Donald Simpson
Platform Engineer (Devops Sre) @Shell
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WORK HISTORY
Platform Engineer (Devops Sre) @Shell
Platform engineer responsible for the deployment, operation and evolution of Shell’s Open Subsurface Data Universe (OSDU) — a mission-critical, API-driven data platform underpinning global subsurface and operational workflows.Designed and maintained automated delivery pipelines using GitHub Actions and Terraform to provision, upgrade and operate AWS EKS (Kubernetes) environments across multiple Global Regions, supporting high availability and regional resilience.Contributed to the development of shared platform tooling and infrastructure components, working closely with AWS consultants and internal teams to standardise infrastructure-as-code, deployment patterns and operational practices at scale.Led the design and implementation of platform observability using Dynatrace, including- Synthetic monitoring for critical user journeys and APIs- Log ingestion and service-level metrics- Alerting and reliability workflows aligned to platform SLOsDefined, implemented and iterated Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and Service Level Indicators (SLIs) for core platform services, ensuring observability data directly supported reliability targets and business priorities.Applied SRE principles to reduce operational toil, improve incident response and drive continuous reliability improvements through post-incident reviews and automation.Currently contributing to early-stage AI/ML initiatives, including proof-of-concept work with Amazon Q and Bedrock to explore conversational access to platform data, and leveraging AI-assisted observability capabilities within Dynatrace.
EDUCATION
Edinburgh Napier University
Diploma, Quantity Surveying
Edinburgh Napier University
Post Graduate, Information Systems
Cardonald College, Glasgow
HNC, Business Studies
Aberdeen University
BLE, Bachelor of Land Economy
SKILLS
ABOUT DONALD SIMPSON
Platform Engineer bridging DevOps, SRE, and MLOps with 20+ years’ experience building and operating modern platforms.My work focuses on Kubernetes-based infrastructure for cloud, data, and AI workloads across startups, scale-ups, and regulated enterprise environments.My core expertise lies in platform engineering: creating opinionated, automated foundations using Kubernetes, infrastructure as code, observability, and DevSecOps that reduce cognitive load for delivery teams while improving reliability and security.I’ve led and contributed to platform and infrastructure initiatives across large organisations and startups, including Shell, Tesco Bank, RBS, and the public sector. This work has focused on internal platforms, CI/CD automation, operational reliability, and compliance-driven cloud environments.More recently, this platform work has expanded to support ML and AI systems, where data scale, model lifecycle, and GPU-aware workloads introduce new operational challenges beyond traditional cloud services.Alongside my core DevOps and SRE work, I’ve developed hands-on experience with AI/ML and data platforms from an engineering and operations perspective. This includes building and operating end-to-end pipelines involving:Data ingestion and large-scale analytics (ClickHouse, DuckDB)Embeddings, clustering and retrieval workflows (MiniLM, HDBSCAN)Local model inference and API integrationMLOps-style automation such as model validation, performance checks, and CI/CD integrationThis combination gives me practical insight into the infrastructure and operational challenges of AI-enabled platforms, including GPU-aware Kubernetes workloads, data-heavy pipelines, observability, and reliability - complementing, rather than replacing, my primary platform engineering skillset.I’m also a published technical author (Extending Jenkins, Beginning Docker) and organiser of Edinburgh’s Automated IT Solutions Meetup. Outside client work, I maintain a personal Kubernetes lab and build projects exploring platform engineering, MLOps, automation, and applied AI - please see the Projects and Featured sections of my profile for more info on these. Open to fully remote, Outside IR35 contracts in Platform Engineering, DevOps / SRE, and AI-adjacent infrastructure roles.
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