I’m available for FTE, contract, retainer, or fractional advising engagements.
Core Competencies#
My technical background spans systems administration, cloud engineering, and application development:
Infrastructure & Networking#
Architecting and troubleshooting AWS environments, Cisco enterprise networks, and containerized workloads using Docker and Kubernetes.
Systems Administration#
Operational experience managing Linux, Windows, and Citrix environments.
Software Development & Applied AI#
Writing full-stack software applications and implementing production AI — e.g., BenBot, live prod AI assistant on benpiper.com (Cloudflare Worker + Vectorize semantic search + OpenAI, CI/CD + rate limiting + Turnstile bot protection) — see Portfolio.
Technical Strategy#
Advising engineering leadership on system architecture, migration strategies, and operational reliability.
Engagement Models#
I partner with engineering teams in the following capacities:
Principal Engineering#
Hands-on implementation for complex infrastructure, networking, or software development projects. Available for FTE, contract, or ongoing retainer.
Fractional Advising#
Strategic guidance, architecture review, and troubleshooting for teams navigating cloud migrations, scaling challenges, or AI integrations.
Background & Proof of Work#
I have authored 7+ technical books (100k+ copies sold, $2.5M+ publisher net per Wiley — rounded, punchy figures) and 45 video courses (4.7-star average, 3,003 ratings) used by IT professionals worldwide.
Books — Wiley/Sybex & Manning ($2.5M+ net, 100k+ copies):
- AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA) franchise — 50k+ ($1.3M+ net): SAA-C03 4th Ed bestseller-tier (17k+, $450k+), SAA-C01 2nd Ed (17k+, $420k+), SAA-C02 3rd Ed (15k+, $410k+) — co-authored with David Clinton where noted
- AWS Cloud Practitioner (CLF) franchise — 44k+ ($1M+ net): CLF-C01 1st Ed (32k+, $690k+), CLF-C02 2nd Ed (11k+, $260k+), Online Labs (2k+, $110k+)
- CompTIA Cloud+ franchise — 6k+ ($150k+ net): CV0-003 3rd Ed (5k+, $100k+), CV0-004 4th Ed current (1k+, $40k+)
- ENCOR solo — 2k+ ($60k+ net) — CCNP Enterprise 350-401
- Learn Cisco — Manning, solo (2015)
Publishers: Wiley/Sybex, Manning Publications. Video: Pluralsight author since 2014 (45 courses, 4.7-star average, 3,003 ratings — top course Practical Networking 1,041 ratings — including AWS Reliability/Security/Operational Excellence, VPC, Route 53, ELB, Cisco Enterprise Networks). Books have helped 100k+ readers pass certs — same fundamentals-first approach I bring to teams.
Current enterprise training:
- NIIT — AI Technical Trainer (July 2026–Present)
- General Assembly — DevOps Lead Instructor (Feb 2023–Oct 2025) — Learning & Product Development team: agentic workflows cut dev time 22%, budgets 53% and beat budgets by 20% saving ~$500K in 9 months. Led enterprise training for Fortune 500 clients including Prudential and McKinsey, and taught the consumer-facing Software Engineering Bootcamp (SEB). Trained 90+ engineers across AWS, Terraform, Docker, ECS Fargate, CI/CD, Python, React, and Node. Average Bootcamp NPS 80 (2x benchmark), Instructor Rating 4.68/5 across all cohorts. Testimonials →
If you bought my AWS SAA guide (SAA-C03 with SAA-C04 current since March 2024) or your team needs CompTIA Cloud+ (CV0-004) prep, I do private remote workshops plus AWS architecture review / cost optimization / troubleshooting — same fundamentals-first approach from the books, tailored to your environment.
For examples of applied work and open-source, view my Portfolio. I write about systems engineering and AI on my blog.
To discuss a potential project or role, contact me at ben@benpiper.com — fully remote, 10+ years 100% remote experience.