Jose Tavarez Almonte

Direct Information Technology Operations for $5 million dollar company providing Technology Infrastructure and Cloud Services for small to medium sized businesses.

• Established Quality Assurance, Documentation, Telecommunications/WAN departments and Helpdesk departments that improve internal processes and enhanced productivity.
• Designed and rolled out new architecture for private and public cloud systems to guarantee redundancy and load balance increasing uptime to 99.99%.
• Performed multiple Migration projects for Microsoft Exchange email servers, storage solutions, Backup & Disaster Recovery strategies
• Introduced procedural improvements to increase productivity including scheduled hardware maintenance, employee activity tracking and cross integration of systems.
• Performed as key contributor to building engineering, service and support infrastructures within organization to streamline support of products and services.
• Spearheaded technology department, overseeing team of 12 professionals, and consistently achieved project milestones and deadlines.
• Developed and executed strategic technology initiatives, resulting in 30% increase in overall efficiency and 25% reduction in operational costs.
• Led implementation of innovative solutions, such as PV 2.0 SaaS platform, resulting in improved customer satisfaction and 35% increase in revenue.
• Collaborated with cross-functional teams to align technology strategies with business objectives, ensuring seamless integration of technology solutions across organization.
• Established and maintained vendor relationships, negotiating contracts and optimizing services, resulting in 18% reduction in procurement expenses.
• Implemented robust cybersecurity measures, ensuring organization's data and systems are protected against potential threats, resulting in zero security breaches during tenure.
• Developed and mentored high-performing team, fostering culture of collaboration, innovation, and professional growth.

• Implemented robust CI/CD pipelines, enabling automated testing, deployment, and monitoring of applications, leading to 45% increase in overall development speed.
• Led team of 5 DevOps engineers and developers, providing mentorship, coaching, and technical guidance to foster collaborative and high-performance work environment.
• Collaborated with key stakeholders to define and execute DevOps strategies, aligning technology initiatives with business goals and ensuring seamless integration with existing systems.
• Oversaw implementation of monitoring and alerting systems, enabling proactive identification and resolution of issues, reducing mean time to resolution (MTTR) by 10%.
• Responsible for all aspects of IT administration and support for current Linux/MySQL infrastructure hosting 5 online e-commerce retail sites and its core backend PHP order management system (OMS) running across multiple environments (Production, Staging & Development) using RedHat Enterprise & CentOS servers.
• Responsible for supporting and maintaining software infrastructure for total of 120 users running in two different environments (Windows RDS-Azure & RedHat Linux-MAC) across 9 regional offices in 7 states across country. Assisted with design, development, integration, implementation, and maintenance of network and telecommunications systems as well as coordination and development of cloud projects (Azure & O365) utilizing internal staff and outside vendors.
• 1.- Redesigned Microsoft RDS network to eliminate, migrate and consolidate servers to save costs on datacenter space and modernize current technologies by utilizing cloud solutions (O365 E3 & Microsoft Azure). Reduced total of 16 Windows Servers to 7 by integrating server roles and migrating services to cloud. Migrated local Exchange Server and 60 mailboxes using hybrid migration tool to O365 and local SharePoint Server to SharePoint Online.

• Provided leadership and vision for IT department include strategic planning of information systems, managed team of 5 engineers supporting over 100 calls per day.
• Supported segment of Gulfstream Goodwill's stores across state by providing networking and computer support.
• Maintained network hardware and software, managed Cisco HP routers and switches, monitored network availability to all system users and perform necessary maintenance to support users and network accessibility.
• Developed strategic direction for information systems plan including technology deployment plans and departmental budgets.
• Directed all information technology and network system deployment and maintenance including all IT infrastructure, wireless communications, PC systems, local networks and mobile environment.
• Managed IT training for IT staff members and end user training on software and desktop systems.
• Created operational policies, procedures, standards, guidelines and best practices.
• Recruited, hired and trained IT staff, project managers, engineer and network administrators.
• Oversee department meetings with staff leads and managers to ensure continuity of information systems support and goal attainment.
• Ensured project completion by coordinating resources and timetables with user departments, IT staff and data center employees.
• Assessed new innovative technologies, mission critical systems, security, communications and business continuity.

• Deployed, managed, and maintained corporate network consisting of some 420 nodes in six offices throughout USA, including remote access VOIP (VPN) Citrix, Terminal Services and other WAN technologies.
• Manage and maintain 30 number of servers/workstations across multiple platforms, ensuring 99.9% uptime and optimal performance.
• Managed Unified Messaging field technicians.
• Administered company wide Exchange 2003 email system and Blackberry server
• Oversee Hardware and Software configuration, inventory of all corporate Computer equipment.
• Designed and installed systems at customer sites throughout USA.
• Provided technical solutions for all network systems related issues.
• Lead Engineer for all computer based products i.e. Routers, Unified Messaging Systems, Call Accounting Systems and Call Management Systems.
• Provided ongoing National support for installed customer systems.
• Arrange and deploy ISDN, DSL, P2P/T1, Frame Relay and other Transport technologies.
• Server installs, maintenance and troubleshooting, Domain Controllers, Exchange, IIS, SQL, SNA, Apache Tomcat, Linux

• Developed and implemented measures and procedures to protect IT systems from cyber threats and data breaches.
• Demonstrated familiarity with latest hardware, software and networking technology.
• Updated customers and senior leaders on progress and roadblocks.
• Guided organizational technology strategy and roadmaps.
• Interacted and negotiated with vendors, outsourced and contractors to secure products and services.
• Held multifaceted responsibilities to configure, install and administer network infrastructure, established new IT policies, which defined acceptable use of IT assets within company. Installed and configured servers including RAID 1 & 5 arrays, responsible for network infrastructure, implementation, configuration and management of Windows 2008 Server environment. Designed and supported for environment including operating systems, system utilities, application development technology resources, hardware configurations. Designed and developed current intake management application and digital boards using C# to improve business efficiency and productivity.

Performed Application Support tier 3 for MWMS (Mobile Work Management System) team under Power Systems/Information Management Support Team Division providing support to their mobile field management application “FIELDIT” used by 700 users on more than 700 trucks in 32 cities in state of Florida in three different environments (Production, Pre-Production and Test).

• Monitored systems in operation and quickly troubleshot errors.
• Documented technical issues and solutions to enable tracking history and maintain accurate logs.
• Collaborated with outside departments to implement system-wide improvements.
• Patched software and installed new versions to eliminate security problems and protect data.
• Installed and maintained hardware and computer peripherals to store tangible components.
• Researched and implemented new technologies and methodologies to improve support processes and provide better services to customers.
• Communicated with clients to verify roots and causes of computer problems.
• Upgraded operating systems and computer software to perform compatibility with programs.

• Served as primary point of contact for support relating to owned solutions and products.
• Explained technical information in clear terms to non-technical individuals to promote better understanding.
• Responded to support requests from end-users and patiently walked individuals through basic troubleshooting tasks.
• Communicated with stakeholders to share critical technical information and deliver project updates.
• Maintained response times to support business continuity.
• Documented faults and bugs for referral to development staff for use in updates.
• Contributed to whitepapers, blogs and videos for marketing, sales and training.
• Advised senior personnel on potential process improvements to increase support quality and expedite ticket fulfillment.
• Worked directly with clients in rollout and post-rollout stages to train and support new applications and systems.