About Me

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I am a detail oriented and end-user focused developer and scripter, with a background in I.T support, and an engineer's ability to spot a problem or inefficiency, and fix it with a unique and creative solution.

I have a true passion for creating automation solutions and useful web-apps to make anything and everything more efficient.

I'm frequently coming up with ideas to fix annoying problems that are often overlooked or accepted with a, "that's just the way it is" mentality, and I'll work on them even if it means powering my laptop from an inverter connected to a jump-start battery while camping in the middle of nowhere.

I have a complementary mix of logic and coding ability, combined with a strong eye for usability and design - so I'm always keeping in mind that it all comes down to an end-user being able to fully understand the final product, and enjoy using it.

Projects

A few products and solutions that would not have existed at the Cleveland Clinic, if not for my personal drive for efficiency and automation
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Infrastructure Dashboard

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Compliance Dashboard

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Backups Dashboard

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Disaster Recovery Automation

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Service Catalog

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Inventory Script

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JIRA integration and automation

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Gitlab admin and automation

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Work History

The Cleveland Clinic (2008 - Present)

Cleveland, OH
Enterprise Systems Engineer, Automation Team

Background
Responsibilities

  • Make everyone's job easier and more efficient through cleverly thought out, and well designed automation solutions and apps.

  • Maintain and improve the automated gathering and maintenance of data about the organization's servers and other I.T systems.

  • Provide support and assistance to all members of my team wherever necessary (automation and scripting, infrastructure issues, troubleshooting etc.)

  • Implement and maintain Atlassian JIRA and Confluence, as well as writing integrations between JIRA and other products.

  • Implement and maintain Gitlab for internal code version control and continuous integration/deployment.

    • growth

  • Implemented and learned to administer gitlab, including CI/CD pipelines

  • Learned Power Shell, C# .NET, PHP, Javascript, jQuery and Linux BASH shell scripting

  • Became proficient in both front-end and back-end web development.

  • Implemented, migrated and managed a number of enterprise solutions

  • Performed a technical lead role on a number of enterprise projects

  • Continuing personal growth by learning Angular, .NET Core and containerization with Docker and Kubernetes


    • Achievements

  • Made solution deployment more efficient through implementation of CI/CI pipelines using GitLab

  • Made my team's work more efficient through agile methodology and usage of JIRA for work and project management

  • Greatly increased efficiency of managing backups and disaster recoveries

  • Created numerous solutions to make day to day operations more efficient (see projects)

  • Automated various functions and data gathering, to aid in merging with newly aquired hospitals

  • Created and ran internal PowerShell training course

  • Produced products that save the Cleveland Clinic money and resources by reducing manual effort.

    • The Cleveland Clinic (2006 - 2008)

    Cleveland, OH
    Systems Administrator, End User Technology Services

    Background
    Responsibilities

  • Supported 400-500 end users in Neurological Institute

  • Implemented systems to solve problems, as required by doctors within the department

  • Provided 24/7 offhour support

    • growth

  • Greatly improved interpersonal skills, communicating with people of all levels in the organization

  • Helped the neurological institute solve a number of problems, where they had previously been told "that's not possible".

    • Achievements

  • Created a greatly simplified solution for medical staff to run a linux based system on their Windows computers.

  • Improved support efficiency for the department, by promoting proper support-ticket procedures

    • Wexham Park Hosptal, NHS (2000 - 2005)

    Slough, England
    Senior I.T Support Specialist

    Background
    responsibilities

  • Support desktops, servers and network for 5 National Health Service hospitals

  • Script automated desktop Windows OS build

  • Manage enterprise Anti-Virus solution, MS Exchange, Windows and Unix servers

    • growth

  • Learned and supported enterprise-style systems, with no previous experience

  • Promoted twice within my 5 year employment

  • Became a mentor to new team members... and some old ones ;) 

    • Achievements

  • Successfully implemented new Anti-Virus solution throughout the network, and achieved near 100% up-to-date and operational status across all desktops and servers.

  • Performed MS Exchange disaster recoveries and in-depth troubleshooting


    • Freelance work etc.

    Yolinda Animal Hospital

    I've worked on a number of projects for a veterinary clinic, mostly Powershell based, to help them to automate some of their daily processes such as automatically printing stamps (stamps.com API), automating SMS and E-mail notifications to customers, and automating their employee training process.

    Startup Weekend

    I was a member of the winning team (a team of 4 people) at Startup Weekend Cleveland 2013. We presented a beer delivery service, complete with website mockup and a video that I produced, of the weekend's activities.

    More freelance

    I have worked on various other freelance projects, via the web site "fiverr.com". Some of the projects included automated server builds and VMware automation.

    A little more about me

    Home Life

    I live with my amazing and beautiful wife, Bethany, my super-smart, super-cool 21 month old son, Flynn, and the best dog ever, Coconut, in a 109 year old house that we remodeled ourselves, with no prior experience.

    Other things I enjoy

  • Cars
  • Camping
  • Road trips
  • Humor
  • Yoga
  • Bullet-point lists

    • What I'm learning right now

  • Angular

  • .NET Core

  • Docker and Kubernetes

  • Google Cloud Platform

  • Anything I can find related to user experience and user interfaces

    • What's important in a job

  • Being able to come up with new ideas, and be supported in trying them out.

  • Having management, and a team that is open to new technologies and methods.

  • A sense of humor in the workplace.

  • Leadership with a vision, and drive to make it happen. Someone who can give me clear goals that I can translate into technical solutions.

    • Cheesy, "look what I can do", enterprise software logo section

    • PowerShell
    • ASP.NET / C#
    • SQL Server
    • Exchange

    • VMware ESXi / vCenter
    • PowerCLI

    • UCS Manager, Central, Director
    • Process Orchestrator
    • UCS and IMC PowerTools

    • HP Proliant rack and blade servers
    • HP iLO automation
    • HP Scripting Toolkit

    • Endpoint Protection
    • Symantec Management Platform (Altiris)
    • Symantec Workflow
    • NetBackup

    • Avamar
    • DataDomain

    • Confluence
    • JIRA

    • PHP

    • GitLab

    • I do everything on a Macbook

    • I run my personal sites on Google Cloud Platform

    • I use Ubuntu for my personal sites

    Contact me

    Want to offer me a job?

    Have a project you want me to work on?

    Contact me, and I'll get right back to you.