32%
Cloud spend routinely wasted without active controls.
NEIL SINHA · PLATFORM + AI ENGINEERING
I design systems that are both reliable and adaptive.
Senior Platform / AI-ML Platform Engineer focused on cost control, delivery reliability, and safe AI operations.
83% faster build cycles −40% CI build failures RTO 8h → 4h
Platform / DevOps
I break things less.
- Delivery discipline
- CI/CD reliability
- Cloud cost control
Data / AI Systems
I make systems smarter.
- Streaming pipelines
- AI governance controls
- Automation at scale
Problem Landscape
20%
Deployments fail in teams lacking CI reliability discipline.
63%
Organizations lack AI governance policies when breaches occur.
Operating Philosophy
Cost Discipline
Engineer systems so spend stays forecastable and tied to outcomes.
Reliability First
Prioritize repeatability and recovery over brittle delivery speed.
Observability
Surface health and latency signals early so failures are predictable.
Safe AI Adoption
Acceleration only counts when controls and auditability stay intact.
Case Studies
Banking platform engineering
ANZ Platform Acceleration
18 min → 3 min
Monorepo build duration
baseline → -37 %
Production defects
baseline → -60 %
Manual streaming validation
Problem: Pipeline latency, manual validation, and avoidable production defects slowed delivery.
Intervention: Introduced context-aware build logic and shift-left API validation patterns. Designed Kafka test automation framework in Go. Introduced SLO-based reliability engineering using Nobl9 and OpenTelemetry metrics, driving adoption across squads. Built Report Portal testOps dashboards via Python APIs.
Tradeoff: Increased upfront platform engineering effort to standardize patterns across squads before rollout.
SaaS workforce platform
Humanforce CI Reliability Program
baseline → -40 %
Build failures
1 day → 1 hour
Automated test runtime
RTO 8h → RTO 4h
Disaster recovery objective
Problem: CI instability across TeamCity and Bitbucket Pipelines, long test cycles on legacy infrastructure, and manual clickOps Terraform workflows were delaying releases and increasing recovery risk.
Intervention: Migrated CI/CD from TeamCity and Bitbucket Pipelines to GitHub Actions as a unified delivery platform. Architected ECS/Fargate infrastructure for Jenkins auto-testing. Replaced clickOps Terraform workflows and jump host access patterns with Terraform Cloud. Refactored IaC and hardened disaster recovery.
Tradeoff: Required migration planning across multiple teams before consolidating pipeline standards.
PERSONAL PROJECT · AI-ENABLED ERP
Chat-ERP Governed Delivery
ad hoc → enforced via CI checks
Governance compliance
manual assumptions → proof-backed merge discipline
Release safety
Problem: Rapid AI-assisted development can increase release and governance risk without strict controls.
Intervention: Implemented issue-first workflow, proof-bundle governance, idempotent command patterns, and staged CI quality gates.
Tradeoff: Added governance overhead per PR to reduce downstream operational risk.
AI Governance in Practice
Unsafe destructive action scope
Failure mode: Automation attempted repository mutation with insufficient safety boundaries.
Blast radius: Potential large-scale code deletion and production instability.
Guardrail: Protected branch constraints, approval gates, and proof-bundle merge checks.
Risk reduction: Destructive paths blocked before protected-branch merge.
Deployment workflow bypass risk
Failure mode: Promotion attempt lacked complete governance metadata and evidence.
Blast radius: Untraceable production deployments and uncertain rollback posture.
Guardrail: Issue-link and proof-artifact checks with required PR evidence sections.
Risk reduction: Promotion blocked unless traceability and validation evidence are present.
Financial invariant drift
Failure mode: Unsafe numeric handling in ledger posting paths could corrupt financial consistency.
Blast radius: Reconciliation failures and accounting data integrity risk.
Guardrail: Safe-integer minor-unit validation at API/domain layers and finance regression gates.
Risk reduction: Invalid postings rejected before persistence; regression caught in CI.
Experience
Platform Engineer (Contract)
Deploying regulated energy platform modules on on-prem OpenShift with ArgoCD-driven GitOps pipelines and OCI Helm chart distribution via JFrog Artifactory.
- Designed recursive Helm chart packaging pipelines across 4 products, with CI pushing charts to OCI registry in JFrog Artifactory.
- Implemented ArgoCD-driven GitOps deployment pipelines on on-prem OpenShift for 3 energy providers.
- Configured highly available in-cluster databases (PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, ElasticSearch) with environment-toggle HA settings.
- Packaged and released versioned updates across 4 products maintaining deployment consistency in regulated energy infrastructure.
DevOps Engineer
Led platform reliability and automation for cloud-native squads on GCP.
- Reduced build times from 18 minutes to 3 minutes (83% faster).
- Reduced production bugs by 37% via shift-left validation patterns.
- Built Kafka test automation reducing manual validation by ~60%.
DevOps Engineer
Owned CI/CD and cloud infrastructure reliability for workforce SaaS.
- Migrated CI/CD to GitHub Actions reducing build failures by ~40%.
- Reduced automated test runtime from 1 day to 1 hour.
- Improved DR objective from RTO 8h to RTO 4h.
Software Engineer (Full-Stack)
Built full-stack and integration services across healthcare, logistics, and government projects.
- Containerized Python services on AWS EKS with MSSQL integration.
- Delivered gRPC/OpenAPI service interfaces for cross-project interoperability.
Teaching Associate
Taught postgraduate big-data processing foundations.
- Delivered Apache Spark and Kafka curriculum with streaming/batch pipeline emphasis.
- Covered ML pipeline fundamentals from ingestion through transformation.
Web Foundry
Director & Founder · Est. 2025
Operator-led engineering consulting for teams that need to ship reliably without burning budget.
Cloud Cost Audits
Identify wasted spend, rightsize infrastructure, and implement cost governance controls that keep budgets predictable as you scale.
CI/CD Reliability
Diagnose pipeline instability, reduce build failures, and establish repeatable release patterns that teams can trust.
Platform Modernization
Migrate legacy infrastructure to modern cloud-native patterns — containers, orchestration, infrastructure as code — without disrupting delivery.
AI Governance Frameworks
Design review gates, validation workflows, and safety controls for teams adopting AI-assisted development at speed.
Engagements start with a scoped systems review. No long-term contracts.
Where I've Delivered
I had the pleasure of working with Neil for a few years when he joined ANZ as a platform engineer, and quickly progressed to a lead engineer as the squad grew in size. Neil has the rare combination of being a brilliant engineer who is socially intelligent and driven to make a meaningful impact! I strongly recommend Neil for his technical skills, innovation and adaptability.
Neil demonstrated an sharp insight and ability to see the big picture. He was quick to grasp new concepts and put them to work and demonstrated he was able to own, manage, streamline and simplify complex pieces of infrastructure; always questioning what could be improved. His technical skills combined with a huge patience and ability to combine multiple points of view makes him an invaluable team member I would love to work again anytime.
I had the pleasure of having Neil on my team, and I can confidently say he's one of the most versatile and dependable engineers I've worked with. His technical contributions were instrumental across a range of initiatives—from uplifting observability across our platforms, to implementing a robust test automation framework for critical services, and designing middleware that enabled a more flexible and scalable development environment.
Yes. I can cut your cloud spend and stabilize your delivery.
Book a systems review across cost, CI, and AI governance.
Business inquiries: neil@webfoundryprivatelimited.com
Career opportunities: aaditya.n.sinha@gmail.com