Information Technology Project Coordinator
Resume:
Topaz A.Thomas
************@*****.***
SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
Results driven Sr. Application Support Engineer & Sr. Systems Admin & Project Coordinator professional with experience in application maintenance, strategic planning, quality control, communication across functional teams, information management, programming, data modeling, product enhancements, change and release management in the telecommunications, video on demand, security, finance and healthcare fields with over 15 + years’ experience.
HIGHLIGHTS
•Accomplished leader effectively managed various Application Releases and Server Migrations.
•Proven track record of delivering projects within defined scope, time and cost.
•Served as liaison for business partners, management alongside delivering technical specifications and detailed training material.
•Dedicated professional, adept at providing superior customer service and overseeing multiple projects.
•Trained and managed teams in operations, system implementation and project execution.
•Effective communicator with exceptional analytical problem-solving ability with follow thru efficiency.
•Technical proficiencies include personal computers, midrange, mainframe, client server platforms, web applications and numerous programming languages.
EDUCATION
Masters of Business Administration, Keller Graduate School of Management, Atlanta, GA
Information Technology (June 2007);
Bachelor of Science, DeVry University, Atlanta, GA
Computer Information Systems (October 2004);
CERTIFICATIONS
EPIC Tapestry/ AP Claims Epic Verona, WI
(August, 2017)
Scrum Master SSGI Atlanta,GA
(January,2023)
Azure MS Certification (In progress) Pluralsight Atlanta,GA
(In Progress)
TECHNICAL Software and Utilities: FTP, SFTP, Telnet, Ping, netstat, Kibana, Splunk, Autosys, Control M, Netcool, Cyberark, Google Chrome, Google Cloud, Google Sheet, Google Doc, Google Meet, MS Edge, MS Word, MS Access, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Outlook, MS Project, MS Visio, Adobe Reader,Quality Center, Service Now, TOAD, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, SQL Developer, SQL Server, Jira, Oracle,Confluence, Sharepoint, Wiki, Zoom, Skype, Teams, Slack,Java, R Programming, MySQL, NoSQL, Tableau, Power BI, Azure, Reflections, Network Security Groups, Firewalls, ACLs (Access Control Lists), Wireshark, Virtual Machines, Virtual Networks, Cloud Computing, Active Directory Tidal Scheduler,Clarity,Reflections,Direct Connect,Tivoli, Soap UI.
Operating
System: Windows XP, 7,10,11 Red Hat Enterprise 8,AIX
Monitoring Tools: Netcool, App Dynamics, Dynatrace, Solarwinds, Moogsoft, Big Panda,Informatica,OpenView
Cloud Platform: Azure, AWS, GCP
Coding Languages: Java, C++, Cobol, Python, SQL, PL/SQL, Shell Script, Powershell, XML, ASP NET, HTML, XML, Javascript, Visual Studio
Database: Oracle, Teradata, Netezza, Sybase, SQL Server 2017 2019, 2022,Toad
Data Skills: Spreadsheet, Data Cleansing, Data Analysis, Data Visualization (DataViz), SQL, Questioning, Decision-Making, Problem Solving, Metadata, Data Collection, Data Ethics, Sample Size Determination
SOFT SKILLS: Teamwork, multitasking, detail oriented, customer service oriented, deadline driven, project coordinator, scrum master, waterfall, flexibility
Networking: TCP/IP, LAN/WAN, VPN, SQL Server, MS Site Server
Career Areas of Interest: Scrum Master, Project Coordinator, Release Management, Change Request Manager, Sr.System Administrator
PROJECTS
Kaiser Permanente - Linux - Epic Bridges Automation within 7 environments ( Test & Production).
T-mobile - Linux - QuickView - Retail Application - Backend Extraction for deployment ( Test & Production)
Cox Communications - Middleware Apps to troubleshoot & analyze & deploy fixes as needed ( Test & Production).
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
May 2022 - August 20224 Software Engineer CapitalOne Atlanta,GA
Implementing Unix scripts with the Profile app Dev group and the Infrastructure/Operations group for Linux Applications.
Working with Infrastructure/Operational groups to roll out new products for our partner companies such as Google, Amazon and the IRS.
Completing Shell Scripting experience (BSH) for a variety of User Stories to modify configurations needed for stakeholders.
Executing SQL in an Oracle database to complete validation and ensure script modifications represent the client's needs.
Supporting profile core banking through applications such as Tidal,CyberArk,Visual Basic & Micro Focus Extra.
Perform all tests on production applications and prepare recovery procedures for all applications and provide upgrades to enhance features as required, driven through our incident process.
Managing communication with different stakeholders in regards to projects and incidents using Slack, MS Teams and Zoom.
Coordinate with IT groups and external vendors and ensure effective application services to ensure and troubleshoot the reliability of all internal applications.
Analyze all business processes and ensure compliance to all controlled processes according to business requirement.
Monitor and provide support to workflows and provide expert knowledge on all workflow designs.
Develop and maintain professional relationships with all online business teams and provide support.
Monitor all alerts using Dynatrace and escalate all issues for all procedures and systems via service now.
Coordinate with various teams and raise Service now support ticket for all issues, analyze root cause and assist in efficient resolution of all production processes.
Working with .Net to troubleshoot web applications duties that requires configuring, upgrading and debugging current systems, providing technical support for web, mobile and desktop applications; participating in requirement analysis through the SDLC process, providing technical assistance to various other software and net developers.
Maintain logs of all issues and ensure resolutions according to quality assurance tests for all production processes.
Prepare test applications and review all Java application servers.
Develop and maintain API documentation for bank specifications.
Tested API and troubleshoot and debug API issues.
As a agile project coordinator need to plan, execute, and monitor projects effectively. Manage risks, and communicate effectively with stakeholders and collaborate skills.
Working with GitHub along with developers to monitor and collaborate to administer bug tracking, risk, software feature requests, task management and integration.
Creating automation scripts with Jenkins along side with DevOps to relay in the Agile methods to execute building, testing, and deployments per release schedule.
Develop and implement change management strategies and plans that maximize employee adoption and usage and minimize resistance thru tactics.
Analyze and assess the impact of change on employees, and develop plans to address any issues.
October 2020 -October 2021 Sr. Systems Administrator 4 Fiserv Inc. Alpharetta,GA
Completed technical delivery of Premier Ancillary products – includes Positive Pay, Transactional and Audit logging, Collections and routing solutions to end users in the banking financial services industry.
Oversaw all technical aspects of the product including server administrations, database administration, performs technical implementations, application installations/upgrades, application monitoring, server monitoring, daily processing status and works directly with internal clients to provide support for the product. Researching/resolving critical problems to ensure a high level of Client satisfaction and retention.
Oversaw all technical aspects of the product and works directly with internal Clients to provide support and installation and technical implementations for the product using SQL.
Responsible for server administration, database administration, researching/resolving critical problems to ensure a high-level of client satisfaction and retention.
Oversaw all technical aspects of the data mining/data warehousing (Business Analytics) products offering including ad-hoc reports writing, server administration, database administration, internal customer support/troubleshooting, setup, installation, training, upgrades, advanced support, daily monitoring, troubleshooting and daily processing/daily updates.
Tracked and monitored daily processing and troubleshoots daily processing issues to ensure client Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are met. Ensures daily updates, jobs & tasks are completed in accordance with client expectations and commitments.
Completed department cross-training as required to ensure familiarity with the servers, databases and applications used to deliver the product solution to end users.
Answered technical questions related to the product in order to support the sales staff, Account Managers, Service Managers and Client Services staff.
Provided technical support to resolve client issues.
Assisted client services team with troubleshooting report writing errors, connectivity issues and program errors.
Maintained outstanding issues list ensuring outstanding issues receive regular follow up and the status is tracked and updated regularly.
Assisted in the planning and design of products throughout all stages of the product life cycle.
Identify and manage risks associated with change initiatives
Develop and implement change management metrics to measure success of the deployment.
Researched new product ideas or enhancements to existing products.
Provided product support to internal departments and external clients upon special request.
Recommended new product ideas and technical solutions.
Worked with other internal departments to effectively market products.
Simulated and recreates customer problems to resolve user operating difficulties.
Coordinated with DevOps and implemented user case testing and monitoring strategies that led to 40% reduction in post-release incidents sited in ServiceNow.
Built the middleware plan to support the task projects to the initialization to create the design, tasks, working with the test team and developers in 4 environments and following up with the testing team to move the needed procedure to deploy to production per the release schedule.
Discussed problems or inquiries with other department personnel and offers technical assistance and insures proper handling and follow-up.
Assisted the Client Services team with researching and investigating the technical portion of customer suggestions for enhancements and insures proper handling and follow-up.
Documented problems and corrective procedures.
Worked with development personnel to determine problem solutions.
Attended on-going training to achieve level of technical skill needed to solve more complex problems.
Used Jira tool for tracking user stories and bugs, to communicate with DevOPs and stake holders as a repository.
Executed weekly backups using BOX to import data that helped our team to troubleshoot claims and needs.
June 2016 - August 2019 Sr. Systems Administrator/Project Coordinator Kaiser Permanente,Atlanta, GA
Provided support to Kaiser’s Billing/Claims System thru (EPIC – AP Tapestry) as a SME for several core areas. The EPIC experience required analogy, troubleshooting, production SU deployments and validations. In addition, in depth training with Epic that required scenarios to complete daily patient impacting issues & tasks. Also, took in depth courses for EPIC Bridges modules as well. Primary focus was to provide an advanced level of coordination and facilitation support for recovery from high severity service impacting incidents, assess and follow-thru on all Severity 1 and Severity 2 issues through service restoration, and to insure that communication to clients, Sr. Management, Account management, and internal groups took place in a concise and timely fashion for all stakeholders.
Provided Level1/2/3 application production support for in scope data/batch related applications for Claims (EPIC-TAPESTRY) batch processing E2E thru backend processes.
Provided weekly status/progress report to team manager to include urgent incidents & their status, and goals/projects progress.
Monitored all claims batch processing (Tivoli Workload Scheduler/Informatica-ETL) to ensure all programs complete successfully without delays; Use the event base scheduling system to identify all anomalies and log issues. Researched and identified and analyze errors and the root cause to correct the issue and provide recommendations based off deep research and projections of new releases.
Ensured optimal performance and integrity of ETL process using Informatica by maintaining best practices Work with teams such as (Development, and Unix Administration, Windows Operations,Networking, AppBuild and Release Management) to resolve reported client issues after Go Live fixes to production & lower environments.
Administered batch jobs in Tidal to monitor batch jobs related to AP claims production workflows.
Coordinated with onshore and offshore support team to manage/mitigate batch processing failures during nightly processing impacting data being delivered to data stores or consumers.
Worked with UNIX Admin middleware team to facilitate enhancements to automate through Powershell Unix scripting, monitoring, and reporting on the exact issue facing patients and the probable issue relevant to each environment and region.
Tracked incidents by using a global call logging system (Remedy and ServiceNow) troubleshooted production support & lower environment issues and ensured they were resolved as needed to meet the request of the business stakeholders.
Automated the Epic Bridges (7) regions process in order that production support hours could be reduced and more fluent process for change management and release management. This required coding, partnering with IBM, testing and several levels of followup.
Administered manual tasks that would audit the claims of patients and the workings of several business partners, vendors and other stake holders. In addition, had to ensure the status and progression of each workflow.
As a SQA/Sr. Systems Administrator, it was my responsibility to ensure all daily tasks were analyzed and executed accordingly. Apart of my role was to ensure the accuracy of several internal applications for the KPCC Claims team for 7 regions. In addition, I enjoy the challenge to learn different levels of technology for efficiency for clients, stakeholders and customers.
SQL was method to determine complete extraction from different teams and integration, it was essential to check all data sets were being sent from the KPCC claims system and in addition, extracted from other systems, such as DataMethods, Common Extracts, Finance, Dasp, including EOP’s & EOB’s. This also included us uploading files via TOAD to reflect verified patient information.
In order to modify several processes and implement CR’s and deployments it was imperative to QA test the code or to provide a fix in lower environments such as SIT, DIT, UAT & production to validate the proficiency of the solution. It was apart of my team to work with QA testers to verify the steps, analyze & complete implementation.
Participated everyday in MS Teams as a method of communication with my team and others to complete incident resolution and changes.
The KPCC Claims owned several daily jobs that required monitoring and troubleshooting to ensure all information was being translated as needed. Therefore, the primary tool that was used was Informatica to define different repositories for each environment and regions depending on requirements. In addition, we had to complete research on different landing zones on the server to confirm results.
Participated everyday in Teams as a method of communication with my team and others to complete incident resolution or changes.
Created Zoom meetings virtually to speak with about requirements and deadlines per our release schedule.
Launched and automated content managed system which allowed 300K+ customers to submit claims as needed.
Documented and standardized web deployment and post deployment procedures with Epic Bridges for the team to ensure the team wasn’t required to be on call daily for 4 regions.
Investigated technical issues for the company’s post billing system to determine the solutions thru the SDLC for resolution for EOP’s and EOB’s for customer visitability using SQL and unix research.
March 2015 - November 2015 AppDev Support Analys/Project Coordinator Cox Communications, Atlanta, GA
Provide requirement & technical support to QA Team on behalf of the Middleware Development team during Agile test cycles of various business projects releases.
Facilitate, investigate & troubleshoot MW defects, supporting Development teams during integration testing, qa and production issues by assisting client teams with investigating issues found during integration testing in lower environments with Android, IOS web client applications..
Research & find API issues errors between sub systems thru server Unix logs and SOAP?REST UI to test the output needed as expected. .
Perform 24x7 monitoring and testing to proactively detect possible failures and defects by trailing Unix logs, using Proxy servers.
Validating SQL databases for cross functional platforms for web and client server applications.
Administers tests and evaluates processes, software, and provides certification testing of equipment for quality assurance of product offering and services.
Manages SLAs, ATPs, defect calls and reports, imports/exports, Release software applications after testing, and reports service performance.
Open and track analyze defects in JIRA via Quality Center and provide in depth Unix or API log information to push resolution of issue with development teams.
Create troubles reports, inform customers of the issue status, and ensures escalation, restoration and repair.
Performed daily checks by checking Linear and Vod assets to support Video on Demand for all Cox's projects to ensure health of lower environments and validate successful completion of daily import process activities via Admin UI.
Execution of iOS SOAP/REST parameters to test the system thru different API’s including verifying user input with middleware implications.
Coordinate with QA and Development and Change board to implement Production fixes and enhancements regarding application deployments.
Provision using AS400, configure, deploy, and support the suite of web applications and Video on Demand services, as well as supporting tools and services.
Serve as technical lead within the Business Services organization by acting as the escalation point for issues arising from Customer Support, QA, Production and other functional areas within the company. ·
Work with the Manager of Development Services to continuously define and improve a wide spectrum of processes utilized by the Professional Services team.
Collaborate closely with the Dev, Release Management and QA teams to improve processes and technology supporting deployment and maintenance of our applications.
Managed Middleware projects such as Neptune, Sail,Customer Gateaway, VSP through requirement and system analysis.
Used Microsoft O365, Word, Excel, Sharepoint & Teams on a daily basis to push documents like SOP’s, spreadsheets and the email distribution.
Enacted delivery upon completion of project and ensure that delivery adheres to Agile practice maintained by the company, achieving 92% of established objectives.
Maintain open communication by presenting weekly updates on project status to stakeholders that was transferred to clients as needed.
Oversaw software developer progress on application and applied principles of Agile methodologies to keep planned projects on tract.
Led sprint reviews and daily project meetings to touch base with the whole team and ensure that all members were exceeding as expected.
November 2008 - December 2014 App Support Engineer/Project Coordinator Amdocs (T-Mobile Acct.), Atlanta, GA
Analyzed, debugged Java & Windows based applications for support and customer resolutions.
Worked with developers to resolve defects, configure fixes and errors in production and test issues
Gather, develop, coordinate, and maintain business requirements for various projects and/or systems from initial phase to final implementation, assuring requirements meet standards.
Directly involved with analyzing, documenting and resolving database issues incurred during the data load process.
Analyze application XMLs thru Soap UI to validate the request and responses of web and client services.
Develop/create master test plans and related documents, test cases, and test schedules for QuickView UUI.
Execute test cases/scenarios across development projects.
Interact with users, developers, vendors, and the company for (SDLC) full life cycle of the project.
Lead projects which included testing functionality, user interface, regression, security, and user acceptance for QuikView, QVXP web application.
Document test scripts and test plans related to business requirements and identify and track defects, issues, risks.
Validate requirements for system testing using SQL to quantify system indicators, report preparation, defect recording, and defect tracking.
Perform regression testing to validate the resolution of any software or system defects thru troubleshooting .net, web based applications.
Manage projects for system upgrades, enhancements and bug fixes to improve efficiency and streamline processes.
Performed data modeling and execution for prepaid accounts, LLBC and EPSI projects, Prepaid Migrations and Activations.
Executed and monitored Tidal jobs to ensure all triggers and data was extracted properly.
Review and resolve operational issues via data extraction and quantification.
Organize and implement project management activities and cross train team members.
Train new hires in regards to testing processes, projects, data management and application operations.
Communicate in a concise manner to technical peers as database administrators and developers regarding management systems and reporting for analysis and distribution and project managers and business leaders.
Designed in Adobe to manage to create diagrams for different projects specifically for T-mobile to ensure the goal was accomplished and executed on time as needed.
Succeeded in monitoring web infrastructure with data and front end application solutions ensuring client efficiency.
Mentored a cross-functional team of 12 developers to deliver quality products on a daily basis to ensure the primary application QuickView delivered in the retail stores to suite the customer experience.
Introduced and launched Agile principles as a scrum master and project coordinator thru Jira application to meet deadlines per release schedule.
Implement Agile management ideals by facilitation exercises such as sprints and team leading standup meetings daily.
Manage project timelines and communicate with a management staff of 5 to work with the clients to ensure project progress as requested which included adhoc request.
Coach team in optimal time daily to utilize concepts of Scrum and Agile methods to complete releases in a timely manner for team completion.
August 2007 - November 2008 Applications Analyst II/Project Coordinator T-Mobile, Atlanta, GA
Provide technical support and maintenance for Windows hardware and software including activations, deactivations, changes, inquires and billing adjustments.
Track occurrences of technical issues and deliver well planned solutions.
Communicate with database administrators and developers regarding management systems and reporting for analysis and distribution.
Manage projects for system upgrades, enhancements and bug fixes to improve efficiency and streamline processes.
Completed analysis & modified Java scripts for telecom internal applications to insure the efficiency of production operations.
Directly support projects, analyze technical designs and provide system documentation.
Monitored jobs thru Tidal to site errors and complete procedures to enhance thru the interface as needed.
Review and resolve operational issues via data extraction and quantification and analysis utilizing SQL.
Organize and implement all project management activities and cross train team members.
Design Test Plans for software Technology applications including gathering business components, test cases and analysis utilizing Quality Center.
REFERENCES Available Upon Request
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