S.ITIOLA Get in touch
Available for Cloud & DevOps roles

GitHub Repositories

// whoami

SAMUEL
ITIOLA

Cloud & DevOps Engineer working across AWS, Terraform, Docker, and Kubernetes. Background in GIS and remote sensing: I was reading elevation data and satellite imagery long before I read server logs.

7+

Cloud Projects

5+

Years GIS & Infra

1

AWS Certification

// about

From reading landscapes to reading systems

My path into DevOps didn't start with a terminal. It started with paper maps. My background is in GIS and remote sensing, where I worked with satellite imagery, elevation models, and multi-criteria decision analysis to answer questions like where's the best place to build, given a dozen competing constraints? I ask a version of that question now about cloud infrastructure too: where a workload should run, how it should scale, what happens when a node fails.

I also modernized legacy spatial data: digitizing paper maps into digital systems, updating road networks, and mapping facilities like bus stops and landmarks. That job taught me something I still rely on. Legacy systems don't get replaced overnight. They get migrated carefully, layer by layer, without breaking what already works.

These days I design and automate cloud-native infrastructure: provisioning with Terraform and Ansible, containerizing with Docker and Kubernetes, building CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions and AWS CodeBuild/CodeDeploy. Reliability and observability matter to me because I spent years before this building models that had to hold up against messy, real-world data. That habit didn't go away.

// currently

  • Building cloud-native DevOps + AI pipelines
  • Deepening Terraform & Kubernetes practice
  • AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
  • CompTIA Network+ (in progress)
  • Azure Fundamentals, AZ-900 (in progress)

// skills

Tech toolbox

CLOUD

  • AWS EC2 · S3 · RDS
  • Lambda · EKS
  • CloudFront · IAM

IAC & AUTOMATION

  • Terraform
  • Ansible
  • AWS CloudFormation

CONTAINERS & ORCHESTRATION

  • Docker
  • Kubernetes (EKS, GKE)
  • Minikube

CI/CD

  • GitHub Actions
  • AWS CodeBuild / CodeDeploy
  • Jenkins

MONITORING & LOGGING

  • Prometheus · Grafana
  • Netdata
  • ELK / EFK

SCRIPTING & LINUX

  • Python · Bash
  • PowerShell
  • Linux administration

GIS & SPATIAL SYSTEMS

  • Remote sensing (Landsat, ASTER, SRTM)
  • ArcGIS
  • Multi-criteria decision analysis (AHP)
  • Digital elevation modeling
  • Spatial data digitization
  • FME

// projects

Case studies

Two ways I've proven this out: an AI service taken from code to a self-healing Kubernetes deployment, and infrastructure-as-code pipelines built on Terraform, plus a spatial-modeling project that shows where the GIS background comes in.

Track A — AI Service Delivery Pipeline

A single application, taken step by step from local prototype to orchestrated production deployment.

01 / BUILD

RAG API with FastAPI

A Retrieval-Augmented Generation API: FastAPI accepts a question, ChromaDB retrieves the most relevant context via semantic search, and a local TinyLlama model (via Ollama) generates a grounded answer. Includes a dynamic /add endpoint for growing the knowledge base without redeploying.

FastAPI ChromaDB Ollama / TinyLlama
02 / CONTAINERIZE

Dockerizing the RAG API

Packaged the API into a portable Docker image, published to Docker Hub, eliminating environment-specific bugs and making the service deployable anywhere Docker runs.

Docker Docker Hub
03 / TEST

CI with GitHub Actions

Automated test pipeline that runs on every push, catching regressions before they reach a deployable artifact, including handling for the non-determinism of LLM output in automated tests.

GitHub Actions pytest
04 / ORCHESTRATE

Deploy to Kubernetes

Deployed the containerized API to a Minikube cluster: Deployments, Services, and label-based routing, with self-healing pod recovery on failure.

Kubernetes Minikube kubectl

Infrastructure-as-Code & CI/CD

Provisioning cloud infrastructure and deployment pipelines as versioned, reviewable code.

Terraform + AWS CI/CD Pipeline

Terraform provisions an EC2 instance with S3-backed remote state; GitHub Actions builds a Docker image, pushes it to Amazon ECR, then deploys it to the provisioned instance over SSH: a complete code-to-running-container pipeline.

Terraform GitHub Actions AWS EC2 / ECR
View repository →

Terraform + Kubernetes on GKE

Terraform provisions a GKE cluster and manages the Kubernetes Deployment/Service directly as code. GitHub Actions authenticates to GCP via Workload Identity Federation, so there are no long-lived service account keys, then builds, pushes, and rolls out the new image automatically.

Terraform Kubernetes GKE OIDC
View repository →

Ansible Configuration Management

Role-based Ansible playbooks for automated Linux server setup: Nginx configuration, SSH key management, fail2ban hardening, and static site deployment, agentless, over SSH, across multiple hosts.

Ansible Nginx Linux
View repository →

AWS CodeArtifact + CodeBuild

Secured a private Maven package repository with AWS CodeArtifact under least-privilege IAM, then automated the build with AWS CodeBuild: a multi-phase buildspec that runs tests before packaging, storing artifacts in S3.

AWS CodeArtifact AWS CodeBuild Maven

EC2 → GitHub → CodeDeploy

Full deployment lifecycle for a Java web app: cloud dev environment on EC2 via VS Code Remote-SSH, Git/GitHub version control, and AWS CodeDeploy lifecycle hooks (BeforeInstall, AfterInstall, ApplicationStart) for zero-touch releases.

AWS EC2 AWS CodeDeploy CloudFormation
View repository →

Bizzpadi — Bookkeeping Platform Deployment

Deployed a production bookkeeping platform on AWS ECS Fargate, applying containerised, serverless infrastructure principles to a live application, not a tutorial exercise.

AWS ECS Fargate Docker Serverless

Spatial Systems — the differentiator

Where the GIS background shows up directly.

Dam Site Selection using Remote Sensing & GIS (AHP)

A multi-criteria spatial suitability model for identifying optimal dam construction sites across Ekiti State, Nigeria. Integrated geologic mapping, land cover classification, SRTM digital elevation data, and hydrological/drainage data into a single decision framework, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to weight competing criteria. It's a similar kind of weighted-tradeoff reasoning to what goes into choosing cloud regions, instance types, or architecture patterns under competing constraints like cost, latency, and resilience.

Remote Sensing ArcGIS DEM / SRTM AHP / MCDM

// ai evaluation & annotation

FOUNDATIONAL — BUILDING NOW

A new freelance niche, same underlying skill

In July 2026 I started deliberately building a freelance practice in AI data annotation and output evaluation: rating and comparing AI-generated outputs against structured criteria across platforms including CrowdGen, Mindrift, Mercor, DataAnnotation, and AfterQuery. I'm early in this. Onboarding, qualification exams, and early tasks, not a long track record yet. Still, it isn't a random pivot. Below is the pattern that got me here.

01

Weighing geologic, land-cover, and hydrology criteria

to site a dam. My GIS thesis, using AHP.

02

Weighing cost, latency, and resilience

to choose infrastructure. My DevOps work.

03

Weighing prompt-compliance criteria

to judge AI-generated outputs. This niche.

Evaluation methodology in practice

Across 90+ image-comparison tasks, a working framework emerged for judging AI outputs against a prompt. It's prioritized in this order, ahead of raw aesthetics:

  • Literal requirements first: misspelled text or a missing required element fails the image outright, however polished it looks
  • Style terminology as a hard gate: a photorealistic image fails a "vector illustration" brief regardless of quality
  • Attribute precision: exact color, material, and descriptor matching over general impression
  • Location and setting compliance: a more dramatic but wrong setting loses to a correct, plainer one

Where I am right now

Onboarding and building a track record across several evaluation platforms in parallel, treating each qualification exam as a chance to sharpen the same methodology rather than a one-off gate to clear.

Platform researchComplete
Evaluation frameworkIn active use
Multi-platform onboardingIn progress

I'm treating this as a foundational layer, not a finished credential. I'll update this section as the track record builds. What's already true is that the analytical habit behind it isn't new. It's the same structured, criteria-first thinking that shows up in the GIS work and the infrastructure work on this page too.

// github activity

LIVE

Pulled straight from GitHub

Fetching latest stats…

// experience

Timeline

July 2026 — Present

Freelance · AI Data Annotation & DevOps Projects

Evaluating AI-generated outputs across CrowdGen, Mindrift, Mercor, DataAnnotation, and AfterQuery, alongside continued self-directed cloud/DevOps project work (Terraform, Kubernetes, CI/CD).

Oct 2021 — Sep 2023

GIS Technician · Office of the Surveyor General, Akure

  • Automated recurring FME data-processing workflows, cutting processing time by approximately 30%
  • Led cadastral mapping operations across Akure Metropolis and maintained a central geospatial database used across multiple government agencies
  • Directed a project to georeference and digitise historic maps and charts for long-term digital archival
  • Represented the office across five government bodies to progress a harmonised spatial database initiative

Aug 2022 — Aug 2023

Volunteer GIS Technician · Nigeria Institute of Surveyors, Lagos

Society role alongside full-time employment: public outreach on GIS careers and contributions to an urbanisation and road-mapping project covering Akure Metropolis.

2024 — 2025

Also: Retail Security & Administrative Coordination · TSS · Light Care Haven

Stakeholder-facing and operational roles held during the DevOps upskilling period. Full detail on request.

// certifications

Certifications

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Amazon Web Services · 2024

AWS

CompTIA Network+

CompTIA

IN PROGRESS

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

AZ-900

IN PROGRESS

// contact

Let's build something reliable.

Open to Cloud, DevOps, and Infrastructure roles. Also always happy to talk about where spatial data thinking meets systems design.