James Wurbel

Summary

A results-driven platform engineer with extensive hands-on experience designing and building cloud infrastructure abstractions on GCP and AWS. Specializes in Infrastructure as Code (Terraform), Kubernetes platform abstractions (Crossplane), and GitOps to enable engineering teams for self-service cloud adoption. Recognized for architecting end-to-end platform solutions—from Vault secret injection automation to Crossplane composition frameworks that accelerate developer onboarding. Proven ability to bridge operational complexity and developer experience, automate infrastructure patterns, and mentor teams on platform best practices. Relentless self-starter driving Kubernetes and AI adoption across organizations.

Professional Experience

• Platform Engineering & Architecture

  • Designed and implemented a Kubernetes mutating admission webhook in Golang to automate Vault secret injection, eliminating manual secret configuration across platform microservices. Backported design patterns into Crossplane compositions, accelerating new engineer onboarding by several weeks.
  • Engineered an Istio Egress Gateway PoC to secure outbound microservice traffic; configured Kiali for service mesh observability across traffic patterns, latency, and success rates. Recognized for saving the project after leadership changes removed all other resources.
  • Developed and published reusable Terraform modules (Kubernetes SQL provisioner, Cloud Function notifier), standardizing infrastructure patterns and improving developer self-service experience.
  • Implemented GitOps workflows using Argo CD and Helm to continuously deploy Crossplane compositions to GKE clusters, ensuring declarative, auditable deployments across environments.
  • Built Crossplane alerting in Grafana, managed entirely via Terraform, with routing to Slack and PagerDuty for real-time incident response and platform health visibility.

• Automation & Process Improvement

  • Pioneered an award-winning (Living Proof Award) Terraform Mocks testing framework, improving infrastructure test reliability. Delivered team-wide training to drive adoption and translated methodology into AI system prompts used organization-wide.
  • Automated DNS record creation for On-Demand Environments using Terraform, enabling self-service environment provisioning. Authored documentation and mentored engineers on Terraform module patterns.
  • Diagnosed and resolved production incidents across Cloud Functions, ProxySQL, and IaC configurations, demonstrating cross-stack debugging expertise in both production and staging environments.

• AI Adoption & Strategic Influence

  • Scaled AI adoption across the enterprise, personally mentoring 50+ engineers on high-ROI use of Gemini and GitHub Copilot.
  • Authored foundational documents and video tutorials for the Clover AI Library, establishing a central repository that accelerated developer onboarding and proficiency.
  • Forged a strategic relationship with the Fiserv AI Board, creating a direct channel to champion broader AI integration at the executive level.

• Named Employee of the Month and Most Tickets Closed simultaneously, driven by proactively dedicating personal time to master company systems. Performance directly led to recruitment by Clover/Fiserv.
• Provided technical support across FortiClient VPN, Fortigate firewalls, Active Directory, Azure, Unifi networking, and Linux systems, resolving issues efficiently as first point of contact.

• Designed and managed low-latency, high-availability audio/video networks over IP for clients including Disney and Boeing, operating Cisco switches and networking infrastructure in high-stakes live environments.

Technical Skills

Certifications & Awards