BEN HAITH
ben.haith@gmail.com 3179199444
PROFILE
• Passionate technologist who considers himself to
be a life-long explorer, cultivating a career
spanning 20 years, working at Fortune 500
companies, boutique consulting firms, and
trailblazer startups. Provides technical leadership,
offers a strategic mindset, evolutionary solutions,
mentorship, and engaging collaboration.
• Described by colleagues as forward-thinking,
solution-focused, dependable, and eager to
empower; a pioneer and driver who enjoys
exploring new possibilities, generating novel
ideas, and producing inventive solutions to
technical and non-technical challenges.
• Experience with envisioning and designing cloud-
host solutions.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS/RECOGNITION
• Proven track record at accelerating operational
performance through agility and capability
building, aligning technical solutions with
organization imperatives, and converting strategy
into change on the ground.
• Effective in nurturing a continuous learning
culture that unlocks the problem-solving capacity,
improving skills through training, sustaining
innovation, and empowering teams to be
accountable for their decisions.
• Recognized for being a patient, active listener, and
independent learner, eager to pursue new roles
and responsibilities, experience with adapting to
various organizational cultures and industries,
and active practitioner of continuous self-
improvement.
• Involved in key organizational imperatives,
including enterprise-wide cloud adoption,
leading key application modernization initiatives,
participating in “innovation circle” forums, and
nurturing a “trusted advisor” status in the
organization.
Recent recipient of Employee Excellence Award
(Sallie Mae 2019, 2020).
Education
• Bachelor of Science (MIS), Southern Illinois
University
CERTIFICATIONS AND TRAINING (Additional
Enrollments in Training Available Upon Request)
• Architecting on AWS (AWS classroom course)
• Advanced Architecting on AWS (AWS instructor-led course)
• Big Data on AWS (AWS partner virtual course)
• AWS Tech Essential (AWS instructor-led course)
• DevOps Engineering on AWS (AWS instructor-led course)
• The Machine Learning Pipeline ((AWS virtual course)
• Developing on AWS (AWS classroom course)
• Building Data Lakes on AWS (AWS virtual course)
• Apache Spark 3 Programming in Python for Beginners (Udemy)
• Apache Spark 3 Real-time Stream Processing using Python (Udemy)
• Machine Learning, Data Science and Deep Learning with Python
• AWS Cloud Formation Master Class (Udemy)
• AWS Lamba and the Serverless Framework (Udemy)
• AWS Certified Developer (A Cloud Guru)
• AWS Certification Preparation Guide (A Cloud Guru)
• AWS Certified Machine Learning (A Cloud Guru)
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect (A Cloud Guru)
• AWS Certified SysOps Administrator (A Cloud Guru)
• AWS DynamoDB - From Beginner to Pro (A Cloud Guru)
• Practical Event-Driven Security with AWS (A Cloud Guru)
• Mastering the AWS Well-Architected Framework
• Scale Agile Framework (on-site classroom courses)
• IBM Object-Oriented Analysis and Design I & II
• Certified Scrum Master
CORE ROLES
• Enterprise Architect, Solution Architect, Developer, Technical Lead
• Technology Evangelist, Cloud Architect, Cloud Developer, Mentor
• Trusted Technical Advisor, Manager
• Cloud Computing
• Technical Leadership
SKILLS
• AWS Cloud Architecture and Development
• Serverless Computing
• Cloud Adoption
• Enterprise Standards and Best Practice
• Enterprise Workload Automation
• Software Analysis
• Data Democratization
• Governance and Security Standards along with Technical Integration
• Data Pipeline Implementation
• Event-Driven, Distributed, Resilient, and Scalable Architectures
• Agile Software Development
• Technical Documentation DataOps Practice
• App Modernization
• DevOps
• Software Design Patterns
 TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE
• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), App
Modernization, DevOps, DevSecOps, NoSQL,
Data Lake Architecture
• AWS Well-Architected Framework, Amazon Sage
Maker, Elastic Search, Azure DevOps (CI/CD),
C#, Java, Go, Python
• Platforms: AWS, Azure
• Platform Services: Amazon Lambda, Amazon S3,
Amazon SQS, Amazon SNS, Amazon DynamoDB,
Amazon RDS (PostgreSQL), Amazon Elastic
search, Amazon Comprehend, Amazon Sage
Maker (Studio), Amazon Textract, Amazon Lex,
Amazon IAM, AWS X-Ray, AWS CDK, AWS
Transfer Family, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon
Elasticache, AWS Secrets Manager, AWS Key
Management Service, AWS Step Functions,
Amazon Event Bridge, Amazon Cloud Watch,
AWS Cloud trail, Amazon Athena, Amazon Glue,
Amazon Kinesis, AWS Lake Formation, AWS
Glue, Amazon Cognito, Azure Functions, Azure
App Service, Azure Service Fabric, Azure Cosmos
DB, Azure Blob Storage, SQL Server
• Developer Frameworks: .NET Core, JDK, Spring,
Entity Framework, ASP.NET (Core)
• Tools Technologies and Methodologies: Azure
DevOps, Jenkins, Team City, NUnit, C#, Java,
JavaScript, Node (beginner), Python, Go
(beginner), Clojure, Kotlin (beginner), (beginner),
F# (beginner), Git, GitHub, Jet Brains IntelliJ, Jet
Brains PyCharm, Jet Brains Rider, Visual Studio
.NET, Visual Studio Code
• Software Development Process and
Organizational Practices: SDLC, DevOps,
DevSecOps, Pair programming, Mob
programming, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe),
Scrum, Kanban, Responsive UX Design, Design
Thinking, MLOps (emerging), DataOps
(emerging)
PROFESSIONAL WORK EXPERIENCE
Sallie Mae, Indianapolis, IN
June 2019 - Present
Roles: Senior Technical Architect, Architecture Runway Team Lead, Senior
Cloud Architect
June 2019 – Present
• Accepted opportunity to join the Cloud Architecture team; a team
responsible for providing technical leadership and guidance in using
the AWS platform.
• Primary work involved architectural, design, and implementation
support to various teams during the phase of "app modernization"
by leveraging the AWS platform.
• Created the organization's "Cloud CoP" program, regularly interact
with technical resources at AWS, and involved in scheduling a
continuing series of AWS training programs and seminars for the
organization.
Notable Work
• Architected, designed, and co-developed the organization's first
model of a "Serverless" platform leveraging AWS.
• Involved in re-architecting, redesigning, and re-developing the
primary payment platform (a.ka. “Payment Hub”), leveraging AWS
"cloud native" services.
• Involved in introducing the AWS ML/AI platform to the
organization. This work began in January 2020, hosting an AWS
ML/AI seminar and then incrementally assisting teams of data
modelers/data scientists in their AWS "cloud journey," scheduling
AWS ML/AI training sessions, and working with Cloud
Engineering, InfoSec, et al. to establish the organization's first
MLOps model and production delivery of ML assets.
• Involved in developing and implementing candidate architectural
roadmap for extending enterprise data lake in AWS Cloud platform
.
• Work involves evaluation and implementation of various AWS
Data and Analytics Platform services, such as AWS Lake
• Formation, AWS Glue, Amazon Athena, and Amazon QuickSight
• Assisting with formalizing organizational DataOps practice and
evaluating tools to manage data democratization, governance, and
security standards.
• Supporting data product owners/teams to establish proper technical
integration (e.g., data pipelines) with emerging enterprise data
mesh.

OTHER PROFESSIONAL
WORK EXPERIENCE
(Details Available Upon Request)
• Senior Consultant, Keyhole Software, Overland
Park, KS, December 2010 - December 2011
• (Independent) Senior Consultant, Streamline
Health, Cincinnati, Ohio, June 2008 – 2010
• Senior Consultant Community of Practice
Leader, Number Six Software, Indianapolis,
Indiana, December 2003 - August 2008
• Consulting Assignments:
▪ SPX Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio
▪ Alverno, Indianapolis, Ohio
▪ Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati,
Ohio
▪ Respironics (RICA), San Diego, California
▪ Blue Cross Blue Shield, Bethesda, Maryland
▪ McDonald’s Corporation, Oak Brook
• Senior Consultant, Praxis Solutions, Sallie Mae,
Student Loan Processing, August 2001 - December
2003
• Owner/Software Architect, InteleSoft, Inc., Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, 1998 – 2001
• Senior Software Developer/ Director of
Technical Support, SunDial Technologies, 1996 -
1998
• Software Developer/Consultant, Client: Stanley
Steemer/SunDial Technologies, 1994 – 1996
CURRENTLY RESEARCHING
• Amazon Lake Formation
• Alation (Data Cataloging and Data Governance)
• Amazon AppRunner
• Amazon AppFlow
• Amazon Compute Cost Optimizer
• Spark (Glue)
• Amazon Quick Sight
• Data Mesh Principles and Architecture
• Sage Maker Studio Pipelines
Senior Technical Architect/ Engineering Manager
October 2016 - 2019
Sallie Mae, Indianapolis, IN, www.salliemae.com
• Led the Architecture Runway Team.
• Promoted to lead a team comprised of 8 people with various technical
experiences and tenure. The team's primary responsibility is fulfilling
the purpose of the SAFe Architecture Runway model, developing new
features and capabilities (enablers) that implement Agile architecture
and emergent design strategies.
Notable Work:
• Based on SLM-->AWS work conducted in 2018 and 2019, selected to be
part of a "tiger team" whose main responsibilities involve creating a
roadmap for modernizing application and enterprise services through
the continued use of the AWS cloud platform.
Senior Technical Architect
Sallie Mae, Indianapolis, IN, www.salliemae.com
• Hired to be a member of the Business Technology Capabilities (BTC)
group. BTC was created as an R & D team whose mission statement
involved exploring technical and business opportunities, evaluating the
feasibility of solutions, creating technical roadmaps and strategic
approaches, providing technical guidance to the enterprise, and assisting
with execution strategies to help teams reach goals.
Notable work:
• Part of enterprise "lift n' shift" effort to move all SLM resources, apps,
services, etc., to AWS by the end of 2018 (effort began in earnest during
the second quarter of 2018). Worked closely with key resources
representing AWS, Accenture, and members from disparate groups at
SLM (e.g. InfoSec, CyberSec, Compliance, and Cloud Engineering).
Designated as the technical liaison between the application development
group, Cloud Engineering, InfoSec, and CyberSec.
• During the summer of 2018, selected to lead the "re-platforming" of the
DSL, the first SLM-->AWS app modernization effort that would serve as
a basis for future efforts. The work involved a re-architecture and
redevelopment of the DSL, primarily using AWS cloud-native services,
including API Gateway, Cloud watch (alarms, subscription filters, etc.),
Kinesis (Streams and Firehose), SQS, SNS, Elasticache, Elastic search, S3,
Lambda (Python and .NET Core), and RDS (PostgreSQL). The first phase
of the work was completed in November 2018; the second phase
concluded in March 2019.
• Worked with team to design, architect, and develop a new student loan
servicing platform (DSL). BTC convinced the senior executive team that
the work could be accomplished within a 6-month project increment,
using technologies and practices that were new to the enterprise.
Technologies used: MongoDB, Kafka, Python, .NET, ELK (Elastic Search,
Log stash, Kibana), Git, etc.
• Conducted proof-of-concept work using augmented reality (AR) and
virtual reality (VR). AR and VR were identified as candidate
technologies that the BTC team would explore. The work involved
developing minimally-viable solutions using ARKit, ARCore, Hololens,
and Windows mixed reality platform (using Samsung Odyssey device).
Provided architectural and development guidance to a team responsible
for rewriting a solution that offers an on-line questionnaire to help
customers identify qualifying loan products. The solution architecture
used new technologies to the SLM app dev enterprise: Clojure Script,
React, Azure Functions, Azure Search, Azure Web Sites, Azure Blob
storage (and queues), Azure Cosmos DB, Git, etc.
 PUBLICATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL
USER GROUP MEMBERSHIP
• Currently collaborating with AWS technical team
assigned to Sallie Mae account to publish a blog
post and “This is My Architecture” episode
related to the architecture and development of
DSL platform Indianapolis .NET user group
(IndyNDA), https://www.meetup.com/Indy-
NET-Consortium/\
• Indianapolis AWS User group (IndyAWS),
https://www.meetup.com/IndyAWS/
• Cloud Computing and Big Data Indianapolis,
https://www.meetup.com/cloud-computing-
and-big-data-indianapolis
• Indy Software Artisans,
https://www.meetup.com/indysa/
• Azure Indy User Group,
https://www.meetup.com/Indy-Azure-User-
Group/
• Indy FP, https://www.meetup.com/Indy-FP/
• Contributed to IBM OpenUp project, publishing
the content related to conducting Retrospectives:
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id
=189745.
• Published material to Number Six Software
Newsletter and internal blog:
http://blogs.atsc.com/n6/2007/08/27/lights-
camera-retrospective/.
USA Funds, Fishers, IN
January 2012 - October 2016
Roles: Consultant, Technical Lead, Architect
• Involved in leading multiple phases of integrating flagship enterprise web
application into Azure cloud platform. Responsible for architecture and
(re) design of the application to accommodate “hybrid” Azure cloud
integration, involving leading R & D and proof-of-concept efforts (e.g.,
integrating Azure Redis cache, Azure Service Fabric, Elastic Search, etc.).
• Responsible for replacing L2S with Entity Framework, involving (re) design
and refactoring of impacted Services and data layers.
• Initially involved in maintaining and enhancing a flagship enterprise web
application—Borrower Connect-- designed to assist schools in managing
student loan default prevention.
Influential in
▪ Introducing a process to integrate UX as a primary component in the
development process (e.g. early-phase prototyping, usability testing,
personas, and familiarity with concept of information architecture)
▪ Introducing the adoption of software design patterns as a (more)
prominent part of software development
▪ Formalizing the adoption of agile software development within the
application development team (subsequently extended to product
development team et al)
▪ Introducing TFS/ALM into the software development process
(formalizing the use of PBIs, tasks, Kanban board, etc.)
▪ Conducting a proof-of-concept effort to introduce cloud
development in application team (using Azure)
▪ Introducing and formalizing continuous integration and deployment
(introduced the implementation of Team City)
▪ Raising the prominence and importance of unit testing (expanding a
library of 30 unit tests to over 700)
• Responsible for redesigning the Borrower Connect "NextGen"
application, focusing on the user interface, service, messaging, and data
layers of the application, and optimization or rewrite of legacy services.
Notable highlights: rewrite of Silver light UI layer to leverage responsive
design, ASP.NET MVC (5), bootstrap, JQuery, knockout.js, and Kendo UI
control library et al; rewrite of service layer to a micro-services model,
encapsulating domain-specific rules and common application processing;
performance profiling and optimization of legacy batch processing
services.
• Led R & D phases of proof-of-concept implementations of candidate
leading technologies and presented work results to the executive
management team(s).
• Replaced custom "process queue" framework with the implementation of
RabbitMQ and a micro-service application framework that is a component
of the enterprise application framework.
• Introduced enterprise workload automation software (JAMS), replacing
an exhaustive list of SQL Server Agent jobs and disparate (legacy)
application components.