$ 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.
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.