Iwan Jones Email & Phone Number

Cardiff, Gb

As the Platform and Cloud Lead for EMEA, I oversee three critical functions within our client IT services: Database Administration, Platforms, and Cloud. I utilise my technical expertise to lead and manage teams to provide capabilities that meet business needs while fostering a people-centric leadership approach.Key Responsibilities:• Develop talent within the team by identifying and nurturing high-potential employees to assume greater responsibilities and contribute to the organisation's growth.• Lead a high-performing team of professionals, providing mentorship and fostering a collaborative work culture.• Collaborate closely with teams to understand requirements and deliver tailored solutions.• Collaborate with executives and department heads to align IT initiatives with business objectives.• Implement best practices and industry standards to ensure compliance, security, and data governance across all services.• Oversee system upgrades, patches, and enhancements, minimising downtime and maximising system reliability.• Streamline database administration processes, optimising performance and reducing response times for critical applications.• Resolve complex technical issues and incidents promptly, minimising business disruptions and ensuring high levels of satisfactionKey Achievements• Building the EMEA GCP Cloud capability• Remove single points of failure within the team • Work with key stakeholders to design solutions to meet business requirements• Integrated technical teams acquired through M&A activities• Support the organisation with client engagements• Lead platform roadmaps for our clients to ensure we meet their requirements

Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom

As a Platform team lead at Merkle, I am immersed in daily technical challenges while managing the team. I am the point of escalation in the region for any issues or concerns that require my experience in administering and developing our data systems.In addition to being the SME for our data systems, my remit has grown over the years to include governing business platforms such as our Atlassian suite and source code repositories. Ensuring they are meeting our security and life cycle standards for ISO and client requirements.Technical Responsibilities include:• The continuation of my role below from a big data perspective• SME for all our database stack (SQL Server, MySQL, Postgres, Cassandra, MongoDB, Redis)• SME of our data platforms (Hadoop – Hortonworks, Informatica, NiFi, RStudio)• Security remediation and vulnerability management• Reviewing and designing architectureManagement Responsibilities include:• Managing a multi-regional team with recruiting, training and coaching employees, communicating job expectations and appraising their performance• Team culture (supervise and motivate team members for high performance and satisfaction)• Providing mentorship and development plans for the team to further their development• Project management (Experience coordinating installations, upgrades, and maintenance)• Reporting on team performance and productivity• Financial planning and financial management of our departments P&L

Bristol, United Kingdom

As a senior database administrator, I am responsible for administering all Merkle data platforms (relational, and non-relational) across EMEA and be a team leader for the DBA team. My key responsibilities are to continue administering and performance tuning SQL Server databases and administer three big data platforms. From a SQL Server perspective I am currently responsible for:- Supporting and providing a mentorship role to two DBA graduates (team leadership role)- Consulting development teams with database design and SSIS strategies- Assisting with architecting solutions to ensure high performance- Developing solutions using SSIS and SSRS- Performance tuning and optimising SQL Server environments- Implementing and designing HADR strategies- Integrating our data platforms to conform to global strategies across EMEA- NoSQL installations and configurations- Integrating third-party tools (QlikView, Tableau, IBM Campaign, Sqoop) with data sources in the businessFrom a big data perspective, I am currently responsible for:- Administering three Hadoop platforms- Building the ecosystem (we currently use Hortonworks – HDP 2.6.4)- Upgrading HDP, RStudio and NiFi- Troubleshooting build and configuration issues- Security (encryption at rest, encryption in motion, Kerberos authentication, Ranger and Ranger KMS)- Assisting with architecting solutions to ensure high performance- Our ecosystem currently uses HDFS, Ranger, YARN, MapReduce, Spark, R Server, Zeppelin, Ambari, Sqoop, Pig, Hive, MongoDB, NiFi- I am also the Linux administrator on the systems

Bristol, United Kingdom

As a Database Administrator at Merkle | DBG, I am currently in charge of administering and maintaining SQL Server environments, this involves resolving application database issues, and implementing database changes ensuring that the changes fit with the database strategy to provide high levels of reliability, maintenance, and support. I am also in control of managing the identification and resolution of SQL Server issues (for example performance and database design) across our databases environments hosted on a variety of platforms. I also automated the majority of the manually re-occurring tasks and implemented a reporting solution to allow easier management of the SQL server environments. Recently I was involved in upgrading our legacy systems from SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2014, which involved planning a migration strategy for each instance of SQL.Key Responsibilities Include: Installing and managing SQL Server and related services; configuring SQL Security objects; managing and reviewing previous SQL Server installations and database objects across the business and writing or updating documentation of current and new processes to be held within the business. Furthermore, I carry out solution audits which evaluate the platform, operating system, ETL processes, database, and solution. Additional Responsibilities include; capacity planning, security, SSIS, high availability, backup, recovery, and performance.

Bristol, United Kingdom

As a Junior Database Administrator where I am in charge of administering and maintaining SQL Server Environments. This involves resolving application database issues and implementing database changes ensuring that the changes fit with the database strategy to provide high levels of reliability, maintenance, and support. Key Responsibilities Include: Installing and managing SQL Server and related services; configuring SQL Security objects; managing and reviewing previous SQL Server installations and database objects across the business and writing or updating documentation of current and new processes to be held within the business.

Talybont, Aberystwyth

Whilst on my summer placement I was asked to develop a website for a new and upcoming non-profit organisation campaigning for the Welsh language. Although I already had many responsibilities with Y Lolfa at the time, I decided to take this opportunity to gain further experience and also to test the efficiency of my time management skills. After a week’s development on the WordPress website, it was completed and ready a few weeks in advance of the launch of the company. I am currently performing administration duties on this site on a freelance basis as it does not require a great time commitment.

Aberystwyth, Wales, Uk

Having recently graduated from Aberystwyth University with Second Class Honours, Division 1. My final year project was to develop a Web Based Management System for a charitable organisation - 4x4 Response Wales. Relevant Modules: Agile Methodologies, The Software Development Life Cycle, Web Programming, Introduction To System And Network Services Administration, Further Issues In System And Network Services Administration, Web Publishing: Websites, Blogs And Wikis Introduction To Business Processes For Web Developers, User Centred Design And Human Computer Interaction, Interactive Web Programming, Modelling Persistent Data, Commercial Database Applications.

Talybont, Aberystwyth

I was employed on a 10 summer week placement at Y Lolfa as a EBook developer. During this placement I was asked to produce 30 EBooks, I was determined to beat this target, and not only did I beat it but I managed to more than double it (65 EBooks were completed).The company also requested my advice on how to improve their website, which resulted in me having various meetings with their current web developer on what he and I could do to develop their website. In addition I was asked to represent Y Lolfa in a conference about the social media and the positive effects it can give to a small business.

Canton, Cardiff

Studying the Welsh Baccalaureate required me to do 30 hours of voluntary work. I decided to volunteer in a local Fair trade shop as I had an interest in the issue of fair-trade. After I had performed my 30 hours of voluntary work, the owner of the business offered to keep me on as a paid worker where I worked for a further two years. My duties included serving customers, monitoring stock and representing the company with stalls at two cultural festivals. I also produced bilingual signs for the shop in both Welsh and English and designed new vouchers for the shop.

Bsc (Hons), Internet Computing, 2:1

Activities and Societies: Running, Rugby, Gym, Socializing, Working, Learning.Having recently graduated from Aberystwyth University.

A, B, C, D

Activities and Societies: Rugby, Football, Running.