Customer Success Manager, Product Manager, Pre-sales consultant

John Devereaux

***** ***** **., **** ******, Texas 77583-4922

978-***-**** ****.*********@*******.***

Certifications: https://www.credly.com/users/john-devereaux/badges

Customer Success Executive Enterprise Account Strategist Team Leader Across Emerging Tech

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

Forward-thinking Customer Success Leader with a proven track record of managing strategic enterprise accounts, scaling CSM teams, and aligning post-sales delivery with revenue growth and retention goals.

Recognized for translating complex technologies into business outcomes, while leading high-impact initiatives across pre-sales architecture, technical account management, and post-sale value realization. Deep experience with global organizations including Red Hat, Oracle, Rackspace, Mirantis, and IBM—enabling GTM strategies, building business units from scratch, and protecting multi-million-dollar relationships through proactive customer engagement.

BACKGROUND SUMMARY

More than twenty-five years of Solutions Design and Senior Customer Relations experience includes:

Global Team Management, Project Plan Development, Regulatory Compliance, AI Integration Technology

Scope of Work Definition, Product Deployment Strategies, Sand Box Testing, Sales Strategy Leader

Employe Coaching / Training, Proof of Concepts and Pilot Studies, Bids and Proposal Development

Solutions Architecture Design, C-Level Relations / Presentations, Technology Assessment

Product Lifecycle Management, Strategic Partner Development. Post-Merger Operations

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

IBM, Various Locations

03/2019 - 07/2024

Customer Success Manager, Account Specialist

Houston, Texas [08/2023 - 07/2024]

Led a team of 25 Customer Success Managers supporting IBM’s largest Financial Services “Diamond” accounts, with a focus on ensuring customer retention, expansion, and long-term value realization. Oversaw customer success strategies across AI, hybrid cloud, data platforms, and regulatory solutions. Served as the executive interface between clients and IBM product, sales, and engineering teams.

Acted as senior advisor to client executives, leading QBRs and strategic roadmap sessions with C-level stakeholders to track KPIs (adoption, CSAT, renewals).

Drove cross-functional initiatives that increased NRR and minimized churn by ensuring alignment between product capabilities and customer business outcomes.

Built repeatable customer engagement playbooks and success plans, improving onboarding consistency and driving measurable improvement in time-to-value.

Enabled >$35M in ELA value capture by identifying underutilized capabilities and aligning solutions to emerging customer needs.

Customer Success Manager Architect, U.S. Financial Services, Global Markets Division

Kissimmee, Florida [06/2022 - 08/2023]

Owned technical relationship management and post-sales success for five major financial services clients, with a focus on AI/ML, data governance, and automation solutions.

Customer Success Manager Architect, continued

Developed and led customer success strategies that improved solution adoption and stakeholder alignment across technical and business teams.

Acted as the technical escalation lead and trusted advisor, coordinating cross-functional teams to resolve challenges and ensure customer satisfaction proactively.

Facilitated customer education on IBM’s evolving AI portfolio.

Principal AI & Complex Engineering Technical Specialist, U.S. Financial Services

Armonk, New York [05/2021 - 06/2022]

Led strategic AI and software engineering initiatives for top-tier financial clients, applying IBM Rational and Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) tools to improve software quality, reduce compliance risks, and mitigate regulatory exposure.

Rackspace Inc., San Antonio, Texas

01/2016 - 03/2019

Senior Solutions Architect - PaaS/CaaS & Emerging Technologies

Joined Rackspace Private Cloud RPC team to deliver OpenStack on Red Hat & Canonical solutions via Rackspace reference architecture, or on-premise deployments, including Day-2 operations for mission-critical workloads. Collaborated cross-functionally with engineering, product, and customer success teams to improve service onboarding, reduce implementation timeframes.

Surpassed quota by 110% in the first quarter post-restructuring by rapidly engaging key enterprise clients and aligning solutions to shifting hybrid cloud strategies.

Designed scalable hybrid and private cloud architectures to support enterprise agility, reduce time-to-market, and meet strict SLAs across financial, healthcare, and SaaS verticals.

Functioned as a field CTO for top-tier clients, stepping into pre-sales and post-sales technical ownership roles, guiding long-term platform strategy and ensuring architectural success.

Delivered Kubernetes- and OpenStack-based container strategies using technologies including Magnum, Murano, Ceph, Swift, and OpenShift, ensuring high availability, portability, and developer enablement.

Mirantis Inc., Mountain View, California

01/2013 - 01/2016

Senior Sales Engineer, Strategic Accounts

Recruited by executive leadership to lead technical sales strategy for financial institutions, telcos, and high-profile enterprise accounts during the explosive growth of the OpenStack ecosystem. Championed Mirantis’ expansion into the Telco and Enterprise sectors. Helped grow the OpenStack community footprint and accelerated the adoption of cloud-native infrastructure in highly regulated environments.

Helped scale company revenue from $500K to $60M within two years by architecting large-scale OpenStack deployments and aligning technical solutions with enterprise goals.

Built and managed the strategic alliance with Oracle Corporation, aligning Mirantis OpenStack with Oracle VM and Oracle Linux to deliver integrated cloud solutions, recognized by InfoWorld for its market disruption and competitive positioning against Red Hat.

Designed and delivered full-stack OpenStack solutions leveraging services such as Horizon, Keystone, Murano, Sahara, and Trove, enabling clients to migrate legacy workloads to private cloud environments efficiently.

Supported internal sales growth by interviewing, onboarding, and training Sales Account Managers across North America and Western Europe.

Led customer workshops, technical evaluations, and proof-of-concept engagements that emphasized scalability, vendor neutrality, and minimized disruption to business operations.

Oracle Corporation, Redwood Shores, California

01/2008 - 01/2013

Principal Sales Consultant – Open-Source Global Business Unit (Oracle VM & Oracle Linux)

Selected to join Oracle’s newly formed Linux & Virtualization division at its inception, following Larry Ellison’s announcement at Oracle OpenWorld 2008; instrumental in building the business unit from the ground up.

Led business and partner development across EMEA and APAC, driving over $15M in new open-source revenue across major financial institutions in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, and Dublin within the first 3.5 years.

Designed and deployed enterprise virtualization architectures using Oracle VM and Oracle Linux, integrating with solutions like Oracle RAC, Oracle DB 11g, and WebLogic Server through pre-built VM templates.

Played key roles in Oracle’s strategic acquisitions of Ksplice and Xigo, and helped lead the DTrace migration from Solaris to Oracle Linux—advancing diagnostics for Java and hardware-intensive workloads where SystemTap and FTrace fell short.

Resolved performance and compatibility issues between Oracle VM/Linux and major infrastructure partners.

Recognized as an Oracle MVP in 2011 by executive leadership for technical excellence and business impact.

Featured in Oracle’s OpenWorld, for three consecutive years, as a presenter and case study leader for Oracle’s open-source innovations.

Red Hat Inc., Westford, Massachusetts

06/2004 - 12/2008

SME Healthcare Vertical / Sales Engineer, North America Sales Engineering

Led Red Hat’s Healthcare Vertical, designing tailored solutions to help healthcare organizations transition from proprietary to open-source technologies, driving transparency and efficiency in their software systems. Acted as a trusted advisor to healthcare clients, navigating complex needs with open-source solutions while addressing critical scalability, security, and regulatory compliance requirements.

Set a Red Hat sales record by generating $14.5M in annual revenue, an unbroken milestone.

Delivered $12M annually in consulting services revenue by executing strategic Statements of Work (SOWs) ensuring alignment of consulting engagements to drive customer value.

Consistently exceeded quarterly sales targets by 112% to 125%.

NEC Solutions America, Boxborough, Massachusetts

05/2003 - 05/2004

Systems Engineer, Solutions Platform Division

Delivered technical solutions and professional services to high-profile Northeast Region and federal government clients.

Led channel development and partner enablement, training and certifying value-added resellers (VARs) to integrate NEC hardware with partner applications.

Collaborated with Product Marketing Managers to research and promote innovative technologies in server consolidation, IA-64, and Fault-Tolerant/High Availability Deployments.

Led customer installations and integrations of complex technologies, including storage, clustering, site mirroring, and IA-64 servers.

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT

Project Consultant, Self Employed, Woburn, Massachusetts (2002 - 2003)

Solutions Architect / Integration Consultant

Partnered with third-party vendors and contract agencies to design and deploy technology solutions that improved system reliability, performance, and cost-efficiency.

Hewlett-Packard Company / Compaq Computer Corporation, Nashua, New Hampshire (2000-2002)

Systems Engineer III / Product Manager, Custom Systems and Solutions Division

Designed, built, tested, and certified prototype solutions with third-party OEM technologies for customers and partners.

Compaq Computer Corporation, Littleton, Massachusetts (1998 - 2000)

Pre-Sales Systems Engineer, NAPSE Division

Awarded the prestigious Pinnacle Club Award annually for outstanding sales and service.

Digital Equipment Corporation, Acton, Massachusetts (1995 - 1998)

Sales Technical Support, PCBU Division

Awarded the DEC 100 for outstanding sales performance.

Polaroid Corporation, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1994 - 1995)

Assistant Instructor - Consulting, Law Enforcement Division / Polaroid Learning Center

Worked closely with the FBI and federal agencies in crime scene documentation, demonstrating how to use Polaroid technology could support investigations.

United States Army, Fort McClellan, Alabama (1989-1995)

Sergeant, E-5

Veteran of Operation Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and Desert Saber (1990–1991), assigned to 1st Infantry Division (7th Corps) and 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (E-Troop), playing a critical role in frontline and intelligence operations during the Gulf War.

Awarded multiple military commendations and received field promotions in recognition of operational excellence, mission success, and leadership under pressure.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science, Information Technology

American InterContinental University, Atlanta, Georgia (2012 - 2014)

Graduated Magna Cum Laude

Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) Leadership Certificate

United States Military Academy at West Point, NCO Academy – Otis Air Force Base, Massachusetts

Graduated in the Top 5% of the class (Ranked #2 overall)

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & CERTIFICATIONS

Certified OpenStack Administrator (COA) – Linux Foundation (Newton)

Mirantis OpenStack Certified Administrator – Havana 4.1, Juno Releases

Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) – #804************

Red Hat Certified Technician (RHCT) – #604************

Red Hat Ceph Storage Architecture & Administration

Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer + Internet (MCSE+I)

Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) – Windows Server

Novell Certified Administrator (CNA)

UNIX System Administration

A+ Certified Technician

TECHNICAL ADDENDUM

Operating Systems & Environments

Enterprise & Server OS: Windows Server (2000–2025), Windows 64-bit, Oracle Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 3.x–6.x), Fedora (Core 4–42), SuSE, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Novell NetWare (3.12–6.0), Oracle VM (2.x–3.x), OpenStack (Mirantis Fuel), UNIX variants, PC-DOS

Desktop OS Beta Teams: Windows 3.1, 95, 98/SE, Millennium, XP, 8.1, NT

Development & Scripting Languages

Scripting & Automation: Bash, Perl, Python, VBScript, VB.NET

Networking & Infrastructure

Protocols: TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, SNA, NetBIOS, AppleTalk, OSI

Technologies: Ethernet, Token Ring, Wi-Fi, Terminal Services, Frame Relay, T1s, Remote Access

Hardware Interfaces: Routers, Switches, InfiniBand

Hardware Platforms & Management Tools

Enterprise Hardware: DEC Alpha Servers, NEC Fault-Tolerant & IA-64 Blade Servers, HP ProLiant, DELL PowerEdge, Oracle/SUN X-Series Servers

Storage: NetApp, Oracle Storage, DEC StorageWorks, Compaq StorageWorks

Management Tools: Oracle Enterprise Manager, Compaq SmartStart, Insight Manager, ILOM, Compaq Data Replication Manager

Cloud & Virtualization

Platforms: Oracle VM, OpenStack (Mirantis), Red Hat OpenShift, Rackspace Private Cloud

Cloud Architecture: Hybrid Cloud, PaaS/CaaS, Community Kubernetes, Containerization, CICD pipelines

Software & Platform Expertise

Public/Hybrid Cloud: AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Red Hat OpenShift, Pivotal Cloud Foundry, Ubuntu Juju, Rancher

Private Cloud / IaaS: Mirantis OpenStack (Grizzly to Pike), Red Hat RDO, Red Hat Satellite, OpenStack Trove (DBaaS)

Container & Orchestration Tools: Kubernetes, Docker, VMWare (GSX, ESX), VMWare vSphere, VMWare Workstation

AI, ML & Data Platforms

WatsonX Suite: WatsonX.ai, WatsonX.data, WatsonX.governance, WatsonX Assistant, WatsonX Code Assistant, WatsonX Discovery

Data & BI: Oracle (8i–11i, 10g), Sybase, SAP R/3, Microsoft Project, Microsoft MMS, IBM Rational Test Management, DOORS, DOORS Next Gen

Networking, Security & DevOps

DevOps & Automation: Fedora (Core 5–beta), Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu (14.04, 16.04), SuSE, Evolution, Bash/Python/Shell scripting

Networking & SDN: Juniper Contrail, OpenContrail, Plumgrid, Big Switch, Checkpoint, NetApp Storage, NetApp StorageGrid

Security & Identity: Microsoft Internet Security Server (ISA), Microsoft Proxy Server, Novell NetWare 3.12–6.x, Novell iFolder, Novell DirXML, Microsoft Meta-Directory Services (beta)

Collaboration & Productivity

Enterprise Software: IBM Rational Workflow, Rational DOORS, Siebel, Autonomy, Microsoft Exchange (4.x–2017), Microsoft Office (2013), WordPerfect, GroupWise

Collaboration Tools: PlumTree Portal (3.5–4.0), Lucidchart, Microsoft UNIX Services

Enterprise Management & Monitoring

Oracle Enterprise Manager (10.x–12c), VERITAS Enterprise Administrator, Red Hat Satellite, Compaq HSG80, IBM Rational Tool Suite

Beta/Legacy Systems (Historical Contribution)

Windows (NT 3.x–2019), Millennium (Beta), Windows NT (Beta), Windows 95/98, Tru64 UNIX

Participated in Microsoft beta teams for early NT, Millennium, and Meta Directory Services

Extensive experience with legacy environments during digital transformation projects

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