Author Image

Hi, I am John

John Edwards

Director of Developer Platform at Jagex

A technology leader with 16+ years experience architecting, implementing, and operating mission critical services in public and hybrid cloud at the head of multi-national teams.

Leadership
DevOps
Cloud
InfoSec
Compliance
Architecture

Skills

AWS
AWS

Experience architecting, implementing, and operating mission critical SaaS platforms in AWS.
Information Security
Information Security

Hands on experince with systems hardening, vulnerability scanning and penetration testing. Authored and implemented Linguamatics’ ISO 27001 certified information security management system. Developed NIST SP 800-53 and PCI DSS standards for AWS infrastructure at Jagex.
Python Development
Python Development

Language of choice for professional development work. Ansible modules, glue code, and automation.
Systems Architecture
Systems Architecture

Architect of highly scalable, available, and secure systems.
Containerisation
Containerisation

Containerisation using Docker, AWS ECS, and AWS Fargate.
GitOps
GitOps

Familiar with Git as a VCS, and GitLab specifically as repoistory manager and CI/CD system. Experience coupling GitLab with Infrastructure-as-Code, e.g. Terraform, in GitOps change management workflows.
Linux
Linux

Deep knowledge of Linux sysadmin using Red Hat and Debian based distributions. Converged virtualisation platforms and more esoteric setups such as HA Pacemaker clusters and ZFS.
Logging and Monitoring
Logging and Monitoring

Log aggregation and monitoring with AWS CloudWatch, Elastic Stack and Graylog2. Active service monitoring with Zabbix, Nagios and CloudWatch.
Networking
Networking

Cloud and on-prem Networking. Advanced AWS networking (CloudWAN, TGW, etc). Layer4/7 Firewalls. IPS/IDS.
Database Administration
Database Administration

Experience running Postgresql, Mariadb (Galera), and MongoDB databases.
Data Protection
Data Protection

Familiar with information governance in a regulated environment, e.g. HIPAA/HiTECH, PCI DSS, and GDPR.
Line Management
Line Management

Experience leading multi-national teams of motivated DevOps engineers.

Experience

1
Jagex

Sep 2021 - Present

Cambridge, UK

Director, Developer Platform

Jul 2026 - Present

Responsibilities:
  • Delivering Jagex’s game hosting and development platform
  • Evangelist for DevOps practices and Cloud adoption
  • Strategic owner for multiple internal “As a Service” offerings
  • Accelerating software delivery through automation and AI
Associate Director, DevOps and Cloud

Dec 2023 - Jul 2026

Responsibilities:
  • Provider of standardised modular infrastructure based on Terraform and Ansible
  • Evangelist for DevOps practices and Cloud adoption
  • Product Owner for multiple internal “As a Service” offerings
  • Line management of a DevOps group
  • Application of NIST Cyber Security Framework and NIST SP 800-53 to Cloud Infrastructure
  • PCI DSS 4.0 compliance in AWS
DevOps Engineering Manager

Jun 2022 - Dec 2023

Responsibilities:
  • Lead engineer for infrastructure, on-prem and cloud, underpinning Jagex’s game services
  • Line management of a DevOps group
  • Systems architect
Principal Operations Engineer

Sep 2021 - Jun 2022

Responsibilities:
  • Lead engineer for infrastructure, on-prem and cloud, underpinning Jagex’s game services
  • Systems architect
IQVIA

2019 - 2021

Cambridge, UK

IQVIA, formerly Quintiles and IMS Health, Inc., is an American multinational company serving the combined industries of health information technology and clinical research.

Director, Systems Engineering

2019 - 2021

Responsibilities:
  • Design, implementation, budget and operation of multiple mission critical SaaS offerings for IQVIA’s Real World Tech Platforms global business unit
  • Standardise working methods across wider group
  • Promote and advance adoption of SRE
  • Support development teams with CI/CD infrastructure and private cloud services
  • ISO 27001 and HIPAA compliance
  • Disaster Recovery
  • Technical guidance/systems architecture for customer RFPs
  • Lead a SRE/DevOps team of 17 engineers spread between the UK, USA and Canada
2
3
Linguamatics

2010 - 2019

Cambridge, UK

Creator of world leading Natural Language Processing software, primarily for pharmaceutical and healthcare applications.

IT/Information Security Manager

2014 - 2019

Responsibilities:
  • Design, implementation, budget and operation of mission critical SaaS offerings
  • Support development teams with CI/CD infrastructure and private cloud services
  • Enterprise IT systems (email, collaboration, end user compute, etc)
  • ISO 27001 and HIPAA compliance
  • Disaster Recovery
  • Technical guidance/systems architecture for customer RFPs
  • Lead team
Systems Administrator

2010 - 2014

Responsibilities:
  • Operation of mission critical SaaS offerings
  • Support development teams with build/test infrastructure
  • Support enterprise IT systems
iansyst

2006 - 2010

Cambridge, UK

A provider of assitive technology for disabled individuals.

Build and Automation Manager

2008 - 2010

Responsibilities:
  • Linux and Windows system administration
  • Mass computer imaging
  • Automating software installation workflow to customise 6000+ laptops per year
  • Optimising build production line
Customer Support Engineer

2006 - 2008

Responsibilities:
  • 1st and 2nd level IT help desk.
4

Achievements

FOSS maintainer

Start-up Contributor

Leadership

ISO 27001

PCI DSS

Site Reliability Engineering

Software-as-a-Service

Recent Posts

Hero Image
Work Experience

DevOps GCSE Work Experience Tasks Day 1 Setting up a DevOps environment: Get logged in Setup a GitHub account Setup a DockerHub account Setup a ChatGPT account Install Brew Install Git Create a GitHub Repository for any notes or code snippets you want to keep Install Docker Desktop Introduction to Docker Day 2 Running a containerised Minecraft server: Install Minecraft Java Edition Run a Minecraft Java Edition Server under Docker Play some Minecraft on your Server Where is your server storing the World data? Can you access the server logs? What happens when you start/stop your container? Play with backing up and restoring your world data to revert changes you make in the World Try to run another containerised game server, see examples

Thursday, February 20, 2025 Read
Hero Image
Baldur's Gate 3 Party

I’ve been enjoying a Tactician mode play through of Baldur’s Gate 3 (Patch 8), particularly crafting my builds and party to handle the challenge. There are loads of combat focused power builds online but far less discussion around party composition and the non-combat elements of the game, so I thought I’d dump some of my thoughts on the subject here. Party Roles To create a well rounded party there are six roles we need to cover; 4 combat and 2 non-combat.

Saturday, October 12, 2024 Read
Hero Image
CS2 Server Docker Image

When CS2 launched, I wanted to run a private tournament for my friends at Jagex. We had quite a few teams interested and so needed at least 12 servers to accomodate all of the parallel games. Rather than spinning and configuring 12 VMs, my preference was to use AWS Fargate, but for that I would need a container image for the CS2 dedicated server. None existed, so I made one, which has been adopted as the community’s preferred server image.

Sunday, September 1, 2024 Read