Sean K.
Principal Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS) Serverless Specialist Retail Tech Tead
Calgary, Alberta
Overview
Work Experience
Principal Solutions Architect
2022 - Current
As a Principal Solutions Architect at AWS, I specialize in Serverless, Modernization, and Retail, leveraging 20+ years of experience to help customers develop and implement cloud strategies. My role involves working with diverse stakeholders, from developers to C-level executives, providing expert guidance in cloud computing and innovative technologies. Key Responsibilities: • Engage with customers to offer tailored solutions, including service demos, architecture reviews, and team enablement • Provide cloud strategy advisory and CXO guidance for modernization, security, and industry-specific challenges • Assist in planning modernization efforts to boost revenues, reduce operational costs, and foster innovation • Incorporate Generative AI and Large Language Models to enhance existing systems • Develop serverless solutions, data platforms, and support cloud migrations • Review architectures against the Well-Architected Framework Thought Leadership: • Create content such as blog posts, serverless patterns, and workshops • Speak at major events like AWS re:Invent, Global Summits, and partner summits • Publish serverless patterns using CDK or AWS SAM • Collaborate with service teams on documentation for new features and services Notable Achievements: • Completed projects including serverless gas station pricing, Oil & Gas IoT data lake, and Generative AI implementations • Recognized as a top performer in Canada for specialist requests in Serverless • Maintain high CSAT scores while public speaking and mentoring • Lead serverless SA in Canada, providing mentorship and career guidance This role allows me to help customers stay ahead with cutting-edge technologies, emphasizing "pay-as-you-go" models for cost-effective, scalable solutions. By combining technical expertise, thought leadership, and a customer-centric approach, I contribute to the success of both AWS and its clients in the dynamic cloud computing landscape.
Senior Technial Account Manager (TAM)
2019 - 2022
While working in the Senior Technical Account Manager (TAM) role at AWS I was primarily responsible for the success of AWS customers in multiple verticals such as public sector, oil & gas, independent software vendors, transportation and Start-ups. TAMs at Amazon have a primary goal to make sure their customers are using AWS services with best practice to increase performance, security and resiliency, decrease cost and any potential outages. In my 2+ years as a TAM i met with the CIO/CTO/CISO of my customers on a quarterly basis to align priorities, and worked regularly with Architects, Directors, and System Integrators to make sure the customers goals were met. Aside from standard customer interactions, i joined the role of a Serverless Specialist where i was able to meet with customers around the world to execute architecture reviews, teach serverless best practices and propose architecture changes where i see new patterns could greatly impact the architecture by reducing cost, increasing performance, improving resiliency and security and reducing any operation burden they may currently have. As a Serverless Specialist, I was not only helping AWS customers directly, but I would present on the AWS twitch stream where we explain concepts to the audience in real time (however the sessions are recorded for those who could not join live), publishing blog posts on the public AWS website and the AWS ServerlessLand website, Fixing AWS Whitepapers where the whitepapers have drifted over time and presenting at multiple internal enablement sessions within AWS to help other Solutions Architects either learn the technologies or pass the information to their customers. Finally, 60% of my time was spent helping customers architect their systems. Notable projects include: - A Large data-centre migration to VMWare on AWS - An IoT Data Lake (Oil&Gas) - Cloud based transportation inspection system - Serverless IoT Ingestion system - Enterprise Workspaces rollout
Amazon Web Services provides information technology infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services.
Sr. Solutions Architect
2014 - 2019
Joining Canadian Tire (originally under the FGL Sports/SportChek/Atmosphere/Marks banners) and reporting to various VP's and AVP's throughout my tenure, my primary project was to design a new e-commerce solution to enable a modern multi-banner and multi-channel experience for customers. This new solution included a Product Information Manager (PIM), migration to the new PIM, a modern content management system (CMS), an E-Commerce Engine, a Content Delivery Network (CDN), and multiple micro-services for each 'domain' to drive a scalable fast micro-service architecture. My responsibilities started at the base overall architecture for the e-commerce platform, keeping in mind the system would need to scale to all banners owned by Catadian Tire. I Coordinated with the Systems Integrator to make sure the offshore development team was following designs and delivering a high quality platform. I was the lead of many internal development teams responsible for internally developed micro-services such as a Pricing Service, Inventory Service, and the integrations layer to connect the e-commerce platform to existing systems. Once E-commerce was successfully launched, i architected backend services to enable in-store digital shopping, where customers could shop from touch-screen TV's and kiosks spread through the digital stores, and order out-of-stock products direct to their home, reducing loss of sales due to lack of available inventory. At the enterprise level i set direction for a modern service oriented architecture with automation at each step of the development lifecycle to make sure time was being speant innovating instead of operating. I standardized the observability model with products such as NewRelic and an internally hosted ELK stack for log aggregation. Finally i was the architect on the transactions module of the new in-house built point-of-sale (POS) system enabling custom POS functionaly to support a multi-banner experience with a single loyalty system.
Consultant Software Engineer
2012 - 2013
While at CP Rail, i was responsible for designs of aspects related to the customer facing rail car ordering and tracking system and observability of the systems in question. After joining the team which was already deep into the projects, i started by implementing observability through AppDynamics as an APM and Splunk as the log aggregator. This allowed the projects to be launched on-time with reduced risk. Next I started by diving deep into the curreny system architecture, and found the project was locked into expensive licencing due to previously selected products. These products did not provide much improvement, and therefore i selected alternate solutions which improved the speed of development, reduced licencing and simplified the project by using more commly known products. Notable major changes include the conversion of the IBM JDK to the OpenSource JDK, removal of IBM's ExtremeScale database replaced with an already purchased Oracle in-memory database, and a conversion of web-server from IBM Websphere to Apache Tomcat. Not only did these changes reduce the overall operating cost of the architecture, but greatly simplified the design which helped improve the speed of deployments from multiple hours, down to minutes. Developed and supported the application used for ordering, and tracking train cars.
Senior Systems Developer
2006 - 2012
At Distributel i was responsible for architecting and developing the in-house built CRM, provisioning systems, fulfilment systems and biling systems. Reporting to the CIO, I had a responsibility to align with the technology with the organizations strategies.