Experience

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.
-- Bill Gates

Manager, Network Services
Ashland
March 2020 - Present
Wilmington, DE

Managing the global network and telephony services including design, engineering, operations, project execution, and outsource supplier management
Directing reviews of current systems, tools, and processes to determine appropriate changes to improve efficiency
Managing end-to-end lifecycle and delivery of various infrastructure technologies
Creating designs based on industry best practices, engineering standards and support
Providing technical leadership as well as direction for level 3 escalations and event management
Managing and optimizing infrastructure costs (e.g. spend reporting, develop cost savings, etc.)
Member of network CAB to review and approve all Network Services related production changes
Managing Major Incident and Problem management processes:
- Working with other teams to identify improvement opportunities and ensure end-to-end success of the Incident Management process
- Creating incident related performance analysis and reporting for review by senior leadership
- Developing processes and procedures that ensure Major Incident Management action items are tracked and completed
- Post Incident documentation review, Problem Management, and RCA review
- Providing leadership and guidance to all participants

Director, Managed Infrastructure and Operations
Tech Strategies Group, LLC
November 2014 – March 2020
West Chester, PA

Partnering with clients to identify opportunities to conduct organization diagnosis, improve organizational effectiveness, and provide guidance on large scale IT projects and programs that support clients’ strategic goals.
Developing, implementing, and maintaining IT policies, procedures, and associated training plans. Identify opportunities for cost effective investments in technology and process changes
Ensuring that the infrastructure is reliable, secure, and redundant; providing high availability to meet the business needs of our customers. Monitor and continuously improve customer service levels
Providing the vision, creating, and maintaining the roadmap, and facilitating the execution of all technical applications from high level concept to design to operational delivery. Providing recommendations for technical acquisitions. Ensure compliance with audit and regulatory rules and guidelines
Assessing, evaluating, and overseeing the development, design, and implementation of new applications and the upgrades/enhancements to existing ones; aligning business and technical requirements to ensure delivery of high-quality systems on time and on budget
Planning, directing, and coordinating the design, installation, and connectivity of computer systems and network infrastructure to ensure the stable operation of the organization’s IT assets. Including development, configuration, maintenance, support, and optimization of network hardware, software, and communication links. Maintaining, monitoring, and reporting on system performance, reliability, usage, security, and scalability
Managing the day-to-day operations of the information technology systems including directing staff supporting end user computing, networking, systems engineering, telecommunications, support desk, and other technology operation functions.

Lead IT Engineer
SunGard Availability Services, LP
March 2011 – October 2014
Wayne, PA

Supervisory Responsibilities. Leading teams responsible with evaluation and introduction of new capabilities that move organization forward. Responsible for setting goals and expectations for team members, carrying out performance reviews, accountable for identifying and executing necessary training for operational support.
Innovation and Transformation. Seeking ways to improve automation, consolidation, and cost reduction without compromising quality, data integrity, availability, and security. Leading teams of experts in their respective disciplines and partners with the Lines of Business for product design, development, testing and collaboration.
Project Management. Support projects and initiatives that involve IT Infrastructure and Operations functional area. Depending on the project assume responsibilities of a Project Manager, Project Coordinator and/or Lead Engineer.
Highest level escalation contact for enterprise wide crisis issues. As the final escalation level ultimately responsible for driving issues to resolution; working on the most challenging problems. Interfacing with vendors to resolve issues and identifying hardware and software upgrades or enhancements to address issues and resolve problems. Requiring advanced knowledge of Cisco switches and routers, Juniper NetScreen firewalls and other products. Exhaustive knowledge of networking protocols and technologies including: TCP/IP, MPLS, EIGRP, OSPF, HSRP, STP, VLANs, LWAPP, IPv6, QoS, and BGP; as well as expert hands on experience with Windows Server infrastructure, including Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, DFS, Group Policies, Certificate Authority, NPS/RADIUS, and many others; VMware vSphere 5/4 and Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization products.

Network and Systems Engineer / IT Operations Supervisor
Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited
February 2005 – March 2011
Wilmington, DE

Supervisory Responsibilities.

Accountable for IT Operations functional area, including IT Operations budget (≈ $400K); staff performance reviews, goal setting, training, and professional development. Streamlined daily IT operations and improved helpdesk performance to achieve 57% reduction in helpdesk requests in the first four years.

IT Operations.

Responsible for managing global server and network infrastructure covering datacenters in US and Ireland consisting of Cisco switches, routers, firewalls and wireless, Windows 2003-2008 R2 servers, AD, CA, DNS, DHCP, DFS, Group Policies, IIS 6 & 7, Microsoft Operations and Configurations Managers, WSUS, NPS/RADIUS, Exchange, VMware vSphere v4 and VI 3, Symantec Backup and Antivirus products, Avaya IP office and many other products.

Infrastructure Design.

Designed and implemented flexible Systems and Network architecture that fulfilled business needs and allowed for further growth as envisioned in the company’s strategic plan; validated proposed solutions by measuring them against the business drivers and goals. Designed and deployed services and infrastructure.

IT Governance.

Developed various IT policies/procedures and facilitated the communication and integration of IT policies, processes, and governance structures across the organization. Served as a Subject Matter Expert on Business Continuity Project team; contributed technical expertise to successfully complete the project ahead of time and under budget.

Information Security.

Demonstrated continuous information security progress based on numerous satisfactory internal IT audits. Designed and deployed security solutions that improved data security, integrity, and availability; revised DR philosophy to integrate with corporate BCP. Thorough understanding of key security concepts and practices including “Defense-in-Depth”, VPN, Firewall, IPsec, ACL, SSL, IKE, SSH, Authentication and Authorization management, encryption, risk analysis, controls, Antivirus solutions, etc.

Senior Systems Administrator / Network Engineer
Znannia-Press Publishing House, Ltd.
June 2001 – December 2004
Kyiv, Ukraine

Managed IT department
Performance management, year-end reviews, employee hiring
Procurement and vendor management
Created company policies and procedures governing corporate security, email and Internet usage, access control, and incident response.
Managed heterogeneous infrastructure consisting of Windows NT/2000/2003, FreeBSD and Linux servers; MySQL and MS SQL databases; Microsoft Exchange, Sendmail, Cyrus IMAP and Postfix email servers.
Re-designed and installed LAN/WAN to improve network performance by 30%.
Tested desktop applications and operating systems to ensure overall infrastructure stability and performance.
Developed curriculum and delivered computer security awareness trainings for management, staff, and customers.

Systems / Network Administrator
Znannia Society, Kyiv Regional Organization
November 1996 – June 2001
Kyiv, Ukraine

Provided comprehensive remote and onsite support for local and remote users and customers including support for LAN/WAN products. Executed day-to-day maintenance, troubleshooting and administrative tasks.
Designed, installed, configured, and managed servers, workstations, LAN/WAN hardware, cable installation.
Delivered staff and customer trainings in computer-system setup and operations.
Trained and supported local and remote network users.