Nelson Ford
No. 002 - Selected work
Six anonymised cases · 2023-2025

Sixrepresentativeengagements

A selected set of recent work, anonymised where the engagement required it. Each note covers the starting state, the work, and what changed in that situation.

Contents · pp. 1-6
01 · 2024 · 14 weeks Multi-Account AWS Stabilization 02 · 2024 · 7 weeks Audit-Ready Landing Zone 03 · 2023 · 9 weeks HIPAA Security Assessment 04 · 2023 · 6 mo CI/CD Architecture and SaaS Leadership 05 · 2025 · 4 weeks CPCSC Readiness Sprint 06 · 2024 · 3 weeks AI Contractor Delivery Assessment
202414 weeks
No. 01

Multi-Account AWS Stabilization

From one sprawling account with snowflake IAM keys to a clean multi-account structure with auditable change control.

A growth-stage SaaS had a single AWS account doing everything: production, staging, internal tools, ad-hoc engineer sandboxes. Identity was a thicket of long-lived keys. I introduced AWS Organizations, Control Tower, account-level isolation, and Terraform for repeatable provisioning. By the end the team could land a new environment in an afternoon with full change history.

20247 weeks
No. 02

Audit-Ready Landing Zone

A defence-supply-chain customer walked into their CPCSC-track assessment with the architecture and evidence packet already assembled.

The work covered account structure, least-privilege access, logging, secrets handling, and the documentation trail. The useful part was not a pretty diagram. It was making every control explainable by the people who had to operate it.

20239 weeks
No. 03

HIPAA Security Assessment

Turned a vague security concern into a ranked remediation plan with evidence, owners, and release sequencing.

I reviewed access paths, infrastructure posture, logging, backup practices, and delivery controls. The output separated immediate risk from cleanup work so the team could fix the path to production without freezing the whole roadmap.

20236 mo
No. 04

CI/CD Architecture and SaaS Leadership

Helped a small product team get their release process back under control while keeping feature delivery moving.

Worked alongside the founding engineer on architecture, release tooling, and the delivery work that lets a small team ship without drama. The engagement was part hands-on engineering, part judgment at the moments where technical debt was starting to choose the roadmap.

20254 weeks
No. 05

CPCSC Readiness Sprint

Mapped the gap between current practice and defence-customer expectations before the sales process created promises the delivery team could not keep.

The work produced a control map, current-state notes, evidence gaps, and a practical sequence for remediation. It was intentionally narrow: enough to make the next customer conversation honest and technically grounded.

20243 weeks
No. 06

AI Contractor Delivery Assessment

Reviewed an AI delivery dispute against the statement of work and separated delivered functionality from wishful status reporting.

The assessment traced requirements to working behavior, incomplete delivery, and missing evidence. The useful output was a plain-language position the client could rely on before deciding whether to continue, renegotiate, or walk away.

Earlier work

Across the last decade: cloud architecture engagements for SaaS platforms, ML infrastructure for a private-equity data team, and platform support for a national STEM education provider.

Direct answers

What does Nelson Ford help with?

Nelson Ford helps with cloud architecture, AI production readiness, security evidence, compliance preparation, and delivery systems for teams that need to ship under real constraints. The selected work shows stabilizing AWS environments, preparing audit evidence, assessing AI delivery, and improving release paths.

What kind of proof is shown here?

The work page uses anonymised case summaries rather than client logos. Each case names the starting condition, the kind of technical work performed, and what changed, while keeping client-sensitive details out of public view.

Something close to one of these? Send a note. Describe what's getting in the way.

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