Ben Redfern
I have over 14 years of experience designing, deploying, maintaining and managing high availability, high value enterprise networks. Spanning voice, data and non-IP infrastructure I have successfully cultivated a reputation for effectively managing to deliver technical projects from both a high-level architecture and low-level design perspective.
[email protected]
+44 (0) 7 886 250 886
Brighton, UK
Technical Skills
Cisco LAN & WAN
Experience across the full suite of Cisco routing and switching product ranges, working in both LAN and WAN environments.
Automation
Recent experience using a variety of automation frameworks (Ansible, Chef) & scripting languages (Python, Bash, Go-lang) to create tools for network engineering teams.
Datacentre
Deployed and managed a regional 3-tiered datacentre environment using Cisco Nexus 2k/5k/7k infrastructure and a mix of Palo Alto and ASA firewalls.
Experience
Senior Network Engineer, Feb 2015 - Present
- Built an Automation framework designed to standardize network device configurations and deploy new features (QoS, dot1x, Jabber on Cisco CUCM) using a blend of Ansible playbooks, bespoke python code and a Javascript front-end.
- Created and delivered 2-week network automation training course in Phoenix Arizona to global network operations and engineering teams.
- Network Automation with Python
- Ansible playbook examples and techniques
- Designed and implemented multiple tools used to effectively manage change, check and create network device configurations:
- Automate network diagram generation - anonymized example available.
- Generate device configurations - example documentation avaiable.
- Parsing structured data from CLI commands - routing tables, firewall & load balancer connection information.
- Mange network utility servers (RedHat, Windows 2008/2012) to control, record and report on network health, device maintenance and change management.
- Successfully deployed software-defined WAN solution (Viptela) to multiple locations in EMEA.
- LAN refresh, hardware platform migration from Catalyst 6500 to 4500X in all European offices - configurations were generated using scripts and current device configuration to ensure compatibility and migration success.
- Datacentre migration of largest facility in EMEA for financial client effecting multiple locations, coordinating several infrastructure teams.
- Load-balancing infrastructure migration of high value (credit card authorization network) traffic without outage or business impact.
- Capacity planning and bandwidth analysis for locations experiencing perceived network issues.
- End-to-end solution management for card transaction partners, from initial meetings though deployment and testing to go-live.
- Advises internal technology teams on network impact of projects and effectively coordinates communication as required.
- Acts as team representative at the Change Advisory Board to evaluate changes across multiple geographical regions.
- Positioned as an interface between suppliers, carriers and vendors managing support activities and ensuring quick problem resolution.
- Daily interaction with enterprise firewall configuration (Cisco ASA) and routine exposure to Palo Alto policy based firewalls.
- Assess and analyses new technologies and products that may provide improvements to network performance and stability.
Senior Network Engineer, Sept 2010 - Feb 2015
- Re-engineer and migrate legacy payment networks for clients to improve availability and reduce risks of outage.
- MPLS roll-out using dual vendors with automatic failover using ipsla metrics and enterprise event management scripts.
- Architect partner networks to ensure PCI DSS (The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliance.
- Tier 4 troubleshooting, brought in to assess and manage high priority network issues and circumvent business impact.
- Project consultancy, coordinated & managed 3rd parties, vendors and other network engineers to deliver projects for clients.
- Created multiple internal tools (python, bash) used to validate network configurations and test live services.
- Assisted clients with scoping and road-mapping future solutions/strategies whilst working closely with associated account managers.
- Training off-shore network operations team to manage and troubleshoot client networks.
- Generated network standards documentation for internal teams in order to ensure that Service Level Agreements were met.
- Customer facing role that required high level of communication.
Network Consultant, Feb 2010 - Sept 2010
- Network audit of an acquired 3rd Party company, design recommendations and cost presented to senior management.
- Managed network services integration for ADS, DNS, Cisco IPT and infrastructure management platform (Nagios).
- Throughout the contract I was involved in overseeing and advising the network related portions of new and existing projects.
Embedded Device Developer, Dec 2008 - Dec 2009
- Bluetooth stack development for in-car satellite navigation systems.
- Low level networking code for television set-top boxes.
- Designed and managed test suites and emulation environments to confirm new code would perform correctly.
Network Operations Engineer, Aug 2002 - Sept 2008
- Proactive break-fix engineering, responded to network faults, assessed and remediated outages.
- Participated in on-call rotation, first responder for high severity network tickets.
- Network hardware testing, replacement and re-cabling.
- worked on multiple vendors products Juniper/Cisco/Checkpoint firewalls
References
References can be made available on request
