Chris Van Aardt

Experience

• 

  Alstom Group

  Aug 2003 - Sept 2004

  Senior Developer

  Lead Visual Basic development engineer responsible for front-end of Vehicle tracking system in use at Volkswagen of South Africa (Uitenhage)On-site support and incident managementScoping and design of new development projectsClose interaction with suppliers and partners for jointly delivered solutionsWeekly reporting

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  Prosyn Ltd

  Feb 2005 - May 2008

  Senior Systems Engineer

  Planning, design and delivering of solutions featuring a range of technologies - Cisco VOIP, Small Business Server, remote Working solutions.Server hardware configuration and buildOrganizing and leading training sessions on new customer installations.Support and assistance for junior engineers in both support and project based roles.Day to day customer interactions for support, maintenance and project related queries.

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  RM Education

  May 2008 - Oct 2013

  Senior Infrastructure Engineer

  Technical and operational management of all technologies in use that provide services to the business. New solution design, review during transition from implementation to operational phase as well as operational- and end-of-life management. Provide consultancy to various teams within the IS department (Development, Project Delivery, Senior Management, Support Teams) as well as the rest of RM on solution design and operational topics to ensure that any decisions made or solutions implemented are both supportable and scalable.Final technical escalation point for support teams and third line support engineers. This includes incident management for Critical Infrastructure incidents.Ownership and management of Proactive Infrastructure portfolio to ensure that proactive maintenance projects and reactive engineering workload is balanced.Change managementVendor and Supplier management - As a lot of suppliers provide services critical to RM's business, proactive management as well as close cooperation is required during any supplier service outages.Mentoring and guiding of other engineers Show less

• 

  Computacenter

  Apr 2014 - Mar 2017

  Lead and support a Network team of highly technical and professional individuals. Provide technical expertise and advice and input for projects. Actively identify and create new business opportunities. Play a lead role in due diligence and service integration of new services. Ensure the successful delivery of multiple, concurrent, large scale projects to customers.Optimize team to create additional capacity for time & material work and additional new business. Improve profitability by controlling overtime costs and resource inefficiencies. Participate in or initiate formal customer service reviews and assist with building relationships and improving customer confidence.Set team objectives and strategically allocate and structure available resources.Plan for projects and manage active projects taking into account, financials, milestones, deliverables and resource availability.Resolve complex technical and procedural queries presented by key stakeholders. Show less Provide guidance and advice on problem resolution approach to technical analysts in the team.Pro-actively identify process and team areas that require improvement and facilitate resolution.Encourage and oversee team focus on process improvement.Provide technical guidance and knowledge based on more complex issues across a wide range of technologies.Perform service transition and due diligence.Lead or representative role in customer group discussions.Co-ordinate and oversee work schedule demands.Handle team and customer escalations. Delegate tasks when required according to defined roles and responsibilities.Review and advise on quality of work and standards adherence. Show less

  • Networks Team Lead

    Aug 2015 - Mar 2017

  • Wintel Tier3 Technical Lead

    Apr 2014 - Jul 2015
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  Logicalis SA

  Apr 2017 - now

  Lead and support a team of highly technical and professional individuals. Provide technical expertise and advice to the team.Define service acceptance and service transition plans for new business and services.Play a lead role in due diligence, knowledge capture, service acceptance and transitioning of new business and services. Ensure the successful, operational delivery of managed services to customers.Manage overtime costs and resource efficiencies. Participate in or initiate formal customer service reviews and assist with building relationships and improving customer confidence.Set team objectives and allocate and structure available resources, ensuring these are aligned with business strategy.Resolve complex technical and procedural queries presented by key stakeholders.Act as escalation point for all technical areas within remit, own and coordinate escalations appropriately.Provide technical definition of supported products and services.Guide and train team members on new processes.Identify and drive process improvements.Driving enhancements to internal IT Operations in order meet growing business requirements.Perform a key role in defining internal IT Operations Budget.Provide important operational input into new business costing and scoping activities. Show less

  • Senior Operations Manager

    Sept 2021 - now

  • Practice Manager - Digital Ready Infrastructure

    Mar 2019 - Aug 2021

  • Team Leader (Senior Networks and IPT)

    Apr 2017 - Mar 2019