Rodney D. Nichols, Jr.

E-mail: r ac6av1@r.postjobfree.com

Fulshear, TX 77441

Objective

To provide reliable, optimal and secure solutions for any network I am responsible for while continuing to sharpening my skills with progressing technology. Skills

● Cisco PIX/ASA, Juniper Netscreen and SRX firewalls.

● Cisco 1800 – 7600 series routers.

● Juniper EX, QFX, Cisco Catalyst and Nexus switches.

● Juniper M, MX, and J series routers.

● static IPSec and DMVPN setup and troubleshooting

● Routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, RIP, EIGRP, IS-IS)

● F5 load balancers.

● MPLS L3VPNs, MPLS-TE, RSVP, and VPLS.

● QoS classification, marking, queuing and policing.

● TCL / expect scripting to assist with mass network changes.

● Experience with customer facing support, SCADA control networks and commodities trade floor environments.

Work Experience

CVR Energy

Sr. Network Engineer

Jun 2014 -- Current

● Managed network operations at 13 corporate sites, 3 refineries, and 53 SCADA pipeline locations.

● Provided design input and diagrams for new builds as necessary.

● Provided 24 hr. on-call support as part of a group rotation.

● Interfaced with security, systems, and voice operations as stakeholders for new designs.

● Managed relations and operational processes with partnered vendors and managed service providers.

● Produced parts and license lists for quotes as necessary per project demands.

● Provided guidance and training to junior and mid-level staff.

● Kept up with, and produced new, documentation for networks in production and being implemented.

● Notable projects:

Designed and replaced the entire network at two of CVR’s refineries, 4 corporate offices, and 50 SCADA pipeline site.

Designed and replaced a pair of datacenters operating as active/passive.

Designed and implemented a complete carrier diversity deployment for the corporate WAN.

Replaced an aging HP wireless network with a Cisco deployment.

Worked with a vendor to implement ISE for wireless, 802.1x, and TACACS+ authentication.

Lumenate

Sr. Network Consultant

Mar 2013 – May 2014

● Assisted with customer cut-overs, integrations, and changes as defined by agreed Statements of Work.

● Assisted on sales meetings by providing technical expertise in response to customer questions.

● Provided hourly estimates and Bills of Materials for proposed projects.

● Attended vendor/partner training sessions to stay updated on new technologies.

● Performed technical interviews as part of a client’s hiring process.

● Created and modified documentation as required per project specifications.

● Worked with vendors/partners for new product deployments.

● Noteworthy projects:

Assisted with the planning, configuration, and cut-over of a client datacenter to Nexus 7k and 5k cores.

Travel, plan, and perform network integrations for plants acquired by a customer.

Performed a migration for a client replacing a point-to-point VPN WAN with a MPLS L3VPN core.

Kinder Morgan

Sr. Network Design Engineer

Dec 2012 – Mar 2013

● Managed the MPLS/VPLS core network.

● Provided on-call and last line of support for operational network outages.

● Designed and deployed new site build-outs.

● Planned and executed changes on the MPLS core and pipeline terminal edge networks.

● Provided operation support for pipeline control/monitoring networks (SCADA) and user/VoIP environment.

● Managed Datacenter core networks including Juniper QFX fabric switches and MX960 routers.

Calpine Corp. (through Connective Talent, then Xerox Network Services) Sr. Network Engineer

Sep 2011 – Dec 2012

● Planned and performed changes necessary for the migration of the primary and secondary data centers including but not limited to: DHCP, NTP, EIGRP, IPSec over GRE on 3G wireless, and BGP routing for replication traffic.

● Provided operation support for plant control networks (DCS) and the commodities trade floor environment.

● Defined a standard topology and configuration for Calpine’s plant sites including standard troubleshooting methodologies and network design best practices.

● Planned and performed changes at Calpine’s 95 plant sites and offices necessary for both the datacenter migration and plant standardization activities.

● Acted as the final technical escalation point for all routing/switching related problems and outages.

● Installed and configured standard TCL/expect scripting to assist with mass pushes that were dynamic in nature based on site information.

● Performed other projects within the scope of the network team as assigned. Sungard Availability Services

Sr. Network Engineer

March 2007 – Sep 2011

● Performed changes and maintenance on the MPLS core network structure for all Sungard data centers relating to BGP import and advertisement of customer assigned networks.

● Planned and performed changes on SunGard’s MPLS service provider network related to route propagation, LSP setup and traffic engineering for provider outage windows.

● Performed emergency outage support for all data center network equipment.

● Managed routers, switches, load balancers and firewalls for dedicated customer environments.

● Worked with ISPs to resolve circuit and BGP issues.

● Worked with auditors to ensure PCI and SOX compliance where necessary

● Planned and executed customer migrations and upgrades with minimal downtime.

● Worked with server engineers to troubleshoot application issues and perform changes.

● Participated in the planning of Sungard’s ITIL v3 migration for internal policy/structure as it pertains to the Change Management Organization.

● Performed all necessary functions of a team lead including ticket assignment within my group, taking escalations for customer service issues, served as an escalation point for difficult technical problems, and feedback to managers regarding co-worker performance.

NF Smith and Associates

Network Engineer

May 2005 – Mar 2007

● Managed worldwide IPSec VPN structure at 11 sites.

● Provided support for all network outages.

● Performed hardware upgrades and redesign of network core little downtime; no negative business impact.

● Prepared the corporate network to handle VoIP across the LAN and WAN.

● Designed a vlan architecture and DMZ setup for risk mitigation and control due to security events.

● Participated with management in vendor negotiations and long term planning.

● Maintained the back-end administrative and monitoring networks/servers.

● Provided operation network support for the trade floor environment. Certifications

● Cisco CCNA

● AWS Solution Architect - Associate

● Cisco CCNP (re-pursuing)

● JNO-521 (JNCIA-FWV) Juniper firewalls and VPNs – (expired)

● 650-001 (CCIE Routing/Switching Written) (expired)

● JNO-101 - JNCIA-JunOS (expired)

● JNO-343 - JNCIS-ENT (expired)

Education

● North Harris College - Houston, TX

A.S., Physics, May 2005

● Northern Arizona University - Flagstaff, AZ

B.S., Computer Information Technology, April 2017

● New Horizons

CJFV - (Netscreen firewalls), 2009

● Proteus Networks (All in 2011)

IJOS - Introduction to the JunOS Operating System

JRE - Juniper Routing Essentials

JIR - JunOS Intermediate Routing

JEX - Juniper Enterprise Switching

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