PATRICK FORCE
SUMMARY
Principal-level engineer with deep roots in application development, infrastructure, platform, and systems engineering — focused on cloud-native architecture, Kubernetes, and developer experience at scale. Currently leading Twilio-wide engineering platform simplification and AI workflow adoption. I care about reducing toil, building things that last (or can be easily replaced), and helping engineering organizations move faster with more confidence.
SKILLS
- Golang, Python, Javascript/Node.js, Bash/shell, Ruby
- Kubernetes (including controller/operator development), Docker/containers, microservice architecture
- Terraform, Helm, Kustomize, Chef, Salt, Ansible
- AWS, GCP; bare metal and on-prem infrastructure; HPC systems
- Agentic AI workflows, Claude/LLM integration, AI developer tooling and standards
- Monorepo architecture, CI/CD design, SDLC and delivery best practices
- Relational and NoSQL databases; Solr, Elasticsearch, Redis, RabbitMQ, Kafka
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2022 – present
TWILIO
PRINCIPAL SOFTWARE ENGINEER
Technical lead across platform, infrastructure, and AI workflow initiatives
- Technical lead on an organization-wide effort to simplify engineering platform and practices into cloud-native approaches — delivering a monorepo-based distributed solution that gave product domains standardized CI/CD pipelines while preserving an open ecosystem for independent development.
- Leading Twilio's next evolution of AI development workflows: defining standards and tooling for how engineers develop and use Claude skills for Twilio-specific needs, maximizing cost and output efficiency of AI workflows org-wide, and using DX survey results to drive adoption.
- Kubernetes controller/operator development in Golang, Terraform module development, and Python/shell utilities — all with a strong emphasis on testability, SDLC, and continuous delivery for internal infrastructure tooling.
- Mentoring platform and infrastructure engineers on Terraform, SOLID principles, and building resilient delivery pipelines.
2021 – 2022
DESCARTES LABS
SENIOR SITE RELIABILITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE ARCHITECT/ENGINEER/LEAD
Re-architected the company's cloud infrastructure from the ground up, presenting and getting approval for a new PaaS-based strategy at the CEO level
- Designed and built a cloud-agnostic PaaS architecture to support distributed and OEM business needs — initially in GCP, then mirrored to AWS using shared tooling and modules.
- Golang CLI development, Helm chart construction, ArgoCD administration, and CI/CD pipeline improvements via GitHub Actions.
2021
HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE
LEAD SOFTWARE ENGINEER
- New product and infrastructure design using AWS, Kubernetes, Helm, and Spinnaker; cloud-to-on-prem security, observability, and availability architecture.
- Internal and customer-facing tool development in Golang, Python, and Javascript.
2018 – 2020
CRAY/HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE
LEAD SOFTWARE ENGINEER, CLOUD DEVELOPMENT
Modernization and cloud adoption work at one of the world's leading supercomputing companies
- Built a fully custom Kubernetes cluster in GCP for virtual HPC development — including dynamic net booting of HPC compute nodes — due to Linux distro constraints (SLES) that ruled out GKE.
- Implemented a layered image-based install strategy using Packer for both VM and bare metal (PXE) environments, enabling composable base images for compute, storage, and Kubernetes node types.
- Internal tool development in Golang and Python; Helm v2/v3 adoption; CI/CD and configuration management restructuring.
2018 – 2022
DEVELOP INTELLIGENCE/PLURALSIGHT
COURSE DEVELOPER & INSTRUCTOR
Developed and delivered corporate training courses on Terraform, Packer, Kubernetes, and Helm — in person and virtually
2018
PYTHIAN
OPERATIONS ARCHITECT & ENGINEER
Client-facing DevOps work focused on cloud adoption, automation, CI/CD, containerization, and incremental migration strategies
2015 – 2018
ROCKHOLLA
CONTRACT ENGINEER & CONSULTANT
Development and operations consulting for clients including CloudBees, CourseArc, Modern Tribe, Vidstore, and Bletchley Park
Pre 2015
- I'm happy to discuss earlier career history on request.
EDUCATION
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UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA – ATHENS, GA
BBA in Management Information Systems — Honors Program Scholarship, Dean's List -
COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY – FORT COLLINS, CO
School of Computer and Electrical Engineering — Golden Key International Honor Society, Dean's List -
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY – NEW YORK, NY
Coursework in Astronomy
INTERESTS
- Building and making things — construction, gardening, horses, mechanical work
- Long distance hiking: hiked ~2,000 miles of the Continental Divide Trail in 2015
- Music: composing score and soundtrack work for independent films, theatre, and video
- Pizza, tacos, movies