About Me
My name is Alex Dean and I am a well rounded IT professional with a strong background in networking and security. Configuring and maintaining secure IT infrastructure has been at the core of what I do for over 10 years. I really enjoy my career especially when it comes to digging deep into issues to figure out the solution. I have experience both in the public and private sectors, although most of my experience has been within public sector environments. The things I love most about my career is being part of talented teams and learning every day!
In my free time, my favorite way to spend time is with my family and golfing. Any free time that is left over is usually spent working on college.
Experience Summary
I have 10 years of experience as a network engineer and cyber security specialist. My direct experience includes making network configuration changes on dozens of switches and firewalls; automating compliance and networking related tasks; assisting remote sites with networking, systems, and compliance related issues; responding to security incidents; providing technical support to end-users; ensuring excellent communication and support with remote site administrators and users. I am currently pursuing my bachelor's degree in Cloud Computing from Western Governor’s University.
Skills
Network Configuration & Administration
Systems Administration
Compliance & Security
Network Automation
Cloud Environments
DoD Environments & Procedures
LAN/WAN Troubleshooting
NOC Administration
Experience
Capgemini Government Solutions - Cloud Network Engineer (Jun 2023 - Feb 2025)
- Create and manage security rules, NAT rules, and IPSec tunnels within Palo Alto Panorama and NGFWs
- Panorama monitoring to troubleshoot and diagnose network traffic issues
- Assigned IP addresses and configured firewalls to enable proxy migration of over 70 sites
- Troubleshoot routing tables as needed to identify missing entries for route based IPSec tunnels
- Established process to log unused/deleted firewall rules for record keeping
- Utilize cloud-based cybersecurity principles to daily tasks and decision making
- Coordinate with tenants and external organizations to configure firewall rules to allow connections to web proxies
- Troubleshoot DNS and networking issues in AWS Route 53 and VPCs
- Perform audits between IPAM and AWS routing tables to ensure accuracy
- Perform incident response with investigation and remediation of networking related incidents
Harvest Sherwood Food Distributors - Senior IT Security Analyst (Jan 2023 - Jun 2023)
- Lead company cyber security program and security engineering
- Plan and implement security procedures and processes
- Perform investigations into security incidents escalated by SOC
- Administer Mimecast email security appliance
- Manage hybrid Exchange server and troubleshoot email issues
- Perform phishing campaigns using KnowBe4
- Performed initial configuration of Alien Vault vulnerability scanning to enable team to be able to identify known vulnerabilities
- Create and manage policies and objects on Palo Alto Panorama, managing over a dozen NGFW devices at sites nationwide
- Perform remediations on vulnerabilities identified in third party penetration tests
- Identified excessive vendor subscription plan, saving $25k per year after reduction in tier
- Collaborate with infrastructure, application, and development teams to remediate vulnerabilities and carry out security projects
- Collaborate with SOC to manage EDR and SIEM tools
- Utilize SentinelOne management console to manage EDR agents
- Manage users and devices in a hybrid cloud environment via on-premises Active Directory and Azure
General Dynamics Information Technology - Cyber Security Analyst/Network Engineer (Nov 2020 - Jan 2023)
- Provide network troubleshooting and assistance to multiple remote sites to ensure NOC services provided are accessible and function properly
- Perform duties as RedSeal Lead: administration of RedSeal servers, training of junior RedSeal admins, and perform technical support and troubleshooting for nearly a dozen remote sites
- Perform network configuration changes and maintenance on Cisco firewalls, Cisco switches, and BIG-IP F5 devices
- Fully automated STIG compliance checking and documentation process for Cisco IOS XE switches using Python; used by remote sites to audit compliance for over 400 switches
- Created Python application (GUI) to consolidate resources, scripts, and links that are frequently used by the NOC team
- Simplified centralized management of over a dozen RedSeal servers using Python
- Contributed to disaster recovery plan by outlining switch and firewall recovery procedures
- Maintain Windows Server 2019 that hosts SolarWinds deployment
- Administer SolarWinds deployment and alerts
- Utilize ACAS and Nessus functions to identify and remediate vulnerabilities on the network
- Utilized Ansible to automate performing network device backups and compliance checks
- Document RedSeal SOPs to assist remote site administrators in maintaining compliance
- Perform regular configuration audits and verify compliance with DISA STIGs
Anchor Point Technology Resources, Inc. - Cyber Security Analyst/Network Engineer (Dec 2019 - Nov 2020)
- Utilize RedSeal cybersecurity monitoring to identify and resolve cybersecurity issues
- Designed OSPF network diagrams to transition enterprise from static to dynamic routing
- Configure routing, access rules, and network/service objects on routers, multilayer switches, and firewalls
- Provide tier 3 network support to 10 remote sites, ensuring services provided are accessible
- Monitor network and system application performance using SolarWinds Orion NPM, NCM, and SAM
- Identified bottleneck in hub firewall that led to an 87% increase in network performance upon resolution
- Provide RedSeal technical support to 10 remote sites to help other administrators configure and utilize the system to identify their own network security risks
- Configured RedSeal multi-server manager to automatically pull up-to-date software and deploy it to the enterprise servers, saving several hours of manual work per week
- Perform quarterly best practice and security compliance reviews to ensure network devices are operating within organization’s security standards
- Automated regular network tasks such as backups and configuration changes
United States Marine Corps - Network and Systems Engineer (Jan 2016 - Nov 2019)
- Facilitate the design, installation, configuration, and management of cyber networks and cyber systems in stand-alone and client-server environments
- Planned, implemented, and supervised the configuration of routed and switched networks utilizing Cisco networking equipment
- Configured LAN and WAN networks and performed troubleshooting to maintain redundant links between sites, networks, and users
- Installed VMWare ESXi and deployed virtual machines to be configured to provide services for over 500 users
- Installed, configured, and managed Microsoft Exchange 2016 servers on enterprise level networks
- Implemented group policy objects to improve productivity and efficiency for users and maintain organizational security standards
- Lead and trained a team of over 20 network administrators and system administrators to provide technical proficiency to several organizations
- Maintained accountability of over 10 million dollars of United States government equipment
Education & Certifications
Education
- Cloud Computing (AWS Specialization) - Western Governors University (Expected completion - 2026)
Certifications
- CompTIA SecurityX (formerly CASP+)
- March 29, 2025 - March 29, 2028
- Verification Number: W4EXR58Y6B4EQF9G (Verify)
- Cisco Certified Networking Associate (CCNA)
- July 2nd, 2019 - December 29, 2025
- Verification Number: b8a294a2fed5466eb1ebfa2c289e5833 (Verify)
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
- May 2, 2024 - May 2, 2027
- Verification Number: a093b81ff6f7400daa1698f413db1d2a (Verify)
- CompTIA Security+
- December 12, 2019 - March 29, 2028
- Verification Number: 30L9GZBM83REQH3Z (Verify)