Personal information

Iain Patterson: 35 The Paddocks, Cambridge, CB1 3HG, UK

Email: me@iain.cx - Telephone: +44 7719 276621

Born: 1977, Birmingham, UK - Nationality: British - Education: University

Experienced UNIX consultant with a diverse range of technical skills. A methodical problem solver with a keen sense of responsibility, I am self-motivated and quick to learn new skills.

Employment

May 2007 - current Cambridge Silicon Radio, UK
System consultant (as contractor prior to January 2009)

Responsibilities

Management of multiple Oracle (Sun) Grid Engine clusters and general UNIX infrastructure worldwide.

Perforce server and proxy administration.

Providing UNIX support to the engineering community.

Major projects

Integration of multiple sites with worldwide standards following corporate merger/acquisition activities.

Deployment of worldwide cfengine infrastructure.

Integration of UNIX systems into Windows Active Directory forest. Cross-realm Kerberos: pam_krb5, SSH with GSSAPI, Apache Negotiate authentication, Kerberized NFS, nsswitch LDAP. Development of a geographic DNS system based on Active Directory site and subnet information to allow users in different locations around the world to access the most appropriate server providing a given service.

Design and deployment of a web application to allow the engineering community to manage FLEXlm licences. Licence files are syntax checked and committed to version control. Custom ACL processing enforces geographic licensing compliance.

Deployment and configuration of multiple Exceed onDemand clusters worldwide.

Deployment of Isilon OneFS storage.

February 2007 - April 2007 Siemens IT Solutions and Services, UK
UNIX engineer

Configuration and management of iPlayer backend server farm.

June 2005 - January 2007 CacheLogic, UK
Systems administration and support

Responsibilities

Management and development of UK office network. Administration of web, mail, file/print and VPN services. Configuration of gateway and firewall.

Support and management of Splicecom maximiser telephone system.

Responsible for end-user support for the company's proprietary network appliances.

Hardware building and quality assurance.

Identifying software issues, raising them with development team and confirming resolution.

Liaising with vendors and suppliers. Sourcing products and managing support contracts.

Major projects

Design and implementation of company-wide single sign-on scheme using OpenLDAP and Kerberos V. Configuration of client services to integrate with LDAP schema. Linking Splicecom PBX to LDAP servers to allow users to initiate calls from a web UI.

Development and maintenance of bespoke asset management system. PHP-based application allows order placement and tracking as well as full product deployment history.
Design and implementation of UK NOC network with multihead projector display and hot-desk workstations and VoIP phones.
Creation of support ticket escalation system which pages on-call engineers about customer critical issues.
Planning and execution of UK premises relocation. Creation of a cross-site VPN to ensure office telephony while the vendor migrated ISDN30 circuits.

August 2003 - May 2005 Tiscali (UK), UK
TMC engineer

Responsibilities

Monitoring and troubleshooting of UNIX network. Identifying and dealing with outages across several UK sites within a strict timescale or escalating to relevant third line engineers.

Responding to customer and internal support tickets.

Supervising customer and third-party engineer site access.

Development and maintenance of scripts and tools used on a day-to-day basis.

Alternating day and night shifts.

August 2000 - October 2002 ViaGold Direct Network, Hong Kong
Internet systems engineer

Responsibilities

Installation and maintenance of UNIX customer web/FTP server, ISP mail server and DNS servers.

Customer RADIUS authentication and accounting. Configuration of Cisco AS5300 and USR Total Control 1000 access servers and design of custom PHP applications for monitoring and billing customers' modem usage. I made changes to the MySQL-based RADIUS server to improve reliability and provide additional features such as simultaneous use checks.

Major projects

Extended MySQL database integration to mail and FTP servers, providing a dedicated database server for each service, updated via one-way replication from a central administrative server. I then developed a PHP frontend to this master database that allowed nontechnical staff to manage customer accounts.

Design and implementation of a prepaid card scheme with online signup for a partner company in Guangzhou.

Design and implementation of UNIX (Linux and Solaris) server network for the ISP's Peking point-of-presence. Creation of a customised Slackware installation CD greatly decreased the time needed for this task.

Consultancy to a sister company for the development of the Chinese 2000 distribution of Linux. Advising on choice of software packages and troubleshooting system configuration.

Supported the company's product demonstrations at several press conferences and meetings in Hong Kong and China by configuring a set of laptop servers that could be dropped into the venue's network to provide local web content and NAT services to demonstration workstations.

Added an antivirus filter to the qmail mail server.

July 1999 - August 2000 Zen Internet, UK
Network consultant - systems administration

Responsibilities

Administration of core internet services to a largely business customer base. Configuration and maintenance of customers' mail and web servers, DNS administration, configuration of RADIUS authentication and accounting servers and MySQL database servers.

Major projects

Security of the UNIX server network. Setting up per-machine ipchains firewalls to backup the access lists set on the network's routers and switches. Restriction of login via secure shell configuration.

Developed patches to qmail and checkpassword, allowing them to link to a MySQL database for validating virtual domain users.

Working closely with the vendor on configuration and administration of the Actinic Catalog e-commerce server.

Working with the Telco to prepare the RADIUS servers for the rollout of ADSL to UK customers.

Education

1995-1999 University of Birmingham, UK, BSc Mathematical Sciences
1997-1998 Université Lumière Lyon 2, France, Langues Étrangères Appliquées
1993-1995 Blackburn College, UK, 3 A-Levels

IT skills

Operating systems - Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, Solaris, Windows, AIX, IRIX
Languages - Perl, C, C++, PHP, shell scripting, Java
TCP/IP networking - SMTP, HTTP, POP3, FTP, DNS, RADIUS, IMAP4, DHCP, LDAP, Samba, NFS, Active Directory, SNMP, hardware installation
Virtualisation - VMware ESX, QEMU
Telco - Asterisk, Splicecom maximiser
Firewalls and security - Kerberos V, Cisco IOS firewall, Netscreen 100, ipfilter, FreeBSD ipfw, Linux ipfwadm, ipchains and netfilter, secure shell, OpenSSL, OpenVPN, PGP
Internet software - Apache, MySQL, Squid, qmail, djbdns, PostgreSQL, Actinic Catalog, Analog + Report Magic
Media - Photoshop, Maya, 3D Studio MAX
Exposure to - NetApp OnTAP and GX, DataStream, Critical Path, Jumpstart, Oracle, NetCool

Foreign languages

French - fluent but rusty
Spanish, Italian, Cantonese - basics

Interests

Rollerblading
Running
Swimming
Piano

References

Available on request.