Systems Engineer - Cloud & VMware Automation

FAISAL SSEMPAGAMA

Richmond, VA ***********@*****.*** 917-***-**** linkedin.com/in/faisal-ssempagama

Systems Engineer · Cloud Infrastructure & Integration · Linux · VMware · AWS · Azure · Ansible Automation · Multi-Cloud Operations

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Systems Engineer with 7+ years running enterprise Linux, VMware, and multi-cloud (AWS + Azure) infrastructure at scale, including a direct engagement supporting 100+ enterprise Azure customers at Microsoft. Specializes in datacenter lifecycle management, large-scale RHEL/Linux operations, and infrastructure reliability — cutting OPEX by 35%, reducing MTTR by 40%, and compressing 6-hour change windows to 90 minutes through Ansible automation and Red Hat Satellite. Background spans defense, healthcare, retail, and public-sector environments, providing a strong foundation in resilient, secure, high-availability systems. AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate, CompTIA Security+, and LPI certified; pursuing an MS in Systems Engineering at UMGC.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

MOVE Fellow – AI Systems & Quality OperationsSep 2025 – Present · Remote

Handshake (Freelance)

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Partner with machine learning engineers and QA directors to align on requirements and documentation, eliminating ~15% of downstream rework and keeping delivery on track.

• Stakeholder Communication: Translate complex model-performance issues into clear, structured guidance adopted across training teams.

• Quality Advocacy: Design validation workflows for production environments, protecting data integrity and the downstream user experience.

Systems EngineerFeb 2025 – Sep 2025 · Manassas, VA

MCL Systems Limited (Full-time)

• Managed full lifecycle of Dell server clusters, executing rack assembly, UPS battery replacement, and hardware commissioning and decommissioning with zero service impact across the datacenter floor.

• Designed and maintained enterprise backup architecture using Veeam and tape systems, ensuring data protection coverage and recovery-point compliance across all production workloads.

• Commissioned and decommissioned VMware clusters with zero downtime, coordinating workload migrations, vMotion sequencing, and hardware retirement in alignment with operational continuity requirements.

• Reduced manual operational effort by 40% by standardizing internal automation tooling and eliminating environment-specific configuration drift.

• Maintained continuous infrastructure readiness for compliance audits, producing evidence documentation and remediation logs aligned with operational continuity and security review standards.

• Automated Ansible-driven server provisioning and configuration management workflows, enabling audit-traceable and repeatable infrastructure releases across environments.

• Managed version control for Ansible playbooks and infrastructure configuration files, enforcing branch-based review workflows and versioned change management for all infrastructure deployments.

Azure Support Engineer (Contract)Feb 2024 – Feb 2025 · Remote

Microsoft (Contract)

• Sustained 98% customer satisfaction across 500+ Azure support cases per quarter, resolving incidents for 100+ enterprise customers running RHEL 8, Ubuntu 20/22 LTS, and CentOS 7 VMs on Azure IaaS while holding a sub-4-hour first-response SLA throughout the engagement.

• Reduced per-customer VM setup time by 30% by automating onboarding workflows including disk provisioning (Premium SSD/Ultra Disk), Recovery Services vault assignment, and secure configuration baselines via Azure CLI and Bash scripting.

• Cleared 30+ backlogged Sev-B cases within the first 60 days by diagnosing Linux VM boot failures, disk I/O bottlenecks, and kernel panic events using Azure Serial Console, Azure Monitor Logs, perf, iostat, and strace.

• Resolved 50+ enterprise hybrid identity incidents with zero SLA breaches, remediating Azure AD Connect sync failures, SSPR misconfigurations, and Conditional Access token conflicts for enterprise tenants within contractual windows.

• Drove an 18% drop in repeat incident volume by co-authoring 12 internal knowledge base articles with Azure product teams covering NFS mount timeouts, SELinux denials, and cloud-init failures, reducing re-open rates measurably over the contract term.

Server Systems Engineer (Contract)Oct 2021 – Feb 2024 · Petersburg, VA

Virginia State University (Contract)

• Delivered 35% OPEX reduction and 99.9% post-migration uptime by leading the migration of 50+ on-premises servers to AWS using AWS MGN, provisioning EC2, S3, RDS, VPCs, and security groups with full network architecture design.

• Reduced hybrid workload latency by 20% by designing a multi-region AWS VPC with a dedicated 1 Gbps Direct Connect circuit and IPsec site-to-site VPN failover, eliminating all internet-transit dependencies for production traffic.

• Supported network engineering and network observability across AWS connectivity, VPNs, DNS, monitoring, and centralized logging, using SNMP/SNMP traps, NetFlow, and gNMI concepts to improve infrastructure visibility.

• Cut monthly patching execution time by 65% and eliminated 100+ CVEs in the first cycle by deploying Red Hat Satellite 6.10 to automate RHEL subscription management and patch lifecycle across 200+ VMs.

• Reduced MTTR by 40% enterprise-wide by implementing cross-platform monitoring using AWS CloudWatch, SolarWinds, and Nagios with threshold alerting and runbook automation across all managed infrastructure.

• Compressed 6-hour change windows to 90 minutes by authoring 15+ Ansible roles covering OS patching, VM provisioning, and AD account lifecycle management, eliminating manual configuration drift across 80+ managed nodes.

• Improved VMware cluster resource utilization by 15% by provisioning ESXi hosts with DRS resource pools and vMotion-based workload balancing, eliminating uncontrolled VM sprawl across dev, test, and production environments.

• Maintained zero unauthorized-access incidents over 2.5 years by administering Active Directory for 1,000+ users and enforcing Azure AD RBAC with Conditional Access policies across multiple subscriptions.

• Automated VM provisioning, configuration updates, and application deployments across AWS and Azure using Ansible playbooks, reducing manual deployment cycle time by 50%.

• Applied Syslog-NG centralized logging practices and Linux log analysis across enterprise systems, improving troubleshooting and operational visibility.

• Standardized infrastructure delivery using Git version control and branch protection policies, enabling consistent deployment of configuration changes across 80 managed nodes.

• Built Bash, PowerShell, and Python automation and maintained Ansible playbooks for repeatable Linux administration, cloud operations, monitoring, and network-support workflows.

Linux System Administrator (Contract)May 2020 – Oct 2021 · Richmond, VA

Costco Wholesale (Contract)

• Maintained 99.95% platform availability across 12 warehouse locations by administering 150+ RHEL 7/8 servers on VMware vSphere 6.7/ESXi powering point-of-sale, inventory, and workforce management systems.

• Cut security remediation from 3 days to under 4 hours by developing 20+ role-based Ansible playbooks enforcing CIS Level 2 benchmark hardening, automated monthly patching, and user provisioning across all managed nodes.

• Used Bash, PowerShell, Python, and Ansible playbooks to automate Linux system administration, configuration management, monitoring, and operational support.

• Expanded VMware vSAN by 30TB with zero service interruption by executing Storage vMotion and snapshot consolidation across 200+ VMs during live business hours using VMware maintenance-mode sequencing.

• Improved p95 VM response times by 22% by diagnosing CPU ready, memory balloon driver, and disk queue bottlenecks using esxtop and vCenter performance charts, resolving 4 critical production incidents with no recurrence.

• Administered Linux infrastructure with centralized Syslog-NG logging and network monitoring practices, supporting observability, incident troubleshooting, and service reliability across warehouse environments.

Unix/Linux System Administrator Aug 2017 – Mar 2020 · Richmond, VA

Care Advantage, Inc. (Full-time)

• Kept a 300+ VM healthcare environment at SLA uptime by administering VMware vSphere 5.5/6.0 across 8 facilities managing 50+ ESXi hosts hosting EHR platforms (Netsmart, PointClickCare) for 1,200+ clinical staff.

• Reduced CVE attack surface by 40% by migrating 12 legacy CentOS 5 EHR applications to RHEL 7 via Red Hat Application Migration Toolkit, decommissioning 3 EOL systems, and restructuring 80TB EMC SAN using online LVM reconfigurations with zero downtime.

• Delivered zero unplanned outages across a full network services stack by deploying and maintaining BIND DNS, ISC DHCP, NFSv4, vsftpd, and Apache/Nginx on RHEL/CentOS 6/7 underpinning authentication, file sharing, and clinical web portals across 8 sites.

• Supported network engineering and observability across 8 sites, including SNMP/SNMP traps, NetFlow, gNMI-oriented telemetry, DNS/DHCP, and centralized Syslog-NG logging for infrastructure visibility.

• Recovered 8 hours per week of admin capacity by building Bash and Python scripts for log rotation, backup integrity checks, and HIPAA compliance reporting, producing audit-ready output for every quarterly SOC 2 review.

• Strengthened Linux system administration through Bash and Python automation, Ansible playbooks, centralized logging, and repeatable operational procedures across 300+ systems.

• Maintained zero critical CVEs beyond the 30-day remediation SLA by executing quarterly HIPAA/SOC 2 patching cycles across 300+ systems and resolving kernel panic events and boot failures using sosreport, dmesg, and journalctl.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Cloud & Virtualization: Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), VMware vSphere, vCenter, ESXi, VMware Cloud, Virtualization

Linux & Systems Administration: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Red Hat Satellite, Linux System Administration (5+ years), Bash, PowerShell, Python, OpenSSH, Server Support, Troubleshooting, Decommissioning, Syslog-NG

Systems Automation: Ansible & Playbooks, Infrastructure Automation, VM Lifecycle Management, Git version control

Identity, Security & Networking: Active Directory, Azure AD RBAC, DNS, DHCP, Network Engineering (3+ years), Network Observability, SNMP, SNMP Traps, NetFlow, gNMI, Windows Server, Cybersecurity, Regulatory Compliance, Risk Management

Tools & Architecture: Microsoft Azure / Cloud Platforms, MobaXterm, Veeam, SolarWinds, Nagios, CloudWatch, Syslog-NG, Solution Architecture

Additional: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Responsible AI, SaaS, Stakeholder Management, CRM, Account Management, Customer Success

CERTIFICATIONS

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, Amazon Web Services — Jul 2023 (Expires Jul 2026)

• CompTIA Security+, CompTIA

• Linux Professional Institute (LPI) — Credential ID LPI000489072

• Azure Linux Academy – Linux Foundation Assessment, QA North America

• Google AI Essentials Specialization, Google — Jul 2026

• Solutions Architect Virtual Experience Program, Forage — Jan 2022

• Verizon Cloud Platform Job Simulation, Forage — Sep 2025

• Introduction to Cyber Security, TryHackMe — Jul 2022

• Model Validation 1 (Trainer) & Model Validation 2 (Expert), Handshake — Sep/Oct 2025

EDUCATION

M.S., Information Technology / Systems EngineeringAug 2025 – Aug 2027

University of Maryland Global Campus

B.S., Information TechnologyMay 2007 – Aug 2010

Islamic University in Uganda

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