Alexander Bartley Nees

Talented and passionate software engineer who takes pride and pleasure in crafting beautiful code and learning new skills. 4 years of experience in full-stack software development with expertise in cloud-native architectures, microservices, and observability. Love the feeling of building an application with a team and seeing users get value from it.

Work Experience

Valocity Global

Software Engineer | Aug 2021 - Current

Front-End Development

• Developed and architected a large-scale Angular application using TypeScript and RxJS
• Led the upgrade from Angular 13 to 20, migrating to modern Angular best practices
• Established coding standards enforced with ESLint and contributed to application architecture decisions
• Led development of a design tokens NPM package using Style Dictionary to provide consistent branding across multiple products

Back-End & Microservices

• Built and maintained .NET microservices
• Developed REST APIs with focus on performance and reliability
• Worked on performance optimisation initiatives across multiple services
• Automated infrastructure provisioning and deployment processes using Pulumi and GitHub Actions

DevOps & Infrastructure

• Implemented OpenTelemetry instrumentation across Angular frontend and microservices for distributed tracing and observability
• Configured Azure Application Insights, Workbooks, and KQL queries for comprehensive monitoring
• Build and optimised GitHub Actions CI/CD workflows for automated testing and deployment
• Deployed applications to Azure Kubernetes Service using Helm Charts
• Managed Azure infrastructure as code using Pulumi, including deploying open source Pact Broker to Azure Container Apps and provisioning databases
• Managed release cycles with emphasis on reliability and testing

Testing & Quality

• Implemented Pact contract testing framework for consumer and provider verification
• Developed integration testing strategies using Docker for reliable, repeatable test environments
• Established comprehensive testing practices across front-end and back-end services

Azure Technologies

• Hands-on experience with Azure Front Door, App Configuration, Container Apps, Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Functions, SQL Database, Storage Accounts, Application Insights, and monitoring solutions
• Proficient in Azure cloud architecture and infrastructure as code practices

Kereru Brewing Company

Brewer | 2014 - 2019

• Recipe Development - creating award-winning beers
• Won Trophy for Feijoa Weisse at the 2019 Brewers Guild Awards
• Won Champion Small International Brewery at the Australian International Beer Awards 2018
• Worked effectively as part of a team including training new brewers
• Daily operation and oversight of the brewhouse and fermentation process

Personal Projects

Homelab & Self-Hosted Infrastructure

Ongoing

• Self-hosted Kubernetes cluster on Rocky Linux for containerized application deployment
• Implemented GitOps workflows using ArgoCD for declarative application deployment
• NixOS-based media server demonstrating expertise in declarative system configuration
• Implemented secure authentication patterns using httpOnly cookies in personal web applications
• Implemented observability and monitoring solutions using open-source tools
• Experimented with cloud-native technologies and infrastructure automation
• Hands-on experience with “you build it, you run it” operational practices and container orchestration

Education

Dev Academy Wellington

Web Development Bootcamp | Feb 2021 - May 2021

• Developed an understanding of the front-end technologies of React, Redux, Javascript, HTML and CSS and the back-end technologies Node.js, databases, Sqlite3 and PostgreSQL.
• Improved my ability to work and communicate effectively as part of a team through working on group projects each week and pair programming.

Victoria University of Wellington

Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy | 2019 - 2020

• Victoria University’s 2019 and 2020 Dean’s List for Academic Excellence.

New Zealand School of Music

Jazz Performance | 2010 - 2012

• Completed three years of study at the New Zealand School of Music from 2010 - 2012. (Left to pursue employment opportunity).

Certifications

AWS Certified AI Practitioner

Amazon Web Services | Dec 2025

Skills

Languages

JavaScript/TypeScript, C#, Python, HTML/CSS, SQL

Technologies & Frameworks

Angular, RxJS, React, Redux, .NET, Node.js, Express.js, Docker, Kubernetes

Cloud & Infrastructure

Azure (Container Apps, AKS, Application Insights, Front Door, App Configuration), AWS, OpenTelemetry, GitHub Actions

Databases & Storage

SQL Server, PostgreSQL, SQLite3

DevOps & Observability

CI/CD pipelines, GitOps (ArgoCD), container orchestration, distributed tracing, monitoring and alerting, Infrastructure as Code (Pulumi)

Testing

Pact contract testing, unit testing, integration testing, E2E testing, test-driven development

Operating Systems

NixOS, Rocky Linux, Ubuntu, Linux system administration

Other

Agile methodologies, design systems, microservices architecture

Interests

My main interests are music, film, Tibetan Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy. I have a keen interest in learning about the world and I love how film can portray experiences and aspects of life that are very different to our own. I also run and practise yoga.

References available on request.