# Blake Deckard (戴至诚)

Cloud engineer and full-stack developer who builds AI-powered web and mobile apps, automates AWS and Azure infrastructure, and works in English and Mandarin.

- Email: blake.deckard.personal@gmail.com
- GitHub: https://github.com/blakedeckard
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-b-deckard/
- X: https://x.com/dzcblake
- Website: https://blakedeckard.com/
- Résumé (PDF): https://blakedeckard.com/resume/blake-deckard-resume.pdf
- Availability: Open to new roles.

## Summary

I'm a cloud engineer turned founder. I taught myself programming while studying at the University of Houston and reached proficiency right as AI began to take off. I've run production for 1,000+ servers on AWS, wrote the first-pass Terraform guardrails for a greenfield AWS platform, and then started my own company, where I shipped full-stack AI-powered web and mobile apps by myself. I'm an AWS Certified Solutions Architect, previously held Azure Administrator and Solutions Architect Expert certifications, and I work in English and Mandarin.

Why I'm looking: I want to work on challenging problems with fun, hardworking people. That matters more to me than anything else in my next role.

## By the numbers

- **96%** fewer flagged LLM outputs after a blind A/B model benchmark (51% → 2%)
- **99.98%** uptime on the Ubuntu servers and databases I ran solo
- **97–99%** faster deployments from the CI/CD pipeline I built
- **1,000+** production EC2 instances supported on AWS
- **99.9%** fewer API calls and SQL queries in testing, from caching I built (I left before it reached production)
- **3.98** cumulative GPA across two degrees (4.0 in both majors)

## Experience

### [Enigma Byte, LLC](https://enigmabyte.dev) · Remote

**Founder & Application Developer** (Oct 2025 – Jun 2026)

- Founded my own company and shipped production web apps end to end with [Laravel](https://laravel.com), [React](https://react.dev), [Inertia](https://inertiajs.com), [HTMX](https://htmx.org), [PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org), [Redis](https://redis.io), [R2](https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/), and [Tailwind CSS](https://tailwindcss.com).
- Built [MCP](https://modelcontextprotocol.io) servers for OpenAI and Claude plugins, so AI agents can use the products directly and AI channels bring in new users.
- Benchmarked LLMs in a blind A/B test, then switched models and prompts, cutting flagged problems by 96% (51% → 2%).
- Designed cost-efficient AI data generation pipelines on [OpenRouter](https://openrouter.ai).
- Shipped iOS and Android apps with [React Native](https://reactnative.dev), backed by APIs I built in Laravel.
- Chose Redis for sessions and [SQLite](https://sqlite.org) for persistent data, including large computed objects that are cached, after Redis's single-threaded design added latency serving them.
- Integrated [Claude](https://www.anthropic.com/claude), [Fal.ai](https://fal.ai), [OpenAI](https://openai.com), [DeepSeek](https://www.deepseek.com), [Kimi](https://www.kimi.com), [Cloudflare Images](https://developers.cloudflare.com/images/), and [Cloudflare Stream](https://developers.cloudflare.com/stream/).
- Integrated [Stripe](https://stripe.com) and [HitPay](https://www.hitpayapp.com) payments, with webhooks handling payment events.
- Ran marketing and transactional email on [Resend](https://resend.com).
- Gated every release on code quality and test coverage with [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/features/actions).
- Ran database and server upgrades and operations on [Ubuntu](https://ubuntu.com) while holding 99.98% uptime.

### [Aderant](https://aderant.com) · Remote

**Cloud Applications Engineer** (Mar 2025 – Oct 2025)

- Kept production healthy across 1,000+ [AWS EC2](https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/) instances, troubleshooting performance issues, alarms, and requests.
- Refactored the [PowerShell](https://learn.microsoft.com/powershell/) monitoring stack around best practices and added caching that cut API calls and SQL queries by 66% to 99.9% in testing. I left before it reached production.
- Added a guard to the [Jenkins](https://www.jenkins.io) deployment pipeline that stopped deployments to tenants placed in a unique state, which the pipeline would otherwise revert, replacing manual communications.
- Corrected monitoring issues on Windows Server EC2 instances with PowerShell and [Ansible](https://www.ansible.com).
- Wrote the playbook for a customer-facing bug, covering both the communications and the fix.
- Met SLAs with high satisfaction through clear, timely updates to customers and teams.

### [LyondellBasell](https://lyondellbasell.com) · Houston, TX

**ITS Analyst, Cloud Center of Excellence** (Jun 2024 – Mar 2025)

- Led the [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/features/actions) and [Splunk](https://www.splunk.com) integrations for a greenfield AWS deployment, built with Terraform.
- Wrote the first pass of [Terraform](https://www.terraform.io) modules with guardrails, so the deployment could start from a better baseline for standards and compliance.
- Defended designs in front of the Architecture Review Board, answering solutions architects and cybersecurity.
- Built an LLM tool for an internal chatbot proof of value with [LangChain](https://www.langchain.com) and [Azure OpenAI](https://azure.microsoft.com/products/ai-services/openai-service), in JavaScript.

**ITS Analyst, Record to Report** (Feb 2023 – Jun 2024)

- Cut deployment time for a key finance application by 97–99% with a GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline (IaC and PowerShell).
- Recognized at a GTS town hall for finding, reporting, and fixing security vulnerabilities and design drift.
- Earned bonuses for fast incident response, integration work, and a successful SaaS migration.
- Wrote Python to mass-edit XML files, letting the team move quickly to Azure AD single sign-on and making sure the production cutover matched what we had validated in testing.
- Automated server maintenance, software installs, and configuration with PowerShell.
- Identified and spearheaded automating user provisioning in [OneStream](https://www.onestream.com) with VB.NET, and built it so it could later be driven from our [ServiceNow](https://www.servicenow.com) instance.
- Helped build integrations from Azure and on-prem data sources to a SaaS application.

**ITS Intern, Record to Report** (Summer 2022)

- Built a [ServiceNow](https://www.servicenow.com) dashboard reporting incidents, requests, and problems for the finance product teams.

### [BHP](https://bhp.com) · Houston, TX

**Technology Intern, Petroleum Technology Operations** (Summer 2021)

- Built a [Splunk](https://www.splunk.com) dashboard that gave leadership visibility into IT operations standards compliance.

## Education

[University of Houston](https://www.uh.edu), Honors College · Dec 2022

- BBA, Management Information Systems (Bauer College of Business)
- BA, Chinese Studies
- 3.98 cumulative GPA · 4.0 in both majors

## Certifications

- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
- CompTIA Security+
- HSK 6 and HSKK Advanced (Mandarin)
- ITIL Foundation
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (held 2024 – 2026, now expired)
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (held 2023 – 2025, now expired)

## Skills

- **Cloud and infrastructure:** AWS (EC2, production operations at 1,000+ instances), Microsoft Azure, Cloudflare (R2, Images, Stream, Workers), Terraform, Infrastructure as Code, Linux / Ubuntu server administration, Windows Server
- **DevOps and automation:** GitHub Actions, Jenkins, CI/CD pipelines, PowerShell, Ansible, Splunk, ServiceNow, Monitoring and incident response, Database and server upgrades
- **AI and LLMs:** Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, OpenAI and Claude integrations and plugins, LLM evaluation and blind A/B benchmarking, Prompt engineering, AI data generation pipelines (OpenRouter), LangChain, Azure OpenAI
- **Application development:** PHP / Laravel, TypeScript / JavaScript, React, React Native (iOS and Android), Inertia, HTMX, Svelte / SvelteKit, Tailwind CSS, Python, VB.NET, REST APIs
- **Integrations:** Payments: Stripe and HitPay, with webhooks, Email: Resend (marketing and transactional), Fal.ai, Cloudflare Images and Stream
- **Data:** SQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Redis (sessions), Caching
- **Security and process:** CompTIA Security+, Azure AD single sign-on, ITIL, SaaS migrations

## Languages

- English: fluent
- Mandarin Chinese (中文): B2–C1, HSK 6 and HSKK Advanced
- Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt): basic

## Outside work

Épée fencing · open source · running · reading · travel