Professional Summary
Senior Systems Engineer with 20 years across infrastructure, automation, and platform engineering. Current focus on DevOps at DRW: Kubernetes-hosted CI/CD with AWX, GitHub Actions, and HashiCorp Vault — including automated credential rotation, a custom GitHub notifications pipeline, and an internal RAG-backed helperbot. Background spans Ansible automation, Prometheus/Grafana observability, and enterprise Windows infrastructure.
Professional Experience
Senior Systems Engineer
DRW | Chicago, IL | Nov 2020 - Current
- Built CI/CD platform on Kubernetes orchestrating AWX runbooks via GitHub Actions, with automated credential rotation through HashiCorp Vault
- Built an internal RAG-backed helperbot indexing code and runbooks to answer engineering questions from chat
- Established GitOps workflows and CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure as code
- Implemented Windows, Blackbox, and VMware exporters for full-stack monitoring
- Established code review processes, branch protection policies, and CI/CD best practices
- Architected Prometheus/Grafana monitoring stack with Alertmanager for enterprise observability
- Designed and maintained high-availability monitoring solutions for critical trading infrastructure
- Created custom Grafana dashboards and Prometheus alerting rules for proactive incident management
Previous DevOps & Infrastructure Roles
Various Organizations | Chicago Area | Many Years Experience
- Led technical initiatives as Technical Executive for Database and Windows infrastructure verticals
- Built automation workflows for Windows, Network, and Storage environment management
- Developed PowerShell automation frameworks for server provisioning and configuration
- Implemented infrastructure monitoring best practices across hybrid cloud and on-premises environments
- Championed "automate everything" philosophy, reducing manual operations significantly
Technical Skills
DevOps & Automation
Ansible
Kubernetes
Docker
HashiCorp Vault
AWX
GitHub Actions
Terraform
Git/GitOps
CI/CD Pipelines
Monitoring & Observability
Prometheus
Grafana
Alertmanager
Splunk
Windows Exporter
SCOM
Blackbox Exporter
VMware Exporter
Infrastructure
Windows Server
Linux
VMware vSphere
VMware Horizon
Active Directory
Hybrid Cloud
Languages & Scripting
Python
PowerShell
YAML
Bash
JavaScript
PromQL
AI & Development Tools
Claude Code
Cursor
Windsurf
VSCode
RAG/ChromaDB
MCP
Ollama
Eclipse
Unity
Soft Skills & Leadership
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Communication
Mentoring & Training
Sense of Humor (Professional)
Education
Master's Degree, Management Information Systems
Morris Graduate School of Management
Bachelor of Science, Computer Networking
Robert Morris University - Illinois
Technical Training & Certifications
Active Study & Self-Directed Practice
Active study: Kubernetes, Terraform, HashiCorp Vault & Sentinel, OPA/Rego with Gatekeeper, AWS.
JefeWorks LLC (independent platform, 2026–): 30+ projects spanning consumer products (Adventure GUI, JefeHealth), AI/agent infrastructure, and the production operations behind them — Vault-style secrets broker, Prometheus/Grafana, Jenkins/Forgejo Actions across Windows + Linux.