Joshua Dean

Alabama, United States

USAF Civilian Systems Engineer

This is my custom portfolio page and I am so glad you have taken the time to stop by and took a look at my page.

About

I'm a Systems Engineer specializing in server infrastructure, DevSecOps automation, and web application architecture. Currently, I work as a USAF Civilian Engineer leading technical programs in mission-critical DoD environments.

My experience includes server administration (VMware, Hyper-V, RHEL, Windows Server), CI/CD pipeline design (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions), cloud infrastructure management (AWS), and leading technical programs in high-security DoD environments. I've managed production systems supporting critical operations, migrated legacy infrastructure to modern platforms, and built automation that reduces deployment time and risk.

I'm particularly interested in infrastructure-as-code, deployment automation, and leveraging AI to improve DevSecOps workflows. Whether it's monitoring server health, automating deployments, or optimizing infrastructure, I focus on building systems that are reliable, scalable, and maintainable.

Prior to my current role, I've worked across telecommunications, IT support, and server administration which gives me a comprehensive view of how systems connect and scale.

Projects

Portfolio Website CI/CD Pipeline

3-tier deployment strategy with automated testing

LIVE

Professional CI/CD workflow demonstrating modern DevOps practices with GitLab automation, containerization, homelab staging infrastructure, and multi-target production deployments.

Development

Feature branch testing
HTML/CSS validation
External Links Validation
Gitlab Container Registry :feature-$CI_COMMIT_SHA

Staging

Proxmox homelab VM
Portainer auto-deploy
GitLab Container Registry :test

Production

This live site (GitLab Pages hosting)
Docker Hub :latest
GitLab Container Registry :latest

Key Achievements

Multi-environment deployment strategy

Automated quality assurance testing

Homelab integration with Portainer

Container registry tagging strategy

GitLab CI/CD Docker Proxmox Portainer

Live Pipeline Source Code

Automated Microservices Deployment with Terraform & GitLab CI/CD

5 containerized microservices with automated infrastructure & CI/CD deployment

Under Construction

Automated deployment of 5 microservices (Python, Node.js, .NET, Redis, & PostgreSQL) using CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform) on Proxmox infrastructure.

Feature

Feature branch testing

Staging

Proxmox VM appname-staging
IaC auto-deploy
GitLab Container Registry :staging

Production

Proxmox VM appname
IaC auto-deploy
GitLab Container Registry :latest

Key Achievements (So Far..)

Multi-language containerization (Python, Node.js, .NET) with Alpine images and multi-stage builds

Zero-touch VM provisioning with Terraform and cloud-init on Proxmox infrastructure

Security-first approach: Custom least-privilege Terraform role with granular Proxmox permissions (no root access)

Production-ready docker containers with health checks, service dependencies, and automatic restart policies

Environment-based Git workflow with automated CI/CD pipeline for staging and production deployments

Secrets Management via gitignored credentials ad environment variable injection

Docker Terraform Proxmox GitLab CI/CD