$ whoami
Senior Cloud Engineer · AWS Solutions Architect – Associate
I build and automate multi-account AWS environments, from infrastructure as code to backup, DR, and cost control.
I’m a Senior Cloud Engineer with about five years of hands-on AWS experience and a Solutions Architect – Associate certification. My days are spent in a large multi-account environment: infrastructure as code, backup and disaster recovery, networking, cost control, and the governance that keeps it all coherent.
My favorite part of the job is making things boring to operate. If a task happens twice, I want it automated, documented, and quiet: Step Functions instead of runbooks, Terraform instead of console clicking, alarms instead of surprises.
I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin taking computers apart (and usually getting them back together), which turned into a Computer Engineering degree from UW–Stout and a career in the cloud. These days the same itch shows up in side projects: web apps, this site, and a 3D-printing business.
Terraform · CloudFront · Lambda · SES · GitHub Actions
The site you’re on is the project. A private S3 bucket served through CloudFront, a Route 53 domain with ACM TLS, and keyless deploys from GitHub Actions over OIDC. Terraform modules driven by one YAML config. It also runs a serverless visitor counter (Lambda, DynamoDB, least-privilege IAM) and SES forwarding for hello@thomaswanless.dev.
3D printing · Shopify · Side business
A made-to-order 3D printing business with a gaming-focused catalog and a moon-themed brand. Running it keeps me close to the whole loop: design, production, storefront, and customers.
How this site gets built and served: Terraform defines everything, GitHub Actions deploys it with short-lived OIDC credentials, and CloudFront is the only thing allowed to read the private bucket.
