BRAD HURLEY
DELL EMC – Infrastructure Solutions Group (Formerly VCE/EMC)
East Bend,NC
Summary
Senior Systems Architect with over 15 years of enterprise infrastructure experience in architecting and deploying converged and hyper-converged solutions. Expert in managing datacenter construction, consolidation, and migration projects, ensuring production-ready quality and compliance. Proficient in compute, storage, networking, and virtualization platforms, including Dell PowerFlex, VCE/vxBlock, VMware, and Cisco UCS/Nexus.
1
Certification
32
years of professional experience
Work History
Advisor, Senior Solutions Architect – PowerFlex Velocity Engineering
8 Years 4 Months- Led process improvement initiative simplifying management, creation and updates to platform software bundles.
- Developed automation pipelines using GitHub, Jenkins, and AI tools such as Windsurf and Devin.
- Ensure accuracy and quality of VxRack supporting documentation, setup and feasibility testing for customer and product management use cases.
- Experience working with automation pipelines using GitHub, Jenkins and AI Tools such as Windsurf and Devin.
- Ensured accuracy and quality of VxRack documentation, setup, and feasibility testing for customer and product management use cases.
Distributed Systems Engineering Specialist
1 Year 11 Months- Deliver third-level production support for VMware virtualization and EMC Symmetrix SAN across a dual hot-site datacenter, maintaining 99.99% uptime for mission-critical payment processing systems.
- Spearheaded technology refresh of HP Blade Systems and EMC storage, coordinating hardware lifecycle across development, QC, test, corporate, and production environments to enhance system reliability.
- Engineered rolling upgrade procedures for hardware, OS, drivers, firmware, and patches, enabling zero-downtime deployments across all environment tiers, ensuring uninterrupted service for critical operations.
- TCH is owned by the 25 largest U.S. commercial banks and operates core national payment systems, designated as National Critical Infrastructure by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, clearing ~$500 trillion annually.
Senior Systems Engineer — Infrastructure Delivery & Operations
4 Years 1 Month- Lead Architect for new Office Datacenter construction Project. Gathered specs, planned power and cooling infrastructure from inception to deployment, for three labs and State-of-the-art Customer Briefing Center.
- Managed 200+ rack R&D lab across multiple datacenters, providing principal-level technical guidance for platform engineering, corporate engineering, QA, and marketing.
- Executed physical and logical builds of VCE VBlock CI platforms, utilizing advanced HA Cisco UCS configuration, FC array provisioning, and HA network architecture with comprehensive port-level documentation across 200+ racks.
- VCE was a $2B joint venture (Cisco, EMC, VMware) and the market leader in enterprise converged infrastructure.
4 Years 1 Month
- Built and deployed VBlock platforms to accelerate storage refresh cycles, streamlining dozens of storage migrations, installations, and decommissions.
- Advised the Director of Infrastructure on datacenter planning for a major lab relocation from Santa Clara, CA to Durham, NC; mentored junior engineers across the multi-domain environment.
- Consistently met or exceeded bi-annual and annual performance bonus objectives.
Manager of Network Services
12 Years 4 Months- Led datacenter builds, relocations, closures while managing a team of five engineers across networking, servers, storage, and desktop environments to ensure seamless operations.
- Managed Sun/Oracle ERP environments, maintaining secure, audit-compliant network infrastructure for corporate and distribution sites to support operational integrity.
- Architect for all voice, data and applications across multiple distribution centers and showrooms.
- Directed WAN/LAN/voice services and IT budgets for $300M multi-site distributor, defining architecture standards to enhance service delivery and drive cost-reduction initiatives.
Network Instructor (Part-time)
28 Years 7 Months- Taught networking fundamentals and PC repair; received Teacher of the Year recognition from the student body.
- Developed and delivered comprehensive network curriculum for diverse student populations.
- Facilitated hands-on lab sessions to reinforce theoretical concepts and practical skills.
- Evaluated student performance through assessments, providing constructive feedback for improvement.
Network Analyst
2 Years- Led second-level support and help desk team for 2,500+ users at American Express Regional Operations Center.
- Contract
- Analyzed network performance to identify improvement opportunities and enhance service reliability.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to troubleshoot connectivity issues and implement solutions.
- Monitored system alerts using network management tools to ensure optimal operations.
Technical Engineer
1 Year- Chosen from 200+ engineers for a special project to resolve customer escalations during the Windows 95 launch. Authored and amended Microsoft Knowledge Base articles.
Education
High School Equivalency Diploma - Career and Technical Education
Relevant Coursework: [Subject] & [Subject]
VCE: Certified Converged Infrastructure Associate
VMware: vRealize Automation (2016) · NSX Install, Configure & Manage v6.1 (2015) · vSphere 5.5 & 6.0 ICM
Cisco: Data Center ACI v1.1 (DCAC9K, 2015) · Nexus 1000V · UCS Datacenter Unified Computing
EMC: Cloud Infrastructure & Services (2016) · Information Storage & Management (2015) · Symmetrix VMAX Internals (2014) · VNX Solutions Specialist (2013)
Skills
Data storage solutions: EMC technologies
Boot from SAN and server configuration
Cisco Nexus and Catalyst networking
Experience with DNS
DHCP
and Active Directory
Proficient in network protocols
Integrated development tools
Technology operations management
Network troubleshooting
Customer support
Data center management
Network architecture
Switching protocols
Virtualization solutions
Network management
Operating system administration
Software validation
Certification
- VMware: vRealize Automation (2016)
- NSX Install, Configure & Manage v6.1 (2015)
- VSphere 5.5 & 6.0 ICM
- Cisco: Data Center ACI v1.1 (DCAC9K, 2015)
- Nexus 1000V
- UCS Datacenter Unified Computing
- EMC: Cloud Infrastructure & Services (2016)
- Information Storage & Management (2015)
- Symmetrix VMAX Internals (2014)
- VNX Solutions Specialist (2013)
- VCE: Certified Converged Infrastructure Associate
Timeline
Advisor, Senior Solutions Architect – PowerFlex Velocity Engineering
DELL EMC – Infrastructure Solutions Group (Formerly VCE/EMC)
03.2018 - 07.2026
Distributed Systems Engineering Specialist
The Clearing House (TCH)
04.2016 - 03.2018
Senior Systems Engineer — Infrastructure Delivery & Operations
VCE (Virtual Computing Environment)
03.2012 - 04.2016
VCE (Virtual Computing Environment)
03.2012 - 04.2016
Manager of Network Services
Samson Marketing
03.1999 - 07.2011
Network Instructor (Part-time)
ECPI College of Technology
01.1998
Network Analyst
American Express
01.1997 - 01.1999
Technical Engineer
Microsoft Corporation (via Volt Technical)
01.1995 - 01.1996
Salmen High School
High School Equivalency Diploma from Career and Technical Education
Core Competencies
- Converged/Hyper-Converged Infrstructure (CI/HCI)
- vSphere & ESXi
- Cisco UCS VMware & Nexus Networking
- Dell Compute – Gen 13 to Gen 18
- EMC Compute & Storage
- Datacenter Design, Migrations & Operations
- IT Project & Vendor Management
- Team Leadership & Mentoring
- SAN/NAS, CI and HCI Architecture
- FC Zoning & Capacity Planning
- Compliance & Security Hardening
- Capacity Planning & Budgeting
- Disaster Recovery & HA Design