Career Highlights

Boys and Girls Club – Dayton, Ohio
Rebuilt existing network infrastructure which consisted of donated computer and networking equipment. Client and server operating systems were moved from Windows 2000 environment to SuSE Linux. Clients were designed to be PXE-bootable – 90% of client machines were of same hardware configuration, which made it possible to design a common bootable / install image which could be deployed / redeployed easily. SuSE Linux was chosen due to the ease of use of the YaST configuration tool. A master control computer was set up in a management office which allowed for network operations to be performed easily.

Tools utilized: SuSE Linux 10, Amanda (Backup Software), PHP, Apache, SSH, SSL, Nagios, postfix, bind, MySQL

University of Cincinnati – Cincinnati, Ohio
Developed a custom operating image which allowed for rapid deployment of Blackboard Software (Java / Tomcat based teacher/student collaboration platform) as service needs increased. Each server deployed allowed for automatic connection to a centralized NAS farm that held data / resources. Puppet was later incorporated into the project as software was refactored into a form that was sold to various public school districts around Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.

Tools utilized: Java, Bash shell scripts, RedHat Enterprise Linux 3.0, Apache, Tomcat, SSH, SSL, Oracle

DoD Affiliated Client of Nova Technology Solutions – Dayton, Ohio
Developed / deployed a Chef-based clustered environment that originally consisted of 240 x86-64 node machines designed to perform numerical analysis running custom software linked with MPICH2 packet exchange protocols. Chef was incorporated into the environment at a later date in order to assist with adding additional nodes and software configuration to allow for the partitioning of resources between projects. Also developed and monitored security for the entire infrastructure that was compliant with DoD standards, utilizing secure data practices, high level encryption on filesystems and inbound / outbound communications, secure logging of system access (using syslogd), custom defensive mechanisms.

Tools utilized: CentOS 5.1 (later Rocks Linux), SSH, SFTP, Apache, MPICH2, Fujitsu Fortran Compiler, SVN, syslogd, Ruby, Chef, PHP, MySQL, rsync

shop.pbskids.org / tystoybox.com – Chattanooga, Tennessee; Bollingbrook, Illinois
Employed as the sole system administrator / developer of these websites. Chef was originally used to help manage software deployment / ramping ability of a Magento Enterprise-based ecommerce solution. After the loss of our local hosting provider, the entire configuration was redesigned to incorporate Amazon Cloud Services – A custom image was designed with Chef in place for setup (and configuration if needed) of newly spun virtual servers, where each newly spun server would be rotated into place depending on usage needs. There was a separate database-only (earlier use was MySQL, later was MariaDB) image as well as one designed with Apache, PHP, and custom software in place to allow for extremely flexible deployments. The original system was in place from 2010 through mid-2012; I created a new image, which went live in Fall 2012, and was re-worked after the holiday 2012-2013 season to incorporate changes based on the holiday traffic rates and resource utilization. In addition to this work, I spent quite a bit of time rewriting / refactoring several scripts designed to pass transactions to/from Amazon SellerCentral / Magento, product order data from the Magento backend to various third-party suppliers, as well as developing a custom import routine designed to allow for direct passage of data from Toys-R-Us into our system, then onward to the appropriate manufacturer / supplier for fulfillment. This involved quite a bit of online-based development, as well as tool creation for the production environment.

Tools utilized: Custom Ubuntu Linux Server images, Magento Enterprise, MySQL, PHP, Perl, Shell Scripts, Amazon Cloud Services / EC2 services, Memcached, Varnish, bind, SSH, SSL, nagios, Apache, ngnix, postfix, syslogd, spamassassin, munit, cron, NoSQL, XML, JSON, jQuery, ExtTools, modman, PCI DSS compliance tools

NetMaximizer - Sparta, Tennessee
Created several perl scripts designed to allow for customer credit card processing in conjunction with Yahoo!. These CGI-style scripts would perform validation of payment requests, shipping and supplier management, as well as custom report generation for company management team.

Tools utilized: Debian Linux, perl, Bash scripting, API Connections to First Data services, bind, PostgresDB, SSH, SSL, PCI DSS Compliance tools

Laidlaw Group – Cincinnati, Ohio
Worked on large-scale data import and classification project to create a new legal orientated search engine offering. Several custom scripts were developed using Ruby in order to assist with pattern recognition, text classification, tree structure building, semantic / syntatical corrections, language translation. Database contents were well over 150 million converted documents, ranging from public records dating back to mid-1850s to present.

Tools utilized: CentOS 5 Linux, Ruby, Oracle 10, SSH, SSL, cron, bind, Apache, Apache Lucene (for end-product API connections)

EcoLabs – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Managed a large internal employee portal site project created using Ruby on Rails version 3.0. During the time of my management, undertook some redesign of the overall user interface as well as an extensive refactoring of both front end and back end code. In particular, a good portion of the front-end Javascript code was rewritten to take advantage of jQuery in order to promote cross-platform uniformity and future design standards. In addition, started work on an iOS application for field agents to record chemical levels and consistencies, product quantity management, automated delivery, and customer feedback.

Tools utilized: CentOS 6.2 Linux, Ruby, Rails Framework, jQuery Library, Xcode, SSH, SSL, cron, bind

Stillwater Industries – Troy, Ohio
Implemented an automated backup system for several dozen workstations that was designed to be compatible with Honda of America standards for interoperability. In addition, created an automated method for deployment of software patches and cutter configurations from a centralized control station for factory robotic assembly devices.

Tools utilized: Ubuntu Linux 6, PHP, perl, cron, rsync, SSH, SSL, SFTP, Samba, Swat (web-based Samba configuration tool), syslogd, postfix

G&W Products – Fairfield, Ohio
Implemented a collabarative resource sharing design/development tool for custom product design tasks which ran under Apache / Tomcat. Interfaced to company infrastructure via Samba and SFTP.

Tools utilized: CentOS 5, PHP, Apache, Tomcat, XML, Custom Catalina configuration, Java, Samba, SSH, nagios, cron

Nova Technology Solutions – Fairborn, Ohio
Created a commercial web-based software (SaaS) product – Eligibility Tracking System – which allows schools and sports organization to manage and maintain student activity eligibility for school districts in several states. This product allows for automated reporting / data transfers, reminders, integration with popular calendaring solutions (iCal, CalDav, Exchange, etc.), notifications, user categorization tools, and data mining capabilities. http://www.novatechsports.com

Tools utilized: CentOS 5, PHP, Apache, JSON, XML, cron, postfix, MySQL, Bash Scripts

US Bank – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Created the Enterprise Vulnerability Tracking and Remediation Tool. This tool was designed to allow team members to track various tasks related to vulnerability management, such as deploying packages via a web-based interface, tracking and researching vulnerabilities, performing one-off remediation using web-based tools, as well as collaboration tools such as testing management. This website was created in late 2014/early 2015, and was actively developed and maintained by myself until early 2024 when it was superseded by equivalent offerings based on Service Now. This web based tool also contained an external agent that ran on 115,000+ remote computers which monitored the health of the Microsoft SCCM Client program, and would attempt to fix and remediate it when problems or failure were detected. This particular offering was known as Client Services, and eventually grew to encompass full hardware / software information gathering services, as well as direct remediation of the target workstation through a web-based tool page. Full searching, reporting, and researching of issues and status were available to team members and select individuals. Site was designed to be extended via tools written in a variety of languages via an easy-to-use API. This tool was scheduled to be migrated to the Azure Cloud Platform before being depreciated in 2024.

Tools utilized: PHP, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x – 9.x, MariaDB, Powershell, Rust, C#, bash, Service Now, nagios, Tenable, curl, wget

US Bank – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Created a web-based tool to allow for authorized employees to code sign various scripts and packages in an efficient manner. This tool was designed to help promote proper security practices, as well as assisting with tracking and maintaining deployments. This tool interfaced with a company Git Labs internal site to store deployment packages as modified. An API was developed to allow for other tools and agents to interface with it programatically.

Tools utilized: Windows Server 2016, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x – 9.x, PHP 8.x, nodejs, Typescript, MariaDB, SCCM, SQL Server

US Bank – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Assisted with an executive team to build various dashboards that would show the status of tasks, user available, and various system capabilities during the Covid 2019 pandemic. My particular portion of the code was creating a Python-based wrapped that allowed for others on this project to interface and query directly the data collected by the Cisco WebEx platform then in use by US Bank. I won a US Bank Silver Shield award for delivering an effective tool in a very expedited manner.

Tools utilized: Python, nodejs, Typescript, XML

Idle Air / Springbrook Communications – Knoxville, Tennessee
Designed the prototype client and server software that would ultimately be used to provide pay-per-use services to customers via the use of kiosks found in various truck stops across North America. Services include providing Internet access, HVAC via a connecting device, online product ordering, power and water distribution, as well as various commodity services. These servers and clients were designed to be self-repairable/self-recovering in case of critical failure.

Tools utilized: Apache HTTP Server, Perl, Custom Credit Card processing software, various custom scripts, Tiny Linux, Busybox, Red Hat Linux 5.0