Senior Solutions Consultant

• Mar 2020 - Present

Author

• Aug 2016 - Present

Founded in 2004, Pluralsight is a privately held online education company that offers a variety of video training courses for software developers, IT administrators, and creative professionals through its website and mobile app. As of January 2018, it uses more than 1,500 subject-matter experts as authors and offers more than 6,000 courses in its catalogue. Since first moving its courses online in 2007, the company has expanded, developed a full enterprise platform and added skills assessment modules. In addition to my role as a Network Security Engineer with Vodafone, I am also employed by Pluralsight on a part-time contract basis in order to create, record and edit a series of nine video courses which cover the JNCIS-ENT certification. As of April 2018, seven of these courses have been published and due to an update to the course syllabus, I have also made amendments to three of these courses adding new material to cover technology updates. I believe that as an author, my knowledge on the topics I am presenting is increasing as not only am I having to recollect topics I have learnt previously, I am also required to revise a topic thoroughly before recording the course to ensure the information I am presenting is correct and accurate. This in turn ensures any student watching my courses, will get the best learning experience possible.

S3 Network Engineer

• Oct 2018 - Mar 2020

BT is one of the UK's best-known companies but they are also a truly global organisation that provides products and services in around 180 countries. BT are the largest provider of consumer fixed-line voice and broadband services in the UK and the UK's largest mobile network operator. They serve global multinational organisations with security, cloud and networking services. My role within BT is working for BT Enterprise as a dedicated 3rd line engineer for one of BTs Enterprise customers. My primary responsibility is supporting the network infrastructure across the customers many branches and HQ which utilises technologies such as Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers, ISR and ASR routers, ASA firewalls and Catalyst switches. In addition to the support role, I have also been offering services typically provided by Professional Services, such as implementing a new Firepower solution and migrating the customer from an ASA to a Firepower edge, documenting solutions new and old for 24/7 support teams, building a new replacement multi context ASA for the purposes of providing VPN services and migrating a more streamlined configuration and existing identity certificates to this new ASA and assisting in the deployment of Cisco StealthWatch. Whilst working in this role I've also been supporting VPN connections to AWS VPCs and to improve the levels of support I give to the customer, I've studied AWS and have recently became a Certified Cloud Practitioner.

Network Security Engineer - SC Cleared

• Jun 2014 - Oct 2018

Vodafone Group plc is a British multinational telecommunications company headquartered in London and with its registered office in Newbury, Berkshire. It is the world's 2nd-largest mobile telecommunications company measured by both subscribers and revenues. Vodafone owns and operates networks in 21 countries and has partner networks in over 40 additional countries. Its Vodafone Global Enterprise division provides telecommunications and IT services to corporate clients in over 65 countries. Working with the Vodafone Cloud and Hosting team based in Leeds, my role is as a Network Security Engineer. In this role it is my responsibility is to build, test and deliver secure cloud based network solutions using the Agile methodology to external customers. These solutions utilise a variety of devices including Checkpoint and ASA Firewalls, F5 BIG-IP LTM and GTM, Cisco ACS and Bluecoat Proxy SG in addition to building and testing Cisco datacentre switches such as Nexus and MDS along with standard catalyst switches and IOS routers. These devices typically form the infrastructure that will support a cloud based solution. In addition to building devices which are part of the standard product catalogue, I have also been involved with developing the build process for new devices and technologies which are not part of the product catalogue such as Cisco Firepower Threat Defence appliances, ASA FirePOWER software modules and Bluecoat Director appliances. Where necessary I am also sometimes required to assist the support team after the handover phase of any project. Outside of this role, I have volunteered to be an onsite Fire Marshall, First Aider, Local Health and Safety Co-ordinator and AED operator and have passed the certification requirements stipulated by the HSE in order to perform these duties. Acceptance of this role required me to pass BPSS checks and since joining Vodafone, I have been SC vetted and police security vetted to NPPV level 3.

Network Engineer

• Mar 2013 - May 2014

Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc is the fourth largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom with over 500 stores nationwide and a headquarters based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The company, who is part of the FTSE 100 Index of companies, uniquely sources and process most of the fresh food that they sell though their own manufacturing facilities enabling them to closely control provenance and quality. Working from the company headquarters in Bradford, my primary role was to provide 3rd line support of the corporate network infrastructure, which consisted of over 10,000 network devices from multiple vendors including Cisco, Juniper, Nortel, Checkpoint, F5 and Allied Telesis, installed across the UK in branches, manufacturing facilities, distribution sites and in the company headquarters. Within this support role, my primary responsibility was supporting routing and switching devices, however I found myself implementing and supporting Cisco and Juniper Wireless LAN Controllers, becoming the teams primary Wireless Network Engineer, in addition, I was also actively involved in the creation and modification of rules on Juniper SSG and Checkpoint firewalls, creating and modifying VIP's on F5 Load Balancers, modifying and creating VPN profiles and policies on Juniper SA appliances including updating of the ESAP. I also had to assist in the support and configuration of a grid of Infoblox appliances. Aside from the support aspect of my role, I had the opportunity to become involved in major projects, including the integration of the network infrastructure of a recent acquisition with the corporate LAN, replacement of the campus LAN in the corporate headquarters and migration of the data centre from a Nortel core to Cisco Nexus.

Access Control Product Specialist

• Oct 2010 - Mar 2013

UTC Fire and Security, formerly GE Security, are a manufacturer and supplier of high end, network based, enterprise level security systems for international banks, airports, governments, military and manufacturing environments. As an Access Control Product Specialist my support and design role focused on major projects. The most notable project I was part of was a major airport installation in Qatar where, as a team, we designed and implemented a system comprising of 7,000 IP cameras and 5,000 networked door controllers, incorporating network and server redundancy, taking into account latency and jitter associated with transmitting multicast H.264 across a three tier enterprise network. In addition to focusing on major projects, I also acted as a point of escalation for support related issues, specifically when the issue was related to the underlying network infrastructure, database or windows installation where I would investigate the issue and assist in resolution. During the second half of 2010 I became a certified trainer in our Linux software platform, Picture Perfect, giving me valuable experience in Redhat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5 and IBM Informix 11.5. As part of our continuing program of product enhancement, I was also part of the team testing the products for IPv6 compatibility and although our products did not at that time support IPv6, I gained valuable knowledge and experience in implementing and supporting routed IPv6 networks.

Senior Engineer

• Jun 2002 - Oct 2010

As a Senior Engineer I had the responsibility of the support and design of security systems including assisting in designing the underlying network infrastructure, advising on suitable equipment and configuration to allow our products to operate correctly. Key design projects included the Bank of Mauritius, Kuwait Prison and the electricity distributor of Italy, TERNA. When, in 2010, GE Security established the Centre of Excellence at our European HQ in Brussels, I assisted in; Initial configuration of the labs; Configuring VMWare ESX; Deploying a PIX firewall as a VPN concentrator and for protection against attackers; Configuring Cisco 6509 switches with redundant supervisor engines. Whilst in this role I also: Presented our new software to an audience of over 200 customers; Received a prize of a trip to the 2006 Winter Olympics in recognition of delivering outstanding customer service; Became a GE certified trainer, running workshops at customer sites across EMEA including Mauritius, Moscow and South Africa.

Support Engineer

• Apr 2002 - Jun 2002

Contractor supporting Norfolk County Council’s IT systems at their head office in Norwich. Systems included Novell Netware 4.12 clients, printer hardware and Microsoft Office applications Contractor supporting Norfolk County Council’s IT systems at their head office in Norwich. Systems included Novell Netware 4.12 clients, printer hardware and Microsoft Office applications

Technical Support Engineer

• Apr 2001 - Apr 2002

My main responsibility was support of the Sun accounting package. This was my first experience supporting SQL server, supporting 6.5, 7.0 and 2000 My main responsibility was support of the Sun accounting package. This was my first experience supporting SQL server, supporting 6.5, 7.0 and 2000