IT Team Leader
Community College of Qatar
مجموع سنوات الخبرة :23 years, 4 أشهر
As the team leader of IT Infrastructure at CCQ, I am responsible for developing and maintaining the company's strategic, tactical, and operational IT. My day-to-day responsibilities include leading the department, ensuring the continued operation of five campuses and one datacenter in Qatar, that services our Students, faculty and admin staff. The environment consists of Cisco UCS Compute, Cisco ISE, switches and firewalls, VLANS, Wireless, Cisco VoIP Communications, Jabber, Web Security, Antivirus & Deception servers, Infoblox DNS, F5 Application Load balancer, Dell EMC SAN, Veritas Netback, 150 EXSi & Oracle virtual machines ranging from the Microsoft Windows Server operating system. Office 365, Mac OS to Linux CentOS and Exadata, SharePoint farm, Document Management System, SQL & Oracle database servers. Educational Applications like Banner, Blackboard, Digital Measures, Argos and Adobe products.
I am running an Agile approach with multiple initiatives of transformation, which will align the IT Architecture and Infrastructure, information assets and technology future proof, in addition responsible for Cloud transformation journey (IaaS) including disaster recovery and business continuity.
Currently engaged in identifying software/tools, solutions by participating in evaluating, PoC for few upcoming projects like Identity & Access Management, Privilege account management, ISO27001- ISMS, SEIM, , WAN Optimization, TCO & ROI for On-Prem data center to migrating to Cloud transformational roadmap.
In addition to the technology refresh projects, I am contributing for developing and implementing the IT Security Policy and IT Security Procedures. AD integration, PKI/encryption and system hardening, procedures on patch and vulnerability management.
Responsible for the annual Capex/Opex of ~50MM QAR (5 AY budget)
- Completed the migration of our users to Office 365 (Skype for Business, Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business)
- Evaluated existing infrastructure, forecasted for next 3 years on the compute and storage resources for virtualization platform and moving directly to vSphere 6.7 running on Cisco UCS, Nexus switches and a Dell EMC VNX 5230 storage arrays.
- Designed Azure Cloud infrastructure as a future road map (Opex business model), got management approvals to invest and migrate on Azure along with PKI/encryption for data protection and VPN tunneling secure access.
- End point and server protection security + deception platform software, designed and evaluated latest available technology products.
- Veritas NetBackup system, propose upgrade plans for the same including tape drives.
- ManageEngine helpdesk tool, additional purchases, renewal and implement asset and software management module.
- Infoblox DNS (Hardware and Software) tech fresh and upgrade.
- Access Control systems (Fingerprint biometric system) upgrade.
- Evaluate and source CCTV surveillance system for new campus, renewal of AMC’s for existing other campuses.
- Currently deploying Microsoft SCCM and Adobe patch manager.
Responsible for the contract and asset management: review, renew all IT contracts, payment schedules, review and renew IT subscriptions, Licenses, hardware and software suppliers including licenses optimizations.
I also provide mentor ship to my team, contribute towards the ISO accreditation and internal audits of CCQ. in addition, I conduct interviews, review of IT personnel on- and off boarding yearly appraisals, I periodically review service issues. Collaborate & support with other internal departments as needed.
- Managed several digitization and transformation projects from initial proposal discussions, feasibility study, POC, deployment, execution through final project deliverables to clients.
- Demonstrated organizational and time management skills by leading and organizing daily stand-up meetings with the team, which helps in setting priorities, scoping dependencies in work, sequence of stages of work/activities and involvement of stakeholders.
- Liaised internally and with clients to complete artifacts including system/Application security features, configuration management, business impact analysis, business continuity and SLA’s.
- Responsible for all in‐house IT Infrastructure, end user and Backend Systems, Cloud Services, Databases, licensing, security and storage services manage service vendors, suppliers, SLA’s AMCs, Licensing, security, Storage, helpdesk asset and Audit functions.
- Participated with senior team leads for developing and deploying UX, SEO, Social Media, Wireframes, Analytics, Search, CXM, and CRM/Marketing Automation including data analytics/ Integration.
- Collaborating with onshore/offshore matrix project delivery teams including competency management.
- Implementing/using Agile Scrum methodologies on projects deliverables, ensuring budget adherence, project management and client’s success & customer experiences.
- Helped clients adhere to prioritization and risk management approach in dealing with Cyber Security challenges by considering optimum use of resources at hand.
- Supported and contributed in presales support in business development/consulting of IT Shared services solutions such as (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, Hosting, Telco Services, Social Media and IoT)
- Coordinated Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing (VAPT), Web Application Security Assessment, Network Security Audit, Mobile Application Testing, Thick client Testing, Web Services Testing, & Threat modeling & Pen Testing and remediation.
monitoring and support of Wiser Cloud - Global IT Operations
Successfully built, manage and supporting (L2, L3) for Cloud Infrastructure and hosted applications for smart Homes (connected homes line of business)
Supervising cross functional team in a very matrix based cross cultural environment
Administering outages & upgrade campaigns events, managing partner communications and notifications of systems maintenance
Interacting & liaising with End-Users, Network Administrators, Systems Analysts and Software Engineers to assist in resolving client incidents & problems
Taking active part in the development of IT strategies, Audits, Security in collaboration with the executive team
Collaborating cross-functionally to improve infrastructure and operations support processes, defined, created IT Operations processes
Providing support to solution verification and validation teams in order to ensure systems meet operational expectations and correct work stoppages or errors
Motivating self & staff members by seeking out educational opportunities, professional standards and publications, thus maintaining personal networks
Successfully executing and monitoring Over the Air (m2m), upgrade campaigns to European users devices.
- Responsible to maintain High Availability IT Infrastructure systems. Recommended, procured, configures, protects, maintains, and supports information technology for the day-to-day operation and security of the company. Managed budget
- Supervised Team for all activities like configure, install, integrate and maintain operating systems, application software and databases for use in Windows Server, Windows Desktop, Linux Server, hypervisor, VM’s and mobile environments.
- Developed and maintains information security standards, policies, procedures, and best practices, including WTA’s incident response plan.
- Where technically possible, migrated unmanaged (local) credentials to centralized managed credentials stored in Active Directory, Redhat IPA and OpenLDAP. Refreshed machine-to-machine passwords to strengthen security and developed measures to monitor password age every month.
- Handled P1/P2 incidents like DDOS attacks, malware pivoting, ransomware demands, worm infections, intrusions and stolen data/credentials.
- Coordinated with Director of IT to lead company’s incident response team in the event of a cybersecurity incident. Ensures company follows proper procedures to respond to and recover from a cybersecurity incident.
- Successfully implemented Enterprise Identity and Access Management, developed the Authentication, Authorization and Accounting framework; optimize governance processes for management approval workflow of requested and granted authorizations.
- Assessed the appropriateness and effectiveness of company’s security measures, and recommends enhancements.
- Researched, evaluated, and recommended new security tools, techniques, trends, and technologies. Keeps up to date on emerging threats. Full understanding of data protection, the value of patching, encryption methodologies, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, etc.
- Planned, implemented, and upgrades security measures and controls. Help remediate ongoing security gaps.
- Conducted internal and external security audits and risk assessments. Monitored networks for security breaches and investigates violations.
- Uses analysis, forensics, and reverse engineering to monitor and diagnose malware events and vulnerability issues. Investigates the cause of breaches.
- Mentored junior consultants and specialists in the domain of IT Infrastructure and IT security.
- Responsible for complete IT / Telecom infrastructure of Oil & Gas exploration refinery & production gas plant operations in middle east (UAE, Qatar & Oman) its regional offices.
- Managed multi‐site offices & managed various concurrent projects within the deadlines & within budgets
- Managed & provided technical support to end users, networking & communication, backup storage system, help desk
- Responsible for the planning and execution of systems installation, systems upgrade and systems integration
- Responsible for the management of Novell Intranet ware server(s) with eDirectory, Microsoft Windows Servers 2000/2003 with Active Directory, SUN Solaris servers.
- Managed IP LAN/WAN and Wireless networks, Juniper SSL VPN and Multi-Functional Printers.
- Built a custom hardened firewall based upon the Linux kernel.
- Managed platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, IIS, Apache, Tomcat, Novell Dir, XML and desktop
- Supervised sub‐ contractors, staffing, approve IT AMC contracts, SLA’s & purchases from vendors
- Successfully completed tech fresh of new Telecom & backbone Network WAN Link 2mbps for offshore Gas plant on time within budgets.
- Liaison and coordinate with local Telco and IT Vendors for prompt SLA’s.
- Successfully rolled out, Upgraded and managed the implementation of,
- Oracle 11v Financials Module, Business Objects Reporting Tool, Orion Maintenance and Materials Management Module
- Designed new IT infrastructure (HW/SW) & implemented Lotus Notes, Norton Anti‐virus, Firewall, Helpdesk, Desktops, Security & Content Management systems, service desk & migrated to a stand‐ alone operation.
- Successfully coordinated the IT Transition/Migration between ARCO/BP systems of all Middle East offices.
