Hi, I'm Jen Magruder

I'm a

Who Am I?

AWS Certified Solutions Architect and Cloud DevOps Engineer with hands on experience building serverless applications, Infrastructure as Code with Terraform, and automated CI/CD pipelines.

I specialize in Python automation, AWS services (Lambda, S3, CloudFront, DynamoDB, API Gateway, SNS, EventBridge), and Infrastructure as Code with Terraform. I focus on building scalable, cost-effective cloud solutions with remote state management and OIDC authentication for secure deployments.

Certified AWS Solutions Architect Associate with strong expertise in serverless architecture, DevOps automation, and building tools that solve real problems.

Technical Skills

Certifications

AWS Solutions Architect Associate

Passed January 2026

Teal Squad GenAI Certification Badge

Teal Squad GenAI Certification

Completed April 2025

View Certificate

Projects

Cloud & Infrastructure

Cloud Resume Challenge

Production serverless website built with 100% Terraform-managed infrastructure. Migrated existing Console-built AWS resources into Terraform with zero downtime using import strategies. Implemented S3 remote state backend with DynamoDB locking for concurrent access control. Configured OIDC authentication for GitHub Actions (no stored AWS credentials). Built visitor counter with Lambda, DynamoDB, and API Gateway. Deployed with automated CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions with temporary OIDC tokens. Enhanced with automated analytics: CloudFront access logs analyzed via Athena SQL queries, Lambda generates daily traffic reports delivered via SNS on EventBridge schedule.

Terraform OIDC GitHub Actions S3 CloudFront Lambda DynamoDB API Gateway Athena Python JavaScript
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NBA Statistics Data Lake

Built an automated pipeline using AWS Lambda and EventBridge to collect and process real-time NBA game statistics. Secured the data in S3 with IAM policies using least-privilege access. The system processes 100+ games per season with automated scheduling and data transformation, eliminating manual data collection.

AWS Lambda S3 EventBridge Python REST APIs
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Game Day Notification System

Created a serverless notification system that delivers real-time NBA game alerts via SMS and email using AWS SNS. Lambda functions trigger automatically via EventBridge to send pre-game and live game notifications for multiple teams with sub-2-second latency.

AWS Lambda SNS EventBridge Python Serverless
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AI & Language Learning

AI-Powered OCR Learning Platform

Built a Siamese neural network using PyTorch and ResNet34 to recognize Toki Pona pictographic symbols with 85% accuracy. Created an interactive web app with Streamlit that has three learning modes: OCR practice, text adventure, and sentence construction. Trained the model on Google Colab GPU and optimized it to 200ms per prediction. The system supports 11 symbol classes with 512-dimensional embeddings.

Python PyTorch ResNet34 Streamlit Computer Vision
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Japanese Writing Practice Platform

Built a language learning app with a Flask backend and Streamlit frontend for AI-powered writing practice. Integrated MangaOCR to recognize handwritten text and GPT to generate sentences and provide grading. The app manages practice sessions, tracks progress, and connects the frontend to backend services through RESTful API endpoints.

Python Streamlit Flask GPT REST APIs
View Project

Blog

December 2025 Infrastructure as Code

Migrating My Cloud Resume to Terraform: Remote State, OIDC, and Real-World Constraints

The Cloud Resume Challenge cohort requires building via CLI instead of the AWS Console. I had already completed the challenge, but through the Console. My infrastructure was live, generating recruiter traffic, and linked in active job applications. I commented on Andrew Brown's LinkedIn post asking if I could migrate my existing project to Terraform. He agreed. But there was one constraint: I couldn't afford downtime...

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January 2026 Career Journey

Building a Cloud Engineering Career While My Toddler Destroyed My Sleep Schedule

I never expected TikTok to change my career. I was scrolling one night, somewhere between the third and fourth time my toddler woke up, when I stumbled across someone talking about AWS cloud engineering. Sixteen months unemployed, hundreds of applications, and countless 3 AM study sessions later, here's what I learned about career transitions...

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January 2026 AWS Projects

Building a Job Alert System While Unemployed: A Reality Check

I spent 12 hours building an AWS serverless job searcher because I couldn't afford to spend half my day job hunting while studying for my AWS certification with a toddler who demands my full attention. Lambda, DynamoDB, SNS, EventBridge, CloudFormation. Cost: $0/month. Time saved: 15+ hours per week...

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