Chris Wubbels
| Prince Edward County, Ontario |
Summary
I’m a consultant who is curious about how complex things work. My curiosity drives me to explore what’s possible, what isn’t, and where to find the handles for controlling the system. I work hands-on in my client engagements, identifying what I need to learn, and expanding my skills.
I’m an AWS Solutions Architect with practical experience in both designing and building secure, scalable cloud architecture. I adapt quickly to unfamiliar requirements: explore the problem, find the right pattern, learn its tech, and deploy it.
Certifications
AWS Solutions Architect – Associate
AWS AI Practitioner
Technical Skills
Architecture Patterns
- Classic N-Tier, Serverless, and Static Delivery architectures on AWS
- Multi-account platform design using AWS Organizations
- Defense-in-depth security, secrets management, and scalable compute patterns
Operations & Delivery
- Designed and operated Linux-based, containerized platforms
- Built repeatable, automated infrastructure and deployment using Terraform and GitHub Actions
- Owned operational reliability of platforms, including database administration and resilient production systems
Current Learning Queue
Focused on recognizing AI as a first-class computing interface—not a novelty or “agentic” abstraction, but the emerging context for manipulating our engineering and operational environments.
Emphasis is on practical, secure, and cost-aware AI usage in real workflows, including LLM cost optimization and AI-assisted protection of PII and secrets across CI pipelines, data workflows, and developer workstations. Also pursuing commercial-grade development of production infrastructure capabilities, including advanced Terraform practices, Kubernetes orchestration, and scalable, production-ready platform design.
Experience
Consultant | Juniper Collaborative
October 2018 – Present
I formed Juniper Collaborative to provide business and technical consulting to small business clients.
Key areas, with selected client examples:
Business Consulting
Engagements spanning operations analysis, cost optimization, and process improvement for small business clients.
Cloud Infrastructure
Lindeblad Piano Restoration (2018–2019, 2021–present)
- Architected and deployed production AWS infrastructure: multi-tier VPC across three availability zones, EC2/Docker behind ALB with WAF, RDS MySQL with automated secrets rotation, cost-optimized with Compute Savings Plans
- Built HTTP API (API Gateway + Lambda) feeding operational data from MySQL to Google Sheets for business reporting
- Led cross-domain collaboration between marketing strategy and technical implementation—evaluate feasibility of business objectives and coordinate freelance developers on deployment
- Own the website CI/CD process: designed Git repository structure, built deployment via GitHub Actions, implemented Git + Docker workflow enabling isolated development environments
Press On Journal (2020–present)
- Designed AWS architecture for custom web platform in collaboration with development team at Formos
- Replaced Mailchimp with self-hosted Sendy on EC2 and SES
- Currently testing Stalwart mail server on ECS to replace Workmail
Web Hosting Portfolio (2018–2023)
- Inherited a legacy LAMP stack with Plesk control panel serving ~10 WordPress clients
- Migrated incrementally to Linode, replacing control panel dependencies with native Linux administration
- Learned infrastructure fundamentals: how servers fail, how to handle client emergencies, how to reduce costs without reducing reliability
- Ended the engagement able to tear down and rebuild environments at will—the “cattle not pets” mindset that was incomprehensible when I started
Embedded Support
Cultured Code (2019–2023)
Customer support for Things, a to-do app that’s won the Apple Design Award twice. Twelve-person company, elite engineering talent.
- Took the role specifically for access to their engineering culture—attended internal dev conferences in Stuttgart, collaborated daily on company Slack, observed how a world-class team approaches design and implementation
- Their two-person cloud infrastructure team left a particular impression: careful, principled engineering as a daily practice, not an aspiration
- Retained on company Slack after the engagement ended
Strategy & Operations Manager | Lindeblad Piano Restoration
September 2010 – October 2018
Lindeblad restores Steinway pianos for customers across the United States, and has become the national leader in that space. I started in marketing—video production, website development, learning which emerging technologies would improve our position.
In 2015, we brought in a consultant—a senior executive from the auto industry—who I worked with closely. We restructured ownership, converting small-stake owners to employees, severed relationships with unaligned employees and vendors, implemented profit planning, monthly financial reviews, and took inventory for the first time in the company’s history. That year of intensive collaboration transformed how I see businesses: not as an employee oblivious to how things tick, but through the eyes of an executive.
We deployed Harvest to track labor inputs, so the company could finally understand which work was profitable. It was my first experience using technology as a control mechanism inside a business process—not just for communication. That distinction reshaped how I think about systems.
Communications Coordinator | Williamsburg Christadelphian Foundation
April 2005 – September 2010
Charitable foundation distributing $1M+ annually in grants. I administered CMS platforms for 30+ websites and produced video content for donor communications.
Technical Director | State Farm Insurance
October 1999 – July 2001
Joined the recently formed Interactive Distance Learning unit supporting training via satellite. Interaction from remote classrooms returned via TCP/IP network. First role out of college; first experience using emerging technology to reduce costs at scale.
Education
| B.S. Mass Communication | Illinois State University | 1999 |