Objective
Leverage my extensive leadership, architecture, engineering, and operations experience to develop strategic direction and enable teams of highly motivated engineers to deliver exceptional quality Internet services in large complex environments. My principal areas of interest include large research institutions or innovative organizations involved in disruptive Internet technology.
Executive Summary
- Over 25 years of experience with designing, implementing, and maintaining large scale server, network, wireless, and security services.
- Architectural principals focus on ease of use, scalability, reliability, and open standards capable of supporting a broad range of devices.
- Systems Architect with an in-depth understanding of system design, low-level internals, security, troubleshooting, and performance tuning on mission-critical systems.
- Network Architect with an in-depth knowledge of data network design from access to edge, routing protocols, performance tuning, and troubleshooting.
- In-depth knowledge of key protocol standards such as RFC, BCP, and IETF.
- Excellent problem-solving skills with an acute ability to find and research unfamiliar issues.
- Strong communication and presentation skills.
Experience Summary (not all-inclusive)
- Operating Systems: Apple (macOS, iOS, Android, BSD, Cisco (Catalyst, IOS, NX-OS), GNU/Linux, HP, JunOS, Microsoft, Solaris, SunOS
- Virtualization Technologies: CML, Docker, GNS3, Solaris Containers, VirtualBox, VMware
- Cloud Providers: AWS, Azure, Digital Ocean, Linode, Google Cloud
- System Hardware: Arista, Cisco, Dell, HP, Infoblox, Juniper, Meraki, Sun, Xiotech, x86
- Core Server and Networking Protocols: arp, bgp, dhcp, dns, ethernet, ftp, git, hsrp, http, icmp, imap, ip, ipsec, is-is, ldp, mp-bgp, mpls, nat, nfs, nis, nnrp, nntp, ntp, ospf, pcap, pop3, ppp, radius, sip, smtp, snmp, stp, ssh, ssl, tcp, tftp, udp, vlan, vpn, vrrp, vxlan
- Programming Languages: C, Perl, PHP, Python, shell, SQL, TCL, x86 assembly
- Automation Languages and Frameworks: Ansible, Napalm, Netmiko, Nornir, Puppet, Python, RESTful
Employment History
Infrastructure Architect
Washington University in St. Louis
April 2016 to present
- Responsible for developing and leading the holistic network strategy across an academic and medical campus with 3000+ routers and switches, 5000+ access points, 20+ firewalls and VPN appliances, and 100K unique devices.
- Created the One Campus initiative to redesign and unify the university campus network, which consolidates 20 years of organic evolution into a single cohesive design.
- Developed a modern segmentation solution based on enterprise MPLS and centralized policy enforcement.
- Designed the plan to enable 100G connectivity to commodity, research and cloud providers through multiple geographic peering points.
- Critical escalation point for complex network, system, and security issues.
- Evangelist for process automation, open protocol standards, and API first data exchange.
Sr. Network and Systems Engineer
Washington University in St. Louis
December 2005 to April 2016
- Redesigned all Unix systems with an emphasis on single service, stability, and security; eliminating frequent outages and security incidents.
- Principal engineer of core network backbone and edge routers based on the Cisco Catalyst 6k, Nexus 7k, and Juniper MX platform. Average sustained network traffic exceeds 5Gbs with combined peaks over 10Gbs. BGP multihomed with multiple 10Gbs links to commodity Internet and the Internet2 research network.
- Redesigned primary data center with Cisco validated Nexus 7K, 5K, 2K core routing and switching hardware. The new design can sustain 80Gbps of throughput, IPv4 and IPv6 capable, protected by a set of Cisco 5585 ASAs, fully redundant with no single point of failure.
- Implemented a complete monitoring system for server and network systems utilizing technologies such as Bro / Zeek, Nagios, CACTI, Statseeker, Syslog-ng, NetFlow, and custom-written scripts.
- Led team in designing and coding custom backup system for all Unix servers.
- Engineered an IP management system capable of decentralized administration based on the Infoblox platform.
- Designed fault-tolerant, campus-wide, anycast, authoritative and caching DNS service sustaining over 5000 queries per second.
- Designed a DevOps automation system based on Puppet for >100 Linux systems.
- Designed and implemented a replacement wireless authentication system eliminating the complicated and problematic end-user experience.
- Replaced several commercial software tools, with open source alternatives. Reducing complexity, adding functionality without compromising on quality or features.
- Designed and implemented centralized email security scanning and routing system; eliminating almost all unwanted spam and virus-infected email.
Sr. Systems and Network Administrator
XO Communications, St. Louis Missouri
December 1995 to December 2005
- Technical lead over systems and networking team.
- Engineer and primary administrator of global anycast DNS network sustaining over 10,000 queries per second.
- Primary administrator in charge of nationwide VoIP network. Utilizing Broadsoft, Sonus, and Cisco hardware. Supporting over 20,000 users.
- Engineered a plan to relocate two data centers containing over 100 production servers from Bay City, MI to Chicago, IL and from Chicago, IL to St. Louis, MO with no direct impact to customers.
- Primary Unix administrator in charge of development and ongoing maintenance of concentric.net ISP system, which supports over 200,000 users. Services include: DNS, email, news, radius, registration, web; running on large clusters of Sun hardware.
- The network administrator in charge of routers, switches, data center internal and customer IP networks.
Volunteer Experience
Zion Lutheran School
June 2009 to present
- Designed wired and wireless networks based on Cisco Meraki hardware to be reliable, scalable, and simple to manage.
- Designed and pulled new fiber optic and copper cable plant to interconnect buildings and access points.
- Regularly consult on technology needs of the faculty, staff, and students.
Boy Scout Troop 957
March 2016 to present
- Assistant Scout Master
- Rappeling Instructor
Education
Saginaw Valley State University, University Center, Michigan
Bachelor of Science, 1993 - 1998
Major: Computer Information Systems; GPA 3.46 / 4.0 (honors)
Minor: Business Management
References
References available upon request.