Senior Linux / infrastructure engineer with 20+ years running, troubleshooting,
and automating production infrastructure, including high-volume platforms at
Sendwell and ESPN. Since 2022, have built and operated multi-site infrastructure
using Terraform, Ansible, Proxmox, ZFS, Docker, OPNsense/WireGuard, and k3s.
Web & Data Platforms: Apache, Nginx, PostgreSQL, MySQL, OpenLDAP, JBoss, GlassFish
Professional Experience
Contract Systems Engineer (project-based) — Private Client
2023 – Present · Remote
Administer a private client's Proxmox VE environment remotely: rebuilt the host on Proxmox VE 8, built its Debian and Windows guest VMs, and handle ongoing patching, troubleshooting, and changes.
Performed major-version upgrades of the host (Proxmox VE 8 to 9) and Debian guest VM (12 to 13), along with Fail2ban host hardening and a GRUB/EFI boot repair.
Guided on-site hardware changes remotely, including a dual-port PCIe NIC, NVMe relocation, BIOS configuration, and a JetKVM remote console, and brought the environment back into service after the client's relocation.
Deploy and maintain LinuxGSM-managed dedicated game servers on a Debian VM, including installs, updates, and removal of retired servers.
Independent Infrastructure Projects
2022 – Present · Ormond Beach, FL
Designed and operate a multi-site, multi-host Proxmox environment running Linux services, network infrastructure, storage, and public-facing application workloads, provisioned and configured through Terraform, Ansible, and Git.
Provisioned a 3-node k3s cluster with supporting PostgreSQL and Icinga2 hosts via Terraform and Ansible, hosting a Flask/PostgreSQL application.
Exposed the application publicly at tasks.greenbean.org via a self-managed Nginx/Let's Encrypt reverse proxy on an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure host, tunneled over an existing WireGuard link, with rate limiting, least-privilege API credentials, and custom Icinga2 SQL-based health checks.
Designed and operate a segmented multi-VLAN network using OPNsense for inter-VLAN routing and firewall policy, with MikroTik switching and controlled connectivity between infrastructure, storage, service, and client networks; engineered WAN traffic shaping with pipes and queues to control bufferbloat, holding an A+ grade at ~361/317 Mbps with +0/+2 ms added latency under load.
Designed and deployed a WireGuard hub-and-spoke VPN connecting two sites and roaming clients through a cloud-hosted hub; implemented subnet routing and asymmetric NAT policy, and diagnosed tunnel bring-up failures using packet capture.
Migrated approximately 30TB of storage from mdadm RAID5 to TrueNAS SCALE with a ZFS RAIDZ1 pool using PCIe SATA passthrough under Proxmox; redesigned cross-host storage access around NFS.
Maintain infrastructure documentation covering architecture, configuration, recovery procedures, and verification, under Git version control.
Built automated restic backup pipelines across three Proxmox nodes, firewall infrastructure, and home automation, with 90-day retention, scheduled integrity verification, and off-site replication to Oracle Cloud.
Built declarative monitoring automation on Uptime Kuma, with monitor definitions maintained as inventory and reconciled through API-driven provisioning across virtualization, storage, networking, DNS, and application services.
Contract Systems Engineer (project-based) — Sendwell, Inc.
2015 – 2022 · Bloomfield Hills, MI / Remote
Provided intermittent, project-based infrastructure engineering and modernization for a high-volume transactional platform, including production troubleshooting, upgrades, migrations, and infrastructure changes.
Senior Systems Engineer — Sendwell, Inc.
2013 – 2015 · Bloomfield Hills, MI / Hybrid (remote ~3 days/week)
Operated, optimized, and troubleshot high-volume transactional infrastructure on Linux (Ubuntu/Debian/CentOS), VMware ESXi, and Proxmox, supporting thousands of concurrent transactions and sustained network throughput of approximately 5 Gbps.
Built custom Nagios and Cacti monitoring covering 200+ VMs and automated backup pipelines using rsync, shell scripting, and ghettoVCB against the ESXi CLI.
Deployed Logstash agents across monitored hosts to centralize Apache/Nginx logs in ELK; Kibana dashboards gave the business visibility into campaign conversions by geography.
Migrated production virtual machines from VMware ESXi to Proxmox by exporting VMDK images and reconfiguring networking and service configuration on the new platform.
Managed OpenLDAP, DHCP, BIND DNS, and office infrastructure; maintained SaltStack configuration management and internal documentation/ticketing through MediaWiki and RequestTracker.
Senior Systems Engineer (contract) — ND Industries, Inc.
2012 · Troy, MI
Led a mixed Linux/Windows Epicor ERP implementation and production rollout with an emphasis on proactive monitoring.
Implemented Nagios monitoring and authored internal system procedures and technical documentation.
Senior Systems Engineer — ESPN, The Walt Disney Company
2011 · Seattle, WA
Supported globally distributed, high-traffic ESPN.com and ESPN3.com infrastructure using Red Hat clusters and F5 BIG-IP.
Prepared and provisioned hosts, networking, and application configurations supporting a live data center migration of ESPN.com, ESPN3.com, and subsidiary properties.
Troubleshot production services under peak national traffic and administered clustered Sun GlassFish Java application servers, including capacity planning with SolarWinds.
Automated system configuration and consistency across the server fleet using CFEngine3.
Senior Systems Administrator — Entertainment Publications
2009 – 2011 · Troy, MI
Maintained CentOS, SUSE Linux, and VMware ESXi infrastructure supporting high-traffic web and application platforms.
Partnered with developers on hundreds of production deployments across dev/UAT/production, working with Jenkins/Hudson in the deployment pipeline and trading feedback on configuration and performance.
Coordinated JBoss application-server optimization with senior software engineers and performed production deployments, configuration changes, and rollbacks.
Performed JMeter load testing of critical site workflows, including shopping-cart transactions, to identify performance bottlenecks and validate capacity.
Administered Apache web infrastructure including SSL/TLS configuration, and automated JBoss and Apache deployments with shell scripting alongside centralized monitoring.
Configured and supported Citrix NetScaler load balancing, including virtual servers, service groups, health monitoring, and traffic distribution.
Network Administrator — ND Industries, Inc.
2005 – 2009 · Troy, MI
Supported an AT&T MPLS WAN with OSPF across multiple offices and troubleshot routing/connectivity on Cisco IOS.
Built OpenVPN remote access authenticated through RADIUS and LDAP.
Ran core Linux infrastructure including BIND DNS, Apache, Samba, MySQL, mail services, and Linux RAID.
Implemented company-wide Nagios monitoring and documented systems and projects in MediaWiki.
Earlier career: Systems Administrator and Systems Analyst roles with
Cardina Internet Group, Ford Motor Company (NTT/Ciber contracts), Excite@Home, ClickAction, and
Advanced Data Systems, spanning Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Linux; IBM DB2 Connect
middleware; and mail infrastructure (sendmail, qmail, IMAP, Zimbra).