Steve Clark

• Architect and manage production of 600+ unique DISA-hardened golden images monthly across 7 cloud platforms — AWS, Azure Public, Azure Government, GCP, OpenStack, and additional sovereign cloud environments.
• Own the end-to-end golden image pipeline from security requirements through automated build, compliance validation, and release using HashiCorp Packer and Concourse CI.
• Enforce DISA STIGs, CIS benchmarks, and internal SAP security controls through automated compliance pipelines.
• Replaced legacy bash-based hardening workflows with Ansible, improving consistency and auditability across all 7 cloud platforms.
• Lead and mentor a team of 8 engineers responsible for image lifecycle, vulnerability remediation, and secure release management.
• Supported development of a FIPS-hardened SAP BTP Cloud Foundry stemcell built for sovereign cloud deployments.

Independent consultancy run alongside full-time engineering roles, helping Operations and Engineering teams — largely in the federal government space — adopt automation and CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure and application releases.

• Architected and operated a multi-account AWS GovCloud environment supporting Mobile Passport and Airside Digital Identity, maintaining 99.99% uptime across SLA-bound production systems.
• Led the full migration of the Mobile Passport platform from a traditional datacenter to AWS GovCloud.
• Designed and deployed a Docker-based platform on HashiCorp Nomad, Consul, and Vault for zero-trust secrets management across multiple environments.
• Standardized infrastructure provisioning via Terraform and built CI/CD pipelines on Jenkins and CircleCI.
• Achieved and sustained multiyear SOC 2 compliance and kept AWS Security Hub scores above 90%.

• Championed and drove DHS approval and adoption of HashiCorp Vault, Terraform, and Packer in a highly regulated, air-gapped federal environment — the agency's first DevOps implementation.
• Implemented full Chef infrastructure in an air-gapped network, enforcing standardized OS security baselines across AIX and Red Hat.
• Developed Terraform plans for IBM PowerVC and VMware vSphere for consistent, auditable infrastructure.

• Migrated 1,000+ critical systems to a private cloud environment using PXE and Kickstart automation.
• Led the company's first Big Data (Hadoop/HIVE) deployment — 40 nodes, 2 petabytes of storage.
• Developed and maintained infrastructure Chef cookbooks and introduced continuous deployment via improved Kickstart and Chef bootstrap workflows.
• Implemented TACACS+ and LDAP access integration on Cisco MDS fiber switches, centralizing authentication across data centers.

Network Operations, Storage Engineering, and Telecommunications roles at NeuStar, Inc. (2004–2011). Sr. Technical Support Engineer → Enterprise Systems Administrator, Electronic Health Information (1997–2001).