About Me

Experienced IT professional with over 18 years of experience with MSPs and corporate IT, most recently with a cutting-edge AI company as well as a global medical device manufacturing company, designing, implementing, and managing IT environments. I got started with computers in the old days with green screen 5.25" floppy disk powered computers, dial up internet, and AOL. I have always had a passion for tinkering, computers, and breaking systems (computers, networks, physical security) and have spent a good chunk of my career and free time doing so. Bypassing physical security systems is what I find most fascinating and exhilarating in this space.

Outside of work, I spend time building open-source tech solutions, reading, playing video games (space flight sims are my jam right now), working on my private pilot license, gardening, and tending to the chickens. Current project is building out a solar powered off-grid office/workshop space for all of my tinkering. This space will serve as not only my office for my day job but as a space to work on 3D printing, electronics, IOT devices, homelab, and integrating technology in to community building and support, gardening, farming, and homesteading. I am very passionate about leveraging technology to build and strengthen local communities, decrease wage slavery, and reducing dependence on capitalism and government systems.

qualifications and acronymns

  • BS, Information Technology
  • Microsoft MCSE: Server Administration
  • Microsoft MCSE: Server Virtualization
  • CompTIA A+
  • CompTIA Network+
  • CompTIA Security+
  • CompTIA Project+
  • CompTIA IT Operations Specialist
  • CompTIA Secure Infrastructure Specialist
  • Amazon AWS Cloud Practitioner
  • ITIL Foundations
  • LPI Linux Essentials

work experience

The Current Place

  • Senior Systems Engineer, Architect, IT Ops Team Lead - 2019 to present
    • server, storage, network, and SaaS app infrastructure architect and owner
    • IT project planning and management
    • change management owner
    • researching/deploying solutions
      • servers (linux, windows)
      • storage arrays (truenas, EMC)
      • multi-site/multi-cloud networking/firewall/VPN (palo alto, meraki, openvpn, wireguard)
      • hypervisor clusters (proxmox, vmware)
      • IAM via LDAP, Active Directory, SSO/SAML
      • email systems (G-Suite, Office 365)
      • spam filtering (G-Suite/Office 365, mimecast)
      • CASB/DLP (netskope)
      • vulnerability management (tenable, lacework)
      • MSSP/SOC/SIEM management
      • on-prem, cloud, and SaaS logging and monitoring (prtg, checkmk, osquery/elastic)
      • DR/IR planning
      • physical access control
    • working with entire IT org as the IT Ops team lead, collaborating with DevOps, ProdOps, AppSec teams to ensure performance and security for on-prem and cloud infrastructure
    • applied sytems thinking and lean manufacturing techniques to IT org and IT infrastructure
    • work with R&D teams to develop compute and networking infrastructure to support R&D facility and operations
    • utilize automation and infrastructure as code (ansible, terraform, python, powershell) to ensure consistent, uniform infrastructure deployments and user lifecycle
    • train and mentor junior team members as well as non-technical members of other business units

The Last Place (Global Manufacturing Company)

  • Senior Systems Administrator, Architect - 2016 to 2019
    • planned, managed, and deployed entire IT infrastructure and all IT projects, supporting global 24/7 manufacturing environment
      • multi-building campus and multi-site networking
      • servers (windows, linux)
      • storage arrays (truenas, Dell, EMC)
      • firewalls/networking/VPN (fortinet, dell, cisco, meraki, openvpn)
      • hypervisor clusters (vmware, hyper-v, openstack, cisco UCS)
      • IAM via LDAP, Active Directory
      • email systems (Exchange, G-Suite, Office 365)
      • vulnerability management
      • DR/IR planning and management
      • logging and monitoring (solarwinds)
      • physical access control
    • collaborated with other business units including Dev and Production to ensure manufacturing software and facility uptime and efficiencies, applied systems thinking and lean manufacturing techniques to IT organization and infrastructure
    • collaborated with international teams in parent company (incl. Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, and Brazil) to facilitate cohesive IT environments and coordinate on integration projects bringing multi-site/state/country networks and manufacturing facilities together for cohesive, secure operations
    • IT budget planning

The Place Before That (Managed Service Provider #2)

  • Senior Technology Consultant - 2011 to 2016

    • primary IT point of contact and SME for 15+ clients across all market sector
    • managed IT environments and projects for clients
      • Active Directory
      • email systems (Exchange, G-Suite, Office 365)
      • servers (windows, linux)
      • networking/firewalls/VPN
      • hypervisor clusters (vmware, citrix)
      • DR/IR planning and management
      • monitoring and alerting
      • patch management
    • new client onboarding and environment discovery/assessment/documentation
    • participated in executive meetings to facilitate IT planning and budget planning
    • train and mentor junior team members

  • Tier 3 Helpdesk Support - 2009 to 2011

    • escalation point in the main helpdesk
    • small projects with some on-site client visits

    And Before That (Managed Service Provider #1)

    • Senior Technology Consultant - 2008 to 2009
      • new client onboarding and environment discovery/assessment/documentation
      • client IT project planning/deployment
      • escalation point for helpdesk
    • Cloud Engineer - 2008 to 2009
      • designed and built private multi-tennant, fully redundant cloud environment
      • customer onboarding and migration to private cloud tenant
      • cloud support
    • Tier 1 Helpdesk - 2008 (briefly)

That One From A While Ago (Architecture Firm)

  • Junior Systems Administrator - 2007 to 2008
    • managed and supported IT infrastructure
      • desktop support
      • server management (windows)
      • email system (exchange)
      • firewall (cisco)
      • backups

First IT Job (local university)

  • Student Helpdesk Manager (while enrolled fulltime) - 2006 to 2007
    • managed student run IT helpdesk
    • monitored call and ticket queues
    • point of escalation and overflow
    • wrote user facing documentation
    • built and documented internal policies and procedures
    • assisted NOC with emergencies
    • assisted Networking department with router deployments
  • Student Helpdesk Support (while enrolled fulltime) - 2005 to 2006
    • assisted students, faculty, and staff with user accounts and general computer troubleshooting via phone calls and tickets
    • wrote user facing documentation