Skills

• System Administrator: Install and manage servers (primarily Linux and Solaris; also Mac OS X, Windows NT/2000/2003/XP, and FreeBSD), providing a broad variety of services. Design, install, monitor, and secure integrated systems. Create small scripts for management tasks, such as firewall management and SSL certificate management.
• Writer/Editor: Wrote articles on Mac OS X, firewalls, and security for TidBITS and Macworld. Contributed chapters on the Darwin (UNIX) environment in Mac OS X for Mac OS X Power Tools and Mastering Mac OS X. Wrote manuals for Interarchy. Committer on the Apache httpd Documentation Project.
• Web Developer: Managed and coordinated content and coding for several high-volume web sites at the National Audubon Society and Shooting Gallery. Helped to design, build, and test customer sites at The Gryphon Group.

Professional Experience

System Administrator, Computational Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: New York, NY. December 2008-present.

• Manage two small Linux compute clusters (64 and 18 nodes).
• Maintain a variety of Linux servers (CentOS and SuSE) for internal and internal web applications.
• Manage additional Linux servers for various applications, such as email.
• Maintain 2 Sun X4500 "Thumpers", serving as repositories for next-generation genetic sequence data.

Senior Technical Analyst, Technology Infrastructure, Goldman Sachs: Jersey City, NJ. February-November 2008.

• System Administrator: Managed Solaris and Linux servers hosting securities trading applications. Responsibilities included system specification, configuration, maintenance, rationalization, account and access control, etc. Worked to normalize & rationalize systems and accounts under cfengine & NIS. Utilized Nagios for health & performance monitoring. Performed user testing of various network connectivity scenarios, utilizing FreeBSD/ipfw to generate different latency patterns.

Senior System Administrator, Information Technology, The Rockefeller University: New York, NY. January 2001-February 2008. The Rockefeller University is a graduate research institution, conducting medical, genetic, biological, computational, and other scientific research.

• System Architect: Designed integrated systems for research and administrative groups -- specifying applications, operating systems, connectivity, storage, fault tolerance, security requirements, and policies. Served as lead systems architect, in coordination with the project manager, for Rockefeller's Single Sign-On system. Rockefeller's SSO system is based on redundant Solaris systems on private network segments behind Big-IP load balancers. It provides authentication for a variety of protocols and services, including email, VPNs, personnel directory, Oracle Calendar, and various web sites. Served as lead architect on a variety of other projects, including high-performance computational clusters, www.gensat.org, ERP, and a variety of research facilities.
• Solaris 2.5.1-10: Specified and designed, installed, patched, secured, and configured approximately 100 UltraSPARC systems, from Ultra 2/5/10, through Ultra Enterprise 250/450, to Sun Fire V100 through V880/V490. Migrated consoles from KVMs to ssh-based terminal servers. Software used included Apache httpd (with Jakarta Tomcat, mod_ssl, etc.), Veritas (File System, Volume Manager, and Cluster Server), ssh (OpenSSH and ssh.com versions; with extensive use of tunneling and public key authentication), Legato/EMC NetWorker, SunONE Enterprise & Directory servers, BIND 8 and Infoblox DNSone, Oracle (Database and 11i Applications, in coordination with the Database Group). Worked to update and rationalize core and lab computing resources, improving security, manageability, consistency, and reliability. Involved with design and implementation of high availability clusters across replicated EMC Clariion arrays, and designing other high availability systems, including F5 Big-IP load balancers.
• Linux (Red Hat Linux 6.2-Enterprise Linux 5): Specified and designed, installed, patched, secured, configured and maintained over 100 GNU/Linux x86 systems, including IBM xSeries and BladeCenter, Beowulf clusters, dual-booting laptops and desktops, and various other systems. Software used includes Apache httpd (with Jakarta Tomcat and mod_ssl), ssh, Legato NetWorker, iptables, lilo, and grub. I hold an RHCE certificate for RHEL 5.
• Windows (NT/2000/2003): Assisted Windows Systems Group. Software used includes ssh (PuTTY and OpenSSH in MKS Toolkit), IIS, Oracle client, and Cold Fusion.
• Mac OS X: Supported Macintosh technicians in advanced areas, such as the command line, security, and server configuration. Served as corporate liaison with Apple for support issues.
• Other responsibilities: Account management, security work (pre-emptive patching, auditing, user education, network design, and intrusion response), basic performance analysis, network troubleshooting (in coordination with the Network Group), and training new System Administrators. Served as Technical Lead for the UNIX Systems Group.

System Engineer, Interactive Group, Shooting Gallery: New York, NY. May-December 2000. The Interactive Group developed broadband and narrowband websites.

• Systems Engineer: Built and managed web servers for Shooting Gallery and clients, running on Solaris, Windows NT, and Linux platforms, both on-site and at off-site hosting facilities.
• Senior Mac Support Analyst: Supported several dozen Mac workstations; integrated Macs with the corporate network. Hired a full-time Mac Support Analyst and switched to full-time Systems work.

Systems Architect, The Gryphon Group, LLC: New York, NY. June 1999-Feb 2000. Gryphon did custom back-end development for high-end websites -- particularly e-commerce.

• Systems Architect / Systems Administrator: Managed all Gryphon's Internet servers, running Linux, Windows NT, Solaris, IRIX, and Mac OS. Maintained client and Gryphon websites on Netscape Enterprise and Apache servers.
• Network Manager: Managed the Gryphon LAN and Internet connection, including real-time monitoring (InterMapper), local file service (Samba and Netatalk), and workstation backup (Retrospect).
• Project Manager: Helped define client goals and requirements and created design specifications for Gryphon to implement. This role included coordination of development efforts to ensure the final product satisfied client objectives.
• Training: Taught and supervised a Junior Systems Administrator.
• Assistant Director: Set formal policies and procedures for project management. Supervised other Project Managers and Technical Leads to ensure best practices were being followed, particularly in client interactions.
• HTML and Cold Fusion Reviewer: Performed coding and testing, including fixing HTML and Cold Fusion code.

Web & List Manager, National Audubon Society: New York, NY. January 1997-June 1999. The National Audubon Society is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization with approximately 550,000 members and 510 chapters in the Americas.

• Installed and managed two Windows NT servers providing web services (WebSite Pro), FTP services (Serv-U FTP), mail services (LSMTP), and mailing list services (LISTSERV).
• Maintained and enhanced the main NAS web site, including creating over 1,000 pages. Grew the site from about 30 pages to over 2,000. Managed and hosted additional sites for Wild Wings: Heading North and AUDUBON magazine. Established free web hosting services, including FTP access and customized domain names, for over 100 chapters with over 2,000 web pages.
• Managed a site redesign in coordination with a design consultant. Organized a committee to define working policies for Audubon websites, then defined requirements and future directions for the site. Wrote and distributed an RFP based on these policies for a second redesign of the site, and to lay groundwork for future projects and redesigns, then met with design firms for vendor selection.
• Chaired Audubon's List Oversight Committee, consisting of staff, members, and directors, to set policy and review requests for new email lists. Trained new list owners. Implemented and grew the Audubon LISTSERV service to over 100 lists and 10,000 subscriptions.
• Assisted Audubon IS in LAN & WAN design and troubleshooting, and consulted on TCP/IP, AppleTalk, and general networking. Established and managed Audubon's DNS service with QuickDNS Pro.

System Administrator, Medscape, Inc.: New York, NY. January-December 1996. Medscape is a free medical information website, offering content from a variety of sources and Medline searches. Medscape grew from approximately 20,000 to over 150,000 users during my time there. Responsible for configuring, maintaining, and monitoring all servers (four web, two mail, Butler SQL, AppleSearch, and general-purpose) and maintaining user workstations. Managed MedPulse, a newsletter describing new content and changes on Medscape; emailed MedPulse weekly to over 100,000 subscribers. Responsible for TCP/IP network administration for both Medscape and SCP Communications, Inc.

Desktop Support Specialist, Computing Services, The Rockefeller University: New York, NY. June 1993-December 1995. Performed Macintosh desktop support, with sole responsibility for over 700 Macs for two years, including networking, backup, and system specification.

Other Experience

Writer/Editor

securosis.com, TidBITS, Macworld, O'Reilly Media, Take Control Ebooks, etc.

Security Review

Reported security flaws to Apple.

Panelist: 1999 San Francisco Macworld/Expo Pro Conference

Discussed firewalls and intranets. Later adapted the presentation as a TidBITS article.

Webmaster and System Administrator: www.info-mac.org

Info-Mac Network, on a FreeBSD system hosted at MIT, 2000-2006. The systems ran Apache httpd 1.3 & PHP4, email (Postfix & UW imapd), mirroring (rsyncd, proftpd, later vsftpd), and file sharing (sftp & netatalk) services.

System Administrator (hobby)

Host over 20 domains, providing web sites & blogs, email (Postfix, Cyrus IMAP, SquirrelMail, SpamAssassin), Subversion repositories, etc.

Software Testing

For the AG Group, Apple, Bare Bones Software, Claireware, DayStar Digital, Dartmouth College, Ex Machina, Global Village, Green Dragon Creations, InterCon Systems, Lunatech Research, Mainstay, Men and Mice, MicroQue, Neon Software, Portfolio Systems, Qualcomm, Semicolon Software, Software Ventures, Sonic Systems, Stairways Software, Ultra-United, Velocity Development, Working Software, Ziff Communications, etc.

Volunteer

Webmaster and Mailing List Manager for Brooklyn Free Space, 2005-2007.
Trustee of Brooklyn Free Space, and Secretary of the Board of Trustees, 2006-2007.

Education & Training

• Wheaton College: Norton, MA. Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in Computer Science and Mathematics, with minor concentration in English. May 1993.
• Vassar College: Poughkeepsie, NY. Junior year exchange program. 1991-1992.

• 2009: Isilon IQ Concepts and Configuration
• 2007: Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5; RH401: Red Hat Enterprise Deployment, Virtualization, and Systems Management.
• 2004: Sun Cluster
• 2003: Sendmail Switch (MTA), Sendmail Advanced Message Server (IMAP/POP), Sendmail Proxy (SSL/TLS), and Sendmail Mobile Message Server (webmail)
• 2003: Veritas Cluster Server for Solaris; Veritas Foundation Suite for Solaris

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