yellowpigs.net

Sara Smollett
sara@simons-rock.edu

Linux/UNIX systems administrator/engineer:

• 10+ year Linux admin (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, RedHat, and many other distributions)
• 25+ year Mac user
• 5+ year former OpenBSD user
• Experienced in Python, Perl, and Bash shell scripting
• Dormant experience with PHP and Scheme

Detailed employment history:

Wikimedia Foundation (Dec 2011 - ):

• Operations Engineer (contractor)

Google, Inc., Mountain View, CA (Oct 2005 - Aug 2011):

• Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), Security (Sep 2010 - Aug 2011)
• Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), Google Apps and Accounts (Dec 2008 - Sep 2010)
• Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), Corporate HR, Engineering, and Finanical Systems (Apr 2007 - Nov 2008)
• Corporate Reliability Engineer (Sep 2006 - Mar 2007)
• Systems Administrator, Sysops (Oct 2005 - Sep 2006)

• Administered high-availability and high-QPS web frontend and RPC services backed by custom storage layers (e.g., bigtable)
• Administered MySQL servers in a moderately complex replication topology
• Administered networking devices and tools, including load balancers and IDSes
• Administered custom Java, C++, and Python services using the standard suite of Google custom tools
• Enhanced availability, performance, and overall reliability for production services
• Performed thorough capacity planning, loadtesting, resource management, and utilization responsibilities for existing and new production services
• Developed extensive custom monitoring rules to ensure availability and performance of services
• Established multi-homing of services, devised and certified disaster recovery procedures, and performed disaster recovery and training drills
• Automated server deployments, using many custom tools, as well as puppet and Debian packages
• Performed software releases
• Provided launch reviews for new applications and releases
• Ensured Sarbanes-Oxley and SAS70 compliance as required
• Advocated for security and privacy
• Thoroughly documented services
• Performed frequent oncall duties for criticial high-availability services (three and four nines)
• Primary pre-launch reliability engineer for two high-visibility launches (one internal, one external)
• Coordinated fixits and other small-scale projects
• Tech lead for team of 6-10 engineers in multiple timezones
• Mentored new hires
• Co-founded group of women systems administrators
• Interviewed 50+ candidates, recruited, proposed job description revisions

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA (Nov 2003 - Sep 2005):

• Information Systems Associate II, CIS Networking

• Installed and maintained DNS, DHCP, NTP, LDAP, Apache, and MySQL servers on Debian GNU/Linux
• Deployed, modified, and maintained a network host inventory and registration system based on CMU NetReg (Perl, Apache2, MySQL 4, BIND 9, DHCPd 3, Squid, Nessus, CiscoWorks)
• Developed tools in Perl to assist in network migration
• Migrated people/account information from Netscape LDAP to OpenLDAP (using eduPerson and custom schemas)
• Documented network registration system and network troubleshooting procedures
• Assisted with a VoIP (Asterisk/SIP) deployment
• Some experience with mathematical software packages (MATLAB, Maple, Mathematica)

Simon's Rock College, Great Barrington, MA (May 2000 - Oct 2003):

• Systems and Network Administrator, Computer & Media Services

• Installed and maintained production Debian GNU/Linux servers with ~1000 user accounts
• Installed, configured, secured, and maintained numerous services including Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, OpenLDAP, Postfix, Courier, Mailman, BIND, DHCPd, Squid, and Samba
• Responsible for monitoring and maintaining network operations
• Wrote many Perl and bash scripts to automate systems and network administration tasks (account management, log parsing, backups, service monitoring, etc.)
• Administered Cisco and Linux routers and firewalls (iptables, ipchains) and worked with a variety of bandwidth monitoring and traffic shaping tools (including iptraf, ntop, mrtg, and custom Perl/libpcap)
• Performed vulnerability scanning, security monitoring, and incident response (Nessus, Snort, Argus, etc.)
• Implemented spam and virus filtering (Postfix, SpamAssassin, Procmail, ClamAV, DNSBLs)
• Performed two campus-wide IP readdressings
• Developed and implemented many server procedures and policies, and wrote all user documentation (in LaTeX, HTML, and groff)
• Shared responsbility for Mac OS X, Windows 2000, Solaris, and AIX servers
• Created and maintained websites (W3C compliant HTML, CSS, Perl, PHP, Python, PostgreSQL)
• Built, upgraded, and repaired PC and Mac servers, workstations, and laptops
• Supported FileMaker Pro database system
• Trained junior systems administrators
• Oversaw student workers and organized orientation week network setup activities
• Taught an undergraduate course on Linux and systems administration

Undergraduate experience:

• Assistant Systems Administrator, Simon's Rock College, MA (Dec 1999 - May 2000):
  Performed routine systems administration tasks
• Network Engineer Intern, MedIT, Stanford University, CA (Jun 1999 - Nov 1999):
  Installed and maintained network switches (3Com, Asante, ATI, Cisco, Extreme, HP)
  Provided Mac and Windows desktop, Apple hardware, and networking support
• Network Administration Intern, CIS, Stanford University, CA (Jun 1999 - Aug 1999):
  Performed routine systems administration tasks (Linux, Solaris)
• Computer and Networking Assistant, Simon's Rock College, MA (Aug 1998 - May 1999):
  Oversaw computer labs
  Provided Mac and Windows technical support to students, faculty, and staff
  Maintained physical network and provided network troubleshooting
• Network Installer, Simon's Rock College, MA (Feb 1998 - Aug 1998):
  Designed and installed college LAN (ST/SC fiber and Cat5 Ethernet, hubs, switches)

Conferences and memberships:

• SCALE (2012)
• Internet Identity Workshop (2011)
• OpsCamp (2010)
• She's Geeky (2009, 2012)
• LISA (2008)
• Grace Hopper (2007, 2008, 2011)
• Ubucon (2006)
• Educause - NERCOMP (2002-2005)
• Linux World (1999-2001)
• Member of Linguistic Society of America (2011-2012)
• Sponsor of the Ada Initiative (2011)
• Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship reviewer (2009, 2011)
• Member of USENIX/SAGE (2008-2009)
• Member of Association for Women in Mathematics (2003-2005)
• Member of debian-women and ubuntu-women (since founding)

Academic:

• San Jose State University, San Jose, CA (Aug 2011-):
  Pursuing certificate in computational linguistics
• University of Colorado at Boulder (Summer 2011):
  Attended Linguistic Institute
• Mountain View/Los Altos and Palo Alto Adult Ed programs, CA (Sep 2009-):
  Studied Finnish, ASL, and Italian
• Stanford University (Winter 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011):
  Audited philosophy of science, history of science, and linguistics courses
• University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DK (May 2006):
  Presented history paper at Denmark and the Black Atlantic conference
• Tufts University, Medford, MA:
  M.A. in Philosophy, concentrating in philosophy of science (May 2005)
  Completed comprehensive exams (May 2002 - Jan 2005)
  Cumulative GPA 3.519 (Sept 2001 - Dec 2002)
• Simon's Rock College of Bard, Great Barrington, MA:
  Taught undergraduate course on Linux (Spring 2001)
  B.A. in Liberal Arts with concentrations in Mathematics and Computer Science, magna cum laude (May 2000)
  Cumulative GPA 3.534 (Aug 1996 - May 2000)
  Received highest honors on thesis
  Math tutor (Aug 1996 - May 2000)
  Robert Hutchins Scholarship recipient (Aug 1998 - May 2000)
  Acceleration to Excellence Scholarship recipient (Aug 1996 - May 1998)
• Amherst College, Amherst, MA (Aug 1997 - Dec 1997)
• Hampshire College, Amherst, MA:
  HCSSiM - Summer Studies in Mathematics (Summer 1994, Summer 1995)
• Antilles School, St. Thomas, USVI (until Jun 1996):
  Presidential Scholar Nominee
  National Merit Scholar
  Competed in MathCounts Nationals

References, etc.:

• LinkedIn
• References available upon request

Last updated 2012