Al Crowley
Al Crowley is a Principal Engineer at TCG where he has built web applications for the federal government since 1996. He currently serves as TCG's DevSecOps Capability Captain, driving initiatives to integrate security and automation into the development lifecycle. Al is a company evangelist for these best practices, both internally and externally. He previously led the South Jersey Python Development Group and actively provides training and mentorship within TCG. A proud alumnus of Villanova and the University of Pennsylvania, Al loves being part of the tech and social culture in Philadelphia.
Session
Earlier this year I led TCG's technical team for a competitive real-time development challenge vying for a $40 million contract with the Department of Treasury. What began as a seemingly simple "one-day code challenge" rapidly devolved into a month-long race to prepare the Release One build needed to just begin the challenge day. Our final solution featured a full DevOps pipeline, Terraform deployment, multi-region failover Kubernetes infrastructure, and a comprehensive web application with AI image processing. This was all delivered under immense pressure within a one month schedule and limited customer access.
This isn't theoretical; it's a raw, honest look at real-world challenges. We'll delve into the critical, sometimes painful, lessons learned about DevOps principles and Agile anti-patterns that surfaced under fire. I believe these in-person live coding and technical assessments will become increasingly common in contract competitions, especially as AI blurs the lines of expertise when presented via written proposals.