Sara Smollett
sara@simons-rock.edu
Linux/UNIX systems administrator/engineer:
- 14+ year Linux admin (Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, RedHat, and many other
distributions)
- Current experience with Python and Bash shell scripting
- Past experience with OpenBSD, Mac OS X, Perl, PHP, JavaScript, Java, Scheme/Racket, etc.
Detailed employment history:
Google, Inc., Mountain View, CA (Sep 2012):
- Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), Security (Sep 2012 - )
- Member of team that organized company-wide disaster recovery testing
The Wikimedia Foundation, San Francisco, CA (Dec 2011 - Sep 2012):
- Operations Engineer (part-time contractor)
- Used puppet to automate deployment of monitoring infrastructure
- Worked on development/testing "labs" OpenStack environment
- Subsequently ran Wikipedia editathon at Grace Hopper (as a volunteer)
Google, Inc., Mountain View, CA (Oct 2005 - Aug 2011):
- Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), Security (Sep 2010 - Aug 2011)
- Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), Google Apps -- Accounts, Apps for Your Domain, Google Reader (Dec 2008 - Sep 2010)
- Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), Corporate HR, Engineering, and Financial 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 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
- Administered MySQL servers in a moderately complex replication topology
- Worked on security and privacy efforts
- 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
- Thoroughly documented services
- Performed frequent oncall duties for critical high-availability services
- 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 distributed engineers
- Mentored new hires
- Interviewed 50 candidates, recruited at conferences
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)
Women in tech / diversity initiatives
- Advisor to The Ada Initiative (2013 - )
- Sponsor of The Ada Initiative (2011, 2012)
- Attended AdaCamp (2012, 2013)
- Helped organize AdaCamp allies track (2013)
- Attended ABI Women of Vision Awards event (2013)
- Presented two sessions at Grace Hopper (2012)
- Attended Grace Hopper (2007, 2008, 2011, 2012)
- Attended She's Geeky (2009, 2012, 2013)
- Coordinated Google-hosted reception for AdaCamp (2013)
- Presented as part of panel of women engineers for Take-Your-Child-To-Work Day (2013)
- Reviewed and drafted Google SRE job descriptions to encourage diversity (2011)
- Reviewed applications for Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarships (2009, 2011)
- Raised awareness about many diversity issues within Google, especially within Google SRE (2008 -)
- Co-founded Google Women in Operations group (2007)
- Volunteered at many tech outreach events, mostly introducing girls to CS/tech (2006 - )
- Member of Association for Women in Mathematics (2003 - 2005)
- Member of debian-women, ubuntu-women, and linuxchix communities
Other Conferences, memberships, etc.:
- LISA (2008, 2012)
- Member of USENIX/SAGE (2008 - 2009, 2012 -)
- Wikimania (2012)
- Wikipedia editor (2003 -)
- Internet Identity Workshop (2011 - 2012)
- SCALE (2012)
- OpsCamp (2010)
- Ubucon (2006)
- Educause - NERCOMP (2002-2005)
- Linux World (1999-2001)
Academic:
- Hacker Dojo, Mountain View, CA (Mar 2012 - June 2012):
Python class co-instructor
- Coursera and udacity (Sep 2011 - ):
Took many online courses, mostly in CS topics
- San Jose State University, San Jose, CA (Aug 2011 - Dec 2012):
Certificate in computational linguistics (May 2012)
- Society of Caribbean Linguistics conference (Aug 2012)
- University of Colorado at Boulder (Summer 2011):
Attended Linguistic Institute
- Member of Society for Caribbean Linguistics (2012 - ),
- Member of Linguistic Society of America (2011 - )
- Mountain View/Los Altos, Palo Alto, and Cupertino/Sunnyvale Adult Ed programs, CA (Sep 2009 - ):
Studied Finnish, ASL, Italian, and German
- 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:
- LinkedIn
- References available upon request
Last updated 2013