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Jared Kite
Linux, Windows, Networking, Databases, Automation | I help companies build robust IT services and add value with automation.
Seward, NE, United States
Details
Experience:
- Started the IT Risk Management Team : Collaborating with directors from across the university. Bringing cybersecurity into conversations sooner for more informed decisions.
- Installed Next-Gen Firewall : I transitioned from Linux iptables to Cisco NGFW and simplified from 1,021 to 130 rules to reduce maintenance toil.
- Vulnerability Scanning : Encouraging proactive IT maintenance by making vulnerabilities visible. I collaborate with my colleagues to balance operational needs vs. risk. I encourage continuous improvement.
2020 : Present
Concordia University, Nebraska
Director of Cybersecurity
- Automated ERP Deployment : I used Ansible to automate the configuration and deployment of 32 Tomcats and 16 Jenkins clients across 16 application servers in a repeatable way. This minimized toil and human error by letting a computer do the repetitive work. Ansible allowed me time to add value with load balancing, setting up the ERP update pipeline, and monitoring to reduce mean time to repair.
- Automated Linux Systems Administration : The toil of administration for 39 systems threatened to consume my time. Improving on the existing manual process, I incrementally wrote a playbook to perform baseline configurations, security hardening, and user provisioning in a repeatable way. This improved consistency and allowed me to focus on adding value (e.g. : improved monitoring to reduce MTTR, introducing Git to manage our source)
- Improved Proactive Monitoring with Zabbix : To be proactive and reduce our MTTR, we utilized an existing install of Zabbix to expand our systems and network monitoring.
- Reduced Network Maintenance Cost : To reduce repetitive work and the confusion surrounding network changes, I collaborated with a team member to design a standard hub-and-spoke layout. We incrementally improved the network until it matched the improved design. Now network changes are much simpler.
- Load Balanced Web Services : Used HAProxy to load balance 13 web services to allow backend scaling out, and to be proactive about reducing risk of changes.
2016 : 2020
Concordia University, Nebraska
Systems Analyst/Programmer (Systems Engineer and DBA)
- Reduced IT Toil in Reporting : Initially many reporting requests required new, custom SQL code to handle special cases. Over several years, I incrementally standardized the codebase and eliminated errors, reducing my development workload. I was then able to focus on layering a custom data warehouse on top of this codebase. The resulting dashboards and reports were crucial to the success of a $90M fundraising campaign.
- Led 5 Enterprise Solution Projects : There were several instances where I volunteered to lead the implementation of a solution involving several departments across campus. I made technical decisions, implemented integrations and collaborated with department leaders to ensure the solution supported the enterprise needs.
- Took the Initiative to Improve Our Oracle Database Administration : When we upgraded our Oracle databases to 11g, we moved to Red Hat Linux. My strong Linux skills made it a natural choice to step in as a DBA. I incrementally improved our environment by starting regular patching, tuning the database configurations, and setting up DB monitoring.
2004 : 2016
Concordia University, Nebraska
Systems Analyst/Programmer
Wrote a Custom GUI in Java for Survey Data Collection
Designed a Custom MySQL Schema for Backend Storage
2004 : 2004
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Gallup Research Center Research Assistant
Wrote a LabVIEW GUI for Data Collection
Wrote Complex Data Analysis Routines in C++
2002 : 2003
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
High-Energy Physics Graduate Research Assistant
- Installed Next-Gen Firewall : I transitioned from Linux iptables to Cisco NGFW and simplified from 1,021 to 130 rules to reduce maintenance toil.
- Vulnerability Scanning : Encouraging proactive IT maintenance by making vulnerabilities visible. I collaborate with my colleagues to balance operational needs vs. risk. I encourage continuous improvement.
2020 : Present
Concordia University, Nebraska
Director of Cybersecurity
- Automated ERP Deployment : I used Ansible to automate the configuration and deployment of 32 Tomcats and 16 Jenkins clients across 16 application servers in a repeatable way. This minimized toil and human error by letting a computer do the repetitive work. Ansible allowed me time to add value with load balancing, setting up the ERP update pipeline, and monitoring to reduce mean time to repair.
- Automated Linux Systems Administration : The toil of administration for 39 systems threatened to consume my time. Improving on the existing manual process, I incrementally wrote a playbook to perform baseline configurations, security hardening, and user provisioning in a repeatable way. This improved consistency and allowed me to focus on adding value (e.g. : improved monitoring to reduce MTTR, introducing Git to manage our source)
- Improved Proactive Monitoring with Zabbix : To be proactive and reduce our MTTR, we utilized an existing install of Zabbix to expand our systems and network monitoring.
- Reduced Network Maintenance Cost : To reduce repetitive work and the confusion surrounding network changes, I collaborated with a team member to design a standard hub-and-spoke layout. We incrementally improved the network until it matched the improved design. Now network changes are much simpler.
- Load Balanced Web Services : Used HAProxy to load balance 13 web services to allow backend scaling out, and to be proactive about reducing risk of changes.
2016 : 2020
Concordia University, Nebraska
Systems Analyst/Programmer (Systems Engineer and DBA)
- Reduced IT Toil in Reporting : Initially many reporting requests required new, custom SQL code to handle special cases. Over several years, I incrementally standardized the codebase and eliminated errors, reducing my development workload. I was then able to focus on layering a custom data warehouse on top of this codebase. The resulting dashboards and reports were crucial to the success of a $90M fundraising campaign.
- Led 5 Enterprise Solution Projects : There were several instances where I volunteered to lead the implementation of a solution involving several departments across campus. I made technical decisions, implemented integrations and collaborated with department leaders to ensure the solution supported the enterprise needs.
- Took the Initiative to Improve Our Oracle Database Administration : When we upgraded our Oracle databases to 11g, we moved to Red Hat Linux. My strong Linux skills made it a natural choice to step in as a DBA. I incrementally improved our environment by starting regular patching, tuning the database configurations, and setting up DB monitoring.
2004 : 2016
Concordia University, Nebraska
Systems Analyst/Programmer
Wrote a Custom GUI in Java for Survey Data Collection
Designed a Custom MySQL Schema for Backend Storage
2004 : 2004
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Gallup Research Center Research Assistant
Wrote a LabVIEW GUI for Data Collection
Wrote Complex Data Analysis Routines in C++
2002 : 2003
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
High-Energy Physics Graduate Research Assistant
Company:
Concordia University, Nebraska
About
Systems Engineer with Linux, Windows, Networking, and Automation Experience. Passionate about building technology solutions with collaboration, less toil, continual improvement and innovation. I am always looking for opportunities to solve challenging problems that advance the business.
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