Lead DevOps Engineer with Apogee Engineering, LLC

September 2015 - May 2022 · Remote

Contracted to Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) at the US Geological Survey.

• Lead and contributed to many of the group’s most challenging technical projects.
• Collaborated with over a dozen teams to deliver applications to the USGS science community.
• Responsible for the architecture and implementation of the IT platform for over 50 USGS products.
• Migrated over 50 products from on-premise and on-VM deployments to AWS deployments, using Docker and native AWS services.
• Composed CI/CD pipelines for hundreds of projects, improving consistency through automation, empowering product teams, and reducing friction for releasing software.
• Authored and maintained hundreds of pages of robust documentation for “all things DevOps” and project-specific documentation, utilizing Markdown and adopting a “docs-as-code” workflow.
• Accelerated and helped plan long-term IT strategy and the details of execution.
• Reduced costs through architecture improvements while reducing the server count by more than 45%.
• Instructed colleagues on a variety of subjects, including Docker, AWS, and Terraform.
• Implemented and maintained configuraton management (Puppet, Ansible) across hundreds of servers.
• Developed new HTTP architecture, utilizing CloudFront, Nginx, and S3.
• Worked with hundreds of codebases spanning several languages and product teams.
• Contracted with Comso, Inc. April 2015 - September 2015.

Primary technology used: Linux, GitLab, Docker, AWS, Terraform, Ansible, Puppet, Python, Packer, VMware vSphere, Jira, Artifactory, Bamboo, BitBucket, Tomcat, Ruby, Nginx, Traefik, Apache.

Sr. Professional Services Engineer at Puppet Inc.

September 2013 - April 2015 · Denver, CO (Remote)

• Consulted on Puppet products and DevOps practices for a wide range of customers, including some of Puppet’s largest customers and most sophisticated engagements.
• Instructed dozens of classes on Puppet products to organizations and general public.
• Contributed Puppet modules and other tools for community use and used within Puppet’s commercial products.
• Developed Puppet, Ruby, and shell code for extending products and automating processes.
• Consulted on pre-sales, scoping of work, and post-sales support.
• Earned high marks for customer satisfaction, team work, and professionalism.
• Puppet Professional Certification, 2013

Primary technology used: Linux, Puppet and Puppet Enterprise, Git, GitLab, Packer, Vagrant, Jira, Tomcat, Ruby, Shell, Nginx, Apache, WebSphere.

Linux/Unix Systems Administrator at Douglas School District

January 2010 - September 2013 · Box Elder, SD

• Deployed and administered school district Linux and FreeBSD servers and services for thousands of users.
• Advised and collaborated with district IT staff and administration on technology adoption and integration.
• Improved integration across network services for over 2,000 students, faculty, and staff.
• Administered network file systems, HTTP, DNS/DHCP, Firewalls, Monitoring, Logging, Mail (SMTP, POP3, IMAP, filtering, webmail), and other services for all district users.
• Improved workstation provisioning through automation, deploying several hundred new workstations a year.
• Introduced configuration management (Puppet) to manage servers.
• Developed code and packages to automate several processes, including the bulk provisioning of users (staff, students)

Primary technology used: FreeBSD, Linux, MacOS, Puppet, Apache, Nginx, BIND, Shell, Ruby, KVM, pf, Sophos, Graylog, Nginx, Icinga, NFS, Postfix.

Web Developer at Douglas School District

September 2011 - September 2013 · Box Elder, SD

• Implemented WordPress as a content management system for the district’s websites.
• Increased web performance through improvements to code and server configuration.
• Developed HTML, CSS, and PHP in support of district websites.

Tier II Technical Support at Apple, Inc.

October 2008 - January 2010 · Colorado Springs, CO

• Provided end-user support to customers and business using Apple products; especially Apple’s computers and macOS.
• Consistently received high marks for customer satisfaction and troubleshooting.

Signal Support Systems Specialist in the US Army

August 2006 - October 2008 · Fort Carson, CO

• Supported Army battalion network and communications equipment, including workstations, tactical radios, GPS, crypto, network services, and multimedia systems.
• Responsible for establishing battalion communications quickly in deployment scenarios (satellite link, network, VOIP, radio communications, battlefield monitoring systems).
• Trained colleagues, senior leadership, and end-users.
• Among first members of battalion staff at Fort Carson and integral part of initial stand up of IT operations and communications.
• United States Army Signal School Honor Graduate, 2007. Fort Gordon, GA.
• Served with distinction and was awarded early promotion.