Christopher J Van Meter
Waynesboro,VA
Overview
27
27
years of professional experience
Work History
Principal Systems Engineer
Shentel
Edinburg/Waynesboro, VA
04.2017 - Current
- Server and Datacenter Management
- Support and maintain 1000+ virtual and physical servers across three datacenters, managing VMware ESX hypervisor clusters hosting Windows Server 2016-2022 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux with automated deployments and PowerShell scripting for configuration management.
- Authentication and Cloud Integration
- Architected and deployed Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions with over 40 federated cloud SaaS vendors, using Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) and Entra ID, integrating Azure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to enhance security and streamlining user access.
- Serve as a global administrator for Office 365, overseeing domain setup, group architecture, synchronization with on-premises Active Directory, MFA configuration, management of API permissions, and implementation of conditional access policies.
- Migrated our corporate managed Linux systems from local accounts to Active Directory authentication, enhanced with MFA provided by DUO, unifying account management and improving security controls.
- Security and Compliance
- Implemented and managed monthly security updates and Windows endpoint management using Microsoft SCCM and Intune across all Windows systems, proactively mitigating vulnerabilities identified by Rapid7 InsightVM and ensuring compliance.
- Integrated the Avanan email security suite with Exchange Online and Carbon Black anti-virus across server infrastructure.
- Administer Imperva WAF to secure the ADFS SSO platform and enable geo load balancing for disaster recovery in the event of failure of our primary datacenter.
- Manage multi-cloud environments including Google Cloud Platform and Azure virtual machines, administer autopilot Kubernetes clusters, manage Kafka services, and container registry integrated with on-premises GitHub, while developing custom GitHub Actions scripts for CI/CD automation.
- Manage our Google Cloud Platform environment, which includes the administration of autopilot Kubernetes clusters, managed Kafka services, and an artifact container registry integrated with our on-premises GitHub server. I develop and maintain custom GitHub Actions scripts to automate container builds and deployment, supporting our continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) processes.
- Database Administration (Microsoft SQL Standard/Enterprise clusters, Azure Managed SQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL)
- I oversee multiple SQL Enterprise clusters that maintain active/active synchronization across our two core datacenters, ensuring data integrity and availability for mission-critical applications.
- Strategic Planning and Team Leadership
- I assist with budget planning and the establishment of long-term goals and roadmaps for the infrastructure team. This includes leading recent initiatives such as the complete refresh of all server hardware within our core datacenters, aligning our infrastructure with organizational objectives and a consolidated system that can support our needs for at least the next 5 years.
Lead Infrastructure Engineer
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Charlottesville, VA
09.2016 - 04.2017
- Support and maintain over 1000 virtual and physical server systems in multiple datacenters running in an active/active environment.
- Maintain a diverse set of systems running Windows Server 2012-2019 on VMware and Hyper-V, leveraging Group Policy for configuration consistency and Hyper-V clustering for high availability.
- Maintain HA Proxy load balancers running on CentOS.
- Maintain SQL 2012 and SQL 2014 running in multisite clusters.
- Responded to incidents and alerts generated by global NOC.
- Supported the companies integration with Google Workspace until it was migrated to Office 365.
Senior Systems Engineer
NTELOS
Waynesboro, VA
06.2005 - 09.2016
- Developed planning and support documentation.
- Designed, deployed, and maintained corporate Active Directory forest across multiple sites, including domain controllers, trusts, OU structure, group policies, and identity governance.
- Designed, deployed, and maintain 2010/2013 corporate Exchange email environment including mailbox, frontend, and SMTP servers.
- Maintained on premise and offsite corporate backup systems while ensuring full SOX compliancy.
- Supported the Forefront Threat Management Gateway and Cisco ASA corporate firewalls.
- Supported and maintain all other corporate information systems, including SQL, IIS, Blackberry Enterprise Services, point of sale, instant messaging, and anti-virus scanning.
- Maintained hosted servers supporting the corporate ecommerce platform.
- Proactively monitored system logs and outage notifications.
- Installed and maintained new servers including racking, cabling, and OS installation.
- Maintained security of all IT systems including patch management and other security measures to maintain SOX, PCI, and internal assurance controls.
- Maintained over 200 virtual and physical server systems.
Computer Tech II
Augusta County Schools
Verona, VA
06.2003 - 06.2005
- Maintained workstations and servers, including software and hardware.
- Administered Active Directory and file servers, including installation and creation of teacher and student accounts.
- Built and administered district Exchange 2003 email environment supporting all teachers.
- Built and administered Barracuda SPAM firewalls.
- Administered web filtering service.
PC Support Technician
NTELOS
Waynesboro, VA
07.1999 - 06.2003
- Provided telephone and onsite support, including troubleshooting software and hardware problems for approximately 1200 employees.
- Assisted networking staff with the maintenance of Windows NT and Windows 2000 domain servers, including the creation of network and email accounts for new users.
- Assisted with the migration from Windows NT 4 server to Windows 2000 server.
- Installed and maintained Nagios on a Linux server, to monitor and alert IT about circuit outages.
- Installed and maintained computer hardware, including the installation and maintenance of computer peripherals, such as modems, sound cards, etc.
Timeline
Principal Systems Engineer - Shentel
04.2017 - Current
Lead Infrastructure Engineer - S&P Global Market Intelligence
09.2016 - 04.2017
Senior Systems Engineer - NTELOS
06.2005 - 09.2016
Computer Tech II - Augusta County Schools
06.2003 - 06.2005
PC Support Technician - NTELOS
07.1999 - 06.2003