Chris Lynch

About

Personal Life.

Father of two amazing kids, husband to an amazing wife. When time permits I enjoy playing guitar, or at least trying to play depending on who to talk to. I'm also a keen astrophotographer and astronomer when the Irish weather permits.


Professional Life.

IT Professional with 18+ years experience in industry. Ideal candidate for a position requiring initiative, reliability, determination and excellent problem solving skills. I'm currently working as a Senior Cloud/DevOps Engineer for Realizeit Learning managing the global infrastructure in support of our Adaptive Learning solution. At a high level this includes Design, Implementation, Security & Maintenance of all Infrastructure resources via IaC as well as maintenance of individual Customer Instances for Performance, Support.

Resume

Summary

Major Projects & Achievements

  • Environment upgrades across global infrastructure (Multiple AWS Accounts, Regions & Environments) with zero downtime or performance impacts to any customer. This was the first time this was achieved in the company - Realizeit Learning
  • Migrated entire Infrastructure to IaC with Terraform including automating DR Environments, from multiple CloudFormation templates and manual resource management - Realizeit Learning
  • Part of the team that implemented and maintains compliance with both SOC2 Type 2 and ISO 27001:2023 - Realizeit Leaning
  • Maintained global 99.99% uptime of SaaS solution - Realizeit Learning
  • Built & Support the underlying infrastructure for high profile government bodies such as HAP, NBCO/BCMS & DPER eCohesion systems as well as the application. - ProvidentCRM
  • Built a support team and implemented Jira Service Desk to provide outstanding support to all Customer - ProvidentCRM

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

  • SaaS solutions management
  • Remote team leadership - 10 years working remotely.
  • Technical communication and excellent troubleshooting skills
  • 10+ years of working with AWS
  • Worked with Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL), and Windows servers
  • Experience working with governmental bodies/departments in designing/building infrastructure for on-site deployments

Languages & Tools

    Python, Bash, Powershell,PHP, JavaScript, SQL, Scripting, C#
    IIS, Apache, NGINX
    MySQL, MSSQL, PostgresSQL
    Redis & ElasticSearch
    AlertLogic MDR, AWS Security Hub
    AppDynamics, SentryOne
    Jenkins

AWS

    Work daily with many AWS Services to provide a full SaaS solution such as (EC2, ELB, FSx, Lambda, RDS, S3, EFS, FSx, CloudFront, etc.)

Education

M.Sc (Hons) Mobile Networking and Computing

2005-2006

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK

B.Sc (Hons) Computerised Instrument System

2001 – 2005

CORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Professional Experience

Senior Cloud/DevOps Engineer

Oct/2021 - Present: Realizeit Learning
  • Responsible for daily maintenance and operation of our global infrastructure in support of our Adaptive Leaning platform providing 99.99% uptime across multiple highly available environments.
  • Manage security and implementation of controls in compliance with SOC2 Type 2 and ISO 27001:2023
  • Maintain the IaC co-debase for all Environments, with Responsibility for Design, Security, Implementation, Costs Controls, etc.
  • Provide support to Development and Product, from analysing Infrastructure Logs, Application Logs, provide DBA services on back-end Databases.
  • Responsible for all Production code deployments (Application & Infrastructure)
  • Implemented JIRA Service Management for Change Control and DevOps support ticketing, which led to implementation of JIRA Software & Product Discovery to replace Azure DevOps.

Technical Support & Infrastructure Manager

Apr/2017 - Oct/2021: ProvidentCRM
  • Build and grow a remote Support Team inline with business requirements and goals.
  • Provide guidance and mentoring to team members to allow them to grow and advance
  • Set and manage internal team KPIs to ensure that all customer SLAs are met.
  • Part of the team implementing ISO27001:2013
  • Hold Support and Service reviews with Customers
  • Hold team reviews ensuring objectives and goals are been met
  • Responsible for the management and maintenance of AWS Production Infrastructure to ensure customers have a highly reliable and cost effective solution.
  • Work hands on with the team working on support tickets and development tasks
  • Take part in Weekly Project Management and Resource Planning meetings
  • Provide estimations and quotes for customers.
  • Involved directly with high profile projects
  • Manage code deployments

Senior Support Specialist

Jun/2015 - Apr/2017: ProvidentCRM
  • Manage our entire AWS infrastructure and the client onsite infrastructure.
  • Responsible for the maintenance & development of internal systems and processes.
  • Provide support for customers' infrastructure across a multitude of technologies and environments.
  • Provide support for customers' SugarCRM instances. Maintain internal documentation.
  • Carry out SugarCRM Development tasks when required

Technical Analyst Level 3

Feb/2015 - Jun/2015: OpenText Corporation
  • Provide remote support for customers using OpenText Business Intelligence (BI) and OpenText Integration Center (OTIC). Support a wide range of customer environments (Windows, Linux, Unix) for production installations and upgrades.
  • Provide guidance to junior members of the team.
  • Take part in product management meetings to ensure escalation of bugs to development.
  • Product testing (New Features & Bug Fixes)
  • Became first staff member in Irish operations to receive internal KCS certification and to become a KCS coach

IT Consultant/Support Engineer

Sep/2006 - Feb/2015: FDC IT Solutions
  • Responsible for the day to day running of the IT Department
  • Development and Maintenance of internal SugarCRM system. Technologies used, PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, HTML, SOAP, JSON.
  • Administration/Development of over 30 Linux servers (Samba File Sharing, SQUID Proxy, DNS, DHCP, Web Servers - LAMP)
  • IT Consultancy for Clients. Meet with Clients to understand their requirements and recommend suitable, cost effective solutions.
  • IT Support for External Clients and over 250+ Internal Staff, spread across 26+ offices. This involves Remote Support and on-site visits when required.
  • Linux/Windows Server deployments (Ubuntu Linux, Windows Server 2003 & 2008)
  • Creation/Management of custom scripts to improve/automate the Upgrades/Backups of PCs, Linux File Servers.
  • Negotiate best prices with Hardware and Software suppliers
  • Responsible for Time keeping & Invoicing.