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