devopsdays dallas - Contact

GM Financial

Cayla is a Portfolio Manager at GM Financial with a decade of experience leading Programs and Scrum teams. An award-winning leader, she manages portfolios of 20+ projects and presents roadmaps to audiences of 500+. A Tarrant County CASA volunteer and PTA board member, Cayla balances her professional drive with mixed-media art and life with her husband and two children.

Katalon

Gokul Sridharan is a Master’s Degree holder in IT, an entrepreneur by nature and a successful presales management professional at CA Technologies. He has worked there for the past 3 years and successfully managing a business of $10m+ from a technical sales standpoint. Prior to joining CA and pursuing his master’s degree, Gokul started off his career at Accenture as a software developer.

During that time frame, he also started his own restaurant venture called ‘The Snack Shack’ in India. He loves DevOps concepts and likes to be a part of local meetups. He is also part of the organizing committee in DevOpsDays Dallas, and on in his spare time likes to work on new and innovative ideas.

Vizient, Inc.

I’m proud to serve as an organizer for DevOpsDays Dallas, helping cultivate a vibrant community centered around DevOps, cloud, and platform engineering. I’m passionate about connecting people, sharing lessons learned, and creating meaningful opportunities for growth and innovation.

Capital One

Jessica is a Technology Leader at Capital One where she is passionate about mentoring and coaching others to achieve their career goals. She currently serves at the Chief of Staff for Card Tech Foundations which drives the horizontal capabilities for the entire Card Tech organization. Prior to her current role, she led a Product Execution team focused on improving the internal developer experience through automation and standardization. She has also held roles in Cloud Governance, Tech Strategy, Process Improvement, and Software Development. Throughout her career, she has been actively been involved in various Women in Tech organizations and currently is a leader within the Allies community. Outside of work, Jessica enjoys spending time with her daughter, catching up on (bad) reality TV, or giving out high-fives on Peloton. Jessica has been a conference organizer since 2018.

Jessica is a passionate DevOps Engineer with a background in test automation and a strong commitment to the DevOps culture. Since 2019, she has been an active organizer of DevOpsDays Dallas, where she leverages her enthusiasm for community engagement and collaboration. Jessica thrives on continuous learning and enjoys exploring new technologies. She is an avid traveler and finds great joy in the DevOpsDays community, believing in the power of connection and teamwork to drive impactful change in the tech industry.

Slalom Consulting

Jim Baldwin has over 20 years in the IT field holding various positions from Systems Administration and Infrastructure Engineering to DevOps and Cloud Computing. After attending DevOpsDays in Austin in 2015 and becoming DevOps awakened, Jim has spent his time honing his DevOps and Agile skills.

Jim is currently a Senior Consultant at Slalom Consulting.

Southwest Airlines

John-Paul Herold is an Engineering Leader focused on continuous learning and building great teams that harness data to deliver high-value solutions to customers. Currently his Cloud Security org is focused on reducing risk in SWA’s AWS cloud environments, while supporting accelerated delivery, and all with a measurably excellent developer experience. John-Paul started as a Java developer, transitioned to “DevOps” Engineer when he found he could manage servers like cattle, then Cloud Engineer which brought him to Southwest Airlines where he later moved into leadership.

His path with DevOpsDays started in 2015 when he attended both Dallas and Austin, and has continued every year since. He volunteered for DevOpsDays DFW the first time in 2019, was an organizer for DevOpsDays Texas 2021, and has been an oragnizer for DevOpsDays Dallas since 2022.

John-Paul is based in Dallas and has a CSE degree from Southern Methodist University. In his off time he enjoys playing soccer, listening to music, running a homelab, reading tech books, and working on projects in his garage.

Dell EMC

Lee is an experienced technologist with a passion for solving problems. Whether technical, logistical, organizational - in every endeavor, Lee brings with him a high-level of integrity and an effective leadership style. His experience spans multiple disciplines including Employee Engagement, Distribution, IT Solutions Architecture, Virtual and Physical IT Infrastructure, and Cyber-security.

Lee is a volunteer for DevOpsDays DFW as a result of his passionate interest in DevOps (and DevSecOps) and the associated community of talented professionals.

Lee works with Ancilla LLC - As a Consultant and Project Director. Ancilla LLC provides consulting services for Cloud, CyberSecurity, Application Security and Organizational Excellence. Providing Organizations with Proven, Documented & Published Outcomes.

Lee also volunteers his time acting as Prayer Team Chair for the DFW Technology Prayer Breakfast - a local faith-based nonprofit.

Capital One

Mark loves DevOps and the cloud and has spent the last 2 years with Capital One going all in on DevOps and the Cloud. Mark leads DevOps for Capital One Auto Finance and is the Cloud Lead for public cloud accounts in Plano. Previously Mark has spent 14 years at Southwest Airlines in various software development and leadership roles.

JP Morgan Chase

Paula has over 15 years of experience driving process improvement and long-term business value across the banking, automotive, aviation, logistics, and insurance sectors. Her versatile career includes roles at JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Hewlett Packard, and Aflac, spanning functions that include Technical Program Management, Strategy and Planning, Technology Consulting, and Agile Coaching. A passionate advocate for the measurable impacts of DevOps, Agile, and Lean, Paula’s journey with DevOpsDays DFW began as a volunteer in 2022 before she joined the Organizing Team in 2023. She holds an MBA with a focus in Business Intelligence and Accounting. In addition, she has a PMP and a PSM. When she isn’t optimizing value streams, you can find her volunteering in her community, hiking, or catching waves at the nearest beach.

Innovar Solutions

Roger is a 20+ year International IT Leader experienced with Software delivery for systems delivering multi billion dollar impacts to their Enterprises. Roger currently leads Verizon’s Engineering Practice Transformation Centers - DOJOs - Across the United States, where teams enter to learn new Agile Practices, DevOps Automantions and Cloud Technologies which speed time to value realization, drive efficiency and improve quality.

Focus Areas for Roger include: DevOps, Agile Development, Continuous Delivery, Lean Development, Software architecture and design, Pricing theory, Product Lifecycle Management, Onshore, Near Shore and Offshore project development (US, LATAM, EMEA, APAC) and Pricing Analytics.

Roger holds his Bachelors Degree from Southern Methodist University and is a continuous learner. A Practitioner of constraint management and evangelist for DevOps measurement, speaking at OS Con 2018 and GLUCON 2018 on DevOps Measurement and Enter-Sourcing with Hygieia. That which is measured, improves!.

Elevate

Russell currently serves as Manager of DevOps Engineering where his team encourages Dev Team autonomy for code and infrastructure pipelines. He has over 30 years of IT experience in a variety of technologies and industries. Starting as a Web Application Developer, then moving into IT Leadership Russell was introduced to DevOps in 2015 while managing platform and systems that supported the Verizon Global Website (www.verizon.com). He quickly adopted an agile / cloud-first methodology to improve feature speed and quality to the business.

Since 2008 Russell has led inclusive and empowered multi-cultural teams responsible for software development and delivery, production support, Operations, and DevOps.

Tech Mahindra

Scott Purgerson, was previously a Sr. Sales Executive with Automation Anywhere located in Dallas, Texas. Although born in San Jose, CA, he takes great pride in claiming he’s a Texan, as he’s resided there 97% of his life. Scott has over 16 years of professional experience, comprised of sales and management. He’s very passionate about helping and partnering with others in their digital transformation journey. Scott joined as an organizer for Dallas DevOps Days in 2019. In his downtime, Scott enjoys spending time with his wife, Michelle, and their corgi, Winnie, as well being in the woods, hunting.

Southwest Airlines

Sundeep Bobba is a Tech Lead Cloud DevOps Engineer at Southwest Airlines, where he architects and leads large-scale CI/CD and cloud modernization initiatives supporting multi-billion-dollar digital platforms. He holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from East Texas A&M University and brings over 15 years of experience in DevOps, cloud engineering, and AI-driven automation.

An IEEE Senior Member, international conference speaker, and published author, Sundeep actively serves as a program committee member and chair for multiple global technology conferences. His work focuses on AI-governed delivery systems and bringing accountability and intelligent automation into modern DevOps practices.

City of Carrollton

Sangita (Sunny) Bhakta has over 15 years of experience driving operational excellence, revenue growth, and process improvement across government, technology, and hospitality sectors. Her diverse career spans leadership roles with Hilton, Wyndham Worldwide, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, and Choice Hotels International, where she has led cross-functional initiatives in technology modernization, corporate sales strategy, stakeholder engagement, and service delivery.

Currently serving in municipal IT, Sunny supports large-scale infrastructure upgrades and security initiatives, coordinating vendors and cross-departmental teams to deliver projects on time and within budget. A strong advocate for governance, standardization, and measurable outcomes, she brings a strategic lens to risk management, workflow optimization, and continuous improvement.

She holds a B.S. in Business Administration and maintains multiple industry certifications, including PMP, CJIS, CompTIA Security+, Network+, and A+.

Outside of work, Sunny enjoys mentoring others, traveling, cooking, and giving back to her community.

Grateful for the opportunity to serve as a volunteer with DevOpsDays DFW — looking forward to supporting an incredible community!