James King Email & Phone Number

Leading client solution design and implementation from conception to delivery.Primarily working in the DevOps/Development Tools arena, helping client organizations of all sizes realize their vision or solve their toughest problems. Remaining a certified SME on key technologies but also leveraging a much broader range of experience and knowledge, as these efforts often bleed into various elements of the technical organization.Exposure to new technologies, following the evolution of existing tools, understanding what drives client organizations, analyzing varied usage and configuration of existing tools and systems and, of course, getting to know the people and personalities that drive it all, are what keep me engaged and excited with consulting work.

Greater St. Louis Area

Development tools/DevOps lead, driving the design, execution, administration and adoption of IT process/automation/collaboration toolsets across the organization. Partnering with multiple IT functional areas and the PMO to enhance tooling in alignment with the needs of various teams, as well as to establish or evolve process. Stabilizing deployments to ensure reliability and enterprise level availability. Identifying areas for operational support of key and emerging technology initiatives.Key functions and accomplishments:- Design and implement Atlassian Data Center deployments with a focus on performance and availability.- Consult with development teams to configure build and deployment automation according to application requirements and Bitbucket/Bamboo/Jenkins best practices.- Consult with development, infrastructure, PMO and leadership teams to create project configurations according to their process, requirements and JIRA best practices.- Consult with IT Finance and the PMO to deliver JIRA functionality for resource and budget management.- Consult with all teams to enable effective, collaborative integrations, notifications and usability across all Atlassian tools.- Provide support including performance and functional testing, patching and updates, issue remediation, performance tuning, software configuration, failure analysis, architecture and migrations.- Design and implement systems and repeatable processes to identify, alert, communicate and remediate issues with Atlassian applications and environments.- Manage security across tools for the protection of proprietary or otherwise protected data from both internal and external risks.- Provide technical assistance and training for tools across the Atlassian suite.- Serve as advisor and administrator for new tools, capabilities, plugins and best practices.- Understand and fulfill tool and process requirements and efficiency across the SDLC and infrastructure delivery.

Greater St. Louis Area

Pursuing knowledge in vintage motorcycle repair and restoration, taking it to the next level after successful solo projects.

Greater St. Louis Area

Senior DevOps engineer focused on systems and service deployment, health, security, testing, remediation and event response, also responsible for internal development and collaboration tools. The New Balance DTC Division is responsible for creating, maintaining and supporting global branded sites and direct-to-consumer technologies.Key functions and accomplishments:- Developed and maintained operational controls regarding administration, security, compliance and integrity of systems and data.- Established and executed performance and health testing methods and processes for major and continuous release cycles, peak readiness and general sites/systems health, plus coordinated remediation for any issues found.- Collaborated on technology strategies to improve and enhance overall business continuity, systems availability, redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities.- Influenced company standards and assisted in implementation and migration planning as new industry developments and trends were adopted.- Established and maintained metrics, monitoring thresholds, reporting, communication and response procedures.- Administered and developed systems used for the execution of development, infrastructure, business and creative team initiatives and sustainment.

Saint Louis, Mo

Developed long-term client relationships with key and strategic accounts, from aggressive post-startups to enterprise organizations.Maintained deep familiarity with current technologies and applications to provide services and support to diverse customer environments.Served as customer advocate to ensure delivery of service, support and technology consistent with the customer’s unique business needs.Established relationships internally with all other departments in order to enable quick response to any nature of client request.Key functions and accomplishments:- Developed and directed extensive physical and logical infrastructure changes for a well established and rapidly growing SaaS integration provider to provide better performance, fewer issues, easier support and a more robust foundation for growth.- Managed and worked with a highly successful and growing developer of collaboration and development tools to deliver complex architecture initiatives and changes in both their corporate infrastructure and their customer hosted platform.- Partnered with an Apache OFBiz and custom ERP developer to provide virtual services to their customers, then integrated those services into their robust, dedicated back-end environment.- Created strategy for environment and network redundancy, DR, load balancing, intrusion protection, information security and virtual network segmentation with a Bay Area medical center to meet strict requirements for uptime, performance and protection of PHI.- Operated as customer’s first point of contact throughout any impacting event, having done whatever was necessary to provide quick resolution and transparency.

Provided solutions and support to Food-Service and Jan/San distribution company.Fully responsible for all IT based projects, support, training, problem solving and budgetary needs, reporting to the President. Supported all technology for Management, Administrative, Sales, Distribution and Service departments.Key functions and accomplishments:- Redesigned & upgraded of out of date network infrastructure, leading to greater efficiencies and lower support costs.- Deployed, maintained and supported Microsoft Windows Server, Exchange, Windows and Office.- Reorganized external support, technology and communication vendor services saving the company over $100,000.- Successfully migrated to new, company-wide ERP system, replacing 20yr old system.- Coordinated PunchOut solution with developers, multiple customers and varying procurement solutions.- Designed technological solutions to business problems, then collaborated with hardware and software vendors to implement them.- Trained and supported all internal and external employees.- Worked with industry vendors and customers to facilitate communications, ordering and ecommerce.- Planned and deployed wireless warehouse receiving and order processing system.- Collaborated in development and beta testing of business systems software and ecommerce solutions.- Supported and maintained UNIX based business systems software solution.- Deployed and managed information security including intrusion, antivirus and email monitoring.- Developed and maintained disaster recovery solutions including daily backups, mirroring, redundancy, offsite hardware and backup business resources.- Facilitated and supported secure wireless saturation.- Developed and maintained purchasing cycles to keep hardware and software up to date while spreading costs over time.

Fully responsible for design, deployment, maintenance and support of network of over 200 Windows-based systems, servers and services for all students, faculty and staff.Key functions and accomplishments:- Planned and directed the technology program within an overall budget decided upon by the Board of Directors.- Implemented training for teachers and staff in multiple applications.- Developed and taught technology curriculum to upper grades.- Researched and implemented communications and security where none had been in place.

Freelanced as an assistant for photographers in the St. Louis area, as well as visiting photographers for local businesses, sometimes operating as primary photographer.