Christopher Riding
Vancouver, BC | chris@chrisriding.dev | linkedin.com/in/christophergriding
Professional Summary
Results-driven Platform Development Engineer with over 15 years of IT infrastructure experience, including a 10+ year specialized track record on SRE and DevOps. I’m dedicated to building robust, resilient, and efficient platforms that power enterprise systems.
An expert in managing complex hybrid-cloud environments (Azure, AWS), I lead end-to-end migrations and implement robust automation (Terraform, Ansible) to enhance system reliability and deliver significant cost savings.
I excel at bringing teams together, working across departments to deliver on shared goals. I enhance system architecture and reliability by championing meaningful SLAs and SLOs, implemented through comprehensive observability frameworks (Dynatrace, Prometheus, Grafana). This approach, combined with leveraging modern cloud-native architectures (Kubernetes, OpenShift, Docker), directly reduces downtime and enhances developer velocity. I am currently expanding my expertise into AI engineering, holding the Azure AI Engineer Associate certification.
Core Competencies
- Cloud Platforms: Microsoft Azure, AWS
- Automation & IaC: Ansible, Terraform, Git, Argo CD
- Containerization: OpenShift, Kubernetes, Docker
- Observability: Dynatrace, ELK, Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, PagerDuty
- Operating Systems: Linux (RHEL, Debian), UNIX, Windows Server
- Scripting: Python, Bash, PowerShell
- Networking: TCP/IP, DNS, TLS, Firewalls, Routing
- Databases & Virtualization: MySQL, Oracle DB, VMware, Hyper-V
Professional Experience
Best Buy Canada | Vancouver, BC
Platform Development Engineer - Reliability - SRE(April 2019 – Present)
- Led the build-out and operation of enterprise SRE systems, including Dynatrace, ELK, Prometheus, and Grafana, to enhance system reliability.
- Developed Python automation to extract maturity metrics from the Dynatrace API, pushing them to a Prometheus Pushgateway in OpenShift (via Argo CD).
- Spearheaded the migration of the on-premise Dynatrace monitoring solution to Azure, ensuring a seamless transition and improved platform scalability.
- Deployed containerized applications into OpenShift using Argo CD for continuous delivery and GitOps practices.
- Served as the Cloud Champion for the Reliability team, guiding cloud adoption initiatives and establishing best practices.
Platform Development Engineer - Performance(October 2018 – April 2019)
- Spearheaded the initial deployment and configuration of Dynatrace as the core APM solution, providing deep-code visibility for critical applications.
- Collaborated with development teams to design and execute performance tests, analyzing results to identify and remediate system bottlenecks.
Vision Critical | Vancouver, BC
Technical Operations Systems Administrator(November 2017 – October 2018)
- Orchestrated the end-to-end migration of 300+ users to G-Suite, engineering Active Directory integration for seamless user provisioning and SSO.
- Administered a hybrid IT environment, utilizing PowerShell to automate daily administrative tasks and user requests across Active Directory and Exchange Online.