Experience

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  Watson wyatt worldwide

  Jan 1997 - Jun 2000

  Lead systems engineer

  In my role as Lead Systems Engineer at Watson Wyatt Worldwide, I successfully led the migration project from Netscape Enterprise Servers to Microsoft IIS servers, ensuring a seamless transition for our 5,000 employees. I collaborated with developers, consultants, and engineers to enhance system reliability and functionality. Additionally, I implemented Excalibur Technologies’ search engine for advanced search capabilities on our intranet servers.

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  Lifeminders

  Jun 2000 - Aug 2002

  Sr. systems & network engineer

  Led the design and implementation of a $9 million data center for the Official Olympics Newsletter, supporting daily news delivery to 30 million subscribers. The data center infrastructure included EMC Symmetrix 8730, Brocade Silkworm 2800 switches, Windows 2000 with Active Directory, F5 BIG-IP and 3DNS, Black Diamond switches, NetScreen 1000 firewall, Dell OpenManage, HP OpenView SE, MS SQL Server (2000 and 7.0), MS IIS 5, MSMQ, DFS, and ADIC Scalar 1000.Implemented a comprehensive web monitoring system using Freshwater's SiteScope and Dell OpenManage SNMP software, enhancing visibility and management of server performance.Developed detailed system documentation to aid engineers in monitoring and troubleshooting production systems effectively.Troubleshot complex issues with EMC Symmetrix 8730, Brocade switches, and fiber network components, serving as the primary engineering contact for SAN systems and Brocade fiber channel networks.Designed and developed an SNMP monitoring system for Brocade switches using Dell OpenManage and HP OpenView (NNM), improving network oversight and issue resolution.Built and managed a Windows 2000 Active Directory environment with 300 servers and 200 workstations distributed across 10 domains, ensuring robust network infrastructure and security. Show less

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  Cross media marketing (purchased lifeminders)

  Sept 2002 - Aug 2003

  Engineering manager

  Oversaw the closure of the Reston office and transitioned operations to a hybrid format with the Atlanta office. Managed the WAN architecture for the customer service call center in Atlanta, ensuring seamless connectivity and performance.Provided IT management consulting for local IT personnel, offering expertise and guidance to optimize IT operations and support organizational objectives.

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  The college board

  Oct 2003 - Jul 2024

  Directed Cross-Functional Observability Engineering Efforts. Led a team of three managers and collaborated with 30+ DevOps teams to design and implement an observability framework that enhanced enterprise-wide reliability. Oversaw the development of performance dashboards and real-time monitoring solutions, resulting in a 25% reduction in service outages and ensuring 99.9% application uptime for mission-critical platforms.Optimized Incident and Problem Management. Managed a yearly volume of 23,000 PagerDuty alerts, leading 282 incident responses and producing 39 root cause analysis (RCA) documents. Streamlined escalation procedures, reducing mean time to resolution (MTTR) by 30% and improving service reliability across key applications.Resolved Major Reliability Challenges During High-Stakes Launches. Played a pivotal role in the successful deployment of major digital assessment products (AP, SAT, PSAT) by implementing tailored observability solutions to monitor traffic peaks and identify irregularities. Delivered seamless user experiences during peak load periods, handling traffic increases of up to 40% without service degradation.Enhanced System Monitoring with Observability Scripts. Spearheaded the development of 145+ synthetic monitoring scripts tailored for critical business transactions across 30+ applications and websites. These scripts provided real-time performance insights, enabling application teams to identify anomalies and proactively address potential issues. Tools like New Relic and JMeter were leveraged to establish comprehensive monitoring frameworks.Improved Incident Management Processes. Designed and implemented robust incident management documentation and workflows to streamline responses to service disruptions. Trained 30+ DevOps teams on using PagerDuty for automated alerting and escalation, leading to faster resolution times and improved service reliability. Show less Scaled and Mentored High-Performance Teams. Expanded a team from 7 to 38 engineers by designing an Agile team blueprint tailored for multiple product lines, fostering a culture of collaboration, continuous learning, and accountability. Streamlined Deployment Processes Through Automation. Designed and implemented creative automated solutions using JavaScript for CI/CD pipelines, reducing manual intervention by 90% and cutting deployment times in half. These solutions included infrastructure-as-code (IaC) practices using tools like AWS CloudFormation, as well as automated testing frameworks. The initiative decreased bugs by 80%, improved release reliability, and enabled teams to double their deployment frequency, significantly enhancing overall operational efficiency.Introduced customized development methodologies (Scrum, Scrumban, Kanban) to align with team and product needs, resulting in increased engagement, improved team cohesion, and a 30% boost in student engagement metrics through cloud-based product innovations.Designed an application resiliency framework that incorporates three fundamental pillars of reliable application development best practices. Pioneered AWS cloud serverless technology architecture, defined the standard coding structure with node.js and react.js, reducing custom capacity management by 90% and cutting development time by 40%. Reduced CI/CD Infrastructure Costs by 25% Through Automation. Designed and implemented automated CI/CD pipelines using AWS CloudFormation, streamlining deployment processes and eliminating the need for costly manual interventions. Introduced and optimized test execution with parallel testing frameworks. These improvements reduced infrastructure provisioning time, cut resource overprovisioning by 40%, and decreased CI/CD operational expenses by 25%, enabling faster, more reliable software releases. Show less Designed and delivered the distributed systems design of the Assessment Redesign Customer Management Architecture in AWS, overseeing its deployment to production. This robust solution ensured high performance and established the foundation for future development initiatives in AWS Public Cloud.Redesigned Legacy Test Ordering System using the new AWS cloud architecture patterns.Led an organization-wide Architectural Committee to establish common patterns, address shared challenges, and develop industry standards. **Design and Delivery of Distributed Systems**Designed and delivered the distributed systems design of the Assessment Redesign Customer Management Architecture in AWS, overseeing its deployment to production. This robust solution ensured high performance and established the foundation for future development initiatives in AWS Public Cloud.Led an organization-wide Architectural Committee to establish common patterns, address shared challenges, and develop industry standards. Show less Spearheaded the development and execution of strategic and tactical plans for system operations, emphasizing operational excellence, quality management, and cost control. These initiatives resulted in substantial improvements in infrastructure performance.Conducted market research on leading virtualization products and developed an organizational virtualization vision and strategy document.Engaged with end-users, clients, and senior management to define and translate intricate system and infrastructure requirements into practical solutions.Collaborated with the process improvement department to design and implement a toolset for advancing CMMI levels. Selected and integrated Appian Process Manager to enhance architectural integration patterns.**Online Learning Management System (LMS) Development**Designed, developed, and deployed an online LMS for training new proctors utilizing a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. Integrated with third-party SOAP web services, the system enables CB administrators to schedule online meetings with proctors. The web application serves as an online training platform for over 10,000 high schools.Designed the initial Digital Assessment Reference Architecture in the AWS Cloud, successfully eliminating the need for paper-based SAT examinations. This initiative was piloted in multiple educational institutions. Show less Designed and executed integration models, integrating HP Business Continuity products such as PPM, MAM, and CCM. Managed projects from conception to implementation, incorporating MAM as the centralized change control mechanism for infrastructure.Led a successful server consolidation project, reducing the infrastructure footprint from over 500 servers to 320 servers. This resulted in substantial cost savings of $4 million over five years and enhanced system availability.Conceptualized and presented a comprehensive three-year strategic plan to senior management. The plan outlined the evolution of an AIX infrastructure into a dynamic and adaptive system, with the primary objective of enhancing capacity allocation and facilitating the swift deployment of high-demand databases.Developed and implemented an ITIL service master template for the organization’s inaugural infrastructure service. This template managed all phases of service implementation, establishing effective operational procedures.Specified systems and server platform availability requirements for J2EE applications. This work laid the foundation for an overarching master server architecture, collaborating with the IT department, IT senior management, and business units. Additionally, I collaborated with solution integrators (SI) to ensure that customer service-level agreements (SLA) were met, aligning with the required service support expectations of the customer. Show less Conceived and integrated the Hitachi HDS USP-V SAN, Cisco MDS 900 FC switch, and QLogic 2620 for the current Oracle 10g and future 11g databases.Assessed the operating system management systems as a potential candidate for College Board’s platform provisioning capabilities. The findings and recommendations were synthesized into a comprehensive summary report.Conceptualized a server operating system provisioning evaluation matrix. The matrix integrates requirements from various infrastructure functional domains and facilitates objective comparison of vendor products.Assessed and evaluated various candidate hardware platforms as part of the selection process. The outcome of this work in this area is a well-defined performance workbench. Given the continuous introduction of hardware platform improvements into the market, the workbench provides an organization with a reliable framework for making objective comparisons. The framework enabled the team to efficiently evaluate twenty-five diverse platform configurations and maintain meticulous statistics for subsequent analysis and comparison.Supported enterprise infrastructure capacity planning, including planning for upgrades or expansions of existing environments. Reviewed and established risk assessment and change control procedures. Show less Designed and developed common J2EE architectural interfaces and patterns for real-time communication with MQ WebSphere and enterprise file transfer system using Tumbleweed among the five major vendors. This involved the development of time-sensitive and complex transfer mechanisms to ensure the timely completion of administrative tasks such as seat assignment, roster information, grading, and analysis of SAT exams within a 12-day timeframe.Designed and implemented long-term strategic objectives and short-term tactical plans for managing and maintaining systems’ operations, quality, and costs.Developed a server consolidation model to reduce the infrastructure footprint from 500+ servers to 320 servers, resulting in a cost savings of approximately $4 million over 5 years and increased availability due to the less complex environment.Developed an ITIL service master template for the organization’s inaugural infrastructure service and oversaw the service implementation phases. Show less

  • Senior Engineering Director, Site Reliability, Observability Engineering and Operations (SRE)

    May 2021 - Jul 2024

  • Senior Director of Software Engineering

    Mar 2017 - Apr 2021

  • CMTD Senior Cloud Architect

    Sept 2015 - Feb 2017

  • Enterprise Solutions Architect

    Sept 2011 - Aug 2015

  • Domain Architect

    Apr 2008 - Sept 2011

  • Infrastructure Architect

    Oct 2005 - Mar 2008

  • Sr. Engineer

    Oct 2003 - Sept 2005
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  American turkish association of washington dc (ata-dc)

  Jul 2020 - now

  As IT Chair of ATA-DC, I oversee the organization's technology strategy and infrastructure, ensuring all digital platforms and systems run efficiently and securely. My role involves managing IT projects, coordinating with vendors, and implementing innovative solutions to enhance our technological capabilities. I also collaborate with other board members to support our mission through effective use of technology, ensuring that our digital tools align with the organization’s goals and objectives.

  • Vice President, IT Director, Board Member

    Jun 2024 - now

  • IT Director, Board Member

    Jul 2020 - Jun 2024