EMMANUELA BURLAND
Rockville,Maryland
Summary
Results-driven AWS and Linux expert with nine years of experience in cloud provisioning, Red Hat Satellite management, and enterprise virtualization with VMware vSphere/ESXi. Automates deployment workflows using Ansible playbooks and manages PKI and smartcard authentication across AD and SSSD-integrated Linux hosts. Implements end-to-end DISA STIG security compliance, driving large-scale system hardening and kernel patch deployments in mission-critical environments.
Overview
1
1
Certification
10
10
years of professional experience
Work History
AWS SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR
NATIONAL GEO-SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (NGA)
Springfield, VA
07.2024 - Current
- Automate OS patching using AWS SSM Patch Manager, directing compute instances registered to internal Red Hat Satellite servers to pull verified RPM packages.
- Administer IAM roles, policies, and permission boundaries following least-privilege principles for requesters and service accounts across classified and unclassified network enclaves.
- Configure AWS Network Firewall rule groups at the VPC egress boundary to enforce domain filtering, preventing EC2 instances in private subnets from exfiltrating data to unauthorized external endpoints.
- Monitor infrastructure health and performance using CloudWatch dashboards, alarms, and automated remediation runbooks.
- Manage and update multi-tier S3 bucket policies to securely control access across internal and cross-account/external environments, while configuring custom lifecycle rules to automate object transition, data retention, incomplete multipart upload cleanups, and cost-efficient archival for production data stores.
- Fine tune Auto Scaling launch templates and target group health check grace periods to ensure RHEL 9 instances scale and refresh reliably under release workloads.
- Perform on-demand rotation of expiring AWS IAM access keys and secret credentials for users and resources requiring AWS CLI access.
- Provision AWS SNS topics and establish cross-resource subscriptions with S3 buckets to automate event publishing, ensuring rapid delivery of critical system notifications to target subscribers.
- Work closely with Dev Teams to coordinate database schema migrations and parameter group updates across RDS instances prior to application code pushes.
- Perform routine and authorized data hygiene tasks, including bulk S3 object purges and OpenSearch index record cleanups.
- Configure and maintain AWS backup strategies for critical data stores (DynamoDB, S3) with documented recovery procedures.
- Manage end-to-end incident lifecycles and service requests within Service Plus ticketing system.
SENIOR LINUX ENGINEER
NAVSEA WARFARE CENTER
Indianhead, MD
10.2021 - 06.2024
- Led the application of DISA STIGs across RHEL 9.7 and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS systems, maintaining continuous DoD compliance and eliminating security vulnerabilities.
- Orchestrated automated patch management, kernel updates, and OS upgrades across RHEL virtual environments using Red Hat Satellite v6.14.
- Maintained continuous 24/7 visibility into server health, network traffic, and application performance using Grafana and Prometheus, rapidly triaging and resolving real-time infrastructure alerts throughout the incident lifecycle.
- Executed enterprise-level system changes using Ansible Automation Platform (AAP), maintained playbooks for patch deployment and service management.
- Diagnosed and resolved complex CAC authentication failures by troubleshooting SSSD, PAM, Authselect, Kerberos, and certificate mapping.
- Integrated Linux workstations with Windows domain controllers through realm joins and Active Directory group management.
- Performed DNS zone signing using ZSK and KSK keys for navy.mil domains.
- Investigated and troubleshooted Linux networking issues involving interface configuration, routing tables, firewall rules, port conflicts, service bindings, and network connectivity.
- Remediated ACAS scan findings, addressing kernel vulnerabilities and OpenSSL risks to maintain system integrity.
- Enforced SELinux policies using staff_u mappings, semanage-managed file contexts, and restorecon to ensure secure system access.
- Administered Linux users and groups by managing UID/GID assignments, group memberships, and sudo access to enforce least-privilege access controls.
- Managed file permissions and ownership by applying standard UNIX permissions and ACLs to protect system and application data integrity.
- Provisioned and maintained volume groups, logical volumes, disk partitions, and resize filesystems to meet application and capacity demands without service disruption.
- Performed system backups, incremental snapshots, and recovery operations, validating backup integrity and executing restores.
- Researched, installed, and configured software packages for users, evaluating functionality, dependencies, and security impact.
LINUX SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR
KYRUS TECHNOLOGY
Sterling, VA
05.2019 - 09.2021
- Assisted in the deployment and management of round-the-clock UNIX/Linux server infrastructure that supported mission critical web-based applications.
- Performed bi-weekly to monthly OS patching and controlled rollbacks on RHEL 8 and Debian (Bullseye) systems, validating system stability after updates.
- Implemented and maintained host-based firewall policies by configuring firewalld on RHEL systems and iptables on Debian systems to regulate inbound and outbound traffic.
- Created and managed logical volumes and configured mount points to support application storage requirements.
- Developed and debugged Bash scripts to automate routine system administration and maintenance tasks, streamlining processes.
- Maintained IP address management (IPAM) using NetBox, ensuring accurate tracking of IP allocations, racks, devices, and network topology.
- Managed SSH key pairs and hardware-backed credentials, provisioning YubiKeys for multi-factor authentication (MFA).
- Automated management of TLS/SSL certificates by handling requests, renewals, and replacements prior to expiration, ensuring secure communications.
- Administered VLAN segmentation and trunk ports on UniFi switches to support secure and efficient network traffic flow.
LINUX SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR
RADTEK SYSTEMS LLC
Hanover, MD
02.2017 - 04.2019
- Automated routine system maintenance tasks using custom Bash scripts and Ansible playbooks, improving operational efficiency and consistency.
- Executed installation, upgrades, and configuration of RHEL 7 and 8 systems using Kickstart servers and interactive deployment methods to support enterprise environments.
- Applied STIG compliance standards on Linux systems, performing security checks, implementing configuration changes, and maintaining detailed documentation to strengthen system security posture.
- Applied security patches across multiple systems and implemented recovery strategies to address hardware and software failures, ensuring system availability.
- Performed daily system monitoring and log analysis to proactively detect and resolve performance or security issues.
- Created and managed filesystems, adjusting ACLs, permissions, and ownership to enforce proper access controls and data integrity.
- Managed user accounts, defined password aging policies, and facilitated multi-factor authentication (MFA) for secure access.
- Troubleshoot network connectivity issues by capturing traffic with tcpdump and analyzing packets using Wireshark to identify firewall blocks and misconfigurations.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to resolve operational bottlenecks and improve the stability of UNIX/Linux environments.
- Handled incident management, change requests, and service requests using ServiceNow in accordance with ITIL practices.
- Delivered project status updates during weekly team meetings, ensuring alignment and visibility across stakeholders.
- Participated in an on-call rotation to respond to system incidents and maintain high system uptime.
Education
Bachelor's Degree - Psychology
University Of Ghana, Legon
Skills
- Operating Systems: RHEL 8/9/10, Ubuntu 2404 LTS, CentOS Stream 10, Windows Server (2019/2022), Amazon Linux 2023
- Scripting: Bash, AWS CLI
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC):Terraform, CloudFormation
- Configuration Management: Ansible, AWS SSM State Manager/ Run Command
- Security & Compliance: DISA STIGs, CIS Benchmarks, ACAS, SELinux, fapolicyd, Nessus, OpenSCAP, AWS KMS, AWS Network Firewall
- AWS DevOps & Developer Tools: AWS CodePipeline, CodeCommit, CodeBuild,
CodeDeploy, Elastic Beanstalk Lambda, Cloud Development Kit (CDK) - Networking: VPC Peering, Transit Gateway, Route 53, Network Manager, Firewalld, UniFi, NetBox (IPAM), TCPDump, Wireshark
- Mail & Monitoring:
Prometheus, Grafana, AWS SNS, Syslog, Postfix (Alert/Relay) - Package & Repository Management: Red Hat
Satellite, DNF / YUM, APT, RPM - Identity & Access: IAM, Active Directory Users & Groups, Realm Joins, SSSD, PAM,
Authselect, Kerberos, CAC/PKI - Containers & Orchestration:
Fargate, Amazon ECS, Docker
Compose, Podman - Storage & Data Stores: AWS S3, DynamoDB, OpenSearch, LVMs, NFSv4, Samba/CIFS
- Backup & Recovery: EBS
Snapshots, AMIs, Veeam, rsync,
Linux compression tools - Ticketing & Incident
Management: ServicePlus,
Jira, Asana
Certification
- AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional
- AWS Certified Security - Specialty
- AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer - Associate
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate
- CompTIA Security X (CASP+)
- CompTIA Security +
- CompTIA Linux+
CLEARANCE LEVEL:
ACTIVE TS/SCI WITH CI POLYGRAPH
Timeline
AWS SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR
NATIONAL GEO-SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (NGA)
07.2024 - Current
SENIOR LINUX ENGINEER
NAVSEA WARFARE CENTER
10.2021 - 06.2024
LINUX SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR
KYRUS TECHNOLOGY
05.2019 - 09.2021
LINUX SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR
RADTEK SYSTEMS LLC
02.2017 - 04.2019
Bachelor's Degree - Psychology
University Of Ghana, Legon