Scott Baker
Data engineer · Scala · Apache Spark · Delta Lake · healthcare pipelines · 12+ years in enterprise IT, security and compliance
Phoenix, Arizona · Remote only · entropa.space · github.com/aimozart
Summary
I'm a data engineer (Scala and Apache Spark) with 12+ years in enterprise IT, security and compliance, so I build pipelines security-first: masking, access control, audit trails and honest limits are part of the design. I hold the Databricks Certified Associate Developer for Apache Spark (Scala). I'm building in public a nightly batch pipeline on synthetic healthcare data with four layers (bronze, silver, gold, platinum): tests first, idempotent reruns, quarantine with reasons, and every run benchmarked and published as I optimise, at hippagrchealthcare.site and GitHub (in progress, not yet professional experience). I write the Scala; Mr. Spock, an AI architect and reviewer, is credited as a contributor, and AI assistance is disclosed, reviewed and tested.
I work test-first and deterministically: I forecast the outcome, pin every input, confirm a test fails for the stated reason before writing the code, and prove the result against the forecast. The evidence is in my own project, Entropa: its Rust implementation had 207 passing automated tests (documented 2026-08-23), byte-exact known-answer tests against NIST's official FIPS-204 vectors, JSON contract tests, and secret scanning in pre-commit and CI with 0 real leaks across the full history. My AI-assisted engineering follows a documented plan, prove, prune cycle in which claims are checked and corrected, not assumed: Paxel chat log.
Before that, 12+ years in regulated enterprise environments: I helped take a healthcare organization to official HITRUST certification (evidence for every control, Qualys and OpenVAS vulnerability scanning turned into remediation plans), ran baseline-configuration audits across a global fleet, wrote the SOPs and remediation documentation that enforced procedure, and administered Windows and Linux systems at scale (Active Directory, Group Policy, SCCM across all its functions; Windows XP → 7 → 10 and 7 → 11 migrations). The same discipline as a regression suite.
I hold the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate and Databricks Certified Associate Developer for Apache Spark (Scala) certifications and an SCCM Administration certificate. Remote only.
Skills
- Test automation (currently building): TypeScript, Playwright (UI and API testing, fixtures, locators and auto-waiting, traces, parallel workers), page object model, zod schema validation, data-driven tests, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Docker, HTML and Allure reports; test-first practice, boundary, idempotency, concurrency, contract and known-answer tests; no blind retries.
- Windows administration: Windows Server, Active Directory, Group Policy, Microsoft Intune, SCCM across all its functions (node and PXE server setups, OS imaging and task sequences, application deployment to users, policy, patching, baselines), Hyper-V, PowerShell, OS migrations (XP to 7 to 10, 7 to 11, an NT domain to Server 2012 R2).
- Databases: MySQL (administration, phpMyAdmin, backups and restores, tuning), Lotus Notes/Domino, Databricks (Spark, Delta Lake). Early on: HyperCard, FileMaker, 4th Dimension.
- Security & compliance: HITRUST CSF, HIPAA, CIS Benchmarks, least-privilege access, encryption and key management, LogRhythm SIEM, CrowdStrike EDR, CyberArk PAM, Qualys and OpenVAS, audit evidence and remediation.
- Cloud & systems: AWS (certified: VPC, IAM, KMS, PrivateLink), GCP, Azure, Linux (RHEL, Ubuntu), IBM i.
- Code: PowerShell (since 2006), Bash, TypeScript and Node.js (Pulumi), Java, SQL, Python.
- FinOps: cost forecasting and unit economics, budgets and alerts tied to forecasts, price-performance sizing, tagging for cost allocation, forecast-vs-actual reconciliation, hardware and software licensing selection, vendor outreach and negotiation for the best deal.
- Certifications: AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate; Databricks Certified Associate Developer for Apache Spark; SCCM (Microsoft Configuration Manager) Administration certificate (instructor-led, taught by a Microsoft Certified Trainer, final exam passed).
Experience
Systems Administrator, independent projects
- Building a TypeScript and Playwright test framework against a bank application with 15 seeded defects (in progress): typed API client, page objects, per-worker test environments, GitHub Actions and Jenkins.
- Designed, built and ran a post-quantum audit-trail service on GCP (Entropa, entropa.space): ML-DSA-65 signatures verified against NIST's test vectors, a Merkle transparency log, least-privilege IAM, secrets management.
- Hands-on Azure administration (Entra ID identity and access, Azure RBAC and Policy, Key Vault, Defender for Cloud and Sentinel, with Bicep and PowerShell), data engineering (Spark, Delta Lake, Iceberg), and database-migration and infrastructure-as-code projects on Azure and GCP.
Senior IT Analyst & Security Administrator · Ultra Clean Technologies
- Windows-heavy: administered Microsoft Intune and SCCM across all its functions (node and PXE server setups, OS imaging and task sequences, application deployment to users, policy, patching, baseline-configuration audits), Active Directory and Group Policy, run heavily on role-based access control (RBAC), group administration and global (enterprise-wide) policy.
- Part of the team that migrated a global fleet from Windows 7 to Windows 11.
- Ran CrowdStrike EDR across a global fleet: alert triage, containment, policy tuning; administered CyberArk privileged access management.
- Administered MySQL databases.
Desktop & Systems Support Engineer · Cognizant (TJ Maxx / HomeGoods account)
- Supported Active Directory and Hyper-V for roughly 3,400 TJX stores across the US and Canada (every North American banner, Sierra included), including the French-language stores, in a siloed environment.
- Administered Microsoft Intune for the company's mobile devices across the enterprise (TJ Maxx and HomeGoods employees with company phones), including the C-level executives; delivered the enterprise-wide Software Center where entitled employees (mostly HQ staff and store managers) picked the applications they were permitted to install; administered Microsoft 365.
- Administered Lotus Notes/Domino and databases for the account, and IBM i (AS/400) user access.
- C-level escalation support for down stores across the enterprise; led remediation during outages (network, Hyper-V), restoring 24/7 retail operations.
Information Security & Compliance Analyst · ECS (acquired by CIOX Health, now Datavant)
- Heavy Windows administration: Active Directory, Group Policy and SCCM (OS imaging, policy, node setups, PXE servers, application deployment to users).
- Migrated Windows XP to 7 to 10, and a legacy Windows NT domain (about 300 users) and NT servers to Windows Server 2012 R2, policies and user accounts included.
- Ran endpoint data-loss-prevention monitoring for PHI with LogRhythm Data Loss Defender, alongside the LogRhythm SIEM and Dell firewall products.
- Administered MySQL databases in a HIPAA environment.
- Drove the remediation program and co-authored the security-policy framework that earned HITRUST certification and continuous HIPAA compliance; wrote the program's SOPs.
- Owned the security stack: LogRhythm SIEM, antivirus, perimeter firewall, Active Directory, Group Policy; hardened the fleet to CIS Benchmarks in place; PHI chain of custody on FIPS 140-2 encrypted drives.
Level 3 Linux Systems Engineer · Endurance International Group
- Linux web-hosting administration and occasional Windows Server hosting for customers who paid for it, plus MySQL and phpMyAdmin behind WordPress hosting, for 120+ enterprise accounts: repairs, restores, tuning.
- Escalations, server hardening and WordPress security on Ubuntu and RHEL.
- On the migration team for platform migrations across the company's hosting brands (Bluehost, HostGator, iPower and others): databases, WordPress sites, domains, DNS and Linux hosts, including moving acquired domains into larger platforms. Led the WordPress and hosting-account migrations.
Earlier
- Ran MySQL on Windows for my own business (early 2000s); Lotus Notes/Domino in the 1990s.
Education
- Western Governors University: coursework toward a B.S. in Information Technology (database administration program), 2008 – 2011; returned in 2025 and completed a semester of SQL and database coursework.
- Boston University: one year of college.
- St. Thomas University, Miami Gardens, Florida: one year of college.
- The Knox School, St. James, New York (Long Island): high school, all four years, graduated 1990. Summers: HyperCard classes at Haverford.