Help Desk Manager Operations Manager Application Management

Adrian Van Gorder

ad74g4@r.postjobfree.com

linkedin.com/in/adrian-van-gorder

Woodbridge, VA, 703-***-****

IT Leadership

As a seasoned IT professional with over 15 years of experience in IT operations and management, I have consistently led diverse teams to deliver exceptional results. My expertise spans across managing large-scale IT environments, overseeing the support of over 500 production business applications, and driving critical operational improvements under pressure. Throughout my career, including roles at Freddie Mac, CSC, and other leading organizations, I have excelled in streamlining processes, enhancing service delivery, and ensuring business continuity. I’m passionate about mentoring and coaching, helping team members grow both technically and professionally while fostering a collaborative and innovative work environment. My ability to stay calm and decisive under pressure, coupled with my commitment to excellence, has been instrumental in driving both the achievement of goals and the empowerment of those around me.

Areas of Expertise

Operations Management

Application Portfolio Management

Program Management

Technical Writing

Vendor Management

Azure DevOps

AI-assisted Writing

Business Impact Analysis

Incident and Problem Management (ITIL)

SOP and KBA Authoring

Customer Relationship Management

ServiceNow, Jira, Confluence

Process Improvement

Accomplishments

Managed and led diverse teams of full-time employees and contractors, including all aspects of hiring, training, coaching, and performance evaluations.

Oversaw the support and maintenance of over 500 production business applications at Freddie Mac, ensuring seamless operations and minimal downtime.

Integrated and realigned the Global Operations Center (GOC) phone system to better align with business needs, significantly reducing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR).

Led the restructuring, realignment, and rebranding of L2 Application Management into Business and Enterprise Application Management (BEAM), enhancing service delivery.

Developed and implemented critical dashboards, such as SA Password Changes, Autosys, and Start of Day, to optimize monitoring, reporting, and operational efficiency.

Implemented application validation processes during outages, infrastructure maintenance, and AWS cloud migrations, ensuring smooth transitions and minimized disruption.

Authored and contributed to successful technical proposals for U.S. Government SOWs, enhancing the company’s ability to win bids.

Managed vendor relationships effectively, ensuring support for platforms including MS Azure and Sitecore, and maintaining high levels of service quality.

Coordinated and tracked initiatives using Azure DevOps and Jira, significantly improving project management processes and efficiency.

Authored comprehensive knowledge articles and SOPs, enhancing documentation consistency and operational standards across teams, while offering clear guidance to support staff in performing their roles effectively.

Built and maintained trusted customer relationships, leading to increased satisfaction and successful project outcomes.

Led the commissioning and decommissioning of websites, streamlining processes and enhancing the management of corporate online assets.

Successfully managed application management functions across multiple teams, improving service delivery and integration.

Utilized AI-assisted writing tools to enhance the quality and efficiency of documentation, proposals, and other critical communications.

Elevated team morale and collaboration through effective leadership, mentoring, and the implementation of agile methodologies, leading to a more cohesive and productive team environment.

Career Experience

Consultant, Network Designs, Inc, McLean, VA 2/1/2024 – 4/12/2024

Developed and authored technical content for bids and proposals, specifically in response to U.S. Government Statements of Work (SOWs).

Crafted detailed job descriptions to align with project and organizational requirements.

Wrote comprehensive program management plans and support documentation, ensuring clarity and adherence to project goals.

Utilized AI-assisted writing tools to enhance the quality and efficiency of documentation and proposal preparation.

Technical Business Analyst, Apex Systems, Richmond, VA (remote) 3/13/2023 – 12/29/2023

Managed application portfolio, ensuring the effective support and optimization of key business applications.

Oversaw vendor management, coordinating with two subcontractors to support MS Azure, Sitecore, intranet, and corporate websites.

Coordinated and tracked project initiatives using Azure DevOps, ensuring timely and efficient execution.

Authored comprehensive Knowledge Articles and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to enhance team efficiency and knowledge sharing.

Led the coordination of website commissioning and decommissioning, while providing exceptional customer support.

Developed Business Impact Analysis (BIA) documents to assess and mitigate risks associated with business operations.

Acted as a liaison with internal stakeholders, facilitating clear communication and alignment across departments.

Application Management Manager, Freddie Mac, McLean, VA 12/2014 – 10/2022

Led the Business & Enterprise Application Management (BEAM) team, overseeing L2 Application Support for over 500 production business applications.

Managed a diverse team of full-time employees and contractors, handling all aspects of hiring, training, coaching, morale, and annual evaluations.

Built and maintained trusted relationships with customers, ensuring their needs were met through effective support and operations.

Took personal responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the team, ensuring seamless management of critical business applications.

Led the validation of essential production applications during infrastructure maintenance, minimizing downtime and ensuring reliability.

Established daily Stand-Up/Start of Day meetings with customers, enhancing communication and operational efficiency.

Integrated the Operations Center with BEAM teams, streamlining functions and significantly reducing Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR).

Redesigned and realigned the Global Operations Center (GOC) phone system to align with business needs, improving user experience.

Spearheaded the restructuring, refinement, and rebranding of L2 Application Management into BEAM, enhancing service delivery.

Developed and implemented various dashboards, including SA Password Changes, Autosys, and Start of Day, to improve monitoring and reporting.

Authored and maintained standards for the xMatters On-Call paging system, ensuring consistent and reliable response protocols.

Administered two SharePoint sites, including one critical for company-wide production application validation during outages and maintenance. Also created and managed team schedules, including vacation, work-from-home, and on-call forecasting.

Developed application validation processes for migration to Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing, ensuring smooth transitions.

Played a key role in Major Incident Management (MIM) for high-priority incidents (P1/P2/P3), and managed lower-priority incidents (P4 & P5).

Authored the BEAM/MIM process documentation, outlining procedures for global incident management.

Managed the transition of Non-Human/System Accounts (NHID/OSSA) to product teams, and served as acting Director during a leadership transition.

Elevated team morale to the highest level in the division by establishing a comprehensive new employee orientation program.

Drove various process improvements using SharePoint, and utilized ServiceNow, Jira, and Confluence for tracking and training.

Service Transition Analyst, Brillo, McLean, VA 7/2013-12/2014

On-site at Freddie Mac

Member of the Infrastructure Retirement Team (Within Infrastructure Operations, Build Team)

Primary responsibility is the retirement of infrastructure, e.g. Servers, Middleware, Databases, Appliances, Black Boxes

Manage each retirement as a Project. Ensuring that each item and/or function is performed and within schedule

Determine what is needed for each project, assign staff from lines of service, manage to completion

Ensure all Middleware and Databases are removed from servers

Ensure all licenses have been reclaimed, Manage time of team members, Ensure company compliance is followed

Write, re-write and update documents and procedures, File weekly and monthly reports, Conduct meetings with retirement submitters and tech resources

IT Operations Manager, Vetstreet, Silver Spring, MD 12/2012-5/2013

Reported directly to the Senior Vice President, Provided technical support to on-site staff.

Managed and led three teams: Engineering, Help Desk / Service Desk and Database Administrators (DBAs).

Oversaw operations of all production, testing and development servers, including WinTel and Redhat Linux environments.

Provided Enterprise Architecture Services, including the creation and maintenance of design documents.

Identified, acquired and maintained a skilled workforce with the requisite skills and passion for the continued success of the company,

Operations Manager, CSC Washington, DC 01/2011-12/2012

Located on-site at the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), a US Government agency.

Managed six teams across various disciplines, including Windows, UNIX, Software Distribution, Internet/Intranet, SQL DBAs, Testing Center, Storage and Backup.

Oversaw critical projects, ensuring successful and timely completion, while managing the operations of all production servers, encompassing Windows, UNIX, and Linux environments.

Maintained responsibility for the Storage Area Network (SAN) and associated hardware, as well as the tape and disk backup systems for the organization.

Directed all security patching efforts for workstations and servers, coordinating schedules and maintaining daily customer interfaces through a Daily Status Review process.

Ensured that all technical and functional requirements were met within the contractual limits.

Identified, acquired, and maintained a skilled workforce, balancing CSC and subcontractor staff to fulfill the technology and operational needs of the PBGC program.

Technology Architect Principal Leader, CSC Washington, DC 01/2008-01/2011

Served as Technical Architect and Project Engineer for large-scale projects at the American Red Cross, providing critical technical leadership.

Led the BioArch/DRMS Project, managing a team of seven Senior Engineers across Windows/Intel, UNIX, Database Administration, and Application Engineering disciplines. Subsequent projects were managed through leveraged services.

Authored comprehensive documentation for entire systems, including design, hardware specifications, server installations, cable port mapping, IP addressing, and network architecture, with detailed illustrations and LAN/SAN drawings.

Scheduled, led, and conducted installations, addressing technical issues to ensure project success.

Installed and configured critical infrastructure, including HP servers, Microsoft Windows, Brocade SAN switches, and Oracle StorageTek tape libraries.

Acted as the primary point of contact for technical issues, collaborating closely with Project Managers to maintain project timelines and budgets.

Coordinated resource scheduling for tasks such as copper and fiber optic cable installation, server racking, operating system setup, application installation, and various system upgrades.

Managed the submission of change control documentation for both CSC and the American Red Cross, presenting and defending changes before Change Control Review Boards.

Conducted Live/Operational Readiness Reviews, ensuring systems were fully backed up, documented, inventoried, and monitored before transitioning to operational status.

Served as liaison between CSC Leveraged/Technical Services and the American Red Cross, prioritizing and driving project tasks to completion.

Led critical projects, including Storage Stabilization, CFS Server Swap, VMware, EMC/Legato NetWorker Upgrade, NBCS & CFS DR Relocation, Business Objects Upgrade, eBDR & eBDR R2, Dovetail, HRIS, PlanIT, Surround Tech Upgrade, TeraData Upgrade, and Verizon WAN Transition, providing direction and leadership to ensure their success.

Additional Titles Held:

Operations Manager

Senior Principal Systems Engineer

Senior Systems Engineer

Education

AS course work, Electronics, Snow College

Associate course work, Computer Science, Northern Virginia Community College

ITIL v3 Certification (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), Alexos

Career Essentials in Generative AI: Microsoft and LinkedIn)

Windows Server 2003, Learning Tree International

GroupWise, Novell Authorized Education Centers

Multiple Novell classes, Novell Authorized Education Centers

Numerous Microsoft classes, Gestalt Training Center

Certified NetWare Engineer (CNE), Novell, Inc.

Contact this candidate