Managing the IT of colleges and schools within my region.Currently Worcester Sixth Form College and John Kyrle High SchoolPreviously Interim Hereford Sixth Form College IT Manager for 18 months

I am currently the M-Tec Group IT Manager. This involves being solely responsible for the management of a Vmware 2 node cluster with a Netapp shared storage. My day to day involves managing backups, checking server and Netapp logs, assisting users and managing licenses. Upon starting at M-Tec I looked through all contracts that fell within my remit and looked where savings could be made. This resulted in significant saving on both support and leased printing agreements. The latter not even having to change suppliers and being issued with new equipment. I have experience on a number of projects including installation of a firewall, adding VLANs to the network and replacing a previous Wi-Fi network. When I attempted to install a new firewall, it would have initially appeared unrealistic, to be able to get our old Cisco router up and running to a standard that would actually protect our servers. However, after figuring out the complicated processes behind converting to a vendor GUI based system that included SSL interception and P2P VPN, we managed to upgrade our systems to the 21st century. I regularly discuss with the directors my ideas about projects and future progression of IT systems on-site, and have been fortunate to implement schemes such as IT policies and procedures. During the coronavirus pandemic, I felt a moral obligation to do what I could, to help to keep our staff safe. I volunteered to become the office manager so that I could help improve our working environments, such as making sure we had appropriate supplies of hand sanitisers and facial coverings. That is on top of, rapidly bringing in innovative and new technical solutions, to allow the maximum number of our staff, to be able to work from the safety of their home. Finally, I have also been heavily involved with supervising the apprentices and the work placement students we regularly have.

Managing the IT infrastructure for Worcester Sixth Form College and the Reprographics department. As part of this role I managed a team of 7 to deliver an effective IT department for Staff and Students. As well as managing the helpdesk and existing infrastructure I also lead a number of projects these include but are not limited to:Office 365 Migration from on premise exchangeNew firewall installationMoving VMS to new virtual hostNetwork ReplacementMoving from Desktops to LaptopsNew offsite backup infrastructureReplacement of complete network between vendorsReplacement of Wi-Fi between vendorsRenegotiation of contractsRoll out of Safeguarding technology

I worked for the largest Grupoantolin division (previously Magna Interiors), which I transferred to from Magna Barton Division. In the final 18 months of my employment we had been purchased and I had a leading role with the transfer to a new domain. I helped to run the initial domain migration team, travelling to other divisions within the UK and abroad to Slovakia. Here I found the value of being able to rely on my colleagues, delegate appropriately to be able to successfully implement large structural changes to a rapid timescale. I have a lot of experience with ‘hyper v with failover cluster’ and ‘Veeam Backup solutions’, as the majority of their servers were either 2012R2, 2012 or 2008 R2. I created a WSUS server and successfully managed all the windows updates and backups that are associated with it. After completing a CCNA course, I was able to take the responsibility for helping to manage the Cisco network. I was also chosen to create and transfer to a new site, which uses VMware and Cisco technologies. This was a challenging and fulfilling task, creating a whole new production site within a number of weeks. However, the site was fully operational ahead of the set timeframe, with no downtime caused by IT issues. I took the lead on multiple projects, one being the door access system; this has involved getting quotes from a number of different suppliers and then configuring networks and servers.Previous Projects:I have previously been involved in 2 earlier Active Directory Migrations. As part of a major IT transformation, Magna made the move from a large number of domains to a smaller number of key domains, for this we needed to migrate a couple of hundred users/desktops as well as servers. This was completed both manually and using Microsoft's ADMT tool.

Magna Interiors was brought out by Grupoantolin. Please see Grupoantolin section above for details of employment.

Magna is a manufacturing company which produces car parts for both Toyota and Jaguar Land Rover. As part of my role, I supported machine critical computers within the factory. I also supported office staff and managed to solve the unique problems that often occurred within a busy office environment. One of the biggest learning points here was being able to listen to people whom English was a second language and quickly decipher what issues were and resolve this within a short period of time.

As part of my degree, it was intended that I complete a 9 month work placement at the college, however, due to me being essential to multiple projects, the college requested the placement to be extended until I returned to my final year of university. During this time, I gained extensive knowledge of managing user accounts, through software such as Active Directory. I have also had a lot of experience with server management and maintenance. My role included installing multiple computers in classrooms within short periods of time; this greatly improved my time management skills as I would often be put under high-pressure situations where I would have to prioritise between different jobs affecting many students. I am skilled at fixing machines at remote locations, using remote administration tools, as well as being 1st line support. The college also held multiple events where not only were machines needed, but also PA systems, which I confidently installed and set up.

While working at Wolf Systems I helped maintain a medium sized computer network with multiple users; this included helping users with everyday errors, replacing printer cartridges and replacing faulty hardware. I became familiar with Microsoft Windows Server Editions from 2000-2008 where I set-up computers for use with customers for training purposes. I also spent a lot of time fixing broken hardware and reconditioning old machines so that they could be used elsewhere in the business.