Jackson Smith
About me
| GitHub |
Hi, I’m Jackson! I’m a well-rounded infrastructure engineer with over 10 years of experience designing, building, and maintaining cross-platform systems. Proven expertise in Linux and Windows environments, including cloud platforms like AWS and Azure.
Known for taking ownership of business-critical projects and leading high-impact initiatives, such as backup system replacement and managing pre-EOL adoption of modern operating systems. Proficient in technical problem-solving and committed to delivering durable, foundational infrastructure solutions.
Outside of work, I enjoy skiing and cooking, which fuel my creativity and problem-solving skills.
Operations Engineer | Lincoln Investment; Remote – April 2022-Present
- Production engineering for 300+ offices nationwide across a hybrid-cloud environment in Azure and multiple data centers
- Managed data driven patch automation insourcing project using SCCM and Satellite, reducing open vulnerabilities by 48% and cutting costs by $400,000 annually
- Lead the replacement of aging and outgrown backup infrastructure with a modern hybrid cloud solution, improving disaster recovery posture and operational transparency with zero downtime
- Automate repeated tasks such as software deployment and system reporting via Bash, Ruby, and PowerShell allowing teams to scale with organization growth
- Delivered clean handoffs for certificate authority switch from Entrust to DigiCert including integration with Azure KeyVault for seamless management of certificates by the Infrastructure Operations team
- Championed and implemented adoption of Windows Server 2022 and RHEL, well ahead of Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016, and CentOS end of life, increased Domain Functional Level from 2008 to Windows Server 2016
- Design and maintain software defined data centers running bare metal hypervisors on enterprise hardware via tools like HCL, PowerCLI, etc.
- Trusted to mentor peers, communicate clearly across teams, document legacy systems, and take on critical but unglamorous projects others avoided, ensuring long-term operational stability
Network Analyst | Chester County Library System; Remote – February 2019-April 2022
- Rebuilt hardware provisioning pipeline in VMware using PowerShell and PowerCLI, saving 12 person-months annually through innovative process redesign
- Modernized a network spanning 18 public libraries by replacing legacy Cisco gear with Meraki, reducing support overhead and licensing costs
- Empowered librarians to own content updates via basic HTML and CSS training, reducing website update request time from 3-5 days to same day delivery
- Championed and implemented early migration of Windows 11 and Server 2019, well ahead of 2012 R2 and Windows 10 EOL, building deployment and validation tooling using PowerShell and MDT
- Mentored two junior system administrators
Service Analyst | County of Chester; West Chester, PA – October 2016-February 2019
- Provided support for 2,500+ users in a mixed VMware/Windows/Linux environment while maintaining top CSAT scores across the team reflecting a consistent and communicative approach
IT Consultant | Robert Half Technology; Philadelphia, PA – Feb 2016-Oct 2016
- Supported clients with diverse, multi-site infrastructure; successfully migrated from on-prem AD/Exchange to Azure AD + Microsoft 365
- Delivered 99.9% uptime across Windows and Linux servers, implementing configuration management and better patch workflows
- Coordinated clearly with vendor partners on deployments and structured cabling, ensuring consistency and alignment
Technician | County of Chester; West Chester, PA – April 2015-April 2016
- Provided L2 support to 900+ users across county agencies; scripted and documented quick fixes to reduce handoffs and promote consistency across teams
Certificates
- Google IT Support Professional Certificate
Projects
Work Projects
- Migrated core SQL server from single to three node availability aware cluster for high availability and redundancy; eliminating key operational risks while also improving security posture
- Legacy refactoring initiatives: owned high-risk legacy cleanup (internal DNS, cert lifecycle, syslog normalization), reducing internal escalations by 50% over 12 months through consistent and strategic improvement
- Security awareness training: designed and led annual in-house training programs that significantly improved phishing simulation metrics and staff vigilance
Home Projects
- Rocket.Chat Cloud Deployment: Deployed and managed Rocket.Chat in the public cloud on a Debian cluster (Node.js, MongoDB, NGINX). Provisioned with Ruby/Shell (Chef) and monitored via Prometheus + Grafana
Technical Skills
Operating Systems
Linux: Debian, CentOS, RHEL
Unix: macOS versions 10-15, 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
Containers
Docker
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
Communication, collaboration, consistency, commitment, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, indomitable spirit
Education
- Bachelor’s West Chester University