Alfonso Cabrera is the Director of Platform Engineering at Red Ventures, where he helps manage and optimize the company’s extensive AWS footprint. Previously, he worked as a solutions architect at Amazon Web Services, a DevOps engineer at startups in the Charlotte area, and a systems administrator at NTT America, among other positions. For the last five years, he’s also organized DevOpsDays Charlotte. Join Corey and Alfonso as they explore Alfonso’s journey with Red Ventures, what exactly it is that Red Ventures does, the crazy writing culture at AWS and why Alfonso believes it’s better than the PowerPoint approach, the merits of principles-based decision-making, how AWS approaches solutions architecture, what it’s like to have your writing reviewed at AWS, the difference between optimizing for prestige and optimizing for happiness in your career, what it’s like to work on the Red Ventures campus, how cloud-native and serverless guide Red Ventures’ approach today, the importance of not blocking engineers’ workflows, and more.