About

Grace Rante Thompson

I leverage my 20+ years of experience in high-performance computing environments to build global, reliable, scalable, and secure systems infrastructure that supports studio initiatives at cost. I cover a wide array of projects, from architecture through operations, consultation, and escalation, for various movie and tv studio brands, such as Walt Disney Studios, Marvel Studios, 20th Century Studios, and Searchlight Pictures.

My core competencies include infrastructure architecture, automation at scale, high-performance computing, SRE, Tech Lead, infrastructure as code, and Artificial Intelligence (AI/ML). I employ DevOps, automation, and agile methodologies to help design, build, and run applications and related infrastructure, using tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Python. I also hold an AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification and various AI/ML related certs. My goal is to enable fast and efficient production workflows, deliver innovative solutions, and constantly learn and improve. Continously finding ways to achieve more with less - 100x Engineer.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

The Walt Disney Studios / Marvel Studios

Current Role: Principal Engineer

Principal Engineer for Production Technology Architecture group. Builds global, reliable, scalable and secure systems infrastructure to support studio initiatives at cost. Covers wide array of projects - from architecture through operations, consultation and escalation. The Studio Entertainment arm of TWDC includes Marvel Studios, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Motion Pictures Production and Emerging TechnologiesPrincipal Engineer for Production Technology Architecture group. Builds global, reliable, scalable and secure systems infrastructure to support studio initiatives at cost. Covers wide array of projects - from architecture through operations, consultation and escalation. The Studio Entertainment arm of TWDC includes Marvel Studios, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Motion Pictures Production and Emerging Technologies.

Previous Roles

Disneytoon Studios

Glendale, California - Animation Studio

Role: Senior Systems Engineer

  • Design, build and maintain, cross-disciplined systems across all major operating systems, leveraging various devops tools with focus on automation
  • Manages application infrastructure and core data center stack, as well as high performance multi-petabyte storage and backup infrastructure of the facility
  • Completed various, multifaceted projects - Facility OS upgrades, Vsphere Enterprise 6.5 cluster buildout, Windows 10 infrastructure buildout, VPN Deployment, Aspera asset transfer pipeline, Advanced APM Monitoring, AWS infrastructure design
  • Design and Implement automation tools like Puppet, Ansible and Terraform for infrastructure systems with focus on IaC, Security and Compliance
  • Built and Deployed Gitlab CI/CD platform and pipeline processes
  • Lead the systems team in adapting Kanban methodology. A flexible agile method focused on helping interrupt driven teams with uneven demand times and specialized tasks requiring concentrated focus.
  • Built and deployed Jira Service Desk as the defacto ticketing system for the studio
  • Built and deployed Jira and Confluence as a Project Management tool and Documentation
  • Identified systems risks and analyze its impact in order to create a more thoughtful, data driven, 5 year technology roadmap
  • Architect an IT Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plan for the studio
  • Evaluate various emerging technologies geared towards Secure, Infrastructure-as-a-code model: Cloud storage backups/archives, Object Storage, Containers, CI/CD workflows, Clearpass etc

Digital Domain 3.0

Los Angeles, California - Cinematic, Visual Effects Studio

Role: Senior Systems Engineer

  • Linux Desktop, Production servers and Render systems infrastructure for Digital Domain group of companies.

Lucasfilm Animation Singapore

A Lucasfilm Ltd. Division working on films, television series and games

Role: Systems Engineer

EDUCATION

  • Polytechnic University of the Philippines (Graduate March 2001)
  • Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Communications Engineering

CERTIFICATES

  • AWS Solutions Architech
  • Google - Generative AI

Fun stuff: Movie, TV and Film Credits

  • Real Steel, Percy Jackson, Hoodwinked, Star Wars - The clone wars (film and tv series), Tron, Deadpool, Enders Game, X-Men, Maleficent etc