Adam Firester

Adam Firester Email and Phone Number

IT Leader | Cloud Infrastructure | Information Security | Servant Leadership | Workflow Optimization | Change Agent @ EasyPost
Adam Firester's Location
Hicksville, New York, United States, United States
Adam Firester's Contact Details
About Adam Firester

I help the C-suite scale and secure businesses by streamlining IT via best practices and automation, and assembling diverse teams that run lean while maintaining service availability through a variety of planned and unplanned events. I come into organizations as a change agent to raise the bar on operational excellence and consistency. While there, I build strong partnerships via open collaboration and a sense of radical honesty and transparency WHAT I OFFER:Success Over a Broad Spectrum • Design and operation of Infrastructure platforms, traditional and Cloud • Implementing Infrastructure-as-Code • Securing the Public Cloud estate via governance and guardrails • Acceleration of the Information Security roadmap • Enabling an optimized and secure SDLC environment • Building, migrating and managing data centers • Management of Workplace IT • Modernizing the End-User IT experience • Automating predictable processes • Delivering self-service capabilities to othersOperational Excellence • Continuous improvement in service availability and delivery • Flawless execution of planned activities • Superior crisis management during unplanned disruption • Disaster preparednessRelationship Building • With internal stakeholders • With business partners and vendors Strength in Communication • Proactive and timely messaging • Identifying and bridging gapsServant Leadership • Coaching and mentoring for optimal performance • Arming teams with the tools to succeed • Providing career growth through autonomy Building Teams • Pursuing diversity in talent • Hiring for aptitude and attitude • Cross-training to eliminate human SPOFs • Building global teams HISTORYMy professional journey began working a couple of part-time retail jobs during high school and college, which taught me critical skills in customer service and imbued me with a sense of humility.While in college, I was privileged to get a job at the school's computer center, honing my IT skills in servicing the fleet of servers and workstations, and developing leadership skills as Student Director.After my initial post-graduation position at a local ISP, I've spent much of my career in New Media, working for brands such as StarMedia, Yahoo! and WebMD before diving a bit deeper into healthcare at Multiplan. Most recently, I was Sr. Director of Global Infrastructure at FreeWheel (a Comcast company), where I raised the operational profile over existing infrastructure while charting a path for transition of services to a containerized architecture running on Public Cloud.

Adam Firester's Current Company Details
EasyPost

Easypost

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IT Leader | Cloud Infrastructure | Information Security | Servant Leadership | Workflow Optimization | Change Agent
Adam Firester Work Experience Details
  • Easypost
    Director Of Systems Engineering
    Easypost Jan 2024 - Present
    Lehi, Utah, Us
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  • Career Break
    Career Transition
    Career Break Nov 2022 - Dec 2023
    For those curious about how I had spent the time:* Initially took some time out for family bereavement and travel.* Concentrated on physical and financial health.* Completed some home improvement projects* Took advantage of the freedom to concentrate more on volunteering and bridging knowledge gaps.* Made the most of the networking and the job search journey.
  • Freewheel
    Sr. Director Of Infrastructure
    Freewheel Feb 2018 - Nov 2022
    New York, Ny, Us
    Refactored team practice, supporting business growth and improving service levels while running lean workforce • Unified employees coming from 4 different orgs through M&A into single team / practice • Shifted towards greater leverage of Cloud and professional services to reserve cycles for higher value work • Streamlined workflow via automation and hardened Change Management that eliminated SEV1/SEV2 incidents • Contributed to 25% improvement to Client Impact Index • Balanced BAU and projects through workforce planning and ongoing business alignmentEnabled teams to shift left via Infrastructure-as-Code, self-service and other DevSecOps practices • CI/CD pipeline producing AMIs for Engineering to comply with Cybersecurity and GRC mandates in AWS • Tooling for Engineering to manage endpoint protection services • Portal for Client Services to troubleshoot and manage config changes to SFTP service when assisting clientsRationalized & modernized Hybrid Cloud of data centers & AWS / Azure regions across NA / EMEA / APAC • 2 yr strategic effort to shift towards Cloud-native, containerized platform for core services with flat budget • Consolidated / decommissioned data center footprints in high cost regions to increase overall global capacity • Eliminated tech debt for legacy platforms via tech refreshes and virtualization to boost performance / reliability Partnered with InfoSec / Compliance teams across Comcast on 3 yr program to align unit's practices with Comcast standards / policy: • Access Management | Secrets Management • Vulnerability Management | Patch Management • Secure Configuration | Endpoint Protection • Asset Management | Incident ResponseHarmonized efforts across the organization • Revised charter for CCoE to ensure diversity across disciplines / locations while aligning with Comcast practices • Participated in DE&I committee to drive change that improved employee experience
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  • Multiplan
    Assistant Vice President Information Technology
    Multiplan 2016 - 2017
    New York, Ny, Us
    Modernized practice to bring shop along from the '80s/'90s: • Reorganized team from legacy structure to prepare for strategic initiatives in Private Cloud and DevOps • Introduced measures of efficiency to free time for reinvestment through automation of manual process • Made improvements to observability systems that closed gaps & cut noise, improving incident resolution time • Consolidated services to reduce administrative overheadStrategically partnered with the CISO on a defense-in-depth approach that greatly improved security posture and setup the company to pursue HiTrust certification, with leverage of existing investments to minimize outlay: • Threat Protection: Rollout of Endpoint Protection and replacement of web filtering platform • Data Security: Data-at-Rest encryption for file storage and backups • Access Management: Shift from VPN to VDI for offshore contractors to protect against data exfiltration • Incident Response: Rollout of SIEM using virtualized environment for initial bootstrap
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  • Webmd
    Vice President Information Technology Services
    Webmd Jun 2013 - Feb 2015
    Us
    Transformed End-User IT, providing frictionless experience for employees: • Modernized services to work equally well across screens, for in-office & remote workers • Shifted low risk, commodity services to Cloud, and bridged gaps with other SaaS platforms • Collaborated with stakeholders to vet new services before adoption • Developed marketing / education plan to prepare employees for rollout • Implemented IAM / MDM / NAC solutions to increase employee flexibility while protecting dataCollaborated with business leaders on solutions to unique problems and helped implement: • Developed point solutions where aligned with team competencies • Became trusted advisor to departments requiring Cloud services • Partnered on due diligence, contractual negotiations to align terms with corporate and regulatory obligations • Planned service launches to ensure integration into IT services dashboard
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  • Webmd
    Vice President Of Infrastructure
    Webmd Mar 2012 - Jun 2013
    Us
    Matured team practice: • Developed long-term service roadmaps to guide efforts and ensure organizational alignment • Reduced delivery times to less than 48 hours for most service catalog requests through SLA framework, automation, and adjustments to team process / handoffs (internal SLOs)Illustrated wisdom of decisions around distributed workforce and data center selection to mitigate disaster risk: • Continued 24x7 operations of public websites through Superstorm Sandy and its aftermath • Swiftly recovered backoffice IT services running at NY HQ to support board meeting 3 days after storm • Leveraged event to formalize BCP framework and approve shift of at-risk services to more reliable locationsTransformed underlying infrastructure for video editing plant of the Consumer business • Increased productivity through superior data transfer speeds and online archive of B-Roll / stock footage • Became the model to address needs of other video production teams at the companyEnhanced Infrastructure capabilities: • Launched Private Cloud leveraging existing investments to provide self-service compute • Developed strategy to leverage AWS for quick time-to-market, later shift to on-premise for cost savings
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  • Webmd
    Sr. Director Of Infrastructure
    Webmd Mar 2011 - Mar 2012
    Us
    Demonstrated merit of Infrastructure strategy • Successfully managed crisis involving full outage of customer websites due to failure of data center provider • Executed DR plan to fully restore service in 2 hrs • Gained budgetary approval from CFO for project to replace data center at end of contractual term • Drove selection / negotiation with landlord, transitioned services in under 2 weeks following site commissionMade strategic investment in upgraded storage • Boosted service availability of customer-facing portfolio by eliminating storage failures • Negotiated steep discounts with vendor • Preserved commercial partnership that brought $4MM/yr in business revenueIncreased agility of product pipeline • Transformed SDLC plants from single performance environment • Accelerated time-to-market of new releases by allowing 3 separate pipelines to progress independently
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  • Webmd
    Director Of Infrastructure
    Webmd Oct 2008 - Mar 2011
    Us
    Restructured team to better align resources with needs • Developed formal practice around Storage and Data Protection to better manage a growing data footprint • Built discrete team to develop platforms that automate predictable tasks and workflowsTransformed company's product infrastructure • Increased capacity and introduced DR capabilities • Significantly decreased expense through virtualization and lowered utility costs • Within 12 mo, built two 2 data centers in VA and AZ, seeded new h/w and migrated running plants • Achieved ROI for 1st plant within 1 yrApplied best practices to inherited End-User IT portfolio • Integrated staff to yield greater efficiency • Filled service gaps and improved architecture to boost service availability from 98% to 99.9%
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  • Webmd
    Manager, Systems
    Webmd Jul 2006 - Oct 2008
    Us
    Centralized management of systems and introduced efficiencies that positioned the company for aggressive growth: • Reduced delivery times for infrastructure from days to hours through leverage of existing investments • Overhauled infrastructure and application monitoring to eliminate blind spots on service outages • Implemented new ticketing system to ensure prioritization of work requests and reported problems • Formalized practice around Data Center Operations that greatly reduced unplanned downtime • Reduced cost of inventory mgmt by simplifying IT supply chain through vendor consolidation and rationalization of h/w catalog
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  • Yahoo
    Systems Team Lead
    Yahoo Feb 2002 - Jul 2006
    Sunnyvale, Ca, Us
    Spearheaded efforts to adjust HotJobs application stacks to Yahoo's infrastructure standard • Built first DR site and leveraged to relocate active service to Yahoo's CA datacenter • Migrated NYC plant to Yahoo's VA location • Collaborated with several Operations teams at HQ to ensure smooth transitionsServed as operations lead for re-architecture of the HotJobs recruiter product • Managed team efforts across 3 global locations and collaborated with Engineering, QA and Product teams • Eliminated human error and ensured consistent results through implementation of a Continuous Deployment • Instituted negative testing practice that caught critical issues prior to release Collaborated closely with Engineering teams in Norway and NYC to adapt search technology gained via acquisition for use across Yahoo's enterprise, replacing HotJobs legacy search platform as proving ground
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  • Nano
    Sr. Director, Systems And Operations
    Nano Oct 2000 - May 2001
    · Built and managed team responsible for systems architecture and maintenance for the company. · Rapid deployment (2 ½ weeks) of a multi-tiered, HA production platform for ASP-modeled service. · Worked with VP of Finance to negotiate leasing terms with vendors for systems hardware.
  • Starmedia Network
    Director Of Systems
    Starmedia Network Oct 1998 - Aug 2000
    Miami, Fl, Us
    Started as individual contributor and grew with the company to lead a 15 member department responsible for 24x7 operations of the portals and infrastructure across North and South America· Management of 24x7 operations for configuration, deployment and maintenance of 300+ hosts, including Sun U2-E6500s running Solaris and Intel hosts running FreeBSD and NT.· Setting of standards and security policies for servers, as well as sysadmin practices of team.· Overseeing of all major architectural changes, including the upgrade of entire Solaris farm from 2.6 to 7, re-architecture of ad platform infrastructure for peak performance, and consolidation of the core webserver cluster from 20 hosts to 5 for greater ease of administration and reduction of operating cost.
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  • Globix
    Manager, Systems
    Globix Aug 1997 - Oct 1998
    IT generalist promoted to lead the Systems department as IT team departmentalized.· Management of all staff involved in maintenance and upgrades of on-premise networked systems, as well as customer technical support of the company's internet services. · Extensive involvement in the development and modification of internet services and policies.
  • The Cooper Union For The Advancement Of Science And Art
    Student Director, Computer Center
    The Cooper Union For The Advancement Of Science And Art Feb 1995 - Jul 1997
    New York, Ny, Us
    Pioneered the first public website for the college. Quickly gained responsibility for all IT systems and student staff while honing skills on process efficiency and leadership.
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Adam Firester Skills

Cloud Computing Vendor Management Enterprise Software Data Center Solaris Linux Security Disaster Recovery Saas High Availability Integration Vmware Project Management It Operations System Architecture Virtualization Team Leadership It Service Management Enterprise Architecture Infrastructure Scalability Change Management Business Continuity Cross Functional Team Leadership System Administration Storage Area Networks Apache Service Delivery Perl Talent Management Automation Contract Negotiation Storage Area Network Cross Functional Collaboration Process Improvement Operational Efficiency Budget Management Software As A Service Disaster Response Large Scale Deployments Stress Testing Web Operations Crisis Management Strategic Planning Staff Development Financial Analysis Mentoring Coaching It Strategy

Adam Firester Education Details

  • The Cooper Union For The Advancement Of Science And Art
    The Cooper Union For The Advancement Of Science And Art
    Mechanical Engineering
  • Hicksville High School
    Hicksville High School
    Regents Diploma

Frequently Asked Questions about Adam Firester

What company does Adam Firester work for?

Adam Firester works for Easypost

What is Adam Firester's role at the current company?

Adam Firester's current role is IT Leader | Cloud Infrastructure | Information Security | Servant Leadership | Workflow Optimization | Change Agent.

What is Adam Firester's email address?

Adam Firester's email address is af****@****heel.tv

What is Adam Firester's direct phone number?

Adam Firester's direct phone number is +164653*****

What schools did Adam Firester attend?

Adam Firester attended The Cooper Union For The Advancement Of Science And Art, Hicksville High School.

What are some of Adam Firester's interests?

Adam Firester has interest in Gadgetry, Travelling, Civil Rights And Social Action, Environment, Science And Technology, Music, Disaster And Humanitarian Relief, Human Rights, Animal Welfare, Arts And Culture.

What skills is Adam Firester known for?

Adam Firester has skills like Cloud Computing, Vendor Management, Enterprise Software, Data Center, Solaris, Linux, Security, Disaster Recovery, Saas, High Availability, Integration, Vmware.

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