseS3Athena

A telemetry pipeline for hardware data with attention to storage format, query cost, retention, and latency tradeoffs.

Read architecture brief

Architecture studies

These are intentionally theoretical designs for workloads that would be wasteful or unrealistic to run inside a personal portfolio. They show service selection, Well-Architected tradeoffs, and operational judgment at a larger scope.

Architecture Study

Landing Zone Guardrails

OrganizationsControl TowerSCPsCloudTrail

A multi-account governance design for account vending, identity boundaries, preventive guardrails, centralized logging, and cost allocation.

Read architecture study

Architecture Study

Private Ingestion Platform

PrivateLinkKinesisLambdaS3

A partner-data ingestion pattern focused on private connectivity, schema validation, stream buffering, replay, encryption, and DLQs.

Read architecture study

Architecture Study

Governed Data Lake

S3GlueLake FormationAthena

An analytics governance design separating raw, curated, and governed data with KMS boundaries, access policy, lifecycle rules, and query controls.

Read architecture study

Architecture Study

Resilient Checkout

API GatewayDynamoDBSQSWAF

A transactional serverless workload design using idempotency, queues, conditional writes, async fulfillment, and operational alarms.

Read architecture study

Architecture Study

Incident Response Platform

CloudWatchX-RaySNSSSM

An operating model that connects metrics, traces, logs, alert routing, runbooks, automation, and post-incident improvement.

Read architecture study

Architecture Study

Hybrid Network Migration

Direct ConnectTransit GatewayDNSFirewall

A staged migration pattern for hybrid routing, DNS, segmentation, inspection, failover, cutover planning, and rollback paths.

Read architecture study

Portfolio platform notes

The site itself is part of the portfolio. These notes document the hosting, deployment, privacy, contact-form, and cost-control decisions behind the public experience.

Implemented Feature

Static Portfolio Deployment

S3CloudFrontAWS CLIIAM

Least-privilege command-line deployment for a CloudFront-backed S3 static site, with cache invalidation and safe deploy exclusions.

Read build note

Implemented Feature

Privacy-Safe Public Resume

Static HTMLPrivacyCredlyLinkedIn

A public resume page that preserves professional context without exposing phone or email to crawlers.

Read build note

Implemented Feature

Lambda Contact Form

API GatewayLambdaSESDynamoDB

A serverless contact path that keeps my email out of the HTML while validating submissions and rate limiting abuse server-side.

Read build note

Experience

I bring a hands-on technical background across Amazon operations, data-driven quality work, self-hosted infrastructure, and hardware/software troubleshooting.

October 2024 - Present

Field Quality Assurance, Amazon Services

Resolve complex operational defects, analyze quality data, coordinate root-cause work, and build tools that improve reporting accuracy and reduce manual effort.

April 2024 - October 2024

Process Assistant / Yard Marshall, Amazon Services

Led daily dock and yard operations for teams of up to 40 associates while monitoring real-time flow and responding to operational bottlenecks.

2015 - Present

Full-stack Infrastructure and AI Lab

Operate a 100TB+ Unraid environment with Docker services, Linux VMs, reverse proxying, observability tools, GPU passthrough, local AI testing, and hardware automation.

Resume

My public resume highlights Amazon operations leadership, technical support work, infrastructure experience, AWS certifications, and selected cloud architecture briefs without exposing phone or email.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate
AWS Certified AI Practitioner
Amazon field quality and process operations experience
Self-hosted infrastructure, automation, and diagnostics background

View Public Resume

Portfolio strengths

The selected work emphasizes practical AWS design decisions: secure object access, event-driven processing, NoSQL data modeling, observability, cost limits, and clear tradeoffs between managed services.

Review Selected Work

Send a private message without exposing a public email address.

This form posts to API Gateway and Lambda, validates input server-side, applies DynamoDB-backed rate limiting, and delivers messages through SES from a verified sender identity.

Read the contact-form build note