System Administrator Data Center

Sophia Alikhani

Woodland Hills, CA +1-747-***-**** Email:**********@*****.*** https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophia- alikhani

Professional Summary

Resilient Linux System Administrator with 15+ years of experience managing mission-critical infrastructures across banking, telecom, and government sectors. Trusted to resolve national-level crises, including restoring a central bank’s electronic payment system overnight under parliamentary oversight. Skilled in automation, database migrations, system hardening, and disaster recovery with expertise across Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Debian. Experienced Linux trainer who has prepared teams for RHCE certification. Work Experience

Walmart West Hills, CA

Remodel Assistant June 2025 – Present

● Execute overnight remodel projects by dismantling and rebuilding shelving units, applying MOD plans to ensure 100% product placement accuracy across aisles

● Operate hand tools and equipment safely to move merchandise and install fixtures, accelerating reset time compared to standard schedule

● Maintain inventory flow during remodel by reorganizing stock and assisting with replenishment, ensuring products remain available during store transitions

● Collaborate with overnight team of 20+ associates to meet strict remodel deadlines, completing projects ahead of schedule by 3 months.

Caregiver December 2023 - June 2025

● Provided end-of-life care to parents with serious illness Nasirudding Tusi University of Technology Tehran, Iran Linux Trainer December 2018 – December 2023

● Designed Linux training curriculum covering Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Debian, equipping students with practical command-line, file management, and user administration skills

● Delivered instructor-led sessions and hands-on labs by combining lectures with live demonstrations, achieving 90%+ student competency scores in end-of-course assessments

● Created training documentation and lab manuals by standardizing complex commands into step-by- step instructions, minimizing support requests from trainees and enabling self-guided learning

● Introduced troubleshooting case studies from real-world enterprise incidents by simulating failures and guiding root-cause analysis, bridging academic concepts with industry application Central Bank of Iran (POS, ATM) Tehran, Iran

Linux System Administrator and Data Center Technician December 2010 – December 2018

● Maintained system reliability by leading infrastructure development and performing QA on production systems, boosting productivity metrics by 90%

● Administered nationwide banking infrastructure with 1000+ Linux servers, using automation scripts

(Bash, Python, Perl) to reduce repetitive tasks by 80%+

● Implemented disaster recovery and backup strategies, safeguarding petabytes of critical financial data with 99.9%+ recovery success rate

● Restored electronic payment database overnight after system crash by responding to 11 PM alert and collaborating on-site with dedicated team, resuming national transactions under parliamentary oversight

● Developed and delivered RHCE training programs for 50+ employees at Central Bank and Kish Informatics Services Company, boosting department-wide technical capacity

● Remained on-call for critical incidents, responding rapidly to urgent system issues at any hour, including during holidays and high-volume transaction periods, ensuring uninterrupted operations

● Collaborated with cross-functional teams on data center upgrades by consolidating legacy hardware and optimizing server configurations, reducing energy consumption and improving resource utilization

● Maintained compliance with financial security standards by applying patches, hardening systems, and documenting procedures for audits, ensuring successful audit results and zero security breaches

● Monitored electronic payment events and secured critical servers during high-volume periods by performing real-time system checks, ensuring uninterrupted national payment operations

● Responded rapidly to urgent incidents, including after-hours and holiday alerts, restoring system functionality under extreme time pressure

● Traveled on short notice for critical data transfers and system interventions by coordinating with local IT teams and executing on-site procedures, maintaining operational continuity across multiple sites Additional Experience

Iran Telecommunication Research Center (ITRC) Linux System Administrator & Data Center Technician

● Managed Linux and email servers across OS/390 & HP platforms by implementing proactive monitoring, ensuring 99.99% uptime and reliable communication systems for telecom operations

● Investigated and remediated spam attack that caused server blacklisting, implementing anti-spam tools and policies that eliminated recurrence

● Migrated enterprise database from Oracle to Informix, validating data integrity and ensuring seamless functionality across business-critical applications

● Conducted routine and emergency maintenance of data center equipment by monitoring system health and performing preventive actions, reducing unplanned downtime incidents by 60% annually

● Trained 30+ junior IT staff in Linux administration best practices through hands-on sessions and documentation, decreasing helpdesk escalations

● Researched emerging Linux technologies and recommended improvements by evaluating performance and cost-efficiency, optimizing infrastructure operations and reducing operational costs Skills

Linux System Administration, Server Configuration & Maintenance, Disaster Recovery Planning, Virtualization Technologies, Troubleshooting & Performance Tuning, Scripting & Automation, Data Center Operations Technologies

Ansible, Puppet, Terraform, Informix, Oracle, MySQL, LDAP, DNS, Apache, Nginx, Bash, Python, Perl, Docker Education

Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics Iran University of Science and Technology

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