Available for Contracts

Christian Justo

Senior DevOps & Performance Optimization Consultant

I partner with CTOs, founders, and engineering leaders to diagnose complex technical bottlenecks, modernize infrastructure, and implement automation that accelerates delivery — without the overhead of a full-time hire.

15+
Years of Experience
50%+
Avg. Latency Reduction
25%
Cloud Cost Savings
Austin, TX
Remote-first

The problems I solve

From infrastructure fires to long-term modernization, I help engineering teams build faster, more reliable, and more cost-efficient systems.

Performance Optimization

I profile APIs, databases, and distributed systems to isolate bottlenecks — reducing p95 response latency, optimizing Elasticsearch clusters, and improving throughput under peak load.

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Cloud Infrastructure & DevOps

I architect and automate cloud environments on GCP and AWS using Kubernetes, Terraform, and Docker — cutting infrastructure costs and delivering reliable, scalable systems.

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CI/CD & Automation

I design end-to-end CI/CD pipelines and automated testing frameworks that shrink deployment cycles from hours to minutes and eliminate manual QA bottlenecks.

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Observability & Incident Response

I implement monitoring stacks with Datadog, Prometheus, and Kibana to surface issues proactively — reducing incident response time and mean time to resolution.

Where I've done the work

15+ years delivering high-impact results across startups, scale-ups, and enterprise engineering teams.

Independent Consultant Jun 2025 – Present
DevOps, Automation & Software Engineering · Austin, TX
  • Architected high-availability Kubernetes deployments with custom autoscaling policies, reducing incident frequency by ~40% for workloads with unpredictable query spikes.
  • Profiled bottlenecks across APIs, web apps, and data layers to isolate slow queries and cluster misconfigurations — cutting p95 response latency by over 50%.
  • Optimized document ingestion pipelines for a search-heavy SaaS client, reducing average ingestion latency by ~60% during peak load.
TrustExchange Jun 2024 – May 2025
Infrastructure Optimization Consultant · Austin, TX
  • Deployed an automated UI testing system with GCP Cloud Build, achieving a 40% reduction in manual test hours within 3 months.
  • Implemented a performance testing framework using Locust; engineers improved system performance by 80% within 6 months through targeted optimizations.
  • Developed a comprehensive API test suite with Postman, reducing issue identification time by 75% through automation and continuous validation.
Axon / Zaelot Inc Jun 2021 – May 2024
DevOps Automation Manager · Houston, TX
  • Reduced cloud infrastructure costs by 25% through rightsizing, auto-scaling strategies, and resource optimization on GCP with Terraform and Kubernetes.
  • Implemented uptime monitoring in GCP load balancer, reducing incident response time by 90% within 2 months via proactive alerting and automated health checks.
  • Spearheaded migration of legacy systems to modern third-party services, resulting in a 50% improvement in application performance and 28% decrease in engineering overhead.
Independent Consulting / Contract Work Jun 2019 – Jun 2021
Freelance DevOps & Automation Consultant

Freelance consulting and contract DevOps/automation engagements across multiple clients.

Trustwave Sep 2014 – Jun 2019
DevOps Test Automation Engineer · Austin, TX
  • Built a comprehensive automated testing and deployment framework (Python, Selenium, Docker, Jenkins/GitLab) that cut deployment time from 2 hours to 15 minutes.
  • Reduced regression cycles by 50% and introduced automated acceptance, upgrade, and compatibility testing across multiple supported product versions.
  • Integrated acceptance testing into CI/CD with GitLab and Docker, providing immediate build-failure notifications where no automated feedback loop had existed.
WP Engine  ·  Hostgator  ·  Neopolitan Networks 2007 – 2014
Systems Administrator / Support / Network Engineer
  • Optimized Varnish cache and Nginx configurations for enterprise clients at WP Engine; handled advanced database migrations and technical support for highest-tier customers.
  • Designed and implemented a Python/PHP/JavaScript geolocation map using the Google API at Neopolitan Networks to support customer acquisition strategy.
  • Configured network infrastructure using Juniper and Cisco switches, routers, and firewalls; administered Linux and Windows systems.

What people say

Feedback from clients, colleagues, and managers across 15+ years of engagements.

"

Christian is a client's ideal consultant. He is astute, personable, and a pleasure to work with. He readily understands a client's objectives and quickly zeros in on the quickest, cleanest, most cost-effective path to achieve them. Christian is an excellent engineer who seems to truly enjoy tackling thorny problems and transforming them with elegant solutions. We initially engaged with Christian while he was at Axon Consulting, a firm we hired to modernize our legacy code and optimize our SaaS application's performance. He solved persistent issues in short order, brought to life new features that required complex multi-language solutions under the hood, and worked with our app across multiple cloud services to significantly enhance performance. Although our engagement with Axon is complete, we consider ourselves very fortunate indeed to continue to work with Christian as an independent consultant.

"

Christian is one of the sharpest engineers I've ever worked with. He's got that unique blend of approachability, technical expertise, and practical real-world experience that leads to excellent outcomes. I've seen him work projects solo, sorting out nigh-impossibly snarled logic into clean, efficient, and well-designed architecture. I've also seen him lead teams of engineers, effortlessly shifting between technical guidance and personable management, all while maintaining sight of the overall project objective. It's been an absolute pleasure to have worked with him at three separate firms, and I'd welcome the chance to do so again. I cannot recommend engaging with Christian highly enough. He's the real deal.

"

I highly recommend Christian Justo for any role requiring effective communication and a proactive attitude. He consistently demonstrated the ability to get things done efficiently and never hesitated to ask questions when needed. Christian was always receptive to feedback and actively worked to improve based on it. With an eagerness to learn new things and a positive attitude, he excelled in client communications, ensuring clear and productive interactions. Christian would be an invaluable asset to any team.

"

Solutions minded with a keen eye for building quality focused automation solutions, Christian was instrumental in building out an automation which increased QA and development team speed and productivity enabling us to reduce product bugs by over 85%. He's proficient with Python, Linux administration, Cisco switch and router configuration, Network Security concepts, and virtualization solutions including vSphere and Docker. I'd hire him again in a minute.

Skills & Tools

The technologies I work with day-to-day.

Cloud & Infrastructure

GCP AWS Kubernetes Docker Terraform Nginx Linux Admin

CI/CD & Automation

Jenkins GitLab CI GCP Cloud Build Infrastructure as Code Selenium Locust Postman

Databases & Search

Elasticsearch OpenSearch MongoDB PostgreSQL MySQL Redis

Observability & Monitoring

Datadog Kibana Prometheus

Languages

Python Bash Node.js

Architecture

Microservices Distributed Systems High Availability Auto-scaling

Book a Quick Call

The fastest way to see if we're a fit. Grab 30 minutes and let's talk through what you're working on.

I'm currently available for consulting and contract work. I work best with engineering teams that have real performance or infrastructure challenges and need a seasoned consultant who can move fast and deliver results.