Career Profile

I like networks. I like Linux. I like building and integrating tools to augement the operations of both. I hate loaded buzzwords like SDN and Intent-based. I like it when things work. I don't like it when things don't work. I really don't like when things work and nobody knows how or why they work. I like learning what makes things tick, and I like working with people that do too.

Work Experience

Network Engineer

March 2020 - Present
MSU Federal Credit Union
MSU Federal Credit Union is the largest university-based credit union in the world and is federally chartered and regulated under the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). MSUFCU provides a variety of financial products and services including deposit accounts, personal and business loans, investments, and insurance, among others.

Report to the Network Manager and CISO; serve as an authority on network design, automation, programmability, and network assurance.

Job Details

  • Configured, optimized, and maintained network devices including Cisco campus routers and switches (IOS-XE), Cisco Nexus switches (NX-OS).
  • Develop Python code for network automation and assurance, using the nornir, genie, pyats, and requests libraries.
  • Plan greenfield datacenter migration including moving from a traditional three-tier network to a modern datacenter network network architecture.

Highlights

  • Successfully deployed ThousandEyes monitoring for the Credit Union's websites, including sythetic transaction testing of the Member portal for online banking.

Network Engineer

July 2015 - March 2020
Liquid Web, Lansing, MI
Liquid Web is a provider of dedicated, VPS, and managed application hosting solutions.

Report to the Director of Network and Security Operations; serve as a key member on a team of 10 IT and networking professionals. Manage three ASNs (AS32244, AS53824, AS201682) for accessibility internally and for ~40K global customers. Directprojects of variable size and complexity, either as a sole contributor or team leader.

Job Details

  • Configured, optimized, and maintained network devices including Cisco routers (IOS-XR), Cisco Nexus switches (NX-OS), and legacy Cisco switching platforms (IOS), along with Cisco and Palo Alto firewalls.
  • Developed Python code with flake8 linting; performed testing in pytest and Bandit. Maintained version control through Git. Implementations varied between vanilla virtualenv installs to containerized deployments.
  • Proactively researched emerging trends in networking, to develop an in-depth understanding of the interactions among different network applications and designed risk mitigation strategies for averting conflicts and potential downtime.
  • Automated notifications and workflow processes with ChatOps Slack bot tied in to various internal and external APIs.Delivered results that reduced individual task times as much as 80±% and empowered fellow employees to focus on what's important.
  • Achieved double-digit labor reduction percentages in management of network team server environments, with Ansible implementations.
  • Managed data center end of life (EOL) refreshes. Evaluated hardware platform capabilities, HVAC and power requirements, vendors, and pricing. Drafted budgets and detailed execution plans.
  • Leveraged communications skills in developing and facilitating ongoing classroom training on networking topics such as troubleshooting on Linux, DDoS mitigation tools, strategies, and others.

Highlights

  • Successfully completed assigned tasks, meeting a time-critical requirement in a $500K forklift overhaul of core infrastructure, for the company’s largest region, with zero customer downtime.
  • Crafted a flawless migration to a spine-and-leaf FabricPath architecture that provided a significant reduction in developer cycles, while allowing customers to upgrade, downgrade, or otherwise migrate their VPS, without their IP address changing.
  • Overhauled DDoS mitigation abilities with implementation of Layer 3 inter-VRF routing, a software upgrade, addition of a redundant in-line software vendor, and a cloud mitigation scrubbing center, able to withstand over 100Gs of attack bandwidth.
  • Slashed expenditures - went from 67.5% to 80% discounts off list for hardware with other concessions that included training credits and better RMA options. Obtained unlimited use of cloud-based DDoS scrubbing for less than the original 12-use per year vendor proposal.

Network Engineer

October 2011 - July 2015
Spartan-Net, East Lansing, MI
Spartan-Net is a privately-owned Internet and managed services provider.

Managed an explosive growth within tenure with a 50% expansion of residential customers and facilitated the growth of the new Enterprise Services portfolio. Developed improved business processes and deployed new networking platforms/devices that ensured network reliability, scalability, performance, and sustainability for both wired and wireless networks.

Job Details

  • Drove all aspects of support for Cisco, Juniper, and Alcatel Lucent switched Ethernet networks, along with GPON networks using the Alcatel Lucent ISAM platform. Maintained Ubuntu Linux DNS, DHCP, Apache, MySQL, and monitoring servers.
  • Developed configuration-generating scripts using Python with Jinja2 for templates for IOS and Junos platforms, speeding up deployment, while reducing initial errors.
  • Negotiated an additional 15% in pricing discounts for Juniper products, going from 45% from 60%.

IT Contractor

2009 - 2011
TEKSystems, West Michigan
TEKSystems is a talent-management firm specializing in technology solutions.

Contract jobs during college ranging from one-day jobs installing point-of-sale (POS) systems to multi-month engagements offering helpdesk support.

Certifications

CCNP

2017 - Present
Cisco Certified Network Professional

CCNA

2011 - Present
Cisco Certified Network Associate

CCDA

2019 - Present
Cisco Certified Network Associate

DevNet Associate

2020 - Present
Cisco Certified DevNet Associate

IPv6 Sage

2015 - Present
Hurricane Electric IPv6 Certification

CCDP

2019 - Present
Cisco Certified Design Professional

DevNet Professional

In Progress
Cisco Certified DevNet Professional

CCIE

In Progress
Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert

RHCSA

2015 - 2018 (Lapsed)
Red Hat Certified System Administrator

Network+

2011 - 2014 (Lapsed)
CompTIA Network+

Skills & Proficiency

OSPF

STP :(

BGP

Linux

NX-OS

Python

git

IOS-XR

Ansible

Docker

LXD

JunOS

BASH

FortiOS

PANOS

Personal Projects

graylogging - A Python logging handler that outputs to Graylog.
ericroc.how - My main website. A fun opportunity to play with static website creation and create a CICD pipeline.
resume.ericroc.how - This website! A fun opportunity to take something relatively simple and create a CICD pipeline.

eric_rochow.conf

$OS
= ['Ubuntu 20.04', 'Arch']
$EDITOR
= "vim"
$TERMINAL
= "KiTTY"
$COLOR_THEME
= "Nord"
$CODE_COMPLETION
= "kite"
$CODE_STYLE
= "black"
$LANGUAGE
= "Python 3"
$TEST_SUITES
= ['pytest', 'flake8', 'Bandit']
$PRONOUNS
= ['he', 'him', 'his']