Rachel McGuigan

About Rachel McGuigan

Hi — I’m Rachel, a Senior DevOps and Cloud Infrastructure Engineer focused on designing, building, and leading reliable distributed systems across cloud and on-prem environments.I began my career working hands-on in a school datacenter, learning infrastructure from the hardware up and developing a strong understanding of how systems behave under real-world constraints. I built depth through help desk roles, technical support forums, and community spaces, sharpening my troubleshooting skills and system-level thinking. That early work exposed me to security issues, bug triage, feature launches, and cross-functional collaboration, while programs like TechWomen reinforced the importance of technical advocacy and shared learning.As the industry shifted toward cloud and data platforms, I moved into roles focused on scaling infrastructure and operational excellence. During Snowflake’s early growth, I worked cross-functionally to improve onboarding, reliability, and adoption of the Snowflake data platform, deepening my exposure to systems design and analytically driven workflows.I later joined VMware on a cloud operations team responsible for mission-critical hybrid and on-prem environments, supporting Linux workloads, Tanzu, and Kubernetes platforms. I took ownership of automating manual maintenance and operational workflows and helped drive DevOps practices that improved reliability. After Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, I continued this focus at Asana, modernizing CI/CD pipelines in large-scale, containerized EKS environments.Alongside my technical work, I invest in leadership and business growth. I’m completing an ETA Business Management Certificate (2026) and hold certifications including AWS Cloud Practitioner, CompTIA Cloud+, and DevOps certifications, reflecting my commitment to continuous learning and delivery.Looking ahead, I’m focused on AI-driven infrastructure challenges, particularly how CI/CD pipelines, reproducibility, and platform reliability must evolve. I’m intentionally pursuing technical leadership roles in cloud and infrastructure, where I can own platform direction, influence architecture, mentor engineers, and build resilient systems. I also mentor students through Mentor Collective.Areas of ExpertiseDevOps & Platform Engineering | Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure | Distributed SystemsCI/CD & Release Automation | Kubernetes & Containers | Infrastructure as CodeReliability, Automation & Infrastructure Leadership

Experience

1. Asana

   Present

Education

• Santa Clara University

  Bachelors of Engineering, Web Design and Engineering

  2007 — 2012

• Santa Clara University Graduate Engineering

  Networking Engineer Certificate

  2013 — 2014

• Santa Clara University

  Bachelor of Arts - BA, Fine and Studio Arts

• Cañada College

  Business Managment Certificate