Hewlett Packard | 2011-2015 - Los Alamos National Lab (LANL)

As soon as my onboarding was complete and I was settled into my home office (HP was in the process of closing and selling off many of their office buildings at this time), I got a call from my manager.  He asked if I could fly to New Mexico to help with some issues the delivery team was having at LANL.  He said if I wasn't interested I could pass but, seeing that this was the very first assignment he had given me, I could not refuse.  I was given the basic information about contract scope; a large email migration (15K seats) away from an open source platform that was quite antiquated (with a smaller managed mobility deployment in scope).  I spent the weekend preparing by coming up to speed on the design and architectural elements of the platform they were migrating to and boarded a plane Sunday evening.

When I arrived on site, I was informed that the entire project team had been fired and that if I didn't come up with a revised architecture and project plan within 24 hours, HP would lose the contract.  Leveraging what I had learned over the weekend and my experience developing project plans for project managers I had worked with in the past, I was able to impress the customer and land myself as the Technical Project Manager for the project.  I was given a small, remote team and we completed the project on schedule and under budget within 6 months.

I went on to lead a few other high profile engagements with the laboratory over the next 4 years; along with many smaller initiatives.  In most cases I was given remote resources to lead.  In total, I helped sell and deliver over $40m in services during my time at LANL.

First, I led multiple subcontractors in the development of a hybrid cloud service broker.  The team consisted of a set of full stack developers from a smaller firm, specialists from a virtualization vendor, and automation developers from HP.  I was the technical lead for the teams; which I managed using the SCRUM methodology.  I was the executive consultant who presented progress to the leaders at the lab and the sponsors in DC.  Over 12 months we created a custom self-service experience that obfuscated the deployment of full infrastructure stacks to both Private and Public Clouds.

Second, I participated in a group that was evaluating and implementing ITIL tools and processes.  The challenge was that the lab could not leverage any public SaaS platform during this time and the IT workforce was not keen on following ITIL processes.  We deployed tooling, developed training plans, and hosted town hall meetings to address the workforce concerns.

Finally, I worked with the lab's engineering teams to develop advanced security platforms that helped ensure protection of the lab's unique mission.  This was also custom development for both front and back ends.  I was granted a TS/SCI clearance during this time and offered the role of CISO within the organization.