Backup & Storage Engineer (Cohesity/CommVault)

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Backup & Storage Engineer with 18+ years of experience designing, implementing, and supporting enterprise backup, disaster recovery, and storage solutions within large federal government environments. Experienced with Cohesity 7.4, Commvault Simpana, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (Spectrum Protect), VMware vSphere, Windows Server, and Microsoft SQL Server. Proven ability to troubleshoot complex infrastructure issues, lead software upgrades, develop operational procedures, and provide Tier III engineering support while maintaining high availability for mission-critical systems. Active Top Secret and Public Trust clearances.

CLEARANCE:

Active Public Trust

Active Top Secret

CERTIFICATIONS / TRAINING

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals

CommVault Certified Administrator

ITIL Foundation V3 Foundation Certification

CompTIA Network+

CompTIA A+

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

RELI Group - National Institute of Health (NIH) September 2023 – September 2026

Center for Information Technology (CIT), Bethesda, MD

Backup & Storage Engineer

Manage enterprise backup and recovery operations for hundreds of production Windows, Linux, UNIX, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server systems using Cohesity 7.4

Lead the successful upgrade of multiple enterprise Cohesity clusters from version 7.2.x to 7.4 with minimal production downtime, ensuring service continuity and enhanced platform stability

Administer and monitor Cohesity clusters for health, capacity, performance, and reliability (CPU/RAM/storage, services, licensing)

Perform ongoing maintenance tasks such as upgrades, patches, and configuration updates in accordance with change-control procedures to ensure platform components remain current and fully supported

Configure and manage protection policies for backups, including retention, schedules, SLA management, and policy-based workflows

Administer backup jobs and restores, troubleshooting failures and ensuring successful recovery operations

Design and implement storage and retention strategies, including tiering/space efficiency and cleanup operations

Configure and maintain virtual machine backup settings, including guest processing and recovery options (boot-from-snapshot/virtual restore if used)

Generate daily operational health reports detailing backup success and failure rates, storage utilization, system health, and remediation activities for engineering leadership

Participate in a 24x7 rotating on-call schedule, providing operational support for enterprise backup infrastructure and disaster recovery operations

Develop, document, and maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), improving operational consistency, knowledge sharing, and troubleshooting efficiency

Conduct root cause analysis of backup failures, storage issues, and infrastructure incidents, implementing long-term corrective actions to improve system reliability and reduce recurring issues

Coordinate hardware replacement, validation, and post-maintenance testing for enterprise storage infrastructure to ensure optimal system performance and availability

Leidos - National Institute of Health (NIH) December 2018 – September 2023

Center for Information Technology (CIT), Bethesda, MD

Backup & Storage Engineer

Managed enterprise backup and recovery operations for hundreds of production Windows, Linux, UNIX, Oracle, and SQL Server systems using CommVault Simpana 10 & 11

Successfully upgraded multiple enterprise CommVault from version 10 x to 11 with minimal production downtime

Developed backup retention strategies for enterprise applications

Installed and configured file system backups to run on Linux, UNIX, Windows Server, and database backup for Oracle and MSSQL

Assisted with data restoration and non-automated backup activities

Validated backed-up data quality by means of restore tests

Produced daily operational health reports identifying backup failures, storage utilization, system health, and remediation activities for engineering leadership

Interacted closely with management, engineers, Database Administrator, Windows and UNIX administrators to plan and support the environment, aligning with company’s overall strategy and direction

Provided Tier III engineering support to other technical staff on any activities related to overall backup administration activities

Managed and ensured the backup disaster recovery environment was coordinated with customers on a specified periodic basis so, in the event of disaster, operations can be restored in approved timeframes

Ensured all installed software in the backup environment is maintained and up to date with the latest releases for continued support

Participated in a 24x7 rotating on-call schedule supporting enterprise backup infrastructure and disaster recovery operations

Authored and maintained Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), improving operational consistency and reducing troubleshooting time

Assisted with projects, as assigned, including other assigned tasks required to support the success of the team

Conducted root cause analysis of backup failures, storage issues, and infrastructure incidents, implementing long-term corrective actions to improve system reliability

Coordinated hardware replacement and validation for storage infrastructure components

Managed and maintained Box community user’s account and provided technical support to Box users

Federal Data Systems, Arlington, Virginia August 2012 - August 2018

CommVault Systems Engineer

Upgraded software from Simpana V8/SP6 to V10/SP1

Ensured the integrity of the CommVault (Simpana 10) and Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM 7.9) space management backup and recovery environments

Applied patches and enhancements when needed and ensure physical security of data

Ensured consistent backup availability and capabilities

Maintained optimal backup, restores and redundancy solutions for business-critical data

Installed, configured, and tuned server, client and application agent and management software in both CommVault and Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) environments

Assisted engineers in developing test policies and plans for defining modifications, perform upgrades, deployments and technology insertions required testing before implementation

Accepted a leadership role to resolve problems and maintain managed backup operations

Improved documentation and operational procedures for backup administration

Administered Corporate and Military domain servers to ensure availability

Provided high-level briefings and provided Executive Summary (EXSUM) for distribution to senior management concerning daily backups and security vulnerabilities

Managed replication data at alternate sites

Managed recovery and disaster backup solutions by performing daily backups of (Department of Defense) DoD networks, Microsoft Exchange servers and end users’ files and folders

Developed and maintained backup/recovery standard operating policies and procedures to improve automated CommVault administrative and disaster recovery processes

Provided excellent customer support relating to backup and recovery services to internal and external customers

Implemented strategies to maximize 24/7/365 availability of critical backup recovery and related subsystems

Following ITIL V3 approved standards and contributed to continuous service improvement

Worked with business units on daily support issues using Remedy - ticket tracking system

Proposed internal and external escalation procedures to coordinate maintenance and repair actions with the user and other designated POCs

CALIBRE Systems, Alexandria, Virginia March 2010 - August 2012

Lead Systems Engineer

Supervised and prioritized daily /weekly task of the Systems engineers

Provided daily Tiers II & III support for projects and corporate customers

Provided daily uptime status reports to senior management for Corporate and Military domain Collaborated with Project Team Leads and Directorate Managers to strategize deployment of software releases and continuously improve the infrastructure configuration processes

Created and maintained Weekly Engineer Status Report on internal SharePoint site

Managed the build and configuration of application and database servers for internal and external customers

Lead weekly system engineer focus group discussion on network architecture improvement and scalability, tweak system design and application procurement long-term goals

Performed daily incremental and weekly full backups of over 200 client servers

Ensured weekly and monthly backup tapes were inventoried and secured off-site

Installed, managed and monitored the Human Resources application and server

Discussed new technology with vendors and evaluated the impact of the product on the overall productivity of the infrastructure

Developed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) which govern backups, server configuration and deployment of software to end users

TECHNICAL PROFICIENCIES

Operating Systems/Hardware:

oMicrosoft Windows 10/11, Windows Server 2016, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux

Applications:

oMicrosoft Active Directory, Citrix XenApp, Virtual Private Network (VPN), Microsoft SQL, Microsoft Office 365 (SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Skype), VERITAS Backup Exec, VERITAS NetBackup, CommVault Simpana, Cohesity, IBM Tivoli® Storage Manager - Spectrum Protect, Microsoft Project Professional, Remedy, VMware® vSphere, ServiceNow, BOX

EDUCATION

A.A. General Studies, May 2005

Northern Virginia Community College

B.S. Computer Networks and Cybersecurity Degree, May 2021

University of Maryland Global Campus

oRelevant Coursework – Cloud Technologies, Interconnecting Cisco Devices, Linux System Administrator, Cybersecurity Process & Technology, Current Trends and Projects in Computer Networks and Security

M.S. Networks and Cybersecurity Degree, May 2027

University of Maryland Global Campus

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