Building a Modern CI/CD Foundation for the Forest Service
When Mahfuzur “Fuz” Rahman, an integral part of the Cynerge team, joined the Forest Service contract as a DevOps Engineer six years ago, there was no Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) program. Alongside colleagues and Forest Service leadership, Fuz helped architect and implement a platform from scratch, one that today supports over 300 Jenkins pipelines and integrates seamlessly across AWS, Azure, and now Google Cloud.
Fuz’s contributions to the CI team have earned sincere appreciation from leadership within the Forest Service. A Supervisory IT Specialist in the Forest Service Chief Information Office (CIO) Applications Services branch shared, “Just wanted to give Fuz a huge kudos for the work he’s doing on the CI team. He’s easy to work with, reliable, and always willing to dive into innovative ideas. He is invaluable to our team.”
On Friday, May 9, we sat down with Fuz to reflect on his day-to-day work, key accomplishments, and what’s next as his team transitions into a new branch under leadership he’s excited to reunite with.
The Day-to-Day: Orchestrating End-to-End Delivery
Fuz describes his role as a “one-stop shop” for CI/CD services. His team manages the automated deployment lifecycle using Jenkins, where the process kicks off the moment code is pushed to production.
“We collaborate with development teams to build and refine their pipelines. Jenkins automatically checks out the code, runs CI tests, like dependency checks and SonarQube scans, and builds the artifact. We then handle the deployment setup based on the cloud environment the application requires,” he clarifies.
His toolkit includes Jenkins (using the Jenkins Templating Engine), SonarQube, Docker, Terraform, Puppet, GitHub, Xray, JFrog, and security tools like OWASP Dependency-Check and Orca Security. He also supports Lighthouse and 508 accessibility testing via Pa11y.
Each request is triaged through ServiceNow and prioritized by a Forest Service lead. Daily sprint calls ensure coordination across a fast-moving backlog.
“He’s easy to work with, reliable, and always willing to dive into innovative ideas. He is invaluable to our team.”
Supervisory IT Specialist, CIO Application Services Branch
Key Accomplishments
From the start, Fuz has served as a key architect behind the modular-based Jenkins configuration framework now in use. In this role, he:
- Helped launch the entire CI/CD program from the ground up.
- Led the implementation of advanced Jenkins configurations using JTE.
- Maintains 300+ pipelines, helping standardize automation across FS applications.
- Integrated tools for code coverage, security scanning, and cloud orchestration.
- Recently began testing GitHub Actions to evaluate its potential alongside or in place of Jenkins.
“We built our own Jenkins repository that works in the background, giving us full control. It’s robust, scalable, and designed to adapt as the Forest Service grows,” Fuz enthusiastically explains.
Fuz’s leadership and innovation haven’t gone unnoticed at Cynerge. Mike Laney, Chief Technical Officer, credits him with fundamentally elevating how the team delivers software. “From day one, Fuz brought a level of focus and technical leadership that reshaped how we deliver software,” Laney shared. “He designed and led our CI/CD effort, stood up JTE (Jenkins Templating Engine) on his own, and then went on to ship apps at a pace that raised the bar for the entire team.”
Laney describes Fuz as both a technical powerhouse and a trusted constant across every deployment. “Fuz is an absolute rockstar. He consistently earns praise from our clients for his technical skill and reliability. He took on the challenge of building the CI/CD pipeline and didn’t just deliver — he made it sustainable, scalable, and elegant.”
Advocating for Unified CI/CD
For years, Fuz has pushed to bring continuous integration and continuous delivery under one team saying, “right now, CI and CD are handled by separate teams. That handoff creates friction. If we were unified, we could own the entire pipeline end to end with faster deployments, fewer delays, more accountability.”
With the new branch forming, that vision might finally come to life. Fuz is optimistic about what that could mean for process efficiency and DevOps maturity.
Looking Ahead: Leadership and Learning
The upcoming move to a new branch reunites Fuz with a leader he describes as open-minded and forward-thinking.
“My first lead at the Forest Service really encouraged experimentation and new ideas,” he says with confidence. “I’m excited to see what we can accomplish under their direction.”
As the team evolves, Fuz hopes to take on a larger role in shaping strategy and expanding CD capabilities, especially as they explore more modern tools and AI integrations.
Why It Matters
Much of the Forest Service’s modernization efforts depend on strong DevOps infrastructure. He explains that “at the end of the day, my goal is to deliver secure applications. Our team helps modernize outdated processes and give development teams the automation and quality tools they need to succeed.”
Fuz and his team help deliver that foundation by ensuring that applications are deployed securely, reliably, and with continuous feedback.
Off the Clock
“I love to learn,” Fuz says. When he’s not solving CI/CD bottlenecks, Fuz keeps up with emerging tech through articles, open-source projects, and conversations with friends in the industry. “When I see a new tool, I like to play with it. I even brought up AI to our leadership recently. I think there’s potential to explore where it can help us.”
How We Can Help You
The robust DevOps infrastructure Fuz and his team built for the Forest Service mirrors the same scalable, secure, and automation-first principles that modern commercial enterprises need to stay competitive. Whether you’re looking to streamline CI/CD pipelines, enhance cloud orchestration across AWS, Azure, or GCP, or modernize legacy systems with cutting-edge automation and security practices, our team has the expertise to help. We’ve done it at scale for government, let us show you how we can bring that same efficiency, agility, and innovation to your business.
Big results don’t need big red tape. Contact us and let’s brainstorm.