Robert W. McLeod

Senior Systems Engineer Oct, 2021 — present

Key Responsibilities

Telstra Purple Pty. Ltd.
(formerly Readify Pty. Ltd.)

Technical Lead Dec, 2020 — Oct, 2021

Senior Developer Jan, 2020 — Nov, 2020

Developer Jul, 2018 — Dec, 2019

Graduate Developer Jun, 2016 — Jun, 2018

Through my years at Telstra Purple I have worked as an internal DevSecOps engineer. Having spent time on all sides of the team as it has grown and rediscovered itself, I have become the go to subject matter expert for all things internal. In my role as Technical Lead of Cloud and Infrastructure Engineering, I provide technical leadership and guidance to my team while remaining a productive contributor to the backlogs and support queues.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Excellence: I use my technical expertise to establish team standards and provide assistance to team members. I thrive in the unknown, jumping into complex situations with unfamiliar tools.
• Business Knowledge: I spend time building strong relationships with business stakeholders and learning how they work. That way I can proactively identify problems and ways that my team can assist, and communicate in ways that they will understand.
• Leadership: I am an outspoken advocate for my teams past, present, and future. They trust me to put their interests first and fight for them while also providing them with honest, constructive feedback.
• Time Management: I manage the time of both myself and my team to ensure that the ever changing needs of our dozen stakeholder groups are addressed in a balanced manner. I am open and honest with stakeholders about realistic timelines and ensure no one is excluded.
• Sustainability: I think in both the short and long term to provide solutions that are both timely and long lasting. I fix technical debt wherever I see it and establish patterns for repeatability and consistency across systems.

Identity

Recently my work has had a focus on identity. I have done numerous Single Sign-On configurations using SAML2 and OpenID Connect. More broadly I have been working on an access management strategy across the business. This includes the use of AzureAD Security Groups, Access Packages, and Privileged Identity Management to provide users with Just Enough access, Just In-Time access, and proactive access.

Automation

I have extensive experience automating business processes and ETL (Export, Transform, Load) processes using primarily PowerShell, Azure Automation, and Azure Function Apps. Additionally I am proficient in the use of Logic Apps, Event Grid, and Power Apps. I am a leading expert within the business on PowerShell and maintain a few open-source modules available on the PowerShell Gallery.

APIs

A specialty of mine is consuming various types of APIs. I am most proficient with RESTful APIs like those using OData, but have also worked extensively with SOAP APIs and a bit with GraphQL.

DevOps

Practices like Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, and Infrastructure as Code form the backbone of my professional approach. I start most projects by creating a skeleton Azure Resource Manager Template and Azure Pipeline to deploy it.

Monash University

Bachelor of Computer Science 2014 — 2016

• Industry Based Learning placement at Telstra Purple Pty. Ltd.
• Vice President of the Monash Gamers and Developers Association
• Competed in the International Collegiate Programming Contest Divisions

Holmesglen Institute of TAFE

Diploma of Software Development 2013 — 2014

• Project building mobile application for Epworth HealthCare

• Dungeons & Dragons – level 13 Barbarian/Cleric
• Sports – Pats, Sox, Bruins, Power
• eSports – Speed-running, Age of Empires 2