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CV

Summary

Systems Integration Engineer and Developer with over 20 years of experience.

I have extensive experience in UNIX/Linux environments within the ISP/Telecom industries. For the past decade, I have focused on the development and integration of systems at Gibtelecom, including implementing monitoring systems, integrating multiple systems into a unified provisioning platform and achieving ISO 27001 compliance for secure development.

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Experience

Gibtelecom, Gibraltar

Lead Developer at Gibtelecom, responsible for all development and integration of key systems.

  • Position: Lead Developer
  • Duration: Jan 2013 - July 2023

Key Achievements

  • Monitoring system using Check_MK monitoring over 60k services.
  • Flask/MongoDB based provisioning platform used company wide by Engineers and customer facing staff.
  • Django/PostgreSQL based migration portal to facilitate migration of telephone subscribers from SystemX to IMS platform.
  • Django/PostgreSQL based migration portal to facilitate migration of legacy broadband subscribers to FTTH (Fibre to the home).
  • Support and integration of Ericsson's provisioning platforms (EMA/EDA) with BSS platform.
  • Django/PostgreSQL and FastAPI based SMS API to provide a customer-facing service.
  • Standardised process for new standard operating procedures adopted across Technology Directorate.
  • Python/MongoDB based automated MVNO number porting system.
  • Python and MySQL based mediation platform to facilitate data warehousing and interfacing of usage records for an MVNO.
  • Conducted MVNO penetration testing successfully finding numerous security vulnerabilties that could be patched before launch.
  • Achieved ISO 27001 certification for secure development.
  • Established secure development procedures and processes aligned with ISO 27001.
  • CI/CD pipelines using BASH scripts (unit testing, vulnerability code scanning, building and deploying from BitBucket Git repositories).

BetVictor, Gibraltar

Middleware Engineer responsible for improving performance and monitoring of critical systems like Oracle Coherence, ActiveMQ, and Apache web servers.

  • Position: Enterprise Services Engineer
  • Duration: Jan 2013 - Dec 2013

Key Achievements

  • Splunk health monitoring of Oracle Coherence and ActiveMQ using , enhancing system visibility and troubleshooting capabilities.
  • Improved deployment processes that eliminated Oracle Coherence downtime, significantly improving deployment reliability.
  • Diagnosed and fixed configuration issues with the mobile website that had been affected by downtime, ensuring seamless service delivery.
  • Performed MySQL database optimisations on a live betting platform, significantly improving performance and enabling more events to run in parallel.

Licudi IT Consulting Ltd, Gibraltar

IT consultant specialising in Windows Server 2003 administration, Google Apps for Business setup and management and development of in-house applications.

  • Position: IT Consultant
  • Duration: 2010 - 2012

Key Achievements

  • Designed IT infrastructure for new offices including servers, network switches, telephony and workstations/printers for firm of managers quantity surveyors (John Licudi Consulting Ltd).
  • Migration of a Microsoft Exchange setup of approx. 25 accounts to Google Apps.
  • PHP/MySQL based Payroll application to automate social security/tax calculations and ability to print on pre-printed payslips.
  • PHP/MySQL based leave management system allowing for leave requests to be made online.

Sapphire Networks, Gibraltar

Head of IT Systems and Helpdesk with hands on involvement in System administration and software development and responsibility for entire server infrastructure.

  • Position: IT Systems Manager
  • Duration: 2005 - 2010

Key Achievements

  • Implemented RT (Request-Tracker) and Redmine as ticketing systems.
  • Expanded existing virtualised infrastructure with Xen on CentOS and Citrix XenServer.
  • Document Management. Produced and managed technical documentation, including procedures and documentation for disaster recovery.
  • Training staff within ITS, Helpdesk and the NOC.
  • Implementing solutions to recover from server failures, particularly in the provision of disaster recovery manuals/scripts for on call action.
  • Application for provisioning ADSL lines on MALC DSLAMs making extensive use of Pear classes for connectivity, and extending classes to hide complexity of provisioning
  • Developed system to manage On Call and NOC Shifts online (gained experience using frameworks iUI, iWebkit and jQTouch for better mobile experience).

GibNet Ltd, Gibraltar

Initially allocated responsibilities for Helpdesk support for GibNet customers, Desktop support and system administration. My role was later expanded to focus more on system administration and programming with emphasis on improving server infrastructure (using mod_security and scripts to monitor for vulnerable code hosting internally and by customers) and implementing more resilient services (implementing master/slave MySQL servers, paired servers for RADIUS/DNS/SMTP, and active backup servers for immediate recovery).

  • Position: Systems Administrator
  • Duration: 2000 - 2005

Key Achievements

  • PHP/MySQL based Gibraltar .GI Registry (WHOIS, online application forms, integrated billing and payment gateway integration).
  • NAS Dial-Up Frontend. Developed frontend to view and monitor Dial-Up connections using SNMP and PHP.
  • PHP/MySQL phpMyProjects. Changelog of work done on projects and servers.
  • Development and maintenance of an existing user provisioning system based on C, Bash (+dialog) and Perl components.
  • PHP/MySQL based Electorate Lookup web application on behalf of the Gibraltar Government to provide an online lookup tool of the electorate list for upcoming elections and 2006 Referendum.
  • PHP/MySQL based frontend for RADIUS accounting data used by Helpdesk support and customer services.
  • User Mode Linux as a platform for paravirtualisation deployed on a number of servers (as a precursor to newer technologies).
  • MySQL/PHP/Bash backup system for a large server infrastructure based. This provided incremental rolling backups easily provisioned via configuration files with the frontend providing status of backup jobs.

John Licudi & Partners, Gibraltar

Employed in Surveying Practice as an IT Manager with particular responsibility for desktop support, training staff and developing databases/documents for construction related projects.

  • Position: IT Manager
  • Duration: 1997 - 1999

Courses

Microservices Fundamentals

[PluralSight | pluralsight.com]

Core Skills

  • Understanding of key principles for architecting microservice applications.
  • Techniques for building scalable, flexible, resilient, and secure microservices.

Building Microservices

[PluralSight | pluralsight.com]

Core Skills

  • Structuring domain logic and implementing data mapping layers.
  • Testing strategies for microservices.
  • Handling authentication and authorization in microservice communications.
  • Skills in building maintainable, testable, and secure microservices.

Education

  • University of Portsmouth: Advanced Diploma in Psychology, 1995-1997
  • Chichester College: Science Foundation Course, 1994-1995

Languages

  • English: Native
  • Spanish: Fluent

Skills

  • Linux (★★★★★, 20+ yrs) - System administration, performance tuning for enterprise services and server management for DevOps (deployment automation, systemd services)
  • Python (★★★★★, 10+ yrs) - Web development, data processing, scripting
  • PHP (★★★★★, 10+ yrs) - Web development, data processing, scripting
  • ISO 27001 (★★★★☆, 2+ yrs) - Experience in implementing secure development processes
  • JavaScript (★★★☆☆, 10+ yrs) - Front-end UI elements with jQuery, Bootstrap, DataTables, Basic DOM manipulation
  • Bash (★★★★★, 20+ yrs) - Used to automate CI/CD pipelines
  • C (★★★☆☆) - Developing command-line tools to incorporate MySQL data into MRTG; kernel patching and compiling for User Mode Linux.
  • Django (★★★★★, 5+ yrs) - Production-grade REST APIs, MVC apps requiring databases and admin portals
  • Flask (★★★★★, 5+ yrs) - Production-grade REST APIs, MVC apps
  • FastAPI (★★★☆☆, 3+ yrs) - High-performance REST APIs
  • PostgreSQL (★★★☆☆, 10+ yrs) - Schema design, queries, performance tuning
  • MySQL/MariaDB (★★★★★, 20+ yrs) - Schema design, queries, performance tuning
  • MongoDB (★★★★★, 5+ yrs) - NoSQL data storage for usage logs, microservices
  • Oracle (★★☆☆☆, 10+ yrs) - Some enterprise usage, queries
  • Redis (★★★☆☆) - Used (with Python RQ) for caching data and queueing requests
  • Git (★★★☆☆, 10+ yrs) - Branching strategies, PRs, CI/CD, code reviews
  • GitHub (★★★☆☆, 5+ yrs) - Open source projects, GitHub workflows/automation and GitHub Pages
  • VS Code (★★★★★) - Daily dev environment, Git integration, remote development, debugging
  • AI Tools (★★★☆☆) - ChatGPT, Copilot, Grok for code suggestions, documentation, automated testing
  • Regex (★★★★★, 20+ yrs) - Extensive use in system administration and development
  • Celery (★★★☆☆, 5+ yrs) - Employed for asynchronous task management, sending emails, two-factor authentication codes and scheduled retrieval of data
  • Nginx (★★★★☆, 10+ yrs) - Used with Django and Flask for reverse proxying and HTTP load balancing
  • Check_MK (★★★★☆, 8+ yrs) - Monitoring of telecoms and internet infrastructure, environmental sensors.
  • Postman (★★★★☆, 5+ yrs) - Incredibly useful tool for API development and security testing.
  • Markdown (★★★★★, 5+ yrs) - Documentation, READMEs, documentation on GitHub

Open Source Projects

  • Cockpitdecks: Contributor
  • Cockpitdecks Configs: Main Developer