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Curriculum Vitae of Martin Wicks

Profile

Cloud/Linux/Automation/Devops/Webops specialist with the following experience:

  • Automating provisioning/software installation/orchestration/application build and deployment

  • Configuration management and orchestration

  • Application containerization

  • Building modular packaging constructs and repositories in Linux

  • Securing and hardening instances to CIS Linux standards

  • Hands on experience of distributed version control

  • Strong programming skills

  • Cloud architecture fundamentals

  • Big data fundamentals

  • Working in Agile teams

  • Coaching and leading small teams

  • Giving formal presentations

  • Running training courses

  • Producing detailed reports, proposals and other customer documentation

Specialities

Experience and skills in the following:

Security Vetting

  • BPSS Clearance (2015)

  • Disclosure Scotland (May 2015)

  • DBS Enhanced Certificate (July 2015)

Employment History

Contract Positions (Apr 1999 - Present)

DevOps Engineer - BP
London, July 2016 - Present

Part of an Agile team implementing Red Hat Openshift Container Platform (Docker/Kubernetes) on AWS as part of a large transformation project to provide a PaaS offering to application and development teams across the enterprise. Distributed version control through Git/Team Foundation Server. Image creation through Packer. Build management through Jenkins. Provisioning and configuration management through Ansible. Artifact management through Artifactory. Package management and distribution through Red Hat Satellite. Clustered persistent storage through Red Hat Gluster Server (GlusterFS). Log/Metrics analytics and dashboarding through Splunk, Prometheus and Grafana. Alert notification through AlertManager and Splunk. Collaboration through Team Foundation Server, Confluence and Slack. Platforms run Red Hat Linux 7.

Project details

2019 Red Hat Innovation Award Winner

Short Video

DevOps/WebOps Engineer – Valtech (on site at UK Dept of Work and Pensions)
London, January 2016 – June 2016 (6 months)

Part of an Agile team delivering a Big Data (Hortonworks Hadoop) project to DWP (based on a mixture of privately hosted and public cloud (AWS) infrastructure). Virtualization through Debian/KVM (Proxmox). Image creation through Packer. Customised Bootstrap through Python scripts. Artifact Build Management through Jenkins. Configuration Management and Orchestration through Saltstack. Distributed version control through Git/Gitlab. Identity, Policy and Audit Management through FreeIPA. Packet filtering through pfSense. Secure, Persistent Key/Value storage through Consul. Monitoring and Alert Management through Sensu and Uchiwa. Collaboration through Atlassian Tools (Confluence, Jira, Hipchat). Platforms run Linux (Centos 7 and Debian 8).

Project details

DevOps/WebOps Engineer – DevOpsGuys (on site at UK Ministry Of Justice)
London, May 2015 – December 2015 (8 months, 1 renewal)

Part of an Agile DevOps team supporting the migration of a number of web applications from SkyScape Cloud Services to Amazon Web Services. Provisioning through Amazon CloudFormation and Hashicorp Terraform. Automation through Jenkins. Configuration Management through SaltStack. Orchestration through Fabric. Containerization through Docker and EC2 Container Services. Maintenance of automated Fabric tasks written in Python. Distributed version control through git/github. Metrics collection through Collectd and Statsd. Log and metric management through Logstash, Redis and Elasticsearch. Data analysis and presentation through Kibana, Graphite and Grafana. Alert management through Sensu and Uchiwa. Collaboration through Atlassian tools (Confluence, Jira, Hipchat), Slack and Skype. Platforms run Ubuntu Linux (12 and 14).

Project details

Linux Systems Administrator – KPMG
Watford/London, November 2014 – May 2015 (6 months)

Linux specialist on a hosting services project using Public Cloud Services (AWS). Developed automated provisioning, software installation and configuration management using Foreman, Bash, Python, Git, AWS CLI tool and Puppet (Open Source and Enterprise).

Linux/UNIX Systems Administrator - Credit Suisse
London, August 2012 – August 2014 (24 months, 4 renewals)

Linux/Unix SA working in a 2nd line EMEA team, supporting 3500+ servers running a mixture of RHEL Linux (5 and 6), SuSE Linux (9 and 10) and Sun Solaris (8 and 10) across a mixture of platforms (HP Proliant, Sun SPARC V/T/M series and VMWARE ESX). Working closely with DBA teams (Oracle/Sybase), Storage teams (EMC Symmetrix/VMAX, CLARiiON, HDS, 3PAR, Netapp Filer NAS) and Application support teams (Equities, Derivatives, Prime Services and Fixed Income).

Lead UNIX Systems Administrator - BP Oil International
London, January 2010 – July 2012 (30 months, 5 renewals)

Lead a small team that provided project support for over 200 test and development UNIX systems (RHEL Linux, Solaris SPARC and x86/x64).

Technical Author - Studio B Productions
Home Working, October 2009 – April 2010 (7 months)

Commissioned by Studio B to write content for IBM DeveloperWorks technical resource portal. DeveloperWorks is designed to help users develop and master skills, solve problems, collaborate with peers, and stay ahead of the latest trends in open standards. Three articles were selected and published during this period.

UNIX Systems Administrator - KPMG
Watford, June 2008 – November 2009 (17 months, 3 renewals)

Provided BAU support for UNIX systems (RHEL Linux, Solaris and AIX). This included providing support on an out-of-hours on-call rota.

UNIX Systems Administrator - BP Oil International
London, January 2008 – April 2008 (3 months)

UNIX project support (Solaris) across a small estate of test and development systems.

Senior UNIX Systems Administrator - Reuters
London, March 2004 – December 2007 (46 months, 14 renewals)

UNIX project resource (Solaris) on a number of large projects as well as providing BAU support including an out-of-hours callout rota.

Implementation and Support Executive - Reuters
London, August 2003 – February 2004 (6 months, 1 renewal)

Responsible for day-to-day project co-ordination and UNIX technical support (Solaris) of application components to be rolled into test and production.

UNIX 2nd Level Support - Securicor Cash Services
Sutton, May 2003 - August 2003 (3 months)

Provided 2nd line support to over 1500 users of branch-based UNIX servers (SCO) distributed throughout the UK as well as a number of on-premise systems (AIX).

UNIX Systems Administrator - Thomson Holidays
London, June 2001 - September 2002 (15 months, 5 renewals)

Installed and supported a small estate of UNIX development servers (Solaris) for a number of projects. Subsequently assisted in the transition of support to Britannia Airways UNIX team, which involved documentation & system walkthroughs, skills transition and job shadowing.

UNIX 2nd Level Support - Reuters
London, November 2000 - May 2001 (6 months, 1 renewal)

Provided 2nd level UNIX support across a range of UNIX servers (Solaris and Dynix).

UNIX Systems Administrator - Securicor Cash Services
Sutton, January 2000 - November 2000 (11 months, 1 renewal)

Provided 2nd line support to over 1500 users of branch-based UNIX servers (SCO) distributed throughout the UK as well as a number of on-premise systems (Dynix).

Senior UNIX Systems Administrator - KPMG
Watford, April 1999 - December 1999 (9 months, 5 renewals)

Assisted in a UNIX server migration (Dynix). Subsequently built off-site disaster recovery environments, upgraded test and development servers and developed a number of migration tools, system health-check, systems monitoring and configuration build tools.

Permanent Positions (Jan 1987 - Apr 1999)

UNIX Infrastructure Consultant - Sequent Computer Systems
Weybridge, April 1998 - April 1999

Provided UNIX consultancy for the Professional Services organization working on a number of projects based at customer sites. This often involved producing quality customer documentation to accompany the engagement.

Technical Sales Analyst - Sequent Computer Systems
Weybridge, June 1996 - April 1998

Part of a sales team focused on selling into specific vertical markets, supporting the other team members during sales campaigns and also in the post-sales support of existing customers. This involved producing sales proposals and responses to tenders and RFIs, running formal customer presentations & demonstrations and building & demonstrating proof-of-concept systems to assist in the sales process.

IBM Systems Programmer/UNIX Systems Administrator - COMAG Magazine Marketing
West Drayton, September 1994 - June 1996

In charge of supporting and administering Mainframe and UNIX environments (Dynix) whilst also providing a backup DB2 and Oracle DBA service when required.

IBM Systems Programmer/Senior Systems Programmer - Hampshire County Council
Winchester, March 1989 - September 1994

Responsible for providing front-line support and administration of multi-site mainframe environments providing services to around 20,000 users including out-of-hours support.

IBM Computer Operations - Hampshire County Council
Winchester, January 1987 - March 1989

Worked through the ranks of Operator, Senior Operator and Shift Leader.

Publications

Network problem determination: AIX tools for a system administrator (Part 1)
IBM Developerworks, July 20 2010

This two-part series discusses the tools that can assist the systems administrator in diagnosing TCP/IP network-related issues on AIX®. This first installment details testing connectivity to a host, getting useful network-related information about a host, and analyzing data sent to and from a host.

Network problem determination: AIX tools for a system administrator (Part 2)
IBM Developerworks, August 3 2010

This two-part series discusses the tools that can assist the systems administrator in diagnosing TCP/IP network-related issues on AIX®. In this installment, get under the covers to see what is really going on when your host has problems communicating with another. A step-by-step guide to logical problem diagnosis is also provided.

vi tips and tricks: Ten cool commands sure to impress your friends
IBM Developerworks, July 27 2010

Amaze your friends with cool vi tips and tricks that will improve the efficiency of your file editing. This article takes you through ten of the less well-known vi commands that should form part of any serious vi users toolkit.

Training History

I have attended numerous technical training courses over the years covering UNIX administration, performance analysis and tuning, clustering, Oracle Database Administration and PL/SQL development as well as sales techniques such as SPIN and VSP.

I have also attended a number of non-technical courses covering project planning and management, time management, presentation skills, effective consultancy and effective writing.

I am equally comfortable motivating myself in my own time towards further development of existing skills as well as the development of new ones.

During one engagement I was asked to create and run both a 1-day UNIX overview and 3-day UNIX foundation training course for members of the team.

Education

Itchen College
Southampton, 1984 – 1986

Mathematics (A), Computer Science (AA), Chemistry (B), General Studies (C)

Personal Details

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