Paul Svensson, Unix Software Engineer

Contact Information

Email:

paul@svensson.org

Phone:

(302) 650-7839

Linkedin:

linkedin.com/in/paulsvensson

Location:

Phoenix AZ

Summary

• Agile developer with extensive experience on a large variety of Unix and Linux platforms.
• Experienced multilingual programmer, skilled in network and database development.
• Goal-oriented engineer focusing on customer satisfaction, handling the complete software development life cycle, from understanding of needs and requirements, thru development, documentation, deployment, training and long-term support.
• Effective mentor driving team performance.

Areas of Expertise

• Cross Platform Development
• Beautiful Code in Any Language
• Anything and Everything Unix
• Coaching Teams to Success

Skill Set Highlights

Programming languages:

Python, Bash, Java, JavaScript, Perl, C, PHP, SQL, ESQL/C, Pro*C, html, CSS.

Tools and system software:

Docker, Openshift, DataDog, IntelliJ, node.js, Ansible, DNS/Bind, git, Apache, postfix, sendmail, ntpd, NFS, smbd, NIS, automount, imapd.

Database Managers:

MariaDB/MySQL, MongoDB, Postgres, Oracle, Informix.

Operating systems:

Linux (Red Hat, SUSE, Gentoo, Debian, ...), Solaris, SunOS, OSF/1, HP-UX, SysV, BSD, SCO, Irix, AIX, ISC, OS X, Cygwin.

Success Stories

• During hurricane Sandy, the JPMC data center in NJ was 2 inches from getting flooded. The failover procedure was completely manual, and estimated to take two full days. It was never implemented.

  🡒 Wrote Ansible playbooks to fail over databases and service applications, reconfigure routers, load balancers, DNS, etc. The automated failover took less than two hours, providing much wanted preparedness.

• At the New Jersey Turnpike, the shift summarization process needed to run three times daily. It was taking over 24 hours, creating a backlog and delaying payments.

  🡒 Replaced an overly complex join with a 11 parallel linear scans, merging on the client side reducing runtime to 20 minutes, quickly eliminating the backlog.

• Accountants at Entergy were concerned they were spending money on licenses for unused databases.

  🡒 Developed an inventory plugin for Ansible to scan the network for SQL Server and Oracle databases, and a playbook to check if they were being actively used, saving the unnecessary license money.

• At Cybersoft, a false positive virus pattern indicated operation system installation media as infected. Testing on a large enough enough collection of OSes took too long time to allow daily pattern releases.

  🡒 Created a 4-gram index over the known good files, allowing virus analysts to check each new pattern created, getting a response in seconds, keeping daily releases free of false positives.

• At AT&T, when moving DNS databases to new hosts and software, they were concerned about any errors the migration might induce. It was not feasible given the millions of names in the domains, to take 10-100 ms to query each name, one after the other.

  🡒 Used Net::DNS::Async to allow the comparison to be done in parallel, and finished in minutes, giving assurance about the correctness of the migration.

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Paul Svensson

Recent Professional Experience

Migration Consultant
PSG, for Venus Fashion, Jacksonville FL (remote) July 2023 — present

Migrating UniData database and applications from HP-UX to Red Hat.

• Providing for system continuation on a modern platform, using Python and Ansible.

Senior Infrastructure Development Engineer
USAA, Phoenix AZ November 2019 — July 2023

Developed software in support of Protegrity tokenization.

• Coached team on coding and agile development, enabling productivity with new tools and languages.
• Improved system observability and compliance, by leading development of monitoring systems for Protegrity, using DataDog and Python.
• Removed the need to develop custom applications, by creating a web interface for ad hoc data detokenization, using Java, node.js, and React.
• Made tokenization easily scalable, by creating a Java Spring Boot REST API for Protegrity, deployed to OpenShift.

Infrastructure Development Engineer
Judge Group, for JPMC, Newark DE March 2018 — September 2019

Automated data center resiliency procedures.

• Reduced data center failover times, by automating it using Ansible.
• Improved productivity of junior developers, by mentoring them on Ansible and Python
• Educated operations staff on automation usage and support, allowing them to manage failovers with greater independence.

Ansible Developer
Indecomm, with Red Hat for Entergy, New Orleans LA (remote) July 2017 — December 2017

Automated operational procedures.

• Identified unused Database licenses across the network, using database discovery tools developed for SQL Server and Oracle.
• Reduced software deployment time on Red Hat and Solaris platforms, by Ansible automation.
• Improved DB team workload by automating Oracle database migrations.

Cloud Development Engineer
Computer Enterprises, for Comcast, Mt Laurel NJ (remote) November 2016 - March 2017

Provided Logging as a Service.

• Developed cloud deployment software using Ansible and OpenStack to install ElasticSearch with Logstash and Kibana, reducing deployment time from days to minutes.
• Wrote monitoring software for ElasticSearch clusters, using multi-threaded Python with JSON and requests, providing insight into cluster performance.

Tech Lead Support Engineer
SevOne, Newark DE November 2014 - August 2016

Supported the SevOne Network Monitoring System.

• Supported customers with fault analysis and return to service, using Python, PHP and mySQL.
• Reduced customer system downtime by developing tools for troubleshooting SevOne application issues.

Analytical Software Developer
Axelon Services, for AT&T, Middletown NJ June 2013 - September 2014

Provided subject matter expertise for DNS.

• Allowed decommissioning of obsolete servers, by developing custom DNS migration software using Perl and Python: tools for verifying DNS data consistency and presenting blacklists as policy zones.
• Supported DNS operations.

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Paul Svensson

Earlier Professional Experience

Software Developer, Arkieva
Director of Web Infrastructure, U.S. Preventive Medicine
Lead Engineer, CyberSoft
Software Engineer, Worldcom ETC
Software Developer, SAAB DocEye
Software Designer, Scandinavian System Support
Independent Consultant, various clients

• Developed supply chain software using C# and .Net
• Evaluated, installed, and configured software platforms for a LAMP enterprise web application using Drupal on SUSE Linux.
• Developed antivirus and security software for Unix, using C and Gnu Make.
• Designed, implemented, and tested toll plaza data collection software for HP-UX and DEC OSF/1, using Informix, ESQL/C, Oracle, Pro*C and C with TCP/IP.
• Provided primary and secondary DNS services using Bind.
• Designed an interactive language learning web site, using XHTML, SSI, CSS and javascript.
• Automated web form filling using BeautifulSoup and xlrd.
• Installed, configured, and maintained email servers, using qmail, postfix and UW imapd.
• Developed network management tools using snmpget, spread, CGI, xpath and rrdtool.
• Built dedicated document handling systems for Scandinavian government agencies.
• Planned and designed company intranet and internet connectivity.
• Architected Usenet and Email communications software for use in distance education.

Education

• Associate Degree in Telecommunications at Älvkullegymnasiet, Karlstad, Sweden
• Some courses in the field of Computer Engineering at Linköping University.

Other Activities

• Operating the SV public Incompatible Timesharing System.
• Translated Scandinavian languages as a freelance translator.
• Completed Swedish military service as a shortwave radio operator.
• Former chair of the LYSATOR computer society at Linköping University.