Gerald B. Email & Phone Number

Orlando, Florida, United States

● I determine the strategy for our technology and innovation office, as well as reviewing the latest technology trends to determine what might best serve our business and our customers. ● I worked with our CEO to develop a strategy for using AI to increase efficiency with coding customer solutions while also maintaining our high-quality standards for our codebases. ● My team noticed some issues with lag while using the internet. After troubleshooting, we found that we had outgrown our internet backbone hardware. We replaced the hardware and rebuilt the internet backbone to ensure high speed connectivity for our virtual meetings. ● My passion for using new tech to solve problems isn’t limited to just software. We had an issue with one of the air conditioning systems that was under warranty. However, the repair company kept refusing the repair stating that they did not see any issues. I used the same facility automation system with a couple of Arduinos and temperature sensors to be able to show the temperature fluctuations in each room in a graph. This proved that the system was not functioning correctly. The repair was completed a few days after providing that information to the repair company.● We needed some lighting automation set up at our facility. I used my passion for using new technology to discover a free home automation assistant on a Raspberry Pi for the automation. We manage the home assistant internally to limit security risks.● Because of my passion for continual learning, I’ve invested in Agile training to ensure that my process and facilitation knowledge is also using the newest technology. We use Kanban to manage several large-scale, multi-phase projects. I lead the team to manage the design and engineering processes using the most efficient processes. By limiting our work in progress, working on one epic at a time, and prioritizing the riskiest work first, we can ensure our customers are satisfied.

I led my team to create a Windows Version Management Tool. When Windows 10 came out, Microsoft shifted from service packs to twice-a-year releases. Because of that new cadence, Microsoft would end-of-life any Windows 10 version that was older than 18 months. We created a new software program that would not only identify the older versions, but also give the user prompts for what to do to get updated to the needed version of Windows. We developed the full stack solution and deployed this to ≈150,000 systems across the world.I led our team organizational planning events to ensure orchestration with the other agile teams as we planned, managed, and prioritized both new and in-progress projects. I was part of the leadership group bringing new talent onto the team, to ensure technical excellence and cultural fit. When Lockheed Martin started their SAFe Agile Transformation, I led my team through the transformation. We used a mixture of Agile development concepts, techniques, and tools to manage our work. We used Jira to manage our commitments and deliver predictably according to the dates to keep current with policies such as Microsoft’s Modern Lifecycle Policy or multiple browsers’ faster lifecycle policy. I supported the career goals and growth of the team members, ensuring they had opportunities to stretch and grow in their professional development. I worked collaboratively with internal and external projects, including working with people in disparate organizations and geographical locations. We were able to adapt our suite of products to their environment and needs, as well as local laws and regulations.

• We sometimes had zero-day vulnerabilities. I ensured I was on top of the latest tech news, constantly tracking to watch when those occurred, and we worked quickly to mitigate the vulnerabilities to protect the organization as soon as I learned from the communities that a vulnerability existed.• In 2017, there was a SMB (server message block) transport protocol used by Windows that had a vulnerability exploited by the “WannaCry” virus. As soon as I learned of this vulnerability, I advised leadership so they could escalate. I discovered it on a Sunday afternoon and had every one of our 150,000 systems patched by Monday morning using advanced group policy. This was deployed to not just workstations but every computer in the organization, including the servers and domain controllers. The team that I led after that patched a few other viruses using the same group policy method over the next few years.• In 2015, Lockheed Martin acquired Sikorsky Aircraft. I served on a small team of top security engineers to transition their systems to meet our specifications. They had not used the same rigor that we did. For example, they had hard-coded settings in their systems. We devised a plan to bring them up to our security standards by transitioning them to our group policies.

• I stood up VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) to PBX (private branch exchange) phone systems to test the security for the corporation moving to phone calls over the Internet instead of traditional phone systems. • When I first joined the desktop management services team, I designed the security standards, which included group policy, for the corporation’s desktop workstations. As part of the implementation, I coordinated with multiple teams to ensure the security standards were implemented, balancing security needs with functionality.• I also designed the security process for creating the group policies and deploying and managing them, which were still being used when I left.

● In this role, I continued to manage the 700 users and their leaders. I also added the responsibility of supporting the web development server farm, which was up to 22 servers at one time.● When I transitioned to the role of server administrator, we went from a 50% downtime amount to less than 1% down time. This was because any time I touched a server, I would automate updates and maintenance items. I also set the servers to reboot in a specific timed order once a week in a 30-minute window after hours. ● I was also the support for the development team and the applications that they used. I set up the laptops for the developers, set up the database connections, and other configurations. I also supported them in troubleshooting when they were developing. ● After we had upgraded a few of the servers to larger hardware (2003-2004), I implemented VMware virtual machines and reduced the number of physical servers from 22 down to 7 while improving performance. As part of this consolidation, I implemented a sandbox development and user acceptance testing area. We did DevOps before it was cool! The reduction in hardware reduced the heat in the server room so much that they were able to take out one of the cooling units. We used Internet Information Services (IIS), Oracle, SQL, Siteminder, ColdFusion, and Active Directory services. ● When others heard about what I had done with the virtual machines, they flew me to Pennsylvania to help them start the cloud computing data center for the corporation.

• In this role, I resolved service desk tickets for computers, printers, and all peripherals, as well as applications support• When I moved to a dedicated area, I was responsible for about 400 users, the managers, and the director of this group. I was overwhelmed for about six months because previous technicians did not do maintenance on the computers, they would only repair the problem. Once I had gotten through most of the computers, and performed all the updates and regular maintenance, and automated updates and maintenance for the future, the amount of work dropped significantly. That’s when I started going through the surplus hardware. I cataloged, organized, and retired the storage rooms. I then had capacity to pick up two other directors and their groups, supporting 700 users and their leaders, including three directors and their VP. The VP would only let me work on her computer, even three years after she retired. • During this time, I also did some support for servers and special projects.

• Worked in the data center in data management• I taught myself JCL and wrote a program that reduced the time to create the disaster recovery reports from taking 45 minutes down to 45 seconds. It pulled the data from the mainframes down to a personal computer to be able to print the reports and take action on them. The reports told you which tapes needed to go offsite for disaster recovery