Rob Pleau
DevSecOps Engineer / Platform Engineer
About
Security-oriented DevSecOps and Platform Engineer with over 17 years of experience delivering robust, scalable, and secure cloud-native solutions. Passionate about automation, process optimization, and knowledge sharing. Proven expertise in designing, implementing, and managing complex containerized and cloud infrastructures across AWS, Azure, and hybrid environments. Skilled in building CI/CD pipelines, writing Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and developing CLI tools and automation scripts to streamline developer workflows and enhance security posture. Recognized for bridging the gap between development, operations, and security with a pragmatic, engineer-first mindset.
Work Experience
Cycode
Remote
October 2024 – Present
Application Security Solutions Architect
Partner with current and prospective customers to identify and address gaps in application security posture, providing strategic guidance across the software development lifecycle.
Highlights
- Advised organizations on implementing SAST, SCA, Secrets scanning, IaC scanning, and CI/CD pipeline security to improve AppSec maturity.
- Led technical evaluations and proof-of-value engagements tailored to customer-specific risk and compliance goals.
- Provided deep technical support across cloud-native architectures, development pipelines, and secure DevOps practices.
Point32Health (Workspend Contract)
Remote
April 2024 – October 2024
Senior Platform Engineer
Contracted as a Platform Engineer to lead a complete overhaul of existing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and implement robust code security practices.
Highlights
- Documented and diagrammed existing Azure network architecture in Lucid, and designed new architecture for upcoming migrations.
- Developed a CI/CD process for deploying cloud infrastructure (AWS/Azure) with Terraform, including IaC security scanning.
- Implemented CSPM and IaC security scanning for AWS and Azure using Snyk.
- Supported Snyk implementation for SAST, SCA, and IaC scanning of Terraform and CloudFormation code.
- Provided support for managing and maintaining OpenShift infrastructure.
Rockstar Games
Hybrid / Andover MA
August 2023 – April 2023
Senior DevOps Engineer
Supported infrastructure and automation for the Rockstar Social Club online platform, serving over 500,000 daily active players.
Highlights
- Created a scripted migration process to move code repositories and pipelines from Gitlab and Bamboo to Github and Github actions.
- Developed Chef cookbooks to configure infrastructure in support of Social Club Services environment roles.
- Assisted in design of Terraform IaC for deployment of cloud (AWS/Azure) and on-prem infrastructure.
Lacework
Remote
March 2022 – August 2023
Cloud Security Posture Solutions Engineer
Designed and implemented secure, cloud-native solutions using Lacework’s security platform across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Highlights
- Advised customers on implementing Lacework in AWS environments ranging from simple to highly complex.
- Developed custom tooling in Go, PowerShell, and Python, including an Azure DevOps webhook based integration and a Go utility for GCP compliance reporting.
- Deployed Lacework components using Terraform and CloudFormation.
- Supported customers in meeting audit requirements for SOC2, ISO 27001, NIST, HIPAA, and CIS benchmarks.
- Assisted customers in integrating CI/CD pipeline security to align with organizational security goals and vulnerability management.
FM Global
Remote
August 2021 – March 2022
Technical Product Owner
Served as Technical Product Owner for the Cloud Platform and Cloud Operations teams during a large-scale digital transformation initiative.
Highlights
- Led two engineering teams through a large-scale digital transformation initiative.
- Standardized Terraform as the IaC framework and architected repository structure and deployment pipelines for cloud infrastructure.
- Created internal Terraform modules to enable reusable Azure components for development teams.
- Designed and deployed the initial data tier architecture for Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, and Azure Data Factory.
- Built foundational AKS infrastructure and collaborated with product teams to deploy initial application workloads.
- Advised customers on implementing Lacework in AWS environments ranging from simple to highly complex.
FM Global
Remote / Johnston, RI
June 2017 – August 2021
Lead DevOps Engineer
Founding member of the DevOps team, collaborating with product teams to design and implement modern CI/CD processes. Architected scalable Infrastructure as Code and Configuration as Code practices.
Highlights
- Helped build initial CI/CD pipelines for both brownfield and greenfield application deployments.
- Led the migration of the development organization from legacy systems (TFVC) to Git-based workflows.
- Established lifecycle processes to support CentOS Linux workloads for newly developed Linux-native .Net 5.0+ applications.
- Led the 'Configuration as Code' initiative to standardize Linux and Windows configuration using SaltStack.
- Promoted a DevOps/DevSecOps culture and collaborated with HR to define new job families aligned with modern engineering practices.
FM Global
Johnston, RI
November 2011 – June 2017
Lead Server Automation Engineer
Managed and maintained internal server infrastructure. Leveraged automation to reduce manual tasks and improve efficiency. Worked with various teams to implement new technologies and improve existing processes.
Highlights
- Completely automated internal server provisioning process reducing time to provision from 5 days to 15 minutes.
- Developed a process to automate the setup of the NetApp storage arrays for disaster recovery tests, reducing setup from 8 hours to 15 minutes.
- Implemented Git version control as the standard for all infrastructure scripts and code.
- Automated most aspects of on-premises server and ESXi host patching.
- Created supporting administration tooling for 4 teams to reduce toil of manual tasks, increase efficiency, and reduce errors.
Techsnips.io
Remote
April 2018 – December 2019
Content Contributor
Techsnips content contributor.
Highlights
- Created tech snip videos of various DevOps and scripting topics.
Atrion Networking
Warwick, RI
March 2010 – November 2011
Advanced Systems Specialist
Staff augmentation at FM Global assisting client and server teams with various new and ongoing projects.
Highlights
- Completed P2V process for all remaining Microsoft SQL servers.
- Took the lead of monthly Windows patching process for all Windows servers.
eClinicalWorks
Westborough, MA
March 2009 – March 2010
Network Administrator
Managed and maintained internal network and server infrastructure for a large electronic medical record software firm.
Highlights
- Facilitated the migration to an entirely new Active Directory domain.
- Implemented OpenFire chat server for the company to have internal corporate instant messaging.
- Standardized all internal client and server hardware to Dell.
- Implemented entirely new Nortal routing and switching infrastructure.
Tinio Consulting
Bellingham, MA
November 2008 – March 2009
Consultant Engineer
Provided IT consulting services to small businesses in the eastern Massachusetts and northern Rhode Island area.
Highlights
- Assisted clients with various IT projects and troubleshooting.
- Centralized logging and monitoring with Cacti.
FM Global
Johnston, RI
February 2008 – July 2008
Co-Op Data Network Engineer
Assisted the Data Network team with Cisco switch upgrades and project work.
Highlights
- Staged and configured Cisco Catalyst 6509e switches for branch office replacement.
- Sized corporate network for Cisco Wide Area Application Engine (WAE) deployment.
Volunteer
Speaker
Session presenter
Highlights
- Stop Writing Insecure PowerShell! Seriously.
- 99 Problems, but Slow PowerShell Ain't One! A.K.A. Use Profiler to Find Performance Issues!
- OnRamp Pester 101 - Testing Your Code
Speaker
Session presenter
Highlights
- Can we Make PowerShell… Blazingly Fast?!
- Don’t Stop at the PowerShell Pipeline. Build a CI/CD Pipeline for your PowerShell Module Deployment!
- OnRamp Pester 101 - Testing Your Code
Speaker
Session presenter
Highlights
- Linux Shell Debates or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love PowerShell
Speaker
Session presenter
Highlights
- Creating PowerShell Projects and More with Plaster
Volunteer
Volunteer with The DevOps Collective to help organize OnRamp related tasks for the PowerShell+DevOps Global Summit.
Highlights
- PowerShell + DevOps Summit 2019 OnRamp Buddy System Organizer.
- PowerShell + DevOps Summit 2020 OnRamp Scholarship Program Organizer.
- PowerShell + DevOps Summit 2024 Session Content Evaluator.
Volunteer Speaker
Speaker for Agile RI
Highlights
- Speaker on how to build a DevOps culture in your organization.
Volunteer Mentor
Highlights
- Mentored PCTA student on career and college readiness.
Contact
Hopedale, Massachusetts US
(508) 498-2648
Education
-
2005 2008
New England Institute of Technology
Bachelor of Science (BS)
Network Engineering
Skills
CI/CD
Master
Git Branching Strategies
Release Patterns (Canary, Blue/Green, Ring, etc)
Custom Step Authoring (Github Actions/Azure DevOps Pipelines)
Testing Strategies (Unit, Integration, Functional, etc)
Git Providers (Github, Gitlab, Azure DevOps, Bitbucket)
Github Actions
Package Management (Nexus, Proget, Artifactory, Azure DevOps)
Jira
Trello
Git
Octopus Deploy
Security
Advanced
Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
Software Composition Analysis (SCA)
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
IaC Scanning
Compliance Frameworks
Secrets Management
TLS
OWASP
Vulnerability Management
IAM
Configuration as Code
Advanced
Chef
Salt Stack
Ansible
PowerShell DSC
Terraform
Advanced
Terraform Cloud
State management
Terraform imports
Modules
IaC Code Security Scanning
AWS
Advanced
EKS
Lambda
IAM
RDS
S3
ECR
SQS
SNS
EC2
ECS Fargate
CloudFormation
CloudTrail
Control Tower
Azure
Master
Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS)
Azure Landing Zone architecture
Azure VMs and VMSS
Azure App Services
Azure Function Apps
Azure Container Registry (ACR)
Azure Active Directory
Azure Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF)
Azure Data Factory
Azure SQL/Postgres
Azure Resource Management (ARM)
Azure CLI (az cli)
Azure Container Instances (ACI)
Linux
Master
Debian
Ubuntu
Red Hat
Rocky Linux
CentOS
Arch Linux
Networking
Advanced
TCP/IP
DNS
Routing and Switching
OSI model
Firewalls
WAF
NAT
HTTP / Web servers
Concepts
Master
Scrum
Kanban
Agile
4 Golden Signals
Troubleshooting
Mentoring
Leadership
Docker/Kubernetes
Advanced
Kubectl
Helm
Docker Compose
Docker Swarm
Docker CLI
PowerShell
Master
Modules
Advanced Functions
Classes
CI/CD Pipelines
DSC
Python
Intermediate
Scripts
Functions
Go
Intermediate
CLI Tools
Cobra
Binaries/Packages
Lua
Intermediate
Neovim
Zig
Beginner
Basic programs
IDEs
Advanced
NeoVim/Vim
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio
Vi
Langage Server Protocols (LSP)
Debug Adapter Protocols (DAP)
Publications
The PowerShell Conference Book
LeanPub
08 September 2018
Chapter author of: "Scaffolding PowerShell Projects and More with Plaster".
The PowerShell Conference Book: Volume 3
LeanPub
10 October 2020
Chapter author of: "Spice Up Your Console Output or Prompt with ANSI".
Blog
Self
01 January 2017
Blogger of Linux, Neovim, scripting/programming languages, etc.
Interests
Linux 🐧
Arch Linux
Neovim
Crossfit 🏋️♂️
Kayaking 🚣
Brewing 🍺
Mechanical Keyboards ⌨
Coding 👨💻