Steven Marks
Full Stack Systems Engineer
Professional Summary

As an experienced Full Stack Systems Engineer, I specialise in Workflow Optimisation, Workload Reduction, Process Standardisation and Toolset Integration. I excel in solving complex IT problems and have successfully undertaken diverse roles throughout my career.

I am passionate about sharing my knowledge and skilled in communicating effectively across all organizational levels.


Key Skills
Technical Skills: Windows Server Linux VMware Git Python AWS SSM Ansible Terraform Jira Agile Datadog
Management Skills: Team Leader SLA Management Guiding Hand Mentor
Analytical Skills: Data Analysis Reporting Process Improvement Workflow Optimisation
Soft Skills: Effective Communication Problem-solving Collaboration Adaptability Time Management Critical Thinking Stress Management
Experiences
Full Stack Systems Engineer III
Rackspace Technology
2020 - Present

Responsible for project delivery, design, and development of business products and support tooling.

Responsibilities
  • Improved existing and new tooling;
  • Completed approved projects within deadlines;
  • Guided and supported engineering teams;
  • Acted as a point of escalation for support teams and Full Stack Systems Engineers;
  • Worked with external stakeholders to qualify and document new products, both hardware and software.
Achievements
  • Developed analytics tools that identified billing discrepancies, recovering $1.2 million in revenue;
  • Developed and created a fully automated test lab using Terraform and Ansible, facilitating both user and automated testing;
  • Implemented an end-of-life program for outdated devices, generating an additional $600,000 in annual revenue;
  • Automated the deployment and configuration of the Datadog monitoring tool, enabling support teams to update configurations automatically from a set template for additional plugins.
Technologies
Jira, Python, Powershell, Github Actions, AWS SSM, Google BigQuery, PostgreSQL, Terraform, Ansible, Datadog
Full Stack Systems Engineer II
Rackspace Technology
2019 - 2020

Responsible for the design and development of business products and support tooling.

Responsibilities
  • Improved business workflows and tooling to provide a more efficient service;
  • Independently managed assigned tasks and communicated with task stakeholders;
  • Worked closely within the team and with external stakeholders, assisting senior engineers in qualifying and documenting new products, both hardware and software;
  • Identified areas of improvement within the team and the larger organisation;
  • Designed, engineered, architected and integrated tooling to reduce total costs, support customers, and minimise human error.
Achievements
  • Implemented single-click login for customer devices, saving an average of 15 minutes per device connection;
  • Spearheaded the successful migration of the Leeds data center and its clients, resulting in an annual cost reduction of £300,000 for the company;
  • Standardized the deployment and management processes of IBM BigFix for efficient patching and configuration management.
Technologies
Jira, Python, Powershell, Github Actions, Okd, PostgreSQL, Linux, Windows Server, Cisco, Juniper, IBM BigFix
Technical Support, Team Leader
Rackspace Technology
2017 - 2019

Led a team of 15 Windows Engineers, providing 3rd line support to our customer base.

Responsibilities
  • Guided the professional development of the Windows Engineering team through coaching, mentoring and regular performance reviews;
  • Conducted 1-to-1 meetings to provide personalised feedback and set individual growth plans;
  • Planning on-call rotas and shift patterns to ensure balanced workloads;
  • Fostered a collaborative team environment and encouraged continuous learning and skills development;
  • Reported on ticket queues and ensured adherence to SLAs.
Achievements
  • Created a Python and Grafana tool to track stale tickets and closure times, speeding up resolutions and increasing accountability;
  • Significantly reduced ticket queue lengths by implementing more efficient ticket management procedures and reporting.
  • Under my mentorship, the team ticket latency from 4 weeks to 30 minutes.
Technologies
ServiceNow, Python, Grafana, InfluxDB
Technical Lead
Datapipe (Acquired by Rackspace Technology)
2015 - 2017

Led the technical management of high-value enterprise customers, ensuring optimal solutions and acting as a key point of escalation for critical issues.

Responsibilities
  • Held overall technical responsibility for several high-value enterprise businesses;
  • Collaborated closely with the Account Director and Service Manager to coordinate teams and deliver superior service;
  • Tracked and progressed problems and projects to drive continuous improvement;
  • Ensured effective communication and alignment with key stakeholders to meet customer expectations and business objectives.
Achievements
  • Retained one of the company's largest customers, preventing their departure and securing an additional £1.2 million in revenue through expanded contracts;
  • Delivered a comprehensive CMDB device and relationship mapping, enabling enhanced support and impact analysis;
  • Conducted monthly usage analysis to identify potential savings and performance bottlenecks, leading to the discovery and mitigation of a major infrastructure bottleneck;
  • Enforced a billing audit to ensure accurate monthly billing for all devices;
  • Resolved major issues that were negatively impacting customer performance, significantly improving satisfaction and service delivery;
  • Successfully migrated customers from the Leeds based datacenter to a modern, state of the art datacenter in London.
Technologies
VMware vSphere, VMware vRealize, ServiceNow, Windows Server, Cisco ASA
Senior Hosting Engineer
Adapt (Acquired by Datapipe)
2014 - 2015

Designed and delivered customer solutions at a principal engineer level, maintained the datacenter, and provided guidance to junior engineers.

Responsibilities
  • Architected and managed the deployment of customer environments;
  • Improved technical documentation and procedures;
  • Supported the maintenance and operation of the datacenter.
Technologies
Juniper SRX and EX, VMware vSphere, vCloud Director, Xen Server, NetApp, Windows Server, Linux (RHEL & Ubuntu), DNS, PHP, MySQL
Certifications
Professional Cloud Architect - Google Cloud Certified
2020 - 2024
Google (8d75167e-0417-4d9a-b834-4e3d4975086a)
AI Ready
2023
Rackspace Technology (93cf1769-57d6-45c8-b2d4-a3617b9ae672)
Projects
Atomic Calendar Revive - An advanced calendar card for Home Assistant.