Unix / Linux SME and Team Lead

Professional Summary

Unix & Linux SME and team lead with 12+ years of progressive experience in System Administration, Custom Software Development, and Data Center Operations. Excellent organizational, problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills. Passionate about availability, security, and repeatability. Demonstrated success in both on-site and remote administration. Committed to lifelong learning and driving team success. Mentor & coach: “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

Operating Systems:

Redhat RHEL • CentOS • Oracle OEL • Debian • Canonical Ubuntu • SuSE SLES • Amazon AWS • IBM AIX • Oracle Solaris • AT&T SVR4 • DEC OSF/1 • HP-UX • SunOS • BSD

Key Skills:

Bash • Korn ksh • Bourne sh • Python • Perl • Sed • Awk • Kubernetes • Expect • SSH • Syslog • Ansible • Chef • SQL • C language • GCC • Make • DNS • NFS • NTP • FTP • LVM • Tripwire • Informix

Technologies:

VMware & Virtualbox • Automation & Cron • Remote Console • System Pooling • SMIT, LPAR, & HMC • DNF, YUM, & RPM • BMC Remedy • SalesForce • Avamar & Rubrik • CommVault & TSM • Git & GitHub • SCCS, CVS, & RCS • Nagios & Splunk • Veritas • User Management (IAM) • Configuration Management • Secure Communications • Citrix

Professional Experience

IT Consultant Picray IT Consulting Longs, SC January 2025 – Present

Assist clients with IT issues, both hardware and software.

Diagnose and remediate anomalies.

Implement backup strategies to guard against untimely data loss and minimize downtime.

Advise and coach on best practices, security, documentation, and patching cycles, both COTS and FOSS.

Sr. Unix Technology Admin Shazam Network / ITS Inc. Johnston, IA November 2023 – December 2024

Build, maintain, and protect robust Unix server technology meeting a wide range of business needs (540+ physical & virtual servers - predominantly, AIX & Redhat Linux).

Troubleshoot complex problems across a variety of infrastructure and application layers including (but not limited to) authentication, security, and performance.

Facilitate tasks associated with all functions of a system administrator position, such as server creation, OS patching, application install/upgrade, application service restarts, and IAM.

Secure servers through proactive patching and assessing for vulnerability, impacts and awareness of ever-changing industry trends and events.

Sr. Linux System Admin Charles Schwab Investments via Everforth Apex Systems Glen Allen, VA August 2021 – September 2023

Full-time remote position. Assigned to the Hosting Services Linux Infrastructure Provisioning team. Deploy 3200+ new physical & VMware virtual Linux servers supporting the growth of the Schwab network since the Ameritrade acquisition.

Install Redhat Linux to Dell PowerEdge servers and VMware virtual instances (both via “clone” and vendor-provided “OVA” or “ISO” files).

Investigate alerts from Tripwire regarding potentially unscheduled file and package changes to Linux servers.

Partner with internal customers to perform custom configurations, including RAID and NIC-teaming.

Unix / Linux System Admin Wellmark Blue Cross / Blue Shield via Quality Consulting West Des Moines, IA March 2019 – April 2021

Primary Unix/Linux resource in the Cloud Operations team. Administer 630 on-premises physical and virtual servers (Redhat, CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, AWS & Oracle Linux and Solaris 10 & 11).

Incorporate best practices and industry standards, building system uniformity using Ansible.

Collaborate in Agile Scrum Methodology covering problem diagnosis, development, testing, deployment, and feedback.

Linux System Admin State of Iowa Workforce Development via Beacon Hill Technologies Boston, MA April 2017 – January 2019

Sole admin for all on-premises & AWS cloud Linux servers (CentOS, Redhat, and Oracle under VMware).

Harden servers using Center for Internet Security (CIS) published benchmarks.

Automate Linux OS patch updates via custom scripts, eliminating user error and cutting downtime in half.

Migrate local user accounts to use Active Directory for authentication.

IT Hardware Installer State Farm Insurance via Sedona Technologies Moline, IL January 2017 – April 2017

Replace 375 end-of-life printers and network devices at 98 agency offices throughout eastern South Dakota & Nebraska, and western Iowa.

Configure new devices and troubleshoot office IT environment.

Education and Training

Bachelor of Science, Applied Mathematics & Software Systems, Kent State University, Kent, OH

Usenix LISA System Administration Conferences

Oracle WebLogic Administration

SANS Security Essentials / GSEC

IBM AIX SP2 Administration

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