Aaron Colichia

Senior SDET and CI/CD engineer moving into security engineering: storage validation, test automation, and Linux release engineering at Dell, StoredIQ, and IBM, now completing a BS in Cybersecurity (expected 2028). Owned Python CLI/API test automation for enterprise storage and key management (iDRAC, PERC RAID, SEKM, NVMe) and the Jenkins release pipelines for customer-deployed Linux VM products. Since 2024: designed, built, and released open-source platform and security tooling in Rust, Python, C, and Ansible under an AI-assisted, spec-first, test-gated workflow: human-authored architecture and acceptance criteria, LLM-generated implementation accepted only after automated test, lint, and release gates.

• Security & Hardening: Linux host hardening (Ansible: SSH, sysctl, firewall, fail2ban, auditd, unattended upgrades) mapped to CIS Benchmark controls, LUKS disk encryption, TLS/stunnel transport, enterprise key management (SEKM), software supply-chain integrity (signed package repositories, checksum-pinned lockfiles, SHA-256 content addressing), sandboxed builds.
• AI-assisted Engineering: spec-driven, slice-based development with agentic coding tools; test-gated acceptance of generated code; LLM governance harness with Ollama, OpenAI-compatible, Anthropic, Codex, and Aider backends; local model deployment.
• Test Automation: Python (pytest, unittest), Rust (cargo test), REST/API and CLI test frameworks, VM-based acceptance harnesses, regression and interoperability suites, negative controls, risk-based validation, coverage analysis, defect triage, Selenium page-object-model (web UI).
• CI/CD (continuous integration and delivery) & Release Engineering: Jenkins, GitLab CI, Git, pre-push CI gates, Docker, Podman, Packer, Vagrant/libvirt, Chef, Ansible (infrastructure as code, IaC), Bash, release/install/upgrade/patch tooling, RPM spec and XBPS packaging, nFPM, PyPI publishing, systemd timers, GitHub Pages artifact repositories.
• Platforms & Data: RHEL/CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Void Linux, s6/s6-rc supervision, AWS EC2, VMware vSphere, IBM SoftLayer, Elasticsearch, PostgreSQL (troubleshooting and defect isolation).

Software Engineer, Open-Source Projects (independent, AI-assisted)
Austin, TX | May 2024 to present

• Ran a slice-based delivery process for every repository below: human-written specs and acceptance criteria per slice, LLM-generated implementation through agentic coding tools, every slice gated on the full test suite, lint, and type checks before acceptance; pre-push and GitLab CI gates on every repo.
• klemheist: local-first governance harness for LLM-assisted engineering that keeps acceptance, validation, and slice closure under deterministic control rather than model control; Ollama (local models), OpenAI-compatible, Anthropic, Codex, and Aider backends; 1,778 pytest tests, strict mypy on core layers, zero runtime dependencies, 36 spec documents, isolated contributor gate with wheel install and CLI smoke.
• void-s6: Void Linux alternate s6 PID 1 stack with a Vagrant/libvirt acceptance harness: 4 XBPS packages plus nFPM templates, ~120 make targets and 113 Bash host and VM scripts covering package build/install/upgrade/remove lifecycle, signed-repository proofs with negative controls, failed-boot recovery, stock-runit fallback, glibc/musl and BIOS/UEFI matrices, policy audits, and an anti-drift evidence gate. Companion work: fedora-skarnet-stack (six-package RPM set for Fedora 43/44 rendered from a checksum-pinned lockfile, Podman build matrix, dnf repository published to GitHub Pages with SHA256SUMS, 4 tagged releases) and demorari (supervised s6/s6-rc timer services in C with reproducible renders and drift detection, 39 test cases).
• hardened-linux-host: Ansible infrastructure-as-code for a hardened Debian 13 host: 16 roles (SSH hardening, sysctl, firewall, fail2ban, auditd, WireGuard, unattended upgrades, restic/Btrfs backups, self-hosted git, mail, calendar, fediverse); per-role security posture documented and mapped to CIS Debian 13 Benchmark controls; 13 validation tests plus ansible-lint, yamllint, and syntax-check gated on pre-push.
• uppm: content-addressed Linux package manager in Rust (8 crates, 16k lines): write-once SHA-256 store with mark-and-sweep GC, dependency resolver with Cargo, Go, npm, PyPI, and Maven adapters, Rhai-scripted evaluation, namespace-sandboxed builds with test-verified network isolation, generations, and ed25519-signed trust records; 423 cargo tests, clippy-clean.
• filterlists-api: published and maintain a PyPI package (Oct 2024 to present) with automated upstream OpenAPI drift detection and regeneration on a systemd timer.

Senior Software Test Engineer (SDET)
Dell Technologies, Round Rock, TX (hybrid) | Oct 2018 to Apr 2024

• Owned test strategy and Python CLI/API automation for iDRAC storage features (PERC RAID, SEKM key management, NVMe, software RAID) across multiple PowerEdge platforms and firmware releases.
• Designed and maintained regression suites for server-management and storage workflows; authored customer-facing SEKM scripts shipped to enterprise customers.
• Reduced flaky failures and false positives across the storage regression suites by refactoring shared Python test libraries to the framework architecture, cutting per-release triage.
• Identified coverage gaps and isolated complex and escaped defects through risk-based validation; led triage with development and quality teams.
• Reviewed test design and code for the team; mentored junior engineers and lab technicians.

Staff Software Engineer, CI/CD and Platform
IBM (StoredIQ), Austin, TX (remote) | Mar 2013 to Apr 2018

• Owned the Jenkins continuous-integration toolchain and the Linux platform for the four distributable VM images comprising the StoredIQ product stack.
• Owned install, upgrade, patch, and release tooling for customer-deployed Linux VM products across VMware, AWS EC2, and IBM SoftLayer.
• Designed a distributable multi-node Elasticsearch cluster image (CentOS, Chef, Packer, Docker) with stunnel-secured intra-node traffic and LUKS-encrypted storage, deployable N times on-premises with zero Elasticsearch knowledge required, as a drop-in replacement for the default PostgreSQL service with no added setup cost per node.
• Automated deployment, configuration, and monitoring of lab resources; authored CI and platform documentation used by development and QA teams.

QA / Automation Engineer
StoredIQ (acquired by IBM, 2013), Austin, TX | Aug 2008 to Mar 2013

• Extended automated web UI coverage on a Python page-object-model Selenium framework across the StoredIQ product line, and added Windows desktop automation for installing and testing the StoredIQ Desktop Agent.
• Migrated the Appstack base platform from Ubuntu to CentOS 6.5 and the Dataserver/Gateway platform from CentOS 5.3 to 6.5; owned code branching and merge tooling.
• Deployed and populated third-party products for interoperability testing; isolated data-layer defects by querying the product's PostgreSQL schema directly. Promoted into the IBM CI/CD ownership role after the acquisition.

Earlier experience: Dell, Round Rock, TX (Product Group Test, test technician to senior analyst): third-party interoperability and functional testing for PowerVault tape backup, direct-attach, SAN, and NAS storage; team Linux subject-matter expert. Internet Express, Bridge City, TX (assistant system administrator): WWW, DNS/DHCP, FTP, and dial-up accounting systems for an ISP.

• BS, Cybersecurity, Texas A&M University-San Antonio | expected 2028 (in progress; transferred Fall 2026 from Austin Community College)
• AAS, Computer Information Systems, Lamar University