Alex Stuart Email & Phone Number

Harwell, Gb

Mostly UK federation :-)

Continuing to support the UK federation

Edinburgh

I am Service Owner of the UK federation technical team. The UK federation has 1000 members (Universities, Colleges, online service providers and publishers), and delivers support for UK's research and education sector by providing a single sign-on framework for authentication and authorization. We securely manage metadata for 1800 entities, support members integrate their systems with the UK federation framework, troubleshoot, and facilitate global partnerships through the eduGAIN metadata exchange. My responsibilities have included:- Providing third level technical support for SAML middleware- System administration of federation infrastructure- Registration and validation of SAML metadata- Line and task management for 5 direct reports- Chairing regular federation meetings- Writing and editing technical documentation- Liaison with federation operators across Europe and beyond- Introduction of a UK federation Test Identity Provider- Migrating the UK federation's Central Discovery Service from Solaris to a linux VM-based architectureI also manage a SAML federation for COBWEB — an EU-funded citizen science project. I have deployed, configured, customized and maintained SAML software (Shibboleth IdP versions 2 and 3, SP and MDA; simpleSAMLphp as a bridge from OpenID Connect to SAML) including SAML 2 Artifact, AttributeQuery, uApprove, and writing Attribute resolvers using Javascript and PHP.

Provided information and advice on UK federation policy and procedures to people in a wide range of roles: front-line and second-line support roles, administrative staff, and management.Provided technical support for installation, configuration, system integration and troubleshooting of Shibboleth software and webservers.

Worked to support the rights of disabled people and carers in having access to timely and accurate information. Was a member of the working group which published "Making websites accessible" and "What about social networks and accessibility?"

Software and website development

By working in partnership with craft tutors in woodwork and community gardening, I helped support homeless and socially-excluded people develop their existing, implicit mathematical skills.

Responsible for desktop publishing of books, guides and a series of factsheets for a national Information and Advice Service. I used Quark eXpress and Adobe Creative Suite, and wrote XSLT to achieve consistent publication across print and web formats.Was responsible for accessibility of web and print publications. Worked with the Plain Language Commission to gain Clear English Standard accrediation for the factsheet series and a series of guides for young people.Project managed the migration of a web CMS from Dreamweaver/Contribute to a Wordpress site www.enquire.org.uk. Activities included budget control, specification, selection of graphic designiers and other contractors, markup of content, copy editing, accessibility testing with WCAG and PAS78 in mind, conducting end-user testing, and user training.Instigated and chaired the Enquire Publications Working Group, which brought together managers, authors and production staff to share knowledge and co-ordinate release of publications.

Provided administrative support to a national Information and Advice Service. I performed front-of-house duties, logistical support for colleagues, and I administered the finances of this £400,000 p.a. service, providing summaries and forecasts of actual, committed and planned expenditure.

Operations and support of a distributed application on SCO Open Server Unix. Not my favourite *nix. Used sar; made recommendations for software tuning and hardware purchases.

Administered the Clearcase software configuration management system for a team of 20 developers. Responsible for the build system, and made regular builds of applications on 6 unix distributions (Linux, AIX, Solaris, HPUX, OSF, Irix).Member of the Product Release Group, liaising with developers, management, and QA teams.

Project Management M865

Master Of Advanced Study, Mathematics, Pass

Bsc (Hons) First Class, Astronomy And Astrophysics