Years IT Experience
Certifications
Happy Customers
Honors and Awards
What I'm Hosting
Recommendations
Alexander G.
I was lucky enough to work with Steve for several years at Linode. Steve produces consistently high quality and reliable work. The customer is paramount in his judgement, his honesty and thoroughness in communication creates an excellent customer experience. Steve's experience as a seasoned Linux administrator shines in his creative solutions and in the mentorship he provides to his peers.
Sarah Brunson
I have known Stephen for several years now, and he is a pleasure to work with. I was always given clear instruction, reasonable deadlines, and more than adequate compensation. His manner is professional, respectful, and genial and it's clear that his projects are well thought-out and backed up with enthusiasm. Stephen is excellent at managing groups and ensuring that we all had what we needed when we needed it. 10/10 would recommend to a colleague.
Dave Sylvia
Steve is a passionate worker and a loyal friend. I have known Steve for 10 years and worked with him for 6, and in that time, he has never let me down. Steve runs all of the social media and marketing for RGB LAN, a charity gaming event that we created together. His department requires near-zero oversight because I know it’s in good hands. If he ever runs into a problem, he comes to me with solutions instead of questions. His ever-evolving skill-set is an invaluable asset to any organization.
Professional Experience
Linode Linux Systems Administrator
First responder for infrastructure-impacting incidents on equipment spanning thousands of physical machines and virtualized instances. Address incidents and organize efforts to identify and resolve the issues while preventing future incidents. Organize multiple teams into single chats in order to ensure incident response protocols and efforts are streamlined into one, cohesive discussion. Run post-mortem meetings to lead discussions on specifically what caused the incident and the best path forward to prevent future incidents. Test and deploy monitoring and tools for the team to improve workflows and incident response times.
Linode Customer Support Specialist Lvl 3
First member of the Support Team to achieve the rank of Customer Support Specialist Level 3. Swiftly troubleshoot Linux virtual servers and assist customers on the cloud hosting platform through phone and ticket support. Respond to public questions on the community questions site for technical issues that are outside the scope of standard Support tickets.
On-call administrator
Access and troubleshoot host machines and various elements of the infrastructure as a part of a 24/7 on-call rotation.
Managed Trained
Access, investigate and troubleshoot customer servers when a Managed monitor alerts to an issue with the customer's services. Expected to quickly ascertain the source of the issue and resolve it promptly before providing detailed notes on the issue and possible ways to prevent it again in the future to to the customer.
Support Training Expert
Train and mentor new Support employees. Develop and manage continuing education projects to the benefit of the team and company as a whole. Update internal training materials and documentation to ensure a standardization of best practices.
Computer Support Technician
Facilitated Environmental Protection Agency employees with computer and network related issues. Ensured efficient and speedy resolutions via the Remedy Ticketing system. Provided for both local system and infrastructure-wide issues. Managed and completed projects for various EPA teams.
Owner
Oversaw website operations, managed a freelance writing team, stream live video of game play across multiple systems, and maintain Facebook page with 220k+ fans. Employed Google Adsense and affiliate programs to generate revenue. Utilized the Adobe Creative Suite (Audition, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere) to maintain branding across platforms. Continued expanding expertise in the use of audio and visual equipment in order to produce YouTube segments and live shows on Twitch.tv.
Social Media Expert and Editor
Actively managed 25+ Facebookbased online magazines and websites; scaling each website from creation to 2+ million users. Engaged the various online communities, generating 100K+ likes per day, by creating site content both individually and through a small team of freelancers I managed. Developed and monetized each property, earning up to $10k per month per property for the company. Cultivated relationships with various press contacts and managed multiple advertiser accounts. Developed proficiency in the use of audio and visual equipment in order to produce YouTube segments and live shows on UStream.
Technical Support for University Staff
Provided troubleshooting and installation support for students and professors at the University of Maryland. Trained new technicians and managed special projects. Researched and implemented new tools used to troubleshoot hardware and peripherals