Mark Simpson
Information Technology
Bo'ness,West Lothian
Summary
Highly-skilled IT Manager with extensive experience managing and implemeting Infrastucture and products for large and small organisations. Adept at assessing and implementing optimal infrastructure technologies for improved operational systems. Accomplished planner with exceptional technical and team leadership abilities to expertly direct high-performing IT teams.
Overview
26
26
years of professional experience
Work history
Global Applications Manager
Ashurst LLP
Glasgow
04.2018 - Current
- Overseeing and providing technical hands on expertise for Global business application portfolio & infrastructure. Hybrid, Onprem, Public and SaaS cloud solutions.
- Experience in Infrastructure and operations and in cloud network infrastructure in Azure. Proficient in Azure Migrations to cloud.
- Guiding and providing strategy in respect of new business solutions and associated infrastructure requirements. - Capacity Planning - Lead Time, throughput, and costings for People & Technology .
- Developing Application Strategy and supporting hands on implementation with SME's - Upgrades of Onprem systems, Migrations to Azure, SaaS or third party hosted solutions.
- Third Party Vendor relationships and Service reviews
- Manage, Support and provide technical hands on expertise to agile team of 14 Application SME's located in London, Glasgow and Brisbane.
- Support IT Operations in DC Migrations, Disaster Recovery Strategy and application Testing.
- Sit on the Global Change Advisory Board for all Changes to infrastructure networks and applications.
- Improving application infrastructure platform performance, ensuring applications run at optimal performance for the business.
- Analyse projects to determine people resourcing requirements and recruit or allocate resources accordingly from the technical teams.
- Improved team efficiency by training and mentoring individuals through diligent team meetings and setting stretch goals.
IT Manager
Maclay, Murray Spens LLP/Dentons LLP
Glasgow
06.2016 - 04.2018
- Responsible for managing Team of Service Desk Analysts and engineers.
- Lead infrastructure Team to deliver projects on time and within budget.
- Deliver presentations and proposals for significant infrastructure changes to improve efficiencies and drive down costs.
- Manage IT Cyber Security Prevention and monitoring to support Cyber Essentials + and ISO27001 accreditations.
- Manage and Maintain HPE Simplivity hyper-converged and Azure cloud infrastructures.
- Manage, and Maintain large scale ESXi infrastructure with over 500 Windows & Linux Virtual Servers & Desktops over two large data centres.
- Manage IT Cyber Security Prevention and monitoring.
- Assist IT Support and Development teams with deployment of services as required.
- Provide comprehensive systems management and monitoring capabilities
- Work with the Team on complex technical issues hands on.
- Liaise and manage existing external service providers and contractors
- Responsibility for developing IT Systems and processes to align with business strategy.
IT Infrastructure,Application, & Security Manager
ICAS
Edinburgh
02.2001 - 06.2016
- Responsibility for infrastructure and application security
- Managing and Mentoring a team of infrastructure and Application Engineers
- Technical lead on all projects. Evaluating, advising, implementing, training and maintaining all aspects of infrastructure and application related projects.
- Procurement of IT hardware, software and maintenance products & services
- Strengthening the ESXi virtual and physical infrastructure through to implementing new secure technologies
- Developing & maintaining the company IT systems.
- Recommending and implementing improvements and efficiencies to systems.
- Having strong IT, commercial, planning and budgeting skills.
- Writing documentation relating to infrastructure design improvements and changes.
- Responsibility for technical specification and documentation around disaster recovery procedures and invocation testing
- Managing all aspects of the internal and DMZ network infrastructure including Cisco firewalls,Windows Servers/Applications Exchange Email Servers , WAN and LAN infrastructure.
IT Support Technician
Telspec
Perth, Perthshire
03.2000 - 03.2001
- IT Support Technician, duties involved Network Support (all hardware and software installations and maintenance.
- Configuring telephony and managing communication links between sites. Providing hardware support on HP Servers, Dell Servers, HP SAN and providing desktop support to multiple users.
- In this role I supported all aspects of Information Technology within Telspec Scotland and Europe
Network Administrator
Russell Europe UK, Spain, France)
Livingston
01.1998 - 03.2000
- Duties included configuration of new infrastructure in our European & UK offices - UK, Germany, Spain & France
- Configuring network routing and desktop infrastructure to allow these users to connect to UK offices.
- Provided system maintenance and break/fix on existing intel servers, cisco routers, desktops, cabled infrastructure and supported our teams in any IT related projects.
Education
Higher National Diploma - Information Technology
Falkirk College of Technology
FalkirkAure Fundamentals -AZ900 - Microsoft Certification
Microsoft
04.2001 -
Azure Administrator -AZ-103 -
Microsoft
Certification in Leadership - https://www.leadershipsuccess.co/assessments
Leadership Success
Skills
- Cloud infrastructure Solutions focusing on Windows, Linux IAAS, PAAS, SAAS security, storage, networking among others (Azure )
- Extensive Infrastucture & Applications Knowledge built up over 20 years
- ITIL, Agilepm - Operating, Running and Managing these frameworks
- Microsoft 365 - (Teams, SharePoint, Office, Exchange online)
- VMware - ESXi, vCentre, SRM
- Zerto - DR & DC Migration
- OS Technical Expertise -Windows, Server 2012R2, 2016, 2019, Linux -Umbuntu
- Citrix Netscaler, Duo 2FA, F5 VPN/Loadbalancers
- IT security and networking -AD DS,CS,DNS, DHCP, ADFS
- Cyber Essentials experience in vulnrability management
- Methodical Technical Enginer - Who loves Problem-solving
- Troubleshooting - Root Cause Analysis
- Application life-cycle management
- Technical documentation
- Effective Communication skills
- Strategic planning
- Business/IT Risk mitigation planning & remediation skills
Timeline
Global Applications Manager
Ashurst LLP
04.2018 - Current
IT Manager
Maclay, Murray Spens LLP/Dentons LLP
06.2016 - 04.2018
Aure Fundamentals -AZ900 - Microsoft Certification
Microsoft
04.2001 -
IT Infrastructure,Application, & Security Manager
ICAS
02.2001 - 06.2016
IT Support Technician
Telspec
03.2000 - 03.2001
Network Administrator
Russell Europe UK, Spain, France)
01.1998 - 03.2000
Higher National Diploma - Information Technology
Falkirk College of Technology
Azure Administrator -AZ-103 -
Microsoft
Certification in Leadership - https://www.leadershipsuccess.co/assessments
Leadership Success