Senior IT Systems Engineer (10/2017) Assumed a pivotal role in the design and implementation of an extensive suite of automated processes, aimed at enhancing the operational efficiency and security posture of our organization. My responsibilities encompassed a broad spectrum of critical functions, including the automation of Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG), Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmarks, server provisioning, log management, filesystem management, monitoring, and the deployment of security agents.
- Implemented Ansible to deploy STIG and CIS baselines to our RHEL and AIX servers within the enterprise to meet CMS and SOC2 audit requirements.
- Used Ansible along with Team process improvement to improve log and filesystem space usage which reduced the amount of system down time, and reduced manual system admin work time.
- Configured Ansible with Red Hat Satellite to create custom packages of CA Nimsoft and CarbonBlack Agents and automatically deploy these to RHEL systems to ensure compliancy and system monitoring.
- Worked with Oracle Database and Disaster Recovery Teams to use Ansible to verify that the Data Domain client on RHEL Oracle systems is functioning to prevent local Oracle backup locations from filling up and causing database outages. Previous variations on addressing this issue were to have a system admin manually reconfigure the Data Domain client on each of the systems.
- Lead the implementation of CarbonBlack Agent installations on RHEL within our enterprise to meet CMS and SOC2 audit requirements.
- Implementation of Relax and Recover (REAR) for physical RHEL server Disaster Recovery exercises. This eliminated the need to rebuild the system during a DR exercise by having an image of the system that needed to be restored. Physical restore times now take about 2 hours instead of 1 day to rebuild, configure, and restore data to.
- Worked with Windows AD Team to implement Centrify Access Manager to allow RHEL and AIX systems to authenticate to Windows AD to ease ID and password management for our System Security Team.
- Worked with our System Security and Inventory Management Teams to create Ansible and Python processes to manage and report on RHEL and AIX system inventory, local ID Inventory and password management. These reports help insure that prohibited local IDs are not present and local IDs that are on the systems are configured to CMS requirements.
- Implemented a RHEL server provisioning process with Ansible, Python, and VMWare to deliver RHEL systems in 20 minutes to reduce customer wait time for new RHEL systems.
- Continued to lead the RHEL patching in our private sector businesses Florida Blue and GuideWell Connect.
IT Systems Engineer (6/2016 – 10/2017)
Embraced the critical responsibility of managing and overseeing system compliance within the government sector of our enterprise, a role that demanded stringent adherence to security and regulatory standards. As part of this, I led the strategic implementation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7, while also orchestrating the phased retirement of the older RHEL 5 systems in our environment. This initiative was crucial in ensuring that our systems were not only up-to-date with the latest technology but also aligned with current security protocols.
- Implemented multiple Red Hat Satellite 6 instances for our government and private businesses to manage +1300 RHEL systems. Our government instance ensures that all patches are available to the 240 RHEL systems within GuideWell Source. The second instance provides patches for the rest of the enterprise outside of the government sector.
- Managed and coordinated the RHEL 5 application, and database migration to RHEL7 within our government sector of the enterprise. The project was concluded with the complete retirement of all RHEL 5 systems.
- Implemented the STIG and CIS baselines on RHEL6/7 and AIX to meet CMS system configuration requirements.
- Continued to lead the RHEL patching in our private sector businesses Florida Blue and GuideWell Connect. As well as our government sector business GuideWell Source.
Associate IT Systems Engineer (6/2014 – 6/2016)
Undertook the vital responsibility of implementing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) patches and managing baseline configurations within the government-focused sector of our enterprise. This role required a deep understanding of both the technical and compliance aspects of our operations, ensuring that our systems were not only efficient and reliable but also met the stringent standards required by government regulations.
- Created a process for implementing CA Nimsoft on our Red Hat and AIX systems across the enterprise for event management and command center alerts.
- Lead the implementation of a 10 business day patching cycle to meet CMS patch and vulnerability requirements.
- Implemented the STIG on RHEL5 systems to meet CMS system configuration requirements.
- Lead the RHEL patching in our private sector businesses Florida Blue and GuideWell Connect. This work remediated many patch vulnerabilities within the enterprise and reduced the security risk of the RHEL systems.