Andre LaBranche

I enjoy solving problems and building tools for myself and others. An ideal work environment for me is one that can exercise my skills in technology and communication, and one in which I have the opportunity to bring new things to the table. I am very self-directed and independent by nature, and I also get along well with everybody.

Experience

Bitwise Operator, Management and Collaboration, Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA - 7/2009-present

In this position on the iCal Server engineering team, I enjoy a multifunctional role that includes junior-level software engineering, IT / system administration, technical writing, and tight collaboration with our IT department in support of Apple's corporate deployment of iCal Server. My experience on the admin side has proven quite useful, given that our users are admins (and *their* users are the actual client users). I'm big on user advocacy, both in reference to the end users and also the admins who will deploy and maintain the service. Successful operation of a calendar service at the corporate scale is as much about the software as it is about 'deployment issues', a broad topic that includes system administration, networking, user profiling, and performance profiling.

Software Seed Engineer, Apple Inc, Cupertino, CA - 5/2008-7/2009

I was responsible for the operation of several software seeding projects for Apple commercial software. This duty entails the use of internal tools and infrastructure to deploy customer-facing resources that are used to help customers provide feedback to Apple, in addition to processing of all incoming bug reports filed by customers, to make sure they are coherent and actionable. My general knowledge of Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server proved quite a boon in this context because of the emphasis on triage and diagnostic techniques. In addition to seed project management, I was also able to help with infrastructure and server administration related tasks.

Author, Peachpit Press, Seattle WA - 8/2007-5/2008

During this period I worked on two different publications as a contract author for Peachpit Press, working under the direction of Apple's Worldwide Customer Training group. The material produced was curriculum for Apple's instructor-led IT certification training courses. I wrote about one third of the in-class lab exercises for the Server Essentials (v10.5) courseware, and all of the in-class lab exercises for the Directory Services (v10.5) course.

Unix System Administrator, Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA - 4/2005-4/2007

Working for IS&T's Email and Collaboration Services group, I owned several key applications that support Apple's corporate campus. My primary accomplishment was architecting and implementing Apple's migration from NetInfo to Open Directory, both highly visible services that directly impact engineering productivity. I also owned the corporate network home directory servers, and provided a high level of service to our users by aggressively investigating the various software problems which affected our production servers. I made it a point to actively engage with the AFP and NFS engineering teams, to learn as much as possible and provide the best data I could. One of my last duties for this group was to kick off a major calendaring server transition by migrating a large and malformed data set from the legacy calendar service into Open Directory, for use with iCal Server.

Apple Certified Trainer, Computer Stores Northwest, Seattle, WA - 3/2002-4/2005

My work with this Apple reseller started on the sales floor, but quickly transitioned to delivering home-grown training courses of my own design. I went through the process to become an Apple Certified Trainer, and delivered a variety of training courses for both my company at our facilities in Seattle and Portland, and also under contract with Apple, at Apple training centers. During my time there, I taught countless roomfuls of senior citizens how to hold a mouse, and countless roomfuls of corporate IT admins how to best use Mac OS X Server - and a great deal in between.

Network Administrator, Islandless Network, Tortola, British Virgin Islands - 5/2001-2/2002

I was the first hire for this wireless networking startup, initially based in Seattle, WA. Our goal was to deploy a commercial and residential wireless network on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands - before their telecommunications were deregulated (in competition with a single provider that enjoyed a legal monopoly). Our plan was to use nothing but unlicensed wireless frequencies all the way to the US Virgin Islands, where BVI telecom. restrictions would not apply. My duties began with telecommunications legal research and proof of concept models. Between myself and the CEO, we built a functional scale model of our intended deployment that included several wireless links, network authentication using LEAP and CiscoACS, customer billing and accounting, and the standard network services that you expect from an ISP. After much planning and several 'meet and greet' trips to Tortola, we started hiring more people and eventually moved to Tortola. Although we were closely engaged with local government, we were ultimately unable to secure a business license, and so had to leave the BVI.

Systems Analyst, VoiceStream Wireless (now tMobile), Bothell, WA - 9/2000-4/2001

I worked in the corporate network operations center, overseeing all production systems and networks. Duties included monitoring, reporting, and some tool building. This was my first hands-on exposure to a large data center.

Consultant, Mac-In-Touch Inc - 11/1999-5/2000

This was a one-man company that contracted me part time to help with on-site training and support for various residential and business clients. Did successful web development with Simple Text.

Intern / Trainer, Manatee County School Board, Bradenton, FL - 7/1996-5/2000

I started working with this school district technology team before even finishing High School in the same district, after having been chosen as the student representative for the steering committee of a BBS operated by the district for students. This was right around the time that the Internet was becoming popular, and we undertook a massive effort to deploy computers and networks to all our schools, and train district staff, all with the goal of using technology to enhance curriculum for students. As a contractor, I did LOTS of training for staff, and also lots of installations and support at schools, working with teachers and school IT staff. I was also lightly attending community college at the time, which afforded me the opportunity to be classified as an intern with the school district - this provided workspace accommodations, including access to many of the districts facilities. The vast majority of my time here was unpaid, but it was a fantastic deal in return for the access I needed to learn new tools and skills.

Education

Bayshore High School, Bradenton, FL - co 1996
Manatee County Community College, Bradenton, FL (no degree)

Skills Summary

* Unix administration in general, covering a broad variety of distributions and use cases
* Intimate familiarity with Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server
* Languages: python, shell, obj-c, ruby, javascript, perl, php (in order of proficiency)
* Writing, technical and otherwise
* Teaching / presenting, from very informal to very formal
* Lots of media production software, loosely centered around music and video