You joined SBS in 2022 as a graduate. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned so far?
Thomas Kuhn : Focus on the problem, not the solution. It’s easy to become enamoured with a potential solution without fully understanding the underlying issue. This can lead to solutions that fail to address the core problem or merely fix one of its symptoms.
Why is having a DevOps team crucial for a company like SBS?
Thomas Kuhn : The DevOps team is crucial to ensuring that the platform infrastructure and operations run smoothly, which directly impacts the reliability and performance of the services the unit Specialized Finance provides. In our team, we’re responsible for managing and automating infrastructure that supports business-critical applications. If there’s downtime, inefficiencies, or vulnerabilities in our systems, it could not only disrupt operations but also affect the trust customers have in our services.
By focusing on automating processes, optimizing cloud infrastructure, and improving system reliability, we help the company reduce operational costs, minimize risks, and ensure that teams across the business can deliver value without worrying about the underlying technology. Ultimately, my job helps create a stable, scalable environment that supports the company’s growth and ensures that we can meet the high expectations of our customers and stakeholders.
You are the team’s DevOps Engineering Lead. How do you view your position?
Thomas Kuhn : I’m the Lead for the team, but we operate with a very flat hierarchy, where collaboration and shared responsibility are key. My role is to create an environment where the team can thrive and perform their best work. I rely heavily on the strengths and expertise of each team member, and I support them by removing obstacles, providing clear direction, and ensuring that everyone has the resources they need.
I see myself as an enabler who facilitates communication, promotes continuous improvement, and aligns the team’s efforts with company goals, because I believe that by empowering the team and allowing everyone to contribute their best ideas, we can achieve the best outcomes for the company.
Can you give us an example of a project you’re currently working on?
Thomas Kuhn : One of the key projects I’m currently working on is streamlining the upgrade process for our Kubernetes clusters*. The goal is to automate this process as much as possible, reducing potential downtime and minimizing the need for human intervention. Kubernetes upgrades can be complex, and ensuring they happen smoothly without impacting the availability of services is critical for us.
* Kubernetes is an open-source platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerised applications. A Kubernetes cluster is a group of physical or virtual machines, that work together to run these applications, providing a highly available and scalable environment for containerised workloads.
Why is this critical?
Thomas Kuhn : Our Kubernetes clusters host applications through which billions of dollars in loans are processed every month. This makes the reliability and stability of these clusters mission-critical. Even a brief period of downtime or service disruption could have a substantial financial impact and affect both customers and internal operations.
Ensuring reliability and stability seems like a major challenge. What specific obstacles do you face in your work?
Thomas Kuhn : One of the biggest challenges in my work is balancing the need for innovation with the requirement for stability. As we work on automating and optimizing infrastructure, it’s essential that we don’t introduce risks that could disrupt critical services or impact performance, especially in an environment where downtime isn’t an option.
Another ongoing challenge is the rapidly evolving nature of the tools and technologies we use. Keeping up with changes, new features, and best practices in areas like cloud infrastructure and DevOps can be demanding, but it’s also what makes the work exciting.
Of all the projects you’ve worked on, which has fascinated you the most?
Thomas Kuhn : One of my favourite projects was automating database management to help reduce cloud costs. It was a really enjoyable project because it was both hands-on and had a clear, practical impact. We were able to take something that used to require a lot of manual effort and turn it into a fully automated system, which not only made things more efficient but also reduced cloud costs. It was fun to work on something where we could see the immediate benefits and know it would continue to add value over time.
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