Stephen Sailor
AWS Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) Lead
I am dedicated to exceeding client expectations by helping customers solve complex problems comprehensively—from discovery and business alignment through architecture, implementation, and operational success. My experience across software engineering, DevOps, cloud architecture, and presales enables me to see challenges from multiple perspectives, connect technical decisions to business needs, and guide customers toward practical AWS solutions that deliver lasting value.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-sailor/ GitHub: https://github.com/ssailor Linktree: https://linktr.ee/stephen.sailor
Certifications
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
- AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
- AWS Certified Security – Specialty
- AWS Certified Developer – Associate
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
- AWS Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
- AWS Certified AI Practitioner
- Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals
Skills
AWS
VPC · Lambda · DynamoDB · API Gateway · Cognito · RDS · EC2 · ECS · EFS · S3 · SNS · SQS · SES · IAM · ACM · Route 53
Automation
Terraform · CloudFormation · AWS CDK · AWS CodePipeline · Docker · GitHub · ADO Repos · ADO Pipelines · Ansible
Development
Python · Go · TypeScript · C#
Experience
AWS Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) Lead
- Partner with customers during presales to uncover business and technical needs, then design and deploy AWS prototypes that demonstrate feasibility and deliver value early.
AWS Presales Solutions Architect 2
- Designed AWS solutions and proposals, including RFP responses, tailored to each customer's requirements.
- Collaborated with customers through discovery and requirements-gathering meetings to align business and technical needs with proposed AWS solutions.
- Evaluated proposed solution costs with customers using tools such as the AWS TCO Calculator.
- Assessed AWS funding programs, including MAP, to identify options aligned with proposed solutions and customer investment plans.
- Coordinated with AWS and other partners to align proposed solutions and engagement approaches.
- Presented solutions and business cases to customer executives and technical stakeholders.
- Partnered with sales to qualify opportunities against customer needs and TGS delivery capabilities.
- Presented the AWS Tinkerer's Toolkit to IndyAWS, the local AWS working group, demonstrating how operators can use AWS SDKs and APIs to build custom automation and tooling.
Technical Architect
- Led and mentored the AWS infrastructure team while delivering internal and client solutions.
- Delivered cloud solutions for more than 18 clients across a range of technical and business requirements.
- Designed and deployed end-to-end AWS solutions with CloudFormation, Terraform, and Serverless frameworks to improve scalability, performance, and cost efficiency.
- Conducted security audits for a diverse client base, identifying vulnerabilities and collaborating with stakeholders to remediate findings.
- Designed and implemented CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps for reliable infrastructure and application deployments.
- Developed use cases and technical materials that contributed to multiple AWS Service Delivery Program accreditations.
- Presented at IndyAWS on building and deploying a serverless blog with AWS CDK, CodePipeline, S3, and CloudFront.
- Identified and implemented cost-saving measures in client AWS accounts, reducing spend by up to 20%.
- Architected a secure, scalable multi-region, multi-account network using hub-and-spoke topology, AWS Transit Gateway, and AWS Client VPN.
Senior Consultant
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to diagnose and resolve critical production issues across multiple client environments.
- Designed and implemented secure, highly available solutions using VPC, ALBs, and Auto Scaling Groups to improve availability and resilience.
- Designed and implemented security controls including AWS SSO, AWS Client VPN, CloudTrail logging, and STS role assumption to secure access to AWS resources.
- Designed and implemented CI/CD pipelines with AWS CodePipeline for reliable application delivery across multiple clients.
- Delivered two IndyCloudConf 2020 talks covering static website deployment with S3 and CloudFront and automated deployments with Amazon Alexa.
- Designed and implemented logging, alerting, and monitoring with CloudWatch logs, dashboards, alarms, and canaries.
- Designed and supported containerized workloads on Amazon ECS in collaboration with clients.
- Designed cloud automation using Lambda, Step Functions, and CloudWatch Events.
- Designed data solutions using RDS and DynamoDB based on client availability, scalability, and performance requirements.
- Mentored colleagues on AWS best practices and led internal certification training.
Advanced DevOps Engineer
- Founded and led the organization's first DevOps team, helping product teams adopt modern practices to improve quality and efficiency.
- Partnered with product teams to design and deploy reliable, scalable AWS infrastructure.
- Identified and implemented cost-saving measures across AWS accounts, monitoring spend and working with team leads to reduce costs.
- Designed a secure multi-account VPN in AWS to provide seamless connectivity while maintaining strong security.
- Led the design and adoption of Terraform automation across multiple teams, improving deployment consistency.
- Facilitated internal AWS certification training that grew organizational certifications from 12 to 32 in eight months.
- Presented at an internal Hearst conference in New York City on the importance of certification and growth.
- Collaborated with the security team to remediate gaps across AWS accounts and strengthen account governance.
Software Engineer
- Designed and deployed CloudFormation stacks for reproducible ephemeral, on-demand, and persistent environments.
- Designed an encryption system that protected sensitive data in application logs and supported HIPAA compliance.
- Implemented RESTful API services in C# for the Cloud Connector product, improving cloud-service integration.
- Designed and maintained Elasticsearch indexes to improve performance in consumer-facing products.
- Collaborated across teams to diagnose and resolve issues affecting a live customer-facing product, minimizing downtime.
- Led more than 45 training sessions to help coworkers pursue AWS certifications, fostering professional growth.
Test Automation Analyst
- Designed and implemented unit and automated tests to improve software quality and reduce defects.
- Collaborated with developers to identify, troubleshoot, and resolve product defects, reducing customer impact.
- Produced use cases, requirements, entity-relationship diagrams, and class diagrams to keep software documentation complete and accurate.
- Validated the accuracy and completeness of product outputs with SQL and T-SQL.
- Developed a custom testing tool to create a reusable test case library, execute API tests, and compare outputs against validated responses.
- Measured and reported code coverage to identify testing gaps and inform quality improvements.
Education
Bachelor of Science, Computer Information Technology
- Certificate of Entrepreneurship and Innovation
- Purdue Cyber Forensics Club
Projects
An open-source Python CLI for custom AWS operator tools, including security group scanning, IAM key rotation, and S3 exploration presented at IndyAWS meetup.
Code and talk for the IndyAWS working group (November 2022) on deploying a static blog to Amazon S3 and CloudFront with AWS CDK (Python) and Jekyll.
An open-source Python 3 utility that makes it faster and easier to deploy code packages to AWS Lambda.
An open-source native Python 3 SDK for building Amazon Alexa Skills.