Systems Engineer experienced with both Microsoft and open-source technologies. Capable of creating and supporting in-house custom applications. Experience in many proof-of-concept projects. Especially strong in front-end applications using Netscaler load balancers, Apache, and Nginx. Recent experience in AWS and Kubernetes. Also good at troubleshooting system and network bugs using tools such as WinDBG or WireShark.
Verizon bought AOL and Yahoo and formed Oath. My colleagues and I were absorbed into a DevOps team within AOL that ran production services for media and brands. Main responsibilities at first was to decommission the AWS Gravity account. I was then handed responsibilities to learn about Splunk and to develop a way to easily deploy clusters in various AWS accounts using the tools I have available including Docker, Packer, Terraform, Chef and Screwdriver.
AOL acquired Gravity in 2014. During this time Gravity needed to move to AWS. It was a AOL initiative and our contracts were expiring with our current hosting service at the time. We migrated several of our tools to adapt to the cloud environment, switching from Icinga to Sensu and updating our graphing front-ends. Migrating to AWS also helped us decide on revamping our server configuration database from Puppet to Chef and adapting the immutable infrastructure philosophy. This approach also introduced us to the ideals of not having to login to machines and being more hands off. Later on we started building a Kubernetes cluster with plans of migrating our services to it, but at this time Gravity, the product, was facing termination.
Accomplishments:
Gravity.com was a native and sponsored recommendation engine for publishers such as Techcrunch.com and Huffingtonpost.com. The tech stack included a service-oriented infrastructure comprising of web front-end, log processing, log streaming and recommendations processors all written in scala. Data was stored in Mysql and Hbase/HDFS with raw/cleansed logs and data marts.
Accomplishments:
I was responsible for 5000+ web servers. Responsibilities included patch/image management, performance tweaks and upgrades. I was also responsible for building out new system applications and provide scripts and apps for the rest of the team to help automate daily tasks. I also administered Citrix Netscalers, where I setup and manage complex Layer 7 switching.
Accomplishments:
Systems Administrator of Windows Production Products. This environment contained over 100 web servers and several MSSQL servers. Was responsible for Active Directory, Backup, Disaster Recovery, Customer Provisioning and Troubleshooting incidents as they arose.
Accomplishments:
Apart from working as a Devops Systems Engineer, I enjoy working out at my crossfit gym. Been doing that for 4 years and still going. I also enjoy the occasional surf in Socal as well as enjoying hikes in the Santa Monica mountains.
My biggest, nerdiest enjoyment is tabletop games. I currently run a D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) campaign at my current office and attend a monthly board game night. I currently enjoy playing Midgard and Small World and am looking forward to a game I kickstarted called "Who Goes There?"