James Wade
Saint Augustine,FL
Summary
Seasoned IT executive with over 25 years of experience leading enterprise infrastructure, cloud operations, and transformational initiatives across highly regulated industries. Proven ability to scale and modernize mission-critical environments, drive operational resilience, and enable innovation through emerging technologies such as generative AI. Trusted leader known for delivering measurable results through strategic vendor management, budget optimization, and cross-functional collaboration. Expert in aligning infrastructure strategy with business goals, regulatory compliance, digital transformation roadmaps, and zero trust security models.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Director, Infrastructure and Cloud Operations
Florida Blue
Jacksonville, USA
01.2016 - Current
- Company Overview: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida - Florida’s largest health insurer.
- Executive leader responsible for enterprise infrastructure and cloud operations at Florida’s largest health insurer.
- Directed a global team of 120 employees across data center operations, engineering, compliance, and platform services.
- Managed $2.5M in labor budget and $60M in annual OPEX/hardware spend.
- Oversaw critical infrastructure supporting millions of members, delivering 99.99% uptime while driving enterprise-wide modernization, AI enablement, and cost optimization.
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida - Florida’s largest health insurer.
- Led the design and deployment of GuideWell Chat, an in-house generative AI environment built on NVIDIA H200 GPUs and open-source LLaMA models—streamlined internal workflows and avoided $3M+ annually in third-party GPT licensing.
- Delivered 99.99% uptime across 15,000+ servers, 70 PB of storage, 2 IBM mainframes, and 120 IBM Power Systems across two Tier 4 data centers.
- Spearheaded a multi-year infrastructure transformation, modernizing compute and storage architecture and laying the foundation for hybrid cloud scalability.
- Reduced total server and storage costs by 20% over four years by introducing modern, cost-competitive technologies to replace legacy systems.
- Led enterprise-wide zero trust architecture implementation, successfully passing annual audits and integrating security at all infrastructure layers.
- Automated observability and self-healing infrastructure using Ansible and custom playbooks to improve issue detection and remediation speed.
- Reduced post-Broadcom VMware cost exposure by identifying platform alternatives and optimizing license usage across environments.
- Designed and led enterprise disaster recovery and ransomware response program, reducing recovery time by 60% and fortifying system resilience.
- Directed full compliance lifecycle across HIPAA, SOX, CMS 912, and internal controls—achieving 100% audit success for nine consecutive years.
- Managed strategic technology roadmaps and built consensus among executive stakeholders to align IT investments with business priorities.
- Partnered cross-functionally with executive teams to align IT infrastructure with digital health initiatives, improving scalability, agility, and business alignment.
- Featured guest on 'From Here to AI' podcast with Dez Blanchfield, discussing enterprise AI strategy, productivity, and cost reduction—episode received over 91,000 plays.
Director, Enterprise Technology
Crowley Maritime
Jacksonville, USA
01.2013 - 01.2016
- Company Overview: A global logistics and maritime services firm.
- Led enterprise infrastructure and operations for a global logistics and maritime services firm.
- Oversaw hybrid infrastructure across 4 data centers in 3 U.S. states and Central America, supporting mission-critical ERP, cargo tracking, and compliance systems.
- Managed 8 FTEs and 25+ contractors, with accountability for over 850 servers, 350 databases, and 145 TB of storage.
- Directed vendor partnerships with Cisco, IBM, Level3, and others under a $7M annual budget.
- A global logistics and maritime services firm.
- Led $4M strategic data center modernization across Jacksonville, Seattle, and Anchorage, shifting 35% of infrastructure to cloud platforms.
- Drove integration of infrastructure and network services for two major acquisitions in under 12 months, maintaining operational continuity throughout.
- Reduced infrastructure costs by renegotiating contracts, optimizing virtualization, and implementing database/app stacking.
- Championed ITIL-based improvements to operational support, increasing standardization, SLA adherence, and issue resolution speed.
- Deployed secure, compliant enterprise platforms including Cisco networking, VMware, NetApp storage, Oracle/SQL Server, and ERP systems across maritime operations.
Enterprise Data Center Technology Manager
Altria Client Services
Richmond, USA
01.2005 - 01.2013
- Company Overview: Philip Morris USA, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco, John Middleton.
- Directed all aspects of infrastructure strategy and operations for 11 domestic data centers supporting $80M in daily transactions.
- Led a team of 85 internal employees and 150+ contractors across server, SAP, database, storage, and messaging platforms.
- Managed a $29M annual infrastructure budget and drove continuous alignment between technology and manufacturing operations.
- Philip Morris USA, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco, John Middleton.
- Maintained 99.998% core systems availability over 5 years by driving architectural governance and disciplined change management.
- Co-led enterprise data center relocation initiative, securing $35M+ in savings via strategic outsourcing with IBM.
- Directed $2M data center renovations at two major manufacturing sites to enhance reliability, scalability, and disaster preparedness.
- Orchestrated 3 large-scale M&A integrations, consolidating infrastructure and harmonizing technology platforms across business units.
- Enforced regulatory compliance (SOX, FDA, internal audit) across all infrastructure domains, serving as the internal lead for audit prep and response.
- Standardized delivery and support using ITIL practices, while leading deployments across Windows Server, Linux, VMware, NetApp, AIX, SAP, and .NET platforms.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
James Madison University
01.1997
Skills
- Enterprise Infrastructure Strategy
- Cloud Operations & Hybrid Architecture
- Zero Trust Security Frameworks
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- Ansible Automation
- Observability & Self-Healing Systems
- Cost Optimization & Vendor Negotiation
- Technology Roadmapping & Executive Alignment
- Data Center Modernization
- Generative AI Enablement
- Disaster Recovery & Ransomware Response
- Compliance (HIPAA, SOX, CMS 912)
- Virtualization & Container Platforms
- Team Leadership & Talent Development
- ITIL / SLA Governance
- VMware
- Nutanix
- Red Hat OpenShift
- NetApp
- Cisco
- Oracle
- SQL Server
- IBM Power Systems
- Windows Server
- Linux
- Azure
- NVIDIA GPUs
- LLaMA Models
- ITIL Framework
- SaaS/PaaS/IaaS
- Generative AI
- Ansible
- Infrastructure as Code
- Observability Tools
- Zero Trust Architecture
Affiliations
- Guest Technology Lecturer, UNC Charlotte – Topics: Healthcare IT, Infrastructure, and Security
- Member, IBM Executive Advisory Board
- Speaker, IBM Think Conference (Topic: Open Source Solutions to Reduce Support and Technology Costs)
- Professional Member of RichTech
- Contributor to 451 Research's InfoPro Group
Technologies And Platforms
- VMware
- Nutanix
- Red Hat OpenShift
- NetApp
- Cisco
- Oracle
- SQL Server
- IBM Power Systems
- Windows Server
- Linux
- Azure
- NVIDIA GPUs
- LLaMA Models
- ITIL Framework
- SaaS/PaaS/IaaS
- Generative AI
- Ansible
- Infrastructure as Code
- Observability Tools
- Zero Trust Architecture
Timeline
Senior Director, Infrastructure and Cloud Operations
Florida Blue
01.2016 - Current
Director, Enterprise Technology
Crowley Maritime
01.2013 - 01.2016
Enterprise Data Center Technology Manager
Altria Client Services
01.2005 - 01.2013
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
James Madison University
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