Systems Engineer Continuous Improvement

Akif Kocak

Dallas, TX

607-***-**** ******@*****.***

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Established Systems Engineer with over 11 years of experience in backend and frontend application design, development, and architecture across multiple industries. Highly skilled in the product development and support, big data analytics and intelligence, application performance monitoring and code optimization with strong proficiencies in:

Splunk/ITSI/ES/SOAR

Splunk Observability Cloud

Python/JavaScript

ReGex/SED/Xpath

MSSQL/Oracle/Informix

AWS/Azure

PowerShell

Shell/Batch

JSON/XML/HTML/CSS

Android/Java

Jira/Confluence/Ansible

TFS/Git/ServiceNow

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Freddie Mac April 2021 – Present

Sr. Splunk Engineer

Led a project to re-configure ingestion for a custom HEC data source with extremely complex parsing configurations across multiple platforms (Elastic Logstash & Splunk Forwarders) on an aggressive timeline, including extensive customer engagement and validation.

Developed extensive Disaster Recovery dashboard solution which significantly reduced LOE for team to validate success of failover activities and met detailed audit requirements.

Upgraded Splunk version to 8.2.1 using Ansible automation. Created the framework in Ansible for automated Splunk upgrades in the future.

Consolidated multiple Splunk deployment servers into on-prem and cloud groups.

Spearheaded efforts to ensure the Enterprise Splunk environment could accommodate migration to a new AD domain, including evaluation of all impacts, planning across teams, testing, implementation and validation.

Created/Merged/Repaired serverclass/application/host, props/transforms configs and as well as Splunk app deployment matrix for automation scripts.

Created new Splunk environment alerts and rebuilt DMC alerts for better utilization. Created reports and dashboards for Splunk Admins for system and task monitoring.

Implemented a DR scenario where identical Deployment servers span on multiple regions and act as one using VIP.

Troubleshot system issues and tuned Splunk architecture.

Implemented various vendor or custom applications on mono/multisite Search Head Clusters, Indexer Clusters and Forwarders.

Created, designed, and maintained data infrastructure of Splunk. Ensured Data availability, usability, integrity, and security.

Deployed Indexers, Universal forwarders, Heavy forwarders, Optimized Splunk instances based on system performance monitors.

Performed log ingestion activities and provided ongoing support for data sources including UF/file monitor, Syslog, HEC and Technology Add-On/API Input including DV connect, Splunk TA for AWS, and Syncsoft for Mainframe.

GM Financial Inc. December 2019 – April 2021

Splunk Data Analytics Engineer

Secured new position optimizing implementation of Splunk to maximize the utilization of data from diverse sources.

Created dashboards, reports per case, application or system. Enabled indexed extractions on big volumes of data for robust reporting and monitoring.

Trained teams for best practices on SPL, helped users to mine data for alerting or reporting.

Implementing ITSI for Cybersecurity Health Monitoring, Business services and as a new monitoring command center for Alerting Tools. Used MLKT models for predicting and forecasting in ITSI.

Configured aggregated information into Summary Indexes to apply statistical functions, analysis and MLK analysis.

Akif Kocak Page Two

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

GM Financial Inc. April 2017 – December 2019

Splunk Engineer I

Onboarded data from various sources included but not limited to Oracle, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, Cisco ISE, Cisco ASA, MDAM, McAfee Web gateway systems into Splunk using TAs. Created new custom sourcetypes when there is TA and normalized data for CIM Models.

Developed PowerShell and bash scripts to collect various information and metrics from Operating Systems. Created back up plan for Splunk buckets and monitored operation using logs from custom scripts. Known for being guru on Regex queries to normalize unstructured data.

Implemented various Cybersecurity Applications into Splunk Environment. Updated/Corrected vendor software to adapt company environment.

Analyzed application/system data and implemented Splunk ITSI using custom and generic KPIs. Created console templates to use with ITSI Glass tables using Illustrator.

Created a custom training Splunk app for company employees to ensure system health in organization. Designed learning labs and graded in Splunk. Created company documentation with step-to-step instructions for Admin tasks. Trained users in daily and teams on weekly basis.

Troubleshot Search Head and Indexer cluster issues. Created dashboards and reports to monitor metrics such as indexing latency, user login, and search control. Organized all Splunk searches based on priority and resources to ensure smooth scheduler function.

Planned/Implemented common field extraction regardless of source in Splunk to expedite SIEM/SIM transition into Splunk.

Created ITSI Glass tables and created KPIs from structured/unstructured data. Equifax Workforce Solutions February 2015 – April 2017 System Analyst/Programmer, Splunk SME

Designed and created Splunk applications to monitor domain health. Created monitors to Automated issue resolution steps via alerts. Created/Designed Dashboards with fields from database queries, log field extractions for several domain users. Created JS validation for dashboard inputs. Created reports and fed webpages with saved searches.

Created Java applications to collect information from Windows/Unix Servers. Evaluated this data in Splunk interface and created performance charts, error handling automation applications.

Created alerts for support teams with automated log reading through Splunk. Built a Java web scraper using Swing and MVC architecture for 3rd party sites to verify submitted files from our side.

Executed Shell/Batch scripts for system data issues. Troubleshot ETL issues reading through shell, ps1 and py scripts. Monitored FTP logs via Splunk to confirm transmissions.

Created and updated Stored Procedures on Informix and Microsoft SQL server. Created Python scripts using Splunk-SDK for python. Organized system documentation for different environments.

Equifax Workforce Solutions. October 2013 – January 2015 Support Engineer, Splunk SME

Identified system issues through reading machine data by following logs, system emails and client complaints.

Troubleshot and resolved application and system issues in various servers in UNIX and Windows. Performed incident resolution, problem determination and Root Cause Analysis.

Assisted in the planning, designing, developing, and deploying of new system monitoring applications using SPLUNK and legacy tools. Created monthly/yearly Splunk charts for system/application behavior.

Provided technical assistance to IT support staff, including DBAs, Network Engineers, Developers and System Administrators in Java, Splunk and Database applications.

Created Splunk dashboards using app data and SQL queries to improve reaction times of I.T. support staff in general.

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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Senior Project at SUNY Binghamton August 2011 – May 2012 Android Developer

http://cs.binghamton.edu/~steflik/wiki/index.php/BuBrain BUBRAIN is the automation system for Binghamton University students. Project is defined with no internal access to university database. Created a controller class that deals with delivering HTML data into an application using Xpath with HTML Cleaner. Adapted and tested with Junit in Eclipse. Worked with fragments to support different device configurations including Master- Detail templates for tablets. Used custom data structure for Xpath calls. Stored user non-critical data with SQLite in the device. Enhanced methods of multi-threading in Android for various tasks.

Sekizbit Bilisim, Istanbul April 2011 – September 2011 Java Developer, Tester, UI designer

UI testing using firebug to ensure quality on finished projects. Testing sites with Tomcat. Designed DB structure for Business data with MySQL. Implemented Hibernate mapping files following DB structure. Tested Java classes with Junit using Spring framework. Kapidag Bilisim, Ankara April 2010 – September 2010 Java Developer, Tester, UI designer

User integration testing and unit testing. Develop Web Contents (Modules) UI integration business logic layer. Integrated JSP pages with Database using JDBC and Hibernate. Designed and developed back-end functions such as creating encryption module on email authentication for first time users. Created reports by querying customer database to define lists such as Most Valuable Customers, Customers are likely to leave membership.

EDUCATION

State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton, Dual Diploma Program SUNY Binghamton, Bachelor of Science on Information Systems, 2013 Istanbul Technical University, Bachelor’s Degree on Information Systems Engineering, 2013 AWARDS & CERTIFICATIONS

Kubernetes Monitoring with Splunk Observability

Cloud(2024)

Advanced SOAR Implementation(2024)

Splunk Architect (2024)

Splunk Observability Cloud: Enterprise

Features(2023)

Splunk Observability Cloud Teams(2023)

Getting Data into Splunk Observability

Cloud(2023)

Introduction to Splunk Observability Cloud(2023)

Introduction to Splunk Infrastructure

Monitoring(2023)

Developing SOAR Playbooks(2023)

Administering Splunk SOAR(2023)

Investigating Incidents with Splunk SOAR(2023)

Splunk Cloud Certified Admin (2022)

Splunk Enterprise Security Certified Admin

(2021)

Splunk IT Service Intelligence Certified Admin

(2021)

Transitioning to Splunk Cloud 8.2 (2021)

Advanced Dashboards and Visualizations with

Splunk 8.1 (2021)

Search Optimization (2021)

Splunk Phantom Hands-On Workshop (2021)

Splunk 8.0 for Analytics and Data Science (2021)

Implementing Splunk IT Service Intelligence 4.4

(2020)

Architecting Splunk 7.3 Enterprise Deployments

(2019)

Splunk Troubleshooting Splunk Enterprise 7.3

(2019)

Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin (2019)

Splunk Core Certified Power User (2019)

Developing with Splunk REST API (2018)

Building Apps with Splunk 7.1 (2018)

Dashboards and Visualizations with Splunk 7.1

(2018)

Splunk 6.6 Cluster Administration (2017)

Splunk 6.6 Data Administration (2017)

Splunk 6.6 System Administration (2017)

Splunk IT Service Intelligence 2.6 (2017)

FAA Design Competition for Universities 2013 - Airport Operations and Maintenance Challenge Winner Ice Team, a Solar-Thermal Approach to Runway Ice Management Title: http://vsgc.odu.edu/ACRPDesignCompetition/competitionwinners/2013winners.html Project: http://emerald.ts.odu.edu/Apps/FAAUDCA.nsf/ZieglerOperation2013.pdf?OpenFileResource WORKING STATUS: Green Card

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