major_hayden - a social nerd 🤓
major --admin systems
major --contributor open_source
major --developer python
major --educator
major --leader
major --other
Major is a Linux Engineer with skills in database administration, system administration, application development and leadership. He enjoys connecting people with technology solutions that are easy to use, affordable, and sustainable over time. He is familiar with, and a huge supporter of, the DevOps culture and how to make it work with a large team in a fast paced environment.
Information security has also been a key interest for him. As the Chief Security Architect for Rackspace, he led a team of senior Windows, Linux and networking engineers who were dedicated to increasing security within Rackspace and for their customers. He provided critical security advisement to the business as a whole and he fueled technical security projects that reduced risk, reduced product development cycle time, and increased customer confidence.
He previously worked on the OpenStack project and its integration with Citrix Xenserver and Nicira's networking stack. He also maintained high-availability clusters, Debian packaging and various system tools and scripts. The team created a highly automated continuous integration system with Jenkins that allowed them to test and deploy new code much more rapidly than before.
--admin systems
Extensive experience with the configuration, hardening, and maintenance of various Linux distributions, including:
Very proficient with KVM and the libvirt tool stack. Experienced in rapid deployment and configuration management technologies such as kickstarts, Red Hat Satellite Server, and Ansible.
Able to set up vital Linux infrastructure components including load balancers, DNS servers, web/application servers, and mail servers. Familiar with network-level security policies as well as server-level security layers like SELinux. Well-versed in RouterOS network device management with RouterOS software.
GIAC Certifications:
Red Hat Linux Certifications:
Red Hat Linux Certificates of Expertise:
--contributor
Served on the Fedora Project Board from 2012-2014.
Maintains several Fedora Linux packages.
--developer
Writes lots of open source software on GitHub and GitLab.
Created icanhazip.com in 2009 and transferred ownership of the site to Cloudflare in 2021.
--educator
Maintains a blog at major.io that includes technical, career growth, personal development, and investing topics.
Compiled and taught classes covering various systems administration topics including MySQL database administration, SSL certificates, and server security.
--leader
Comfortable leading groups of technical people in customer-facing environments. Also able to provide individualized mentoring on technical and career development topics.
Familiar with the agile development methodology and how to apply it to an operations environment. Experienced with sprint planning, release planning, and change management coordination.
--other
Published several articles and presentations.
Formerly certified as an Emergency Medical Technician in Texas.
Rackspace 2006-2018
SecureTrust Corporation 2004-2006 (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Trustwave Holdings, Inc.)
American Medical Response