Inguss Neilands

📌 Director of Platform Engineering | Principal Platform Architect | Building and leading secure platforms in regulated environments. I bridge technical depth with team leadership. From founding an ISP and serving as CTO through turnarounds, to leading 4 R&D groups at 3M through a major corporate spin-off, I specialize in building platforms that survive real-world pressure while growing high-performing teams. With 15+ years of platform engineering experience, I focus on: • Multi-account AWS Architecture & Governance (HIPAA/GDPR/SOC 2) • Kubernetes (EKS, Talos) & GitOps (FluxCD, ArgoCD) • Zero Trust Identity & Security Architecture • Team Leadership & M&A Transitions 🚀 Current Focus: Bridging Platform Engineering with AI/ML. Running a production private cloud (Talos Linux) for local LLM inference and agentic automation (Apple MLX, MCP, cpmpy). Key Career Wins: • Led 4 Digital R&D groups (SRE, AI/ML, Data Lake, IoT) through 3M-to-Solventum transition with zero security incidents. • Delivered Healthcare IoT platform 6 months early, cutting operational costs ~45%. • Drove $10M+ in FinOps savings through Cloud Custodian policy-as-code and cost optimization. • Reduced platform support overhead 75% via secure self-service IaC pipelines. Leadership Background: • CTO roles at media and technology companies — including company turnarounds • Fractional CTO, multiple organizations • Team Lead at Accenture — 300+ site platform migration • Founder & CTO of ISP Open to Director of Engineering, Engineering Manager, or Principal/Staff Platform Architect roles where security, scale, regulated workloads, and team leadership intersect. Let's build something robust together.