Richard Scafidi
Experienced Software Engineer and Site Reliability Engineer with a proven track record of delivering scalable solutions in cloud environments. My core strengths include technical leadership, system reliability, and cross-functional collaboration. I excel at translating complex business requirements into robust software solutions that drive organizational success.
Experience
Site Reliability Engineer
- Build and operationalize automation (Ansible + CI/CD) that enables reliable, repeatable delivery of containerized applications across multiple environments.
- Design and implement air-gapped software supply workflows, ensuring secure artifact movement into disconnected networks.
- Develop and continuously improve observability capabilities (metrics/logs/traces) to accelerate detection, triage, and resolution of production issues.
- Own lifecycle management for AWS-hosted Kubernetes platforms, including upgrades, hardening, and operational support at scale.
- Drive CI/CD modernization in GitLab, using Bash and Python to reduce manual steps, improve consistency, and increase deployment confidence.
- Implement GitOps-style deployment patterns with Helm, Flux, and Kustomize to improve configuration control and reduce drift.
- Serve as a technical escalation point, collaborating with multiple development teams to resolve platform and application failures.
- Interface directly with Government stakeholders and contractors, translating requirements into actionable technical work and clear status updates.
- Contribute actively to Agile ceremonies (planning, standups, retros) to improve delivery flow, prioritization, and cross-team coordination.
Software Development Lead
- Deploy and configure open-source software tooling for data streaming applications to include Apache Kafka and Flink.
- Containerize custom new applications as well as legacy software using Docker for easier deployment and delivery.
- Manage strict security audit processes to ensure Information Assurance teams understand systems to be deployed.
- Analyze and prepare workflows for automation using Business Process Modeling while working closely with SMEs.
- Develop team documentation and work management practices to facilitate continuity across teams.
- Facilitate project meetings to keep leadership updated on project status and communicate blockers to senior leadership.
- Manage multiple teams across several development groups to ensure everyone is in sync.
- Distill organizational strategic goals into actionable items for development teams.
Applications Programmer
- Develop and refactor existing ColdFusion web applications.
- Create and maintain documentation for systems.
- Maintain legacy Visual Basic desktop applications.
- Develop reports using IBM Cognos.
- Respond to and resolve routine incident reports to resolve bugs and other minor production issues.
Student Developer
- Built interfaces for internal web applications using React, HTML, and CSS.
- Created and updated technical documentation for existing systems.
- Gathered requirements from clients.
- Refactored Java applications using Spring framework and internal libraries.
- Utilized development tools such as Jira, Confluence, GitHub, SQL Developer, Balsamiq, and other common development tools.
Desktop Support Technician
- Resolved technical issues for UCI staff, including application installations, software/hardware troubleshooting, and configuration/deployment of new systems.
- Managed incidents using ServiceNow ticketing system.
- Tested new versions of Windows deployments before they went live.
- Created and maintained documentation for various resolutions and procedures such as encryption standards, imaging standards, and disposal of retired devices.
- Trained new employees to get them up to speed with the tools and procedures used by the team.
Helpdesk Support Technician
- Managed phone support requests for local and state-wide users.
- Provided field support for local users.
- Troubleshot hardware and software issues.
- Organized and executed deployment of new hardware.
Testimonials
"Went out of his way to help me get multiple services and accounts set up quickly."
"Rich deserves recognition for his exceptional dedication and teamwork. He brings a wealth of knowledge and unwavering commitment to every task and is always among the first to volunteer for new challenges. His steadfast dedication to doing things the right way and his commitment to the mission's success are invaluable. His collaborative spirit makes him a pleasure to work with, inspiring those around him and consistently contributing to the team's success."
"Rich is exceptional and I want to thank him for providing comprehensive training on how CI/CD fits into the architecture to the cyber team as part of our weekly training efforts. His good nature, presentation style and knowledge base were all greatly appreciated."
"During the hackathon, Rich zipped through challenges and conjured up high-quality solutions. His dedication and skills were instrumental to our success."
"Deploying and supporting the replacement of the production cluster and saving the taxpayers significant cost."
"Thank you for working tirelessly with the team to get systems integrated with our infrastructure. Your perseverance and work ethic has been very commendable, especially given the obstacles and frustrations the team has encountered."
"Tirelessly owning and driving the common cluster integration effort with mission partners over multiple months."
Education
University of California - Irvine
Internet Applications Engineering
Software Design: Applications
Software Design: Implementation
Design and Analysis of Algorithms
Requirements Analysis and Engineering
Data Management
Computer Networks
Principles of Operating Systems
Project Management
American River Community College
- • Associate of Science - Computer Programming
- • Associate of Science - Computer Science
- • Associate of Science - Mathematics
- • Associate of Arts - Commercial Music Recording
Skills
- Kubernetes
- CI/CD Pipelines (GitLab, Jenkins)
- Docker & Container Orchestration
- Cloud Platforms (AWS, Azure, Linode)
- Infrastructure as Code
- Ansible
- Python Development
- REST API Architecture
- Microservices Architecture
- Java & Spring Framework
- React & Node.js
- Bash Scripting & Automation
- Version Control (Git, GitHub, Bitbucket)
- Agile Development Methodologies
- HTML5, CSS3 & Bootstrap
- NPM & Package Management
- Linux & Ubuntu Administration
- Windows Environments
- Database Management (SQL)
- Sourcetree & Git GUI Tools
- Project Management (Jira, Confluence)