Cian M. Email & Phone Number

Cork, Ie

County Cork, Ireland

The Proofpoint Technical Training organization educates customers, partners and Proofpoint employees globally on Proofpoint products, solutions and best practices.

As a Staff Technical Content Developer, I design and deliver engaging and effective training programs for VMware's global technical community. Key achievements and responsibilities include:• Developed modules for a new course highlighting VMware Carbon Black EDR features. This included the creation of a dedicated lab environment to facilitate hands-on exploration of malicious activities within the EDR tool. The attack path captured in this environment included the download and execution of a malicious file which triggers a reverse shell to an external attacker machine. Subsequently the attacker uploaded and ran various tools to explore the environment while evading Windows Defender. Following this, the attacker performed privilege escalation via service abuse and pivoted to other machines, ultimately gaining control of the Domain Controller.• Developed modules for an advanced troubleshooting and operations course for VMware Carbon Black Cloud, with a specific focus on leveraging the API and SDK to automate tasks using tools such as Postman and Python.• Created modules for a VMware Carbon Black Cloud professional level (VCP) course, providing plan and deploy information. As a subject matter expert (SME) in this area, I also authored exam questions for the associated certification.• Lead the creation of vSphere 7.0 content for internal and external (customer facing) training courses.• Evaluated engineering documents in Jira and leveraged understanding to create Design Documents that served as the blueprint for the course, ensuring accuracy and quality of content.• Guided and supported content developers throughout the content creation process, resulting in over 700 slides and 23 separate labs that met high standards of quality.• Developed a new five-day vSphere Troubleshooting course for internal engineers and external customers, creating design documents, lecture content, lab scenarios, and automation scripts.

Cork, Ireland

The Take 3 Program (T3) is an opportunity for VMware employees, with five or more years of service, to take a three month period and select an assignment outside of their regular day job. T3 is an opportunity for professional, technical, and leadership development that not only benefits personal and professional growth, but also enhances the contributions employees are able to make to the company.• Worked on reproducing issues reported by customers and external security researchers to validate findings and assign CVSS scores. If the issue was valid, liaised with engineering teams to provide detailed steps for reproduction and recommendations of fixes.• Performed self directed internal penetration testing of vSphere Client and ESXi Host Client focussing on the OWASP Top 10 while using tools such as Burp Suite/ZAP and nmap.• Created a python script using Selenium and pyscreenshot to access a list of URLs with Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer and take a screenshot of each loaded page. This can be helpful when trying to reproduce issues in a browser based client as each browser has slight differences in how it renders a page. This cut down on time required to review reports that were generated by automated scanning software with a high number of false positives.• Assisted in the creation of slide and lab training for the OWASP Top 10. This was provided to technical support engineers with the goal of reducing case load opened with the product security team for trivial questions.

County Cork, Ireland

As a Senior Technical Training Instructor at VMware, I was responsible for delivering high-quality training to technical support engineers worldwide. Key achievements and responsibilities include:• Achieved VCI status, certifying me as an accredited VMware Certified Instructor with expert-level knowledge of VMware technologies and presentation skills.• Successfully trained hundreds of technical support engineers in the vSphere ICM and TSE Troubleshooting courses, enabling them to effectively resolve customer issues and improve customer satisfaction.• Delivered the VMware Cloud Orchestration [V7.1] Foundation Course to experienced TSEs in Cork, Broomfield, and China, earning a Spotlight award in June 2017 for the impact of this training on customer success.• Developed extensive expertise in vRealize Orchestrator and used this tool to automate training workflows, including the deployment and clean-up of VMC on AWS lab environments. Received a Spotlight award for the design and implementation of this workflow, which improved training efficiency.

As an Escalation Engineer at VMware, I was responsible for providing advanced technical support and assistance to front-line Technical Support Engineers (TSEs) and customers worldwide. Key achievements and responsibilities include:• Promoted to Escalation Engineer following successful technical interview.• Provided technical assistance to front-line Technical Support Engineers through walk-ups and formal assist requests for more complex cases.• Worked directly with customers on high-profile and complex cases, ensuring timely resolution and customer satisfaction.• Reviewed and submitted Problem Reports directly to the engineering team for further investigation and bug fix.• Became the single point of contact for all VMware Heartbeat-related queries, developing and delivering Heartbeat training multiple times over several years.• Reviewed VMware Heartbeat documentation prior to its public release to ensure accuracy and readability.• Identified virtual machine (VM) performance issues as a pain point for customers. Developed and delivered VM Performance training to educate Technical Support Engineers on investigating, troubleshooting, and resolving performance-related cases within customer environments using esxtop. This led to improved time to resolution and increased customer satisfaction for performance-based cases.• Created and maintained several bash scripts to assist Technical Support Engineers with automated troubleshooting and log analysis. The tools were created for performance analysis, identifying why a VM was shut down or reset, reporting the version of VMware Tools installed, and investigating vpxd-profile logs. This resulted in a reduced time to resolution for customer issues.• Achieved VCAP 5.5 certification.

As a Technical Support Engineer with the Systems Management team, I provided technical support to enterprise customers for multiple VMware products including VMware ESX/ESXi, vCenter Server, Update Manager, Heartbeat, and Converter. Key achievements and responsibilities include:• Resolved customer issues through research, reproduction, and troubleshooting via phone, email, and remote WebEx sessions.• Consistently exceeded closure rate and customer satisfaction metrics, regularly exceeding targets by 15% - 20%, resulting in nomination for Most Valuable Player (MVP) award.• Selected as senior point of contact for VMware Heartbeat product, in addition to regular duties, due to demonstrated expertise in this area.• Authored and updated hundreds of Knowledge Base articles to deflect cases from being opened and assist TSEs and customers in troubleshooting issues.• Provided technical leadership and mentoring to new hires, supporting their professional growth and development.• Contributed significantly to testing initiatives for beta products, providing feedback to engineering to help improve products before release.• Earned certification as VCP 4 and VCP 5, demonstrating advanced knowledge and skills in VMware virtualization technology.

As a Senior Systems Administrator, I streamlined system management, enhanced network performance, and facilitated cross-functional collaboration. In addition to continuing my prior duties, key achievements and responsibilities include:• Promoted to Senior IT Systems Administrator to oversee a lab environment containing over 150 servers, primarily Solaris hosts, but also AIX and various Linux platforms.• Implemented centralised logging that alerted me to hardware and software errors allowing for proactive investigation and corrective action, contributing to a decrease in system downtime and an increase in overall system availability• Performed configuration and installation of Cisco switches, streamlining network management and enhancing performance.

As a Systems Administrator, I upgraded the network, maintained server security, and provided user support. Key achievements and responsibilities include:• Spearheaded the upgrade of the network, overseeing a complete re-IP and re-cabling of the lab and remediation of all servers to IBM security standards. Installed OS patches and used internal TCP/IP software to monitor potential security threats, and resolved identified issues. Managed to adhere to a strict and highly rigid schedule for the upgrade of the network, and continued to perform post-upgrade maintenance.• Subject to monthly security audits that tested all areas of server security, ensuring that all security requirements were met and maintained.• Provided user support and helpdesk duties, troubleshooting all user laptop-related issues and providing timely resolutions to improve user experience.

As a College Intern, I gained hands-on experience in data management and software rollout while strengthening my interpersonal and communication skills. Key achievements and responsibilities include:• Responsible for the monthly backup of critical data from the site manufacturing equipment, often working in restricted, sterile areas.• Led the site-wide rollout of new holiday and attendance tracking software, involving testing, bug resolution, software installation, and providing tuition to users on site.• Worked extensively with Microsoft Access databases, performing tasks such as administration, modification, creation, while addressing user queries.• Contributed to the rollout of the company’s new Intranet using Microsoft SharePoint technology, providing tuition on its use to each section’s chosen admin.• Provided general user support by addressing queries referred from the helpdesk.