JamesChristensen

Experience

Nationwide — Jan 2025 - Present

Led Tiger Team initiative to standardize Postgres and Aurora platforms. Effort drove alignment across technology teams and shaped long-term RDBMS strategy.
Elevated PostgreSQL to a first-class managed service by designing and implementing an AWS CDK construct for RDS PostgreSQL/Aurora with IAM-driven automation for schema and role creation.
Designed and lead the implementation of OpenSearch and Neptune CDK constructs.
Improved reliability by managing 400+ RDS instances. Engineered per-instance CloudWatch alarms integrated with BigPanda to auto-create ServiceNow incidents for Postgres support team.
Accelerated releases by migrating multiple repositories from Concourse to GitHub Actions, standardizing CI/CD pipelines, and training teams on automation practices.
Delivered technical POCs across RDS services.
Cut onboarding time by building PostgreSQL role and schema automation tool.
Established Amazon Aurora as supported enterprise database, strengthening dependability, performance, and supportability across teams.
Unified data teams by organizing and leading Postgres Book Club that enabled Oracle and SQL server DBAs to build PostgreSQL expertise.
Fast-tracked environment setup by creating DVDRentalDemo to showcase end-to-end full-stack provisioning with CDK constructs and GitHub Actions CI/CD.

Nationwide — Jan 2023 - Jan 2025

Led production support team at Nationwide to new levels of operational excellence by automating key tasks, significantly reducing errors, and enhancing efficiency, contributing to seamless project execution without any major issues or P0 incidents.
Created Concourse pull request checks that improved CI workflow
Enhanced product quality and team productivity by developing and refining an innovative SOAPUI testing pipeline. Automated testing process for multiple lines of business, resulting in a more user-friendly, consistent, and time-efficient workflow.
Expanded role to requirements space, quickly becoming proficient in requirements analysis to support the team.
Took on roles of project manager, release manager, and environment manager when needed.

Nationwide — Feb 2022 - Jan 2023

Entrusted with taking over as Lead of the ODM Prod Support area.
Led a team that integrated Monitoring and Observability over to Big Panda.
Created Concourse pipeline that runs ODM regression tests and sends teams notifications of progress.
Generated pipelines using Jenkins, Artifactory, and Harness to automate deployments to ODM test environments.
Ensured integrity of production deployment process as well as communication with other teams.
Gained valuable leadership experience by being voted Lead of the Automation Guild Pilot Hackathon.
Reduced production support resources by 50% through automation efforts.
Presented automation activities at Nationwide managers’ meeting.

Nationwide — Jun 2021 - Feb 2022

Reduced test case repository size by 40% with a Bash script that automatically removed unneeded fields.
Improved database integrity by creating a script to identify test cases in the repository with invalid policy numbers that could not bypass the database.
Saved developer time and manual work by creating a GUI that automated prerelease work for merging test cases.
Entrusted to help complete the biggest release of the year.
Found and fixed numerous ODM code errors that had gone undetected for years.
Commended by manager for being an asset in every situation, having a go-getter attitude, and being eager to learn and grow.
Jumpstarted team’s automation efforts by participating in a Hackathon and creating a Jenkins pipeline.
Delivered code faster and more efficiently by initiating the creation of a Jira bot that connected Jira to GitHub, automating the process of moving cards and associating pull requests.
Volunteered as automation representative on CLS Automation Guild

Nationwide — Jun 2020 - June 2021

As part-time employee, completed the amount of work normally achieved by a full-time associate.