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Owen Valentine
System/Network/Cloud Engineer

About

Owen is a seasoned Software Development-adjacent System/Network/Cloud Engineer, most recently at Amazon Web Services. Skilled at Consultation, Technical Support, Technical Documentation, Linux System Engineering, Virtualization and Technical Training

Work Experience

Amazon Web Services
https://aws.amazon.com
June 2019 – Present
Cloud Support Engineer
AWS is (currently) the world's leading public cloud provider, and a pioneer in the cloud space
Highlights
  • Pioneered the AWS Premium Support Andon Program (PSAP) in Cape Town
  • Trained >80 engineers globally on Docker, containerization and ECS/Fargate
  • Maintained a perfect customer satisfaction record
  • Became a go-to engineer (in a team of >60) for basically any topic in short time
  • Member of ECS (Elastic Container Service) and CloudEndure support operations
Umanix
https://www.umanix.co.za
February 2018 – May 2019
Senior System/Network Engineer
Umanix is a small but above-weight-punching Managed Service Provider specializing in Linux, virtualization and cool internet tech
Highlights
  • Managed, maintained and improved full tech stack (Hypervisor cluster, LXC, Nginx, Java, MySQL, LXC) for a large-footprint local BI SaaS provider
  • Set up and maintained the company's helpdesk system, running Zammad, a Rails app with Postgresql and Elasticsearch
  • Drove company direction and strategy
  • Oversaw the work and training of three technicians, serving as an escalation point
Huge Networks
https://www.hugenetworks.co.za
February 2016 – January 2018
System Administrator
Huge Networks is a national Internet Service Provider, providing ADSL, Fibre and Wireless access at various levels, with an enterprise/telecoms focus
Highlights
  • Deployed, maintained and improved a number of POP3/IMAP/SMTP servers, as well as LAMP hosting infrastructure
  • Managed and maintained RADIUS and proxy RADIUS servers for DSL realms and other PPPoE uses
August 2015 – January 2016
Technical Support Agent
Highlights
  • Handled technical calls and emails from customers, covering all services provided by Huge Networks
  • Installed wireless/fibre equipment and handled technical support at customer sites
JustHost
March 2013 – June 2016
Owner/Founder
Founded and ran a small web hosting business for >3 years. A small number of very happy customers
Hudson Park Primary school
http://www.hpps.co.za
March 2012 – July 2015
Junior System Administrator
Hudson Park Primary School is a prominent Eastern Cape institution, educating >1000 students annually

Volunteer

Cambridge Primary School
https://www.cambridgeprimary.co.za
June 2010 – February 2012
IT Technician
ITEC
https://www.itec.org.za
March 2013 – June 2019
Web Services Provider/Consultant

Contact

Cape Town ZA
owenvalentine+resume@gmail.com
https://remount.ro
LinkedIn
owenvalentine
Keybase
chessmango
GitHub
chessmango

Education

  • 2019 Present

    Amazon Web Services

    AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

  • 2004 2008

    Cambridge High School

    National Senior Certificate

    Courses
    • English First Language
    • Afrikaans Second Language
    • Mathematical Literacy
    • Life Orientation
    • History
    • Biology
    • Geography

Skills

System Engineering Expert
Networking Load Balancing Web Applications Nginx MySQL Ruby Python PHP Node.js Java SMTP POP3 IMAP
Linux Expert
Red Hat CentOS Ubuntu Kernel Troubleshooting
Cloud Architecture Professional
AWS Azure GCP OCI VPC CloudEndure ECS EC2 RDS ElastiCache

Languages

  • EnglishNative proficiency
  • AfrikaansWorking proficiency
  • XhosaLimited working proficiency