Backend Software Engineer | Kubernetes, Cloud Infrastructure & Automation Specialist
📍 [Rochester, MN] | 📧 [josephgoergen@yahoo.com] | 🔗 [LinkedIn] | 💻 [GitHub]

Results-driven Software Engineer with over 6 years of experience building, maintaining, and automating Kubernetes and OpenShift environments at scale on IBM Cloud. Subject Matter Expert (SME) in containerd and proficient with Kubernetes control plane management and infrastructure automation. Strong background in Golang, Bash, Terraform, Tekton, Ansible, and Linux systems. Skilled in diagnosing complex distributed systems, leading production-grade updates and ensuring 99.9% uptime across thousands of clusters. Recognized innovator with a U.S. patent filed through IBM. Excels in cross-team collaboration, root-cause analysis and delivering scalable cloud solutions.

Languages: Golang, Bash, Java
Containerization: Kubernetes, OpenShift, Docker, containerd
Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, Ansible
CI/CD: Tekton, Jenkins, Travis CI
Cloud Platforms: IBM Cloud (transferable experience to AWS, GCP, Azure)
Monitoring & Logging: Prometheus, Grafana, Kubernetes Auditing, IBM Cloud Logs
Security & Access Control: RBAC, IAM
Operating Systems: Linux (Ubuntu, RHEL, RHCOS), Shell scripting, System administration
Services: IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service (IKS), Red Hat Openshift on IBM Cloud (ROKS)

Software Engineer | Feb 2019 – Dec 2025

• Maintained and operated the control plane and master components for thousands of managed Kubernetes and OpenShift clusters hosted on IBM Cloud.
• Ensured 99.999% production service uptime by proactively identifying, reproducing, and resolving issues across multi-tenant environments before production rollout.
• Acted as Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the containerd runtime—testing updates, patching bugs introduced by the open-source community, and coordinating fixes upstream.
• Led high-availability (HA) initiatives for all control plane components, ensuring fault tolerance and reliability across regions.
• Automated environment provisioning, updates, and testing pipelines using Terraform, Tekton, Ansible, and Jenkins, improving deployment efficiency and consistency.
• Collaborated weekly with Red Hat engineers to align Kubernetes and OpenShift changes with IBM Cloud’s infrastructure roadmap.
• Designed and maintained RBAC/IAM policies to secure control plane operations and tenant data isolation.
• Handled customer-facing support tickets, diagnosing cluster and container issues to restore service functionality and build trust with enterprise clients.
• Worked on auditing and monitoring integrations, including Kubernetes audit logs and IBM’s internal logging platform.
• Scaled automation to support clusters with up to 800 worker nodes each and a fleet exceeding 10,000 clusters.

Key Achievements:

• Diagnosed and patched multiple containerd-level bugs, performing code-level debugging and upstream reporting to the open-source community.
• Filed a U.S. patent through IBM for innovative solutions improving cloud automation and update reliability.
• Streamlined control plane update validation workflows, reducing pre-deployment testing time by 30%.
• Contributed to robust CI/CD pipelines that prevented breaking changes from reaching production, safeguarding thousands of customer workloads.
• Migrated ROKS clusters from the ibm-roks-toolkit to Hypershift Operator, which resulted in recieving IBM's OTAA (Outstanding Technical Achievement Award).

Certificates: CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator) - Issued Feb 2026

• Terraform Integration with Tekton CI:
  Integrated Terraform into the GitHub-based Tekton CI pipeline to automate PR testing for infrastructure components, enabling faster feedback and consistent infrastructure validation.
• Container Runtime Modernization:
  Led the service-wide upgrade of Kubernetes clusters from containerd 1.7 to 2.1, including extensive QA validation, regression testing, and compatibility verification to ensure zero customer disruption.

• Self-Hosted NAS & Home Infrastructure:
  Built a container-orchestrated NAS using Docker on a mini PC, running open-source and self-hosted services with full end-to-end domain security via SSL and DNS management.
• Security Camera Integration:
  Implemented PoE-based security cameras feeding directly into the NAS using motionEye, storing streams locally for enhanced privacy and reliability.
• 3D Design & Printing:
  Designed and printed a custom 7–8 player Settlers of Catan board, demonstrating strong problem-solving, creativity, and iterative design skills.

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Minor in Mathematics
Winona State University, 2018

• Graduated in 3.5 years | GPA: 3.8

• Strong background in Linux systems engineering and container runtime internals.
• Experienced in distributed systems, HA design, and large-scale automation.
• Excellent communicator; collaborated directly with Red Hat and IBM Cloud customers to diagnose and resolve complex technical issues.