HARI AYYAPPAN PILLAI
Senior Infrastructure Engineer & Cloud Operations Specialist
Trivandrum
Summary
Results-driven Infrastructure Engineer with 10+ years of experience at UST Global, specializing in Cloud Operations (AWS & Azure), Site Reliability Engineering, and Cloud Email Security. Proven track record in proactive monitoring, incident management (P1–P4), FinOps cost optimization, and DevOps automation using Jenkins and Selenium. AWS Solutions Architect Associate and AZ-900 certified. Adept at leading cross-functional teams, reducing MTTR, and delivering 99.9%+ uptime across mission-critical production environments for global clients including Cisco, Prologis, and H&R Block.
Overview
2
2
Certifications
12
12
years of professional experience
Work History
Cloud Infrastructure & FinOps Engineer
UST Global (Internal – CIS Investment Delivery)
03.2026 - 05.2026
- Supported Azure cloud audit and FinOps initiatives including cost analysis, governance compliance checks, and audit reporting.
- Identified cloud optimization opportunities and prepared executive-level documentation for management and stakeholders.
- Conducted resource tagging reviews, idle resource cleanup, and rightsizing recommendations to reduce cloud spend.
Infrastructure Engineer – Cloud Email Security & Device Alarming
UST Global (Client: Cisco)
04.2021 - 12.2025
- Managed cloud email security infrastructure and device health monitoring for Cisco's global customer base across distributed Linux environments.
- Performed daily health checks on Linux servers: CPU, memory, disk utilization, and running processes to maintain 99.9%+ uptime.
- Managed VM lifecycle (create, clone, migrate) in VMware vSphere; allocated VMs to data center regions per customer requirements.
- Maintained cloud email security devices and ensured timely signature updates via AWS S3 push to test and production machines.
- Conducted log & metric analysis using Grafana and Datadog to detect anomalies and reduce MTTR for proactive issue resolution.
- Managed full alarm & alert lifecycle: validation, escalation, root cause analysis, and post-incident documentation.
- Handled customer instance onboarding/offboarding, SSH troubleshooting, and outage resolution with minimal downtime.
- Led collaboration & escalation workflows; served as first point of contact for the monitoring team.
- Maintained on-demand and scheduled backup configurations; managed incident routing to appropriate resolver groups.
Application Support Engineer – Managed Services
UST Global (Client: Prologis)
02.2019 - 04.2021
- Provided 24/7 production support for IICS integrated jobs, Denodo, OBIEE, and PowerCenter data pipelines.
- Managed P1–P4 alert handling via Opsgenie and Datadog; served as first point of contact for monitoring team.
- Handled ServiceNow requests, maintaining SLA compliance and escalation protocols for all critical incidents.
- Performed on-call support for preprod, production, and test environments with documented incident resolution.
- Executed application enhancements and deployments for IICS-integrated systems with zero-downtime approach.
Application Support Engineer – Migration & DevOps
UST Global (Client: H&R Block)
02.2015 - 01.2019
- Supported business-critical tax applications (TCX & CCB) used by millions of US taxpayers, ensuring 100% uptime across development, staging, QA, and production.
- Managed end-to-end Dev → QA → Production migration pipeline for builds, patches, hotfixes, and add-ons.
- Automated build and deployment workflows using Jenkins CI/CD, reducing manual deployment time significantly.
- Built and configured Windows servers, IIS 7.5 applications, application pools, and Web.Config/App.Config settings.
- Implemented Selenium automation for smoke testing; validated payments and returns processing post-deployment.
- Coordinated with onsite migration teams and development leads for synchronized releases across environments.
- Performed remote system administration of Windows servers and monitoring of server performance metrics.
Process Analyst – Tax Forms Design
UST Global (Client: H&R Block)
05.2014 - 01.2015
- Designed and tested US federal & state tax forms for H&R Block's Blockworks application using the BlockWorks ION Tool.
- Interpreted IRS specifications and state source documents to ensure regulatory compliance of all form designs.
- Conducted transparency checks on Mylar forms and collaborated directly with HRB client in daily review calls.
Education
B.E. - Computer Science & Engineering
Anna University
01-2012
Diploma - Computer Engineering
DOTE
01-2009
Skills
Cloud Platforms: Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), FinOps
OS & Infrastructure: Linux (RHEL/CentOS/Ubuntu), Windows Server, VMware vSphere, IIS 75
Monitoring & Logging: Grafana, Datadog, Opsgenie, IISC Monitoring Tools, OLAP
DevOps & Automation: Jenkins, GitHub, Selenium (UI Automation), Python (Scripting), CI/CD Pipelines
ITSM & Ticketing: Jira, ServiceNow, DAC Tool, Incident & Change Management
Security: Cloud Email Security, AWS S3 Signature Management, Compliance Auditing
Data & Productivity: Microsoft Excel, Power BI (Basic), IICS, Denodo, OBIEE, PowerCenter
Certification
AWS Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03)
Accomplishments
- Maintained 99.9%+ uptime for Cisco's global cloud email security infrastructure across 4+ years.
- Led a team of 5 engineers; streamlined on-call workflows and reduced average incident resolution time.
- Automated smoke testing with Selenium for H&R Block, eliminating manual regression cycles post-deployment.
- Identified Azure cost optimization opportunities during FinOps engagement, delivering actionable cost-reduction reports.
- Spearheaded Jenkins CI/CD adoption for H&R Block build pipeline, improving release frequency and reliability.
CORE COMPETENCIES
- Cloud & FinOps: AWS, Azure, FinOps, Cost Optimization, Cloud Governance
- Monitoring & Observability: Grafana, Datadog, Opsgenie, IISC, Log & Metric Analysis
- Security Operations: Cloud Email Security, Threat Detection, AWS S3, Compliance Auditing
- Infrastructure & SRE: Linux, Windows Server, VMware vSphere, IIS, SSH, VM Lifecycle
- DevOps & Automation: Jenkins, GitHub, Selenium, CI/CD, Build & Release Management
- ITSM & Collaboration: Jira, ServiceNow, ITIL, Incident Management, SLA/SLO Compliance
SOFT SKILLS
Problem-Solving, Leadership & Team Management, Ownership & Accountability, Critical Thinking, Cross-functional Collaboration, Time Management, Client Communication
Timeline
Cloud Infrastructure & FinOps Engineer
UST Global (Internal – CIS Investment Delivery)
03.2026 - 05.2026
Infrastructure Engineer – Cloud Email Security & Device Alarming
UST Global (Client: Cisco)
04.2021 - 12.2025
Application Support Engineer – Managed Services
UST Global (Client: Prologis)
02.2019 - 04.2021
Application Support Engineer – Migration & DevOps
UST Global (Client: H&R Block)
02.2015 - 01.2019
Process Analyst – Tax Forms Design
UST Global (Client: H&R Block)
05.2014 - 01.2015
Diploma - Computer Engineering
DOTE
B.E. - Computer Science & Engineering
Anna University