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Timothy Ridge Simkins

Email: tim.simkins@tandj.net
Website: http://www.tandj.net/~simkintr/

Objective

To be challenged by an environment that takes advantage of my multi-disciplinary skills.

Employment History

Web Developer, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, University Park, PA

April 2008 to Present

  • Part of a team that migrated over 300 college websites from various platforms into the Plone CMS over seven years.
  • Part of a team that integrated Plone, Magento, Salesforce, Cvent, and other systems to support the Penn State Extension website
  • Modified Plone's look to conform to college branding requirements.
  • Developed Plone products and modified existing ones to add functionality to college websites.
  • Managed upgrades and patching of college Plone environment (multi-Zope client ZEO instance,/Varnish proxies, and Apache webserver on a Linux server.)
  • Worked with Plone at a very low level to automate tasks such as content migration, and site-wide changes.
  • Developed expertise in web accessibility, enhanced accessibility of college sites, and assisted with content providers in understanding accessibility techniques.
  • Used Google Analytics (including Google Analytics APIs) to assist in decision making.
  • Trained content providers in using Plone, and provided support on a daily basis.
  • Built tools to analyze and report on college web environment.
  • Implemented monitoring of web servers using Nagios and Munin.

Web Developer, C-COR, State College, PA

October 2005 to March 2008

  • Assisted in managing C-COR's Cold Fusion based Intranet and external websites.
  • Created custom Cold Fusion based applications on C-COR Intranet.
  • Added features to C-COR's Content Management System.
  • Learned Cognos 8 Framework Manager and Report Studio in order to create reports from Oracle Financial.
  • Assisted in managing Oracle PL/SQL based Intranet system.
  • Implemented Nagios systems monitoring for web systems, and assisted in configuring OpenNMS monitoring solution for network devices and servers.
  • Assisted in maintaining C-COR's HR information system, including creating a VMWare ESX Server development environment.
  • Extracted sales forecast data from external web application via SOAP.
  • Assisted in setting up F5 Firepass web SSL VPN.
  • Assisted in Unix troubleshooting and scripting.
  • Trained new web software developer on C-COR's systems and processes.

Backup Express Support Engineer, Syncsort, Inc. Woodcliff Lake, NJ

June 2005 to September 2005

  • Trained in Backup Express product, issue management system and handling calls.
  • Provided technical support via phone and email for Backup Express customers.
  • Created Perl script to package Backup Express patches.

Architecture Specialist, Enterprise Systems Management Group, Prudential Financial, Roseland, NJ

June 2000 to June 2005

  • Managed, monitored, streamlined and provided metrics on five AutoSys (Computer Associates' Batch Scheduler) environments.
  • Part of a team that planned and performed a rollout of AutoSys 4.5 to the enterprise, encompassing two environments and 400 users, and managed the migration from AutoSys 3.4 to Autosys 4.5.
  • Supported customers for 200+ applications using AutoSys, and the Operations group monitoring AutoSys on a 24/7 basis.
  • Assisted customers in troubleshooting issues with their applications in AutoSys.
  • Developed a complete Perl-based Tivoli DM Management system to manage monitoring on ~3000 Tivoli Endpoints.
  • Assisted in transitioning management of a Tivoli environment from vendor-managed to internally managed.
  • Designed Tivoli DM and T/EC standards for 3,000+ Unix and NT servers.
  • Assisted in managing, supporting, consolidating and twilighting two interconnected, multi-tiered Tivoli environments.
  • Assisted in managing and automating a Tivoli migration from 3.6 to 3.6.4., including documenting and auditing DM monitors and tracking the migration.
  • Assisted in migrating Tivoli Netview 6.0.3 to Tivoli Netview 7.1.3, including developing a Perl-based program to model the Netview map and construct a location.conf file.
  • Learned the ARS Remedy System, and created a time tracking application within Remedy.
  • Created a Perl-based socket server to facilitate the automated creation of Remedy tickets using the Remedy API and ARSPerl.
  • Part of a team that developed Network Compliance Reporting application correlating Netview network data for ~50,000 devices with 10+ other data sources, and analyzed and reported on compliance of those devices to Prudential policy.
  • Developed AutoSys batch streams to manage the Network Compliance Reports and other applications.
  • Created Perl and DBI based reporting and automation tools for the AutoSys, Asset Insight and Tivoli environments.
  • Developed a Perl, DBI, and GD::Graph based front end to the Tivoli Enterprise Data Warehouse.
  • Designed and supported a web based tool used by Network Operations personnel to manage DNS entries for 13,000 network devices.
  • Created and supported multiple web based systems management and tracking applications.
  • Created, standardized and modularized the ESM and various product web sites.

Intern, Adelphia Powerlink, Coudersport, PA

June 1999 to August 1999; December 1999 to January 2000

  • Trained in technical support for cable modems, split path and phone ISP.
  • Applied Perl knowledge to provide automation solutions.

Injection Molder, Encon Safety Products: Coudersport, PA

June 1997 to August 1997; May 1998 to August 1998

  • Operated plastic injection molding machines that made parts for safety glasses.

Clerical Assistant, Insurance Department, Adelphia Communications Corporation, Coudersport, PA

March 1994 to August 1996; May 1997 to August 1997

  • Responsible for managing, maintaining and reporting on data on insurance claims, property and assets, and Motor Vehicle Records.
  • Provided limited automation in managing data.
  • Informal office technical support.

Education

Clarkson University: Potsdam, NY. Class of 2000

  • B.S. in Technical Communications .
  • Two Years Majoring in Electrical Engineering.
  • 3.336 Overall GPA.
  • Clarkson University Amateur Radio Club (K2CC)
  • DJ and Tech at Clarkson Radio (WTSC)
  • Clarkson University Photography Club.

Coudersport JR/SR High School: Coudersport, PA. Class of 1996

  • Ranked 3rd in class of 88 students.

Current Skillset

Skill Level Experience
Unix (Linux, Macintosh OSX, AIX, Solaris) Expert 16 years
HTML/CSS Expert 17 years
Plone/Zope Expert 7 years
Python Expert 7 years
SQL Intermediate 14 years
Apache/IIS Intermediate 14 years
Adobe Photoshop Intermediate 17 years
Windows 3.1/95/98/NT/XP/2000/2003 Intermediate 19 years
DNS Intermediate 13 years
Git/SVN/RCS/ClearCase Intermediate 13 years
JavaScript/AJAX Intermediate 16 years
Unix Shell Scripting Intermediate 15 years
VMWare Server/ESX Server Intermediate 10 years

Past Skills

Skill Level Last Used Experience
Perl (including Object Oriented Perl) Expert 7 years ago 8 years
AutoSys (including eTrust integration) Expert 10 years ago 5 years
Tivoli DM Expert 10 years ago 3.5 years
Cold Fusion MX Intermediate 7 years ago 3 years
Cognos 8 Business Intelligence Intermediate 7 years ago 1 year
Tivoli T/EC Intermediate 10 years ago 3.5 years
Tivoli Framework Intermediate 10 years ago 3.5 years
Tivoli Netview Intermediate 10 years ago 2.5 years
Backup Express Intermediate 10 years ago 3 months
PHP Beginner 5 years ago 1 year
Oracle PL/SQL Beginner 7 years ago 1.5 years
Novell Netware Beginner 10 years ago 3 months
ARS Remedy Development Beginner 10 years ago 1.5 years
C++ Beginner 15 years ago 1 year
Java Beginner Mostly 16 years ago, only occasionally since. 6 months

Additional Information

  • Member of the Plone and Python User Groups at Penn State.
  • Attended Penn State Web Conference and Plone Symposium East/Midwest annually.
  • Web Liaison for Accessibility for the College of Agricultural Sciences.
  • Attended Zope 3 training.
  • Built applications in Django and Flask frameworks using Diazo theme engine.
  • Attended Fundamentals of Magento Development course.
  • Completed Cognos 8 Business Intelligence training for Report Writing, Data Modeling and Server Administration and Content Administration.
  • Completed Basic and Advanced Backup Express training.
  • Formally trained in AIX, Tivoli DM and Tivoli T/EC.
  • Highly skilled in written, oral, and visual communication to varied audiences.
  • Received Prudential's Rock Solid award for AutoSys work in 2000.
  • Currently hold a Ham Radio License - Callsign: KB3DLK.

Availability

  • Negotiable.

References

  • Available upon request.