RACHEL "Mandi" WALLS
Objective:
The pursuit of DevOps. To continue working in large-scale high profile web environments. To use my knowledge to build world class online systems to deliver high performance to users and provide value to business goals through cooperation and communication among product, development, and operations teams.
Occupational Experience:
AOL, LLC, Dulles Virginia and New York, NY
Principal Systems Administrator, August 2007 - Present
Senior Systems Administrator, March 2006 - August 2007
Systems Administrator, June 2004 - March 2006
- Architect and deploy large-scale web environments using common Open Source software components
- PHP development for APIs underneath AOL's internal asset management and publishing system. Worked with APIs provided by multiple vendors to create a unified interface for AOL internal tools
- Multiple generation migrations from proprietary platforms to open platforms to simplified platforms
- Served as primary administrator responsible for www.aol.com user-facing web server farms, including uptime, performance, scaling, backup configurations, monitoring, documentation
- Work with Development and Product teams to ensure system design is efficient and effective at meeting design and performance goals
- Evangelize Open Source components to other teams, including giving talks and preparing training materials
- Use metrics and monitoring tools to determine impact of application changes to the overall stability and performance of large scale projects
- Create custom tools to collect and parse performance data for production applications
- Fluent in shell scripting, perl, PHP, Tomcat, Apache, MySQL, Linux. Conversant in load balancing and large multi-tier architectures, end-to-end testing and metrics, and scalabilty. Familiar with Java, C++, Hadoop, json, ATOM, SOAP.
Stratford University, Falls Church, Virginia
Adjunct Instructor in Computer Information Systems September 2002 - March 2006
Unix Lead Instructor
Classes Taught:
- CIS150 Advanced Client-Sever Technology
- CIS162 Unix Operating Systems
- CIS225 Active Directory Infrastructure Design
- CIS230 Active Directory Security Infrastructure Design
- CIS255 Implementing and Supporting Secure Networks
- CIS330 Advanced Unix Operating Systems
Digicon Corporation, Rockville, Maryland
Linux Systems Administrator, March 2002 - June 2004
Assigned to National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH
- Installation and maintenance of Linux servers and workstations
- Resource planning and hardware recommendations for servers and cluster hardware
- System and network security as it pertains to Apache, SSH, and other services on Linux
- Management of users, resources, and scientific software on Linux and Solaris
- Packaging of custom software for security upgrades as required by NIH security guidelines using the package management tool RPM
- Presentation and documentation of system information as necessary
Invicta Networks, Herndon, Virginia
Software Engineer, January 2001 - February 2002
Software development concentrating on perl, PHP, and database software on the Linux platform, along with Linux system administration duties
- Software development using XML, perl, perl/Tk, PHP, and MySQL
- Systems Integration of Invicta products with Linux
- Administration of Linux servers, workstations, and test equipment, including backups
- TCP/IP Networking including network design, cabling, installation and routing
- Administration of network services including NFS, NIS, SMTP, LDAP, and Linux firewalls
Litton TASC, Chantilly, Virginia
Member Technical Staff, January 2000 - January 2001
Sun Solaris Administrator for data warehouse web site
- Administration of Solaris 2.7, Apache 1.3
- Development of site software using perl, PHP, and MySQL on Apache/Solaris
- Resource planning for Solaris and Oracle, including off-site backup
UUNet Technologies, Dulles, Virginia
Install Engineer I, July 1999 - December 1999
Technical support for UUNet's SOHO DSL/Dial customers
- TCP/IP network configuration and troubleshooting
- Configuration of various networking products from Ascend, Intel, Cisco, for customers
- Configuration of POP3, SMTP, DNS, NAT for customer networks
Education:
MBA, June 2010
Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
OneMBA Program
MS Computer Science, January 2008
George Washington University, Washington, DC
BS Computer Science with Applied Math, May 1999
Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
Presentations:
- Programming Committee member for O'Reilly Velocity Conference
- O'Reilly Velocity 2009, San Jose CA. Migrating www.aol.com from a Proprietary Web Platform to Open Source. June 23, 2009.
- O'Reilly Velocity 2008, Burlingame CA. Actionable Logging for Smoother Operation and Faster Recovery. June 23, 2008. http://www.linuxchick.org/velocity08
- Northern Virginia's Linux Users' Group, Chantilly Virginia. GnuPG. February 2003. http://www.linuxchick.org/gpg
- InterWorks 2001, San Francisco, CA. Using Linux and Open Source Software for Everyday Activities. May 2001.
- HPWorld 2000, Philadelphia, PA. Introduction to the Use and Management of KDE. September, 2000.
- HPWorld 1999, San Francisco, CA. Using Samba. August, 1999.
Professional Memberships:
- Association for Computing Machinery
- IEEE
- USENIX
- SAGE