Rishikesh Sonawane | Platform Engineer

01

About Me

Platform Engineer with 4+ years of experience designing, scaling, and operating enterprise CI/CD infrastructure on AWS.

Specialized in GitHub Actions, Terraform-driven infrastructure automation, Bash/Python scripting, self-hosted runner platforms, cloud cost optimization, and developer productivity engineering.

Experienced in building scalable AWS infrastructure, automating CI/CD workflows, improving platform reliability, and optimizing developer operations across enterprise environments. Authored an approved RFC that rearchitected ECR image distribution across 8 AWS regions, delivering over $160K in annual cost savings.

AWS Terraform GitHub Actions Docker ECR Bash Python Linux Datadog

Passionate about infrastructure automation, developer productivity, and building reliable engineering platforms at scale.

career.sh

#!/bin/bash
while [ "$impact" -lt "∞" ]; do
  build reliable infrastructure
  optimize costs
  automate everything
  empower developers
  && impact+=1
done

02

Key Impact

$163K+

Annual AWS Cost Savings

Optimized ECR architecture with pull-through cache across 8 regions

2-3x

Faster CI Image Pulls

Reduced pull time from 7-8 min to 2-3 min across multi-region

2000+

Engineers Empowered

Internal Bash CLI and automation tooling adoption

20 min

Engineer Onboarding

Reduced from ~1 week through Bash automation CLI

8

AWS Regions Optimized

Hybrid ECR strategy deployed across global regions

03

Technical Skills

Programming & Scripting

Bash Python Shell Scripting AWS CLI JSON

Cloud Platforms

AWS EC2 IAM VPC Auto Scaling ECR Secrets Manager Launch Templates

IaC & Automation

Terraform GitOps Atlantis Packer AMI Pipelines

CI/CD & DevOps

GitHub Actions Self-Hosted Runners GitHub Enterprise Docker Spinnaker

GitHub Enterprise & Governance

Org Administration GitHub Apps Webhooks SAML SSO Action Allowlisting Org Secrets

Container Orchestration

Kubernetes Docker ECR Image Mirroring Pull-through Cache

Monitoring & Observability

Datadog Alerting Incident Response Dashboards APM

Security & Compliance

Vault Secrets Management Supply Chain Controls IAM Policies

AI Developer Tools

Claude ChatGPT Cursor LibreChat LLM-CLI

Systems & Tools

Linux Git Ansible Access Management Redis

04

Experience

Platform Engineer

Zendesk

Nov 2025 – Present

Designed, operated, and optimized AWS-based CI/CD infrastructure supporting enterprise engineering teams across 8 AWS regions
Architected hybrid ECR image distribution strategy combining cross-region replication with pull-through cache, delivering $163K+ annual cost savings and 2-3x faster image pulls
Authored approved RFC for ECR Pull-through Cache implementation; coordinated across CI Platform, Compute, and Deploy teams for multi-phase rollout
Built self-hosted GitHub Actions runner infrastructure on EC2 with custom AMIs (Packer), Auto Scaling Groups, and Launch Templates
Developed Python automation scripts for ECR lifecycle management, repository policy configuration, and cross-region image governance
Automated infrastructure provisioning through Terraform and Atlantis-driven GitOps workflows with PR-based plan/apply
Administered GitHub organization settings: GitHub App integrations, webhooks, org-level Actions governance (secrets, runners, action allowlisting)
Built Datadog monitoring dashboards and APM tracing for CI/CD performance and infrastructure health

AWS Terraform GitHub Actions ECR Python Bash Datadog

Platform Engineer

Persistent Systems Zendesk Engagement

Jul 2022 – Nov 2025

Developed internal Bash-based automation CLI adopted by 2000+ engineers, reducing onboarding from ~1 week to under 20 minutes
Designed and maintained reusable CI/CD workflows using GitHub Actions with Python scripting for build and deploy automation
Built and optimized self-hosted GitHub Actions runner infrastructure on AWS EC2 with Auto Scaling Groups and Launch Templates
Automated provisioning of EC2, IAM, and ECR using Terraform with Atlantis-driven GitOps workflows
Implemented Datadog-based monitoring, dashboards, and alerting for CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure health
Governed GitHub organization configurations including access controls, org secrets, webhook management, and workflow governance
Designed and baked custom runner AMIs using Packer for consistent CI execution environments

GitHub Actions Docker Bash Python Terraform Packer Datadog

DevOps / Cloud Intern

Persistent Systems

Jan 2022 – Jul 2022

Gained hands-on experience with AWS cloud services
Worked with Docker containers and Ansible automation
Assisted in cloud deployment automation and infrastructure provisioning

AWS Docker Ansible

05

Key Achievements

RFC

Approved Sep 2025

ECR Pull-through Cache — Hybrid Image Distribution Strategy

CI Platform · Zendesk

$163K+ Annual Cost Savings

2-3x Faster Image Pulls

8 AWS Regions

90%+ Storage Cost Reduction

Problem

Cross-region ECR replication caused slow image pulls (up to ~7m49s in APAC regions), high data transfer costs ($68K+/month), and storage waste from replicating images to regions where they were never used.

Solution

Architected a hybrid approach combining cross-region replication for disaster recovery (primary → DR region) with pull-through cache for all other regions. Images are cached on-demand only where used, eliminating storage waste and cross-region transfer costs.

Impact

Reduced image pull latency from 7-8 minutes to ~2-3 minutes in distant regions. Achieved over 90% storage and data transfer cost reduction per region. Designed multi-phase rollout across 7 regions with mutating webhook for zero-touch developer adoption.

AWS ECR Terraform Pull-through Cache Lifecycle Policies Kubernetes Datadog

CLI

Shipped 2022-2025

Internal Bash Automation CLI — Onboarding & Developer Productivity

CI Platform · Persistent Systems (Zendesk Engagement)

2000+ Engineers Adopted

20 min Onboarding Time

~1 wk Previous Onboarding

Problem

Engineer onboarding took approximately 1 week due to manual setup of development environments, CI configurations, and access permissions.

Solution

Built a Bash-based CLI tool that automated environment bootstrap, CI workflow configuration, and permission setup. Integrated with GitHub APIs for org-level automation.

Impact

Reduced new engineer onboarding from ~1 week to under 20 minutes. Achieved 2000+ engineer adoption across the organization. Significantly reduced platform team support tickets for environment setup.

Bash GitHub API AWS CLI Docker Automation

06