Jackson Smith

Oh look, it's Jackson

About me

I’m a passionate infrastructure engineer with deep expertise in Bash, PowerShell, Ruby, AWS, Azure, and software defined datacenters. I thrive on solving complex challenges and delivering results that drive efficiency and innovation. My approach blends technical expertise with a collaborative mindset, ensuring that solutions are not only effective but also sustainable. Outside of work, I enjoy skiing and cooking, which fuel my creativity and problem-solving skills.

Operations Engineer | Lincoln Investment; Remote – April 2022-Present

Responsible for large complex hybrid-cloud spanning multiple data centers and Azure serving more than 300 offices across the US
Insource patching of Linux and Windows servers via SCCM and Satellite, reducing cumulative monthly vulnerabilities 30% and cost by $400,000 a year
Automate repeated tasks such as software deployment and system reporting via Bash, Ruby, and PowerShell allowing teams to scale with organization growth
Design and maintain software defined data centers running bare metal hypervisors on enterprise hardware via tools like HCL, PowerCLI, etc.
Mentor, train, and share knowledge with peers
Work under general direction of senior management

Network Analyst | Chester County Library System; Remote – February 2019-April 2022

Administered complex IT environment spanning 18 libraries across southeastern Pennsylvania
Automated Windows configuration with PowerShell and Linux and macOS configurations with Ruby, eliminating production misconfigurations
Taught reference librarians basic HTML and CSS empowering them to own content updates, reducing site update request time from 3-5 days to same day turn around
Performed network assessment resulting in replacement of end of life Cisco wireless controller with Cisco Meraki which eliminated complexity and annual reduced licensing costs
Led refactor of hardware provisioning process with driverless images built in VMware vSphere with PowerShell and PowerCLI, tested internally and by partners at Dell before factory-built machines ship which saved 12 person months a year spent manually configuring hardware and software
Trained and provided ongoing mentorship for two new system administrators

Service Analyst | County of Chester; West Chester, PA – October 2016-February 2019

Built tools for common administrative tasks such as log parsing, reporting, and resource utilization with Ruby and PowerShell identifying issues 70% faster, solving 20% more tickets than peers, while maintaining highest customer satisfaction ratings
Supported and troubleshot day to day software and application systems for 2500 users (VMware Horizon Client, Windows, and Linux)
Tested software updates in VMware vSphere and worked with application owners reducing release times 75%

IT Consultant | Robert Half Technology; Philadelphia, PA – Feb 2016-Oct 2016

Administered complex site spanning several offices in Philadelphia
Managed Windows and Linux servers with 99.9% uptime
Migrated from on-premises Active Directory and Exchange to Azure AD and Microsoft 365
Worked with vendor partners on cable runs and equipment installations

Technician | County of Chester; West Chester, PA – April 2015-April 2016

Provided desktop support for 900+ users across dozens of departments

Certificates

Google IT Support Professional Certificate

Projects

Present annual security course
Designed and deployed a Rocket.Chat instance hosted on public cloud running on a Debian cluster using a Node.js and nginx frontend and MongoDB backend provisioned with Ruby and shell (formerly Chef) monitored via Prometheus and Grafana

Technical Skills

Operating Systems

Linux: Debian, CentOS, RHEL 
Unix: macOS versions 10-13, openBSD, FreeBSD
Windows: more than 400 years experience! NT 3.1-11 Server 2003-2022

Boot managers

GNU GRUB
BOOTMGR
PXE

Init Systems

SystemD

Package Managers

apt
dpkg
pkg
yum
chocolatey/nuget/winget (Windows)

Automation Orchestration

Ansible
Chef
(familiar with Puppet and Salt)

Directory Services

Active Directory
389 Directory Service
Samba

Hypervisors

VMware
HyperV
VirtualBox

Monitoring

Grafana
Logstash
New Relic
Prometheus (used in conjunction with Grafana)
syslog (rsyslog)

Databases

SQL
MongoDB

Web Servers

Apache httpd
IIS
NGINX

Load Balancers, Proxies, and VPNs

NGINX
HAProxy
AnyConnect
GlobalProtect
OpenVPN

Public Cloud Infrastructure

AWS
Azure

Local Development Tools

strace/truss
vim
git
vscode
vagrant
Valgrind
VirtualBox

Languages

Bash: config and utility scripts < 100 lines
PowerShell: utility scripts, tools < 500 lines, advanced functions, modules
Ruby: utility scripts, probes/parsers, extending bash functionality
Query Languages: enough to query CIM, WMI, etc. which use derivatives of ANSI SQL

Misc Software

Ticketing and project management systems
Jira
BitBucket
GitHub
Slack/Rocket.Chat/Teams

Soft Skills

Public speaking, active listening, critical thinking, reading, flexibility, running, sound effects

Education

Bachelor’s West Chester University