Koushik Vangeti
Amazon Web Services
Evanston,WY
8
years of professional experience
Data Center Engineer with 5+ years of hands-on experience working in hyperscale, healthcare, and enterprise environments. I have spent most of my career doing the physical side of data center work — racking and cabling equipment, running fiber, troubleshooting connectivity issues, and keeping things running 24/7. At AWS and Ascension, I got deep into structured cabling, hardware deployments, and network troubleshooting. At Accenture I also picked up routing protocols, Python automation, and monitoring tools. I am comfortable working independently or as part of a team, and I take pride in doing clean, reliable work.
Work History
Senior Data Center Engineer
1 Year 5 Months- Day-to-day work involves installing and deploying servers, switches, and network gear — racking equipment, running cables, connecting PDUs, and making sure everything is properly labeled and documented before it goes live.
- Handled fiber runs regularly, including SMF and MMF terminations with LC, SC, and MPO/MTP connectors. I test every link with OTDR and Fluke gear and won't sign off until loss is within spec (0.2 dB or better).
- Set up OOB management on new deployments using iDRAC, iLO, and Opengear console servers so the networking team can access devices remotely without needing someone on the floor.
- When hardware comes in dead or fails in production, I handle the swap — drives, PSUs, NICs, DIMMs — and coordinate the RMA process with the vendor.
- Helped with BIOS and firmware validation on new servers before they go into production, working off a checklist and flagging anything that doesn't match the expected baseline.
- Used DCIM tools to keep asset records current — rack positions, power draw, port maps. If the data isn't accurate, troubleshooting takes twice as long, so I'm strict about keeping it updated.
- Part of the on-call rotation for Tier 1 and Tier 2 incidents. If something breaks after hours I'm expected to respond, diagnose, and either fix it or escalate with enough context for the next person to pick it up fast.
- Written a few Python scripts to pull hardware status reports and flag devices that haven't checked in — nothing fancy, just saves the team from doing manual audits every week.
- Worked closely with the network and facilities teams during large deployment windows to make sure cabling, power, and connectivity are all validated before handoff.
- Followed all AWS safety and EHS requirements on the floor — PPE, lift procedures, lockout/tagout — and have helped walk newer techs through site-specific rules.
- Provided 24×7 on-call operations, managing incident response, executing emergency repairs, and ensuring continuous service availability.
Data Center Engineer
1 Year 3 Months- Supported the data center infrastructure across Ascension's hospital and clinic network, which meant keeping a mix of older and newer equipment running reliably in an environment where downtime has real patient care consequences.
- Handled LAN/WAN network support using Cisco Nexus and Catalyst switches — configuring VLANs, setting up trunk ports, and troubleshooting connectivity issues that came in through ServiceNow tickets.
- Worked on firewall rule reviews and VPN configurations on Cisco ASA and Palo Alto devices, mostly supporting changes requested by the security and compliance teams.
- Helped with SD-WAN rollouts at clinic sites, working with the network team to stage devices, validate connectivity, and confirm traffic was routing correctly before marking sites as complete.
- Ran structured cabling for new equipment installs and rack expansions — measured, routed, and labeled everything according to our documentation standards the next person could follow it easily.
- Managed hardware lifecycle across the environment including ordering replacements, scheduling maintenance windows, and coordinating with vendors for on-site support when needed.
- Used SolarWinds and NetFlow to keep an eye on network performance and would investigate any spikes or unusual traffic patterns before they turned into real problems.
- Supported AWS hybrid connectivity including VPN tunnels and Direct Connect links, mostly helping with initial validation and troubleshooting when links dropped.
- Kept rack diagrams, IP documentation, and port maps up to date in Confluence. Healthcare audits are serious and having accurate records saved us a lot of scrambling during review cycles.
- Worked with Linux servers supporting clinical applications — mostly patching, basic troubleshooting, and making sure services were running after maintenance reboots.
- Wrote runbooks and SOPs for common tasks so that junior team members and contractors could execute installs consistently without needing to ask for help every step of the way.
- Maintained accurate rack layouts, cabling diagrams, and infrastructure documentation to support audits, troubleshooting, and scalability.
Data Center Engineer
3 Years 3 Months- Started here doing mostly physical infrastructure work — racking servers, running cable, and supporting hardware installs at enterprise client sites. Over time I took on more network and automation responsibilities.
- Got solid hands-on experience with BGP, OSPF, and MPLS in a large enterprise WAN environment. Helped troubleshoot routing issues, reviewed BGP peering configs, and supported migration projects.
- Wrote Python scripts to automate repetitive tasks like pulling config backups, generating inventory reports, and checking device connectivity — reduced a lot of manual work the team was doing weekly.
- Handled full fiber install and testing cycles — fusion splicing, LC and MPO terminations, OTDR testing, and documenting results. Made sure every run was documented with before/after test results.
- Configured and troubleshoot Cisco, Juniper, and Arista switches and routers for enterprise clients — VLANs, spanning tree, port channels, and basic routing configs.
- Set up Grafana and Prometheus dashboards to give the ops team visibility into device health and interface utilization — made it a lot easier to spot problems before users started calling.
- Participated in planned maintenance windows for network device upgrades and migrations, usually working nights or weekends to avoid business impact.
- Helped document the network environment for several clients who had almost no existing documentation — built out topology diagrams, IP address schemes, and device inventories from scratch.
- Worked alongside senior engineers on complex troubleshooting cases and picked up a lot through that experience — BGP route leaks, spanning tree loops, misconfigured trunk ports.
- Trained a couple of new team members on cabling standards, test procedures, and how to use the ticketing system, which I enjoyed doing.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Business Analytics
Bachelor of Technology - Computer Science
Skills
Data Center & Hardware: Rack & stack
structured cabling
fiber (SMF/MMF
MPO/MTP)
OTDR
Fluke testing
BOM validation
power/cooling planning
grounding
hardware installation and lifecycle support
GB200 GPU racks
NVIDIA platforms
100G/400G optical transceivers (AOC/DAC).
Remote Management: iDRAC
iLO
IPMItool
BMC
Opengear for remote access
monitoring
troubleshooting
and system recovery.
Servers & Systems: Linux (RHEL
Ubuntu
CentOS)
Windows Server
VMware
Hyper-V
Active Directory
Opengear.
Cloud & AI Infrastructure: AWS
Azure
GCP
hybrid cloud
NVIDIA GPU infrastructure
GB300/GB200 high-density compute systems.
Networking: LAN/WAN
VLANs
routing and switching. Protocols include BGP
OSPF
VPN troubleshooting. Platforms: Cisco
Arista
NVIDIA.
Fiber & Cabling: SMF/MMF fiber
MPO/MTP and LC/SC/ST/FC connectors. OTDR and Fluke testing for link validation
loss checking
and troubleshooting.
Monitoring & Observability: Grafana
Prometheus
DCIM tools
and internal telemetry systems for performance monitoring and visibility.
Security & Operations: Risk identification
escalation
and mitigation. Change management
access control
audit support
and compliance.
Automation: Python
Ansible
Jenkins
Git
CI/CD pipelines
REST APIs.
Storage & Databases: SAN/NAS
RAID
LVM
SQL.
IT Tools: ServiceNow
Jira
Confluence
Slack
Microsoft Teams.
Timeline
Senior Data Center Engineer
Amazon Web Services
05.2025 - CurrentRead More
Data Center Engineer
Ascension
02.2024 - 05.2025Read More
Data Center Engineer
Accenture Solutions
04.2019 - 07.2022Read More
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University
Bachelor of Technology from Computer Science
Read More
Trine University
Bachelor of Science from Business Analytics
Read More