Mike Nichols

OBJECTIVES

  • I’m looking to join a company which contributes back to the world, whether it be through contributions to non-profit organizations or open source projects.

INTERESTS and QUALIFICATIONS

  • Extensive management experience with BSD/UNIX and GNU/Linux operating systems, containerization (including Kubernetes, Docker, and Jails), DevOps automation, and Continuous Integration.

  • Created dev and test environments off different applications by provisioning k8s clusters on AWS using Jenkins, Terraform, Ansible, and Docker.

  • One of my passions is metrics, monitoring, and security: I extensively use Prometheus, Elasticsearch, Grafana, and other tracing tools for custom platform autoscaling, troubleshooting, service level objectives, and auditing.

  • I have in depth knowledge of AWS cloud infrastructure, including EKS, and some exposure to Google Cloud.

  • Implemented Jenkins CI/CD concepts, jobs, builds, pipelines, triggering, testing, distributed, builds, artifacts, and PaaS model for engineering teams using Terraform with Infrastructure-as-code.

  • Experienced with Amazon AWS cloud administration services like: EC2, S3 EBS, VPC, ALB, AMI, SNS, RDS, IAM, Route53, Cloudfront, Cloudwatch, Cloudtrail, Cloudformation (inc. eksctl), Elasticache.

  • I prefer internally managed services (eg. Gitlab) over cloud-provided for security, privacy, and customization/control.

  • CD best practices like distributed builds, containerization, traceability, high availability, and auto repository builds.

  • Knows: Terraform, Helm, Ansible, Python, Bash, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, YAML.

  • Prefers: VIM with spaces (not tabs) and Zsh.

  • Capable: Golang, PHP, JAVA, Jenkins, VPN networking, Routing and Switching, and VPN administration.

  • Outside work I like to spend my time building Keyboards, Quadcopters, IoT hardware or sensors, Wireless (mesh networking), and most things involving ARM processors.

  • More passions: nuclear power, net neutrality / free speech, and Home Automation.


PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Zipari

Senior DevOps Administrator [ 2018 - 2021 ]
  • Implemented comprehensive metrics and monitoring system with Prometheus to replace Sensu-based monitoring. Collected metrics from Cloudwatch, EC2 instances, Kubernetes, and Postgres databases to change the operations culture from re-active to pro-active.
  • Developed Helm charts and EKS/Kubernetes platform design with CI/CD pipelines in both Gitlab and Jenkins.
  • Managed business-critical internal systems, including GitLab, LDAP, OpenVPN, JIRA/Confluence.
  • For fun, developed digital signage implementation for Dumbo office.

Generic Network Systems, LLC.

Systems Engineer [ 2014 - 2018 ]
  • Designed and implemented Elasticsearch (ELK) stack for log management and audit data collection for security, inventory and reports purposes.
  • Team-member training for new-hires, junior-level peers, and cross-knowledge-domain admins.
  • Worked to fulfill on-demand client/customer requests, while maintaining monitoring infrastructure and SLA goals for almost 200 clients and 1000+ hosts of mixed operating systems, including CentOS/RHEL 5,6,7; Oracle Solaris 10u8-11.3; Ubuntu 12.04-16.10; Debian 6,7; FreeBSD 10-11; and Windows Server 2012 (especially in cases where Active Directory was integrated).
  • Automation of daily processes using Ansible, custom scripts (Bash, Python, Perl); a lot of troubleshooting and debugging of system configuration; security and SSAE-16 compliance enforcement; troubleshooting of third-party software including Advent Geneva for FinTech.
  • Implemented Logstash log aggregation system to collect login and systems audit data for reporting and compliance, as well as security reviews.

Benchmark Education Company

Development Operations Manager [ 2012 - 2014 ]
  • Linux systems manager for LAMP stack and webapp troubleshooting.
  • Designed release process and deployment processes.
  • Implemented metrics and monitoring systems with Icinga/Nagios and Graphite
  • AWS/Cloud infrastructure design, implementation, and maintenance
  • Some website application development (PHP - Spiral Framework)
  • Assisted migration from SVN to Git, as well as Git training.