Ben Townsend
3 Month Notice
Accomplished engineer with 10+ years in DevOps and full-stack development. I drive innovation through scalable, secure infrastructure solutions that enhance business performance. Known for mentoring teams, optimising processes, and delivering projects that exceed expectations. I effectively translate challenges into strategies that align technology with business goals.
Technologies
AWS
Azure
Azure DevOps
Convex BaaS
Cloudflare
CSS
DataDog
Docker
Fastly
Github Actions
Grafana
HTML
JavaScript
Jenkins
Linux
Markdown
MySQL
Netlify
New Relic
Next.js
NGINX
OCI
React
Shell scripting
Terraform/Tofu
TypeScript
YAML
Certification
- AWS Solutions Architect Associate
hedgehog lab
Senior Cloud Engineer
• Jan 2025 - Present (Employee of the month Dec 2025)
Notable work:
- Leading a multi-cloud infrastructure build to facilitate client B2B private deployments for a security focused business. This included security auditing tools, monitoring, alerts.
- Managing time pressured infrastructure requirements for a globally used AI focused application.
- Migrating networking and container workloads from AWS to Azure.
- Paternity leave cover for Engineering Manager, Managing perm & contract staff.
- Representing the company at DevOps North East. Presenting on lazy loading containers with SOCI on ECS.
Immediate Media
DevOps Engineer
• Apr 2023 - Jan 2024
Notable work:
- Implementing a service mesh system to improve service response times & allow the new native app platform to use backend APIs.
- Improving Docker image tagging to enable image retention cycles, greatly reducing storage costs.
- Leading the conversation on which solutions should be investigated when looking to reduce the costs of application monitoring.
- Managing information & system access using detailed IAM & Security Group rules.
New Scientist
Senior DevOps Engineer
• Dec 2020 - Aug 2022
Notable work:
- Day-to-day running of all things DevOps as the principal DevOps Engineer.
- Redesigned application networking with a focus on the least privilege principal, enhancing security.
- Rebuilt the Jenkins server using Docker & ECS, to improve security & streamline the upgrade process.
- Merging the OS specific local developer environments to one using Docker, ready for the introduction of Apple Silicon & to improve developer onboarding.
- Facilitating AWS account migration after acquisition by the Daily Mail General Trust.
- Refactoring the Fastly VCL to allow for authentication at the edge & faster request routing.
Immediate Media
DevOps Engineer
• May 2018 - Dec 2020
Notable work:
- Architecting the infrastructure for a new redirect handler, improving response times leading to better SEO & bringing containerisation & "serverless" functions to the business.
- Introducing AWS Transit Gateway to the business for faster, cheaper & more secure traffic handling between different systems.
- Spearheading the rebuild of the deployment pipeline for V1 of the Digital publishing platform.
- Running data migration & managing brand website relaunches without downtime.