Edward Walker
Southside,Alabama
Overview
24
24
years of professional experience
3
3
years of post-secondary education
Work History
Director Information Technology
Liberty Furniture
Atlanta, GA
11.2022 - Current
- Modernize infrastructure and prepare the company for growth.
- Responsible for technology infrastructure, maintenance, efficiencies, and management of overall systems.
- Plan, coordinate, direct, and design all operational activities of the IT department, as well as provide direction and support for IT solutions that enhance mission-critical business operations.
- Works closely with decision makers in other departments to help identify, recommend, develop, implement, and support cost-effective technology solutions for Liberty Furniture.
- Assist in the companywide management of IT infrastructure that includes but is not limited to servers, desktops, laptops, networking, and phone systems.
- Participate in all projects that will require IT involvement and will coordinate appropriate resources internally and with vendors.
- Assist in the documentation of, and both clarify and execute IT procedures.
- Regularly audit the IT team's policies, procedures, and roles.
- Determine the needs of hardware and software support and provide assistance in determining configuration based on company, department, and individual needs.
- Provides technical as well as operational support to end users.
- Analyzes complex business needs and recommends technical solutions.
- Participates in hardware and software evaluations and helps maintain vendor contracts.
- Grow profit and manage expenses.
- Liberty is a mid-sized furniture manufacturer that sells to retailers and utilizes offshore production facilities.
Solutions Architect
Sirius Computer Solutions
San Antonio, TX
09.2019 - 07.2022
- Provides technical expertise in analyzing client’s requirements, recommending solutions and assisting sales and other engineers with development of proposals, quotations and presentations; responsible for technical sales cycle working closely with sales to close business.
- Conducts advanced and complex engineering - related studies researching current and emerging technologies, evaluates alternatives, makes recommendations, and presents reports to management.
- Mentors other engineers to apply engineering background knowledge for project design, analysis, and project coordination of services or products.
- Works with the Services Director to assess the amount of effort required for services engagements and provide input for the Scopes/Statement of Work generation.
- Develop and maintain customer presentations, demo instructions and other related collateral.
- Maintains client relationships as a trusted Technical Advisor. Serves as focal point for communications between both department engineers and clients when necessary, using experience and judgment to communicate effectively to all parties.
- Designs and oversees upgrade advanced and complex client infrastructure solutions. Transfers technical skills and knowledge to client.
- Monitors and manages day-to-day operations of a program, project or function, including developing short and long-range goals, objectives and budgets, coordinating activities with other departments and agencies, overseeing records maintenance, monitoring budgets, approving, and monitoring expenditures, overseeing reporting requirements, evaluating program or project service delivery and cost effectiveness; ensures procedures are being followed and assisting in resolving complex problems which require professional level input.
- This includes: Development and review of technical manuals.
- Development of project scope to include work services estimate, services, resource assignments and allocations, and statements of work for assigned projects.
- Preparation of sales quotations and technical responses to Request of Quotation (RFQs) & Request for Information (RFIs) and Request for Proposals (RFPs).
VP IT Infrastructure
Infinity Insurance
Birmingham, AL
12.2013 - 09.2019
- Providing a clearly defined vision, strategy and culture for the infrastructure architecture.
- Researches and recommends options and opportunities in areas of technical expertise, system development tools, design, purchase, deployment, maintenance and evolution.
- Participates in strategic planning, tactical operation planning and the development of contingency operations plans for production and other environments.
- Leads business technology consulting, bringing strategic insight and value to relationship managers, business directors and executives.
- Overall leadership of the Infrastructure, Operations, Networking, Database, Telephony, Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity, DevOps/SRE, IT Help Desk, Data Centers and Corporate systems infrastructure teams.
- Oversees the day to day operations of a 24/7 high traffic web environment as well as planned new build-outs and initiatives.
- Conducts capacity planning to ensure timely acquisition of IT resources, monitor infrastructure budget and IT Resources.
- Creates architectural roadmaps that prescribe the lifecycle for infrastructure components to include adoption, implementation and maintenance.
- Designs and directs governance activities to ensure compliance with infrastructure architecture standards.
- Develops and implements metrics detailing the capacity and performance of key systems. Creates plans and processes to ensure the technical infrastructure is operating within acceptable levels.
- Translates complex business problems into implementable, cost effective business solutions.
- Oversees the planning, management, and implementation of architecture projects ensuring business goals are met.
- Manages changing priorities and ambiguity while maintaining direction and focus through proactive planning and organized approaches to work.
- Identifies trends and provides broad sense view and understanding of available technology solutions.
- Interacts across the organization to partner with and influence business unit leaders to recommend and resolve operations and strategic issues.
- Cultivates close working relationships with the application and infrastructure engineering teams to understand planned initiatives and potential impact.
- Effectively manages both internal and external customer requirements and measurement criteria. Identifies and makes process improvements to better serve the customer.
- Manages staff by recruiting, selecting, orienting and training employees. Accomplishes staff results in a timely and accurate fashion by communicating job expectations; planning, monitoring and assisting management in appraising job results; coaching, counseling and disciplining employees; coordinating and ensuring compliance with policies and procedures. Ensures that performance evaluations and increases are submitted timely.
- Responsible for budgeting and vendor management.
AVP IT Infrastructure
Infinity Insurance
Birmingham, AL
08.2011 - 12.2013
- Primary Responsibilities include the implementation and management of the infrastructure architecture and development and maintenance of the organizations’ computing/information technology environment.
- Proactively manages the technology and building infrastructure to ensure that our environment is up to date, that service levels are met or exceeded, and that all the processes and systems are efficiently and cost effectively delivered by leveraging automation opportunities and industry best practices.
- Advises developers and others on the capabilities and constraints of the production computing environment.
- Analyzes impacts of software functionality and/or changes across multiple systems/platforms/applications and consults on the implementation and support requirements of purchased/packaged software to applications developers and business units.
- Responsible for the physical operation and performance of the data centers, servers and other technology platforms shared across the organization.
Manager, System Administration
Infinity Insurance
Birmingham, AL
08.2004 - 08.2011
- Responsibilities include supervision of assigned UNIX and Windows system administration staff who collectively manages 500+ servers.
- Communicate effectively with user and technical department personnel.
- Work and communicate effectively with executive staff.
- Provide a stable “system” platform to support Infinity’s service based architecture across multiple business lines.
- Manage the overall configuration management of all mid-range systems.
- Manage and participate in the disaster recovery process for all mid-range systems.
- Develop and manage budget for mid-range systems.
SR. UNIX System Administrator
Infinity Insurance
Birmingham, AL
08.2001 - 08.2004
- Responsibilities include providing a full range of administration tasks in support of Infinity’s UNIX systems.
- This includes system configuration, file system maintenance, capacity planning, performance and tuning, operating system patch analysis and use account maintenance.
- In addition, assists with implementing a disaster recovery plan, designing and testing backup procedures and establishing configuration standards and documentation.
Summary
Encouraging manager and analytical problem-solver with talents for team building, leading and motivating, as well as excellent customer relations aptitude and relationship-building skills. Proficient in using independent decision-making skills and sound judgment to positively impact company success. Dedicated to applying training, monitoring and morale-building abilities to enhance employee engagement and boost performance. Strong leader and problem-solver dedicated to streamlining operations to decrease costs and promote organizational efficiency. Uses independent decision-making skills and sound judgment to positively impact company success.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
Jacksonville State University
Jacksonville, Alabama, AL 08.1986 - 12.1989
Timeline
Director Information Technology
Liberty Furniture
11.2022 - Current
Solutions Architect
Sirius Computer Solutions
09.2019 - 07.2022
VP IT Infrastructure
Infinity Insurance
12.2013 - 09.2019
AVP IT Infrastructure
Infinity Insurance
08.2011 - 12.2013
Manager, System Administration
Infinity Insurance
08.2004 - 08.2011
SR. UNIX System Administrator
Infinity Insurance
08.2001 - 08.2004
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
Jacksonville State University
08.1986 - 12.1989