$ what.am.i.doing.now
last updated May 2026
working on
- Helping build Azure CI/CD, IaC, and DevSecOps practices for Deloitte's tax software portfolio (preparation, compliance, accounting, filing) on the iCMS Tax DevOps team. Closer to the keyboard than the org chart.
- Building D3CYPH3R, a browser-based terminal that teaches infrastructure engineers to find security exposure in systems they have inherited, and to write up what they find in the language of control frameworks. 24 levels across 7 tracks, each ending in a post-mortem that traces the finding to CWE weaknesses, NIST 800-53 controls, MITRE ATT&CK techniques, and the regulatory regime governing that client.
learning
- Deciding which Azure cert is next. Already have AZ-900 and AI-900; the path forward depends on whether I lean further into platform or further into security
- Getting deeper into cybersecurity fundamentals. The boundary between platform engineering and defensive security is mostly arbitrary, and I'm leaning into the cyber side
reading
- Dune by Frank Herbert. Finally getting around to it. The politics of fictional empires hit different after a few years in enterprise IT.
tinkering with
- Home lab: HP Elite Mini 600 G9 (i7-13700T, 96 GB RAM, 92 TB external storage) running Ubuntu Server with Docker containers for Plex, Immich, and Tailscale. Quieter than the refrigerator, more capable than the company laptop.
- Custom-built router: pfSense on a Lenovo M720q with an Intel X540-T2 NIC. Suricata for IDS/IPS, pfBlockerNG for DNS-level and IP-level blocking, WireGuard for VPN. Pulls a full gigabit symmetric link with everything running at line rate, which is the part the consumer router vendors quietly hope you never figure out is possible.
- LoRa radio + MeshCore: building out a long-range, low-power mesh network with no infrastructure. Connectivity without dependencies. It is its own rabbit hole and I'm enjoying every minute of it.
open to
- Senior or Staff DevOps / Platform Engineering roles, full-time or contract
- Conversations about Azure architecture, multi-cloud migration, DevSecOps, Suricata or pfBlockerNG tuning, or LoRa mesh networking
- Coffee (Nashville-area) or virtual chats: ryan@rlwilliamson.dev
not doing right now
- Twitter / X. Using LinkedIn for professional posts instead.
- Side-project sprawl. Focusing on the cybersecurity path and the mesh-network build this quarter. The list of things I could be tinkering with is twice as long as the list of things I actually am, and that is by design.