Hi, my name is

John Swindell.

Platform EngineerCloud InfrastructureApplied AI & Automation

I build the platform layer that turns internal ideas into reliable software. At the Florida Panthers, I design cloud infrastructure, delivery workflows, shared tooling, and governed paths for data and AI-assisted applications.

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About Me

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I am a Platform Engineer at the Florida Panthers, embedded with the Business Intelligence team and responsible for shared infrastructure and developer tooling across a broader set of internal initiatives. My work sits between software delivery, cloud architecture, data platforms, and the people who need reliable tools without having to own every operational detail behind them.

I currently build manifest-driven AWS application infrastructure, GitHub Actions delivery paths, QuickSight GitOps workflows, validation tooling, and reproducible Linux development environments. The common thread is platform engineering: create a strong default path, automate the fragile parts, and make recovery routine instead of exceptional.

I also build RAG and MCP-based context systems for governed internal data, while continuing to deepen my Go and Kubernetes fundamentals and prepare for the Certified Kubernetes Administrator exam.

Core Technologies:
  • Platform Engineering & Internal Developer Platforms
  • AWS: ECS/Fargate, Lambda, S3, CloudFront, Cognito, IAM
  • Terraform / HCL, Docker, GitHub Actions, OIDC
  • Python, Go, SQL, Bash
  • Amazon QuickSight, Redshift, SPICE
  • CI/CD, Linting, Type Checking, Gitleaks
  • Linux, WSL, Developer Environment Automation
  • RAG, MCP, AI Agent Tooling
  • Data Pipelines, Validation Gates, Caching
  • Technical Writing & Developer Enablement

Professional Experience

Platform Engineer - Florida Panthers
Jun 2026 - Present

Platform Engineer embedded with the Business Intelligence team, building shared AWS infrastructure, delivery systems, and developer tooling for data-heavy and AI-assisted internal applications across the organization.

  • Internal Application Platform: Designed a manifest-driven platform that builds and serves single-page applications through S3 and CloudFront, exposes tightly scoped Lambda services for governed data access, and uses Terraform modules to give internal teams a repeatable path from prototype to production.
  • Identity and Application Governance: Integrated Microsoft Entra ID with Amazon Cognito and group-based authorization so teams can use and govern their own applications without duplicating authentication infrastructure.
  • QuickSight GitOps: Built five-minute synchronization workflows that export QuickSight dashboards, analyses, datasets, and themes into version control, open pull requests when deployed state drifts, and provide a reliable rollback path when visual changes break working assets.
  • Analytics Validation: Created a custom linter that compares dashboard definitions with their underlying dataset schemas, catching missing-field and invalid-reference errors that QuickSight otherwise surfaces late or silently.
  • CI/CD and AWS Governance: Implemented GitHub OIDC, least-privilege IAM deployment roles, Terraform validation, linting, type checks, and Gitleaks scanning across fast delivery workflows. Supported more than 4,300 automation runs at approximately 99.6% success.
  • Developer Enablement: Built an idempotent WSL bootstrap that installs corporate certificates, shell tooling, GitHub CLI, coding agents, and consistent Python environments so analysts can work in Linux without owning dependency or workstation setup problems.
  • AI and Context Tooling: Build governed RAG and MCP-based systems that let internal users and leadership query approved business context through their existing AI tools.
Technical Lead (Contract) - Tekly Studio
Dec 2025 - Jun 2026

Served as Technical Lead for Crypt0nest.io product delivery and engineering standards across a 44-person mixed BS/MS intern and contributor cohort, majority MS-level.

  • AI-Driven Onboarding Platform: Built a production-critical onboarding system on Google Cloud Run that connects Airtable, Google Workspace, DocuSign, email workflows, and Gemini-generated LMS curricula.
  • CI/CD and Engineering Governance: Architected GitHub Actions workflows, RBAC controls, review gates, and branching standards so contributors can ship through auditable delivery paths.
  • AI Enablement: Built internal OpenAI/Gemini tooling, including context-aware support workflows and documentation-grounded training content for new contributors.
  • Product Delivery: Owned Crypt0nest.io workstreams while translating ambiguous operator requirements into maintainable software and clear technical documentation.
MLOps & Data Engineer Intern - Crypt0nest.io
Jun 2025 - Sep 2025

Built data infrastructure and model-validation tooling for quantitative crypto research, with proprietary strategy details removed from the public case studies.

  • GCP Data Pipeline: Architected a Dockerized ETL pipeline that ingested CoinGecko, DeFi Llama, and LunarCrush data into GCS-backed datasets for model training.
  • Caching and Cost Control: Implemented a two-tier local/GCS cache that reduced repeated data refreshes from hours to minutes and cut external API dependency by roughly 90%.
  • Model Validation: Added SHAP diagnostics, walk-forward validation, and ingestion checks that blocked 6,000+ data integrity errors before downstream models consumed polluted records.
  • Point-in-Time Architecture: Designed pipeline logic to reduce survivorship and lookahead bias in historical training data.
Server Administrator - Repulsion Ltd.
October 2021 - October 2023

Supported 16 Linux-based, Pterodactyl-managed game server environments during U.S. off-hours.

  • Linux Operations: Used Bash and panel-based tooling to troubleshoot plugin failures, restarts, configuration issues, and player-facing incidents.
  • Support and Escalation: Coordinated with developers and translated technical constraints for nontechnical users during production issues.
  • Systems Foundation: Built practical instincts around service uptime, logs, configuration drift, and the human cost of unclear operational processes.

Education

April 2026
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Southern New Hampshire University
GPA: 3.97 / 4.0
  • SNHU President’s List: 2024 - 2026

Relevant Coursework:

  • Applied Statistics for STEM (Python, Pandas, NumPy, SciPy): Leveraged Python libraries to analyze complex datasets and derive actionable insights.
  • Object Oriented Programming (Java): Engineered modular and reusable software components by applying core OOP principles (encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism).
  • Data Structures and Algorithms: Implemented and analyzed various data structures and algorithms to optimize solutions for complex computational problems.
  • Foundation in C++ Programming: Built efficient applications in C++, gaining experience in memory management and performance optimization.
  • Operating Systems: Explored core OS concepts like process scheduling, memory management, and concurrency to understand system-level interactions.
  • Software Engineering Principles: Collaboratively developed a software project using agile methodologies, managing the full development lifecycle from requirements to a functional prototype.

Projects

Ellide - AI Study Materials for Educators Ellide - AI Study Materials for Educators
Personal Project AI Tooling LLMOps OCR Document AI RAG Context Education Technology
Ellide - AI Study Materials for Educators
Built Ellide as a personal AI study-material project after seeing students struggle to turn scattered course documents into useful learning context. It transforms syllabi, slides, readings, handouts, and OCR-heavy PDFs into structured Markdown/JSON for AI chats, internal tools, and RAG-style workflows.
Visit Ellide
Automated Onboarding Pipeline & Headless LMS
Python GitHub Actions Platform Engineering DocuSign API Airtable API Gemini API Terraform Cloud Run
Automated Onboarding Pipeline & Headless LMS
Built a production-critical onboarding platform on Google Cloud Run for Tekly Studio. The system orchestrates Airtable, DocuSign, Google Workspace, email flows, Gemini-generated LMS curricula, Terraform-managed deployment, and GitHub Actions automation so a mixed BS/MS contributor cohort can onboard without fragile manual handoffs.
Read Architecture Breakdown
ML-Driven Quant Research Model
Python Machine Learning CatBoost QuantStats Walk-Forward Validation
ML-Driven Quant Research Model
A model-validation framework using CatBoost, SHAP diagnostics, QuantStats, and walk-forward validation to test momentum strategies without leaking future data. Built to identify overfitting, regime sensitivity, and risk-adjusted performance issues before a strategy reaches production research workflows.
Read Case Study
Automated Crypto Data Pipeline
Python Google Cloud Platform Docker
Automated Crypto Data Pipeline
A Dockerized GCP data pipeline built for quantitative research. It ingests market, on-chain, and social data from multiple APIs, applies point-in-time validation to reduce survivorship/lookahead bias, and uses a two-tier local/GCS cache to cut repeated refreshes from hours to minutes.
Read Architecture Breakdown
Async Discord Monitor
Python Asyncio BeautifulSoup Discord.py
Async Discord Monitor
Real-time inventory tracker built on a non-blocking asyncio architecture. Features a custom offline testing harness for safe DOM parsing and maintains a persistent WebSocket connection for zero-latency alerts.
Read About This Project
AI Career Skill Explorer
HTML CSS JavaScript Cloudflare Workers Gemini API Educational Tool
AI Career Skill Explorer
Built a lightweight single-page tool for Coding United members. A Cloudflare Worker keeps the Gemini API call off the client while the page turns checked skills into a readable career-path summary.
View Skill Explorer

Latest Writing

Putting QuickSight in Version Control
How I added backups, pull requests, validation, and safer publishing around Amazon QuickSight.
Making Internal Tools Production Ready
How I am building a simple AWS path for turning useful internal prototypes into applications that other people can actually use.
How I Automated Technical Onboarding
How I connected Airtable, DocuSign, Google Workspace, and generated training materials into one onboarding flow.

Leadership & Honors

Platform Engineer - Florida Panthers
Selected for a full Platform Engineer role building AWS infrastructure, internal developer platforms, GitOps workflows, and developer tooling for the Florida Panthers.
Technical Lead (Contract) - Tekly Studio
Led Crypt0nest.io product delivery and established engineering standards, code review paths, and CI/CD guardrails for a 44-person mixed BS/MS intern and contributor cohort.
Key Contributor & Developer - Coding United Club @ SNHU
Spearheaded a major revitalization of the club's GitHub presence. Architected and documented core resources including developer templates (Python, Docker), a centralized Club Hub, and an interactive CS Career Skill Explorer. These initiatives significantly improved member onboarding and resource accessibility.
Technical Workshop Lead
Designed and delivered technical workshops for members on foundational engineering skills, including Git/GitHub workflows, Python environment management, and Docker basics, fostering peer-to-peer learning.
SNHU President's List
Consistently named to the President's List (2024–2026) for outstanding academic excellence, maintaining top-tier standing throughout all terms.

Contact Me

If you’d like to get in touch, my business email is below.
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