DevOps | Army & NYPD Veteran | Security+ | GCP ACE
What I’m working on
My Path to DevOps
🚀 From NYPD Sergeant to DevOps Engineer My Self-Taught Journey into Cloud & Infrastructure Automation After retiring from the NYPD and serving in the U.S. Army, I set out to build my next chapter — not in uniform, but in the terminal. What began as simple curiosity about Linux quickly...
Homelab
🏡 DevOps Home Lab As a retired NYPD Sergeant and U.S. Army Veteran transitioning into DevOps, I built this self-hosted, production-grade home lab to mirror real-world infrastructure. It’s designed for learning, testing, automation, and hardening — with security and observability at its core. ⚙️ Hardware Setup Device Purpose Desktop...
Docker Full-Stack
🚀 My Full-Stack Monitoring and Web Environment I built a secure, containerized setup with Docker, Traefik, and Cloudflare — all running on my home server with public subdomain access. ⚙️ Tech Stack: Docker Compose: Service orchestration Traefik: Reverse proxy with TLS (Cloudflare DNS challenge) Pi-hole: Network-wide ad blocking Prometheus +...
DevOps CI/CD Pipeline
🚀 DevOps CI/CD Pipeline for Python App Deployment I built a robust CI/CD pipeline to automate the deployment of a Dockerized Python application using GitHub Actions and Docker Compose. The setup ensures that every code update is automatically built, pushed to Docker Hub, and deployed to a remote server. ⚙️...
Projects
Plex Home Server
🎬 Building a Plex Media Server with Synology DS223j and GMKtec N100 I set up a flexible and efficient media streaming solution using Plex on a GMKtec N100 mini PC, with media stored on a Synology DS223j NAS. This setup streams my entire library seamlessly to any device, anywhere. 🧠...
Wazuh Siem Tool Setup
🔐 Strengthening DevOps with Wazuh on Linode To enhance security and monitoring in my home lab, I deployed Wazuh on a Linode VPS. It’s an open-source SIEM and monitoring platform that combines log analysis, threat detection, and compliance checks — perfect for DevOps environments. ☁️ Why Wazuh? Log aggregation and...
DDNS
🌐 Automating Cloudflare DDNS with a Shell Script To keep my self-hosted services accessible, I built a Cloudflare DDNS updater using a Bash script. This solves the problem of dynamic IP changes from my ISP by automatically updating my domain (michaelcozierdns.com) to point to the correct public IP. Why Cloudflare...
PI-Hole with OpenDNS
🛡️ Pi-hole with Docker and OpenDNS: Ad Blocking & Content Filtering I set up Pi-hole in Docker with OpenDNS as the upstream DNS to block ads and filter unwanted content across my entire network. It’s a lightweight, portable way to secure DNS traffic while keeping devices ad-free. 🐳 Why Docker?...
Experience
United States Army
Sergeant,Fort Riley, Kansas | May, 2002 - May, 2006
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Operational Asset Management: Managed and maintained accountability for over $200M in mission-critical equipment, achieving a 98% operational readiness rate during high-pressure deployments.
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Technical Problem Solving: Specialized in vehicle maintenance and repair for tanks and Humvees in combat zones, ensuring mission continuity and safety through rapid troubleshooting and technical excellence.
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Risk Mitigation & Safety: Conducted patrol missions to detect and neutralize IED threats, prioritizing proactive safety measures in volatile environments.
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Training & Mentorship: Led a team of 10 soldiers, delivering hands-on technical training that improved readiness and efficiency by 30%.
New York City Police Department
Sergeant,NYC, NY | January, 2007 - February, 2024
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Data-Driven Problem Solving: Utilized data analytics to identify trends and develop proactive strategies, reducing incidents in high-risk areas by 15%.
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Team Leadership: Managed and coordinated a team of 50+ officers during mission-critical operations, ensuring smooth execution and high team performance under pressure.
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Training & Mentorship: Guided junior team members in implementing new technologies and tactical processes, fostering a culture of continuous learning and collaboration.
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Cross-Functional Collaboration: Worked with multi-agency task forces to streamline operations, improving communication and efficiency during large-scale initiatives.
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DevOps Intern,NYC, NY | June, 2025 - August, 2025
• Cloud Access Governance: Managed IAM roles and policies across GCP projects using RBAC and least privilege principles. Helped migrate critical access from static IAM to Privileged Access Management (PAM) with time-bound permissions — reducing risk and improving traceability.
• IAM Audit Automation: Created a Bash script using gcloud and jq to detect non-inherited IAM roles at the project level. This cut manual review time from 30 minutes to under 5 minutes per project, streamlining compliance and boosting visibility.
• Incident Response: Actively monitored PagerDuty alerts and remediated infrastructure issues — including downed VMs, failed services, and misconfigured permissions — to quickly restore uptime and minimize impact.
Certifications
Badges & Skills
Education
Farmingdale State College
Farmingdale, NY January, 2024 - May, 2026Bachelor of Science, Computer Security Technology - GPA 3.97 Honors: Epsilon Pi Tau (2025) Relevant Coursework: Operating Systems and Security, Vulnerability Analysis, Applied Cryptography, Network Security, Introduction to Networks, Networking Fundamentals II, LAN Switching and Wireless, Accessing the WAN, Data Security and Privacy, Foundations of Computer Programming I & II
Suffolk Community College
Brentwood, NY December, 2013 - December, 2015Associate in Arts, Liberal Arts Relevant Coursework: Introduction to Computing, Statistics I, Introduction to Human Communication, Freshman Seminar