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Kareem Talbert

Ascending through the cloud layer

ALT 2,000 ft

KT
KT · PLATFORM · KT · PLATFORM · KT

Senior Platform Engineer · New York

Kareem Talbert, Senior Cloud & AI Platform Engineer: I architect the cloudteams ship on.

I design self-service cloud platforms, landing zones and AI agent architectures: the blueprints that take teams from tickets to production.

Dive inScroll to descend

01Request

Every platform starts as a ticket.

A database needed by Friday. A VM someone clicked together by hand. Environments that drift a little more every sprint. That's the signal it's time for a platform.

Cloud Adoption Framework · Strategy & Plan

02Code

So I design it as code.

Every platform starts as a blueprint. I design modular, reusable infrastructure modules, whatever the IaC tool underneath, so developers describe what their app needs and get resilient, flexible infrastructure in a few lines.

CAF Ready · modular infrastructure as code

03Land

It lands in secure zones.

Workloads live in landing-zone subscriptions, peered to a central connectivity hub and governed by management groups, Azure Policy and Defender for Cloud. Guardrails are designed in, not bolted on.

Azure landing zone architecture (CAF)

04Ship

Shipped by pipelines, not people.

Every change is checked against policy and Well-Architected rules, previewed as a plan and deployed by pipelines, then kept in line by event-driven configuration management.

Well-Architected · Operational Excellence

05Agents

Now the platform thinks.

I design agents on Azure AI Foundry: Foundry Agent Service orchestrating connected agents on Azure OpenAI models, tools over MCP, Azure AI Search for grounding, and guardrails (Entra Agent ID, Content Safety and a human approving anything that touches production), all traced in Application Insights.

Azure AI Foundry · Foundry Agent Service

06Scale

Well-Architected at enterprise scale.

Every design is reviewed against the five pillars of the Azure Well-Architected Framework.

  • ✓Reliability
  • ✓Security
  • ✓Cost Optimization
  • ✓Operational Excellence
  • ✓Performance Efficiency

Azure Well-Architected Framework · 5 pillars

INC-4021ETA 3 weeks

Need a Postgres DB for checkout

REQ-1187Blocked

Prod and staging don't match again

REQ-2290Sev 2

Manual deploy failed at 2 a.m.

INC-3315Unassigned

Who owns this VM?

REQ-0954Waiting

Firewall rule for new service

Tenant root›Platform·Landing zones›Corp

Landing zone · payments-prod

spoke vnet 10.20.0.0/16

Connectivity hub

  • Azure Firewall
  • ExpressRoute / VPN
  • Private DNS

Management

  • Azure Policy
  • Log Analytics
  • Defender for Cloud
peeringpolicy
AKS
Redis
PostgreSQL
Key Vault
App Service
app.yaml
 1# what the app needs 2app: checkout 3landingZone: payments-prod 4resilience: zone-redundant 5scale: { min: 2, max: 20 } 6data: [ postgres, redis ] 7secrets: key-vault 8observability: on
  1. ✓1Commit
  2. ✓2Policy
  3. ✓3Plan
  4. ✓4Deploy
  5. ✓5Monitor

✓ policy & WAF checks: 0 failures

✓ plan: 3 to create

✓ deployed by pipeline

✓ config drift: none

Azure AI Foundry
Foundry Models · Azure OpenAI

Foundry Agent Service

connected agents · threads · runs

Planner✓
Builder✓
Reviewer✓

Tools

  • ◆MCP servers
  • Functions / OpenAPI

Knowledge

  • Azure AI Search
  • ◆Thread memory

Guardrails

  • Entra Agent ID
  • Content Safety
  • Human approval✓

Foundry tracing → Application Insights

thread created›run · plan›tool · MCP azure_deploy›await approval›run completed ✓

0+

Years in infrastructure

0

Cloud certifications

0

Clouds: Azure, AWS, OCI

0

Organisations served

About

Hi, I'm Kareem.

For fifteen years I've been designing the platforms other teams build on, turning tangled, ticket-driven infrastructure into clear architectures with self-service, security and compliance designed in from the start. I spend as much time at the whiteboard as in the code, shaping landing zones, platform blueprints and AI agent systems so developers can ship instead of wait.

Get in touchLinkedIn ↗

Quick facts

Based in
New York
Currently
Senior Platform Engineer, Mastercard
Focus
Cloud & AI architecture, platform design
Studying
B.S. Artificial Intelligence, Indiana University Indianapolis
Author
Hello, World! (AI and society, 2023)
Clouds
Azure · AWS · Oracle Cloud

“From the server room to the cloud.”

Certified · 8 credentials

4× Azure · 3× OCI · 1× AWS

  • Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert badge

    Azure Solutions Architect

    Microsoft · AZ-305

  • Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert badge

    DevOps Engineer

    Microsoft · AZ-400

  • Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate badge

    Azure Administrator

    Microsoft · AZ-104

  • Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals Fundamentals badge

    Azure AI Fundamentals

    Microsoft · AI-900

  • Oracle certified

    OCI Architect

    Associate

    OCI Architect

    Oracle · 1Z0-1072

  • Oracle certified

    OCI AI Foundations

    Associate

    OCI AI Foundations

    Oracle · 1Z0-1122

  • Oracle certified

    OCI Foundations

    Associate

    OCI Foundations

    Oracle · 1Z0-1085

  • AWS Certified: Cloud Practitioner Foundational badge

    Cloud Practitioner

    AWS · CLF-C02

From the server room to the cloud.

Ground level

2014-17

Greystone Programs logoGreystone ProgramsIT Coordinator

Kept 18 healthcare sites running end to end: Windows servers, Active Directory, group policy and the desktop fleet.

  • Windows Server
  • Active Directory
  • Group Policy

2014-17: IT Coordinator at Greystone Programs

  1. 2014-17: IT Coordinator, Greystone Programs. Kept 18 healthcare sites running end to end: Windows servers, Active Directory, group policy and the desktop fleet. Tools: Windows Server, Active Directory, Group Policy.
  2. 2016-17: NOC Engineer, CyrusOne. Front line of a data centre NOC, diagnosing Cisco network, VMware, storage and Linux incidents in real time. Tools: Cisco, VMware vSphere, Storage, Linux.
  3. 2017-18: Systems Engineer, White Plains Hospital. Hardened and scaled the infrastructure of a fast-growing hospital where downtime isn't an option. Tools: VMware, Windows Server, Active Directory.
  4. 2018-20: Sr. Installations Engineer, Varian Medical Systems. Upgraded and migrated clinical oncology systems for cancer centres across the US, databases included, with no room for error. Tools: Clinical systems, Database migration, Windows Server.
  5. 2020-22: DevOps Systems Administrator, Kapsch TrafficCom. Ran the tolling infrastructure behind highways throughout the US, and built the Azure back office powering Georgia's Peach Pass and California tolling. Tools: Oracle Linux, Ubuntu, Red Hat, Azure, Ansible.
  6. 2022-24: Infrastructure Automation Engineer, U.S. Bank. Automated U.S. Bank's infrastructure across the US and Europe with event-driven SaltStack, replacing Puppet and manual deploys with self-healing, hands-off operations. Tools: SaltStack, Event-driven automation, Linux.
  7. 2024-present: Senior Platform Engineer, Mastercard. Designing and running Azure platforms at global scale: landing zones and self-service Cloud as a Service for engineering teams. Tools: Azure, Landing zones, Bicep, Azure DevOps.

Things I’ve designed& built.

Outside the day job: open-source AI agent skills for cloud teams, n8n automation templates, two AI-powered iPhone apps, and a book on what AI means for everyone else.

Skills by cloud provider and area
Area · 21 skillsAZUREAWSGCPOCI
Well-Architected review
Landing zone
Network hub
Identity & least privilege
Observability
Policy & governance

›

✓ Marketplace added · install azure-platform-skills

Created & maintained

Open source

Cloud Platform Skills

Teach the agent the right way.

An open-source library of AI agent skills for cloud platform engineering. Each skill gives an agent (Claude Code, Claude.ai or any Agent Skills tool) a tested workflow for a real platform task, aligned to the provider's Well-Architected Framework, secure by default and backed by official docs.

  • Skills for Azure, AWS, Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud
  • Well-Architected aligned, secure by default, plan before apply
  • Installs as a Claude Code plugin marketplace
View on GitHub ↗Project details →
Real estate automation kit cover
Social media automation kit cover
AI receptionist automation kit cover
Email marketing automation kit cover: 48 workflows
n8n

Designed & built

n8n templates

The Agent Gallery

Ready-made AI automations.

A shop of n8n workflow templates for small businesses: AI email marketing, voice receptionists, social content, real estate follow-up and more. Each workflow ships as importable n8n JSON with a step-by-step setup guide.

  • 240+ AI workflows across ready-to-import kits
  • Email, voice receptionist, social and real estate editions
  • Every workflow documented with a setup guide
Browse the templates ↗Project details →

Designed & built

iPhone · App Store

Recurra AI

Every subscription. One glance.

An iPhone subscription tracker that never asks for your bank login. It warns you before every charge, and Remi, an on-device AI money mentor, reviews your spending each month and tells you what to cut.

  • 100% on-device: no accounts, no bank links
  • Remi, an AI money mentor
  • Renewal alerts & trial countdowns
App Store ↗recurraai.com ↗Project details →
Recurra

This month

$0.00

  • SStreamingRenews in 2 days$15.49
  • MMusicRenews Oct 18$10.99
  • CCloud storageRenews Oct 21$2.99
  • FFitnessTrial ends in 5 days$24.99

Remi suggests

You pay for two music services. Cancelling one saves $131.88 a year.

NuriToday

What's on today? Text Sarah I'll be 10 min late, add my weekly groceries to Instacart, and get me an Uber to the airport at 5.

  • CCalendar3 meetings · first at 10:30
  • MMessagesTo Sarah: “Running 10 min late”Approve✓ Done
  • InstacartWeekly cart · 12 items · $86.40Approve✓ Done
  • UberRide to the airport at 5:00 PMApprove✓ Done

4 tasks · 1 sentence · all approved

Designed & built

iPhone · coming soon

Waitlist open

Nuri: Personal Assistant

Doesn't just talk. Gets it done.

Works with

  • UberRequest rides
  • InstacartBuild grocery carts
  • + Calendar, Reminders, Messages, Mail, Maps & more

An AI personal assistant for iPhone. Ask in one sentence and Nuri books your Uber, fills your Instacart cart, manages your calendar and sends messages, and nothing happens until you approve it.

  • Real errands, not just answers: Uber rides and Instacart carts from one sentence
  • Every action is shown for review and approved before it runs
  • Model-agnostic (OpenAI, Anthropic) with MCP for new integrations; keys in Keychain
Join the waitlist ↗getnuri.io ↗Project details →
Cover of Hello, World! The Mind-Blowing Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Society by Kareem Talbert

Author · Second edition · 2023

Hello, World!

The Mind-Blowing Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Society

A plain-language guide to how AI is already reshaping the things that matter most (your job, your health, your money and your kids' future) and how to stay ahead of it.

Format
Paperback
Length
82 pages
Published
2023
Get it on Amazon ↗Project details →

The periodic tableof my stack.

23 elements in 6 families. Hover a tile to read it, or pick a family to light it up.

ContactOpen to conversations

Let's designwhat's next.

Say hello

Best way to reach me

Message me on LinkedIn ↗