📞 (952) 334-5523
✉ grady@gradyp.com
🌐 www.gradyp.com
📍 Maple Grove, MNz
Enterprise Architecture | Digital Transformations | Cloud Strategy | Process Optimization | Team Leadership
Experienced IT leader with over two decades of expertise in infrastructure architecture, team process improvement, and technical decision-making. Proven ability to drive organizational maturity, align technical solutions with business objectives, and foster collaboration across teams. Demonstrated success in leading high-performance teams, implementing scalable, cloud-based solutions, and delivering multi-million-dollar projects with over $2M in cost savings. Adept at creating structured processes, improving operational efficiency, and managing strategic initiatives to achieve impactful results.
Team Process Improvements at Cambria USA
As Systems Engineering Manager, implemented structured requirements gathering practices to translate business needs into actionable technical solutions. Enhanced team collaboration by fostering transparent communication through shared Confluence spaces and documenting SAFe-based Agile methodologies, aligning processes across teams. Advocated for organizational maturity by proposing strategic initiatives, despite operating in a challenging environment.
Hyperconverged Infrastructure Leadership
Re-architected infrastructure at Infinite Campus, consolidating storage, compute, and licensing into a streamlined hyperconverged platform. This initiative delivered $2M in annual savings and positioned the company as Nutanix’s largest Midwestern customer, showcasing a strategic approach to cost optimization and scalability.
Strategic Cloud Migration and Unified Architecture
Directed the migration to AWS EKS and Fargate at Western National, crafting a unified architecture for on-prem and cloud environments. Established clear roles and responsibilities for network and platform teams, ensuring seamless operations and enhancing team collaboration. This strategic initiative enabled the organization to scale effectively and improve disaster recovery readiness.
Team Leadership During Organizational Transition
Took on a leadership role at Infinite Campus during a critical period, stabilizing team dynamics after management turnover. Introduced a kanban-style workflow, fostered cross-department communication, and identified infrastructure gaps. Achieved 100% team retention and expanded the team by 30%, while actively contributing as the infrastructure advisor on the architecture committee.
Driving Strategic Cost Optimization
Presented a detailed cost-benefit analysis for replacing legacy load-balancing infrastructure with an open-source HAProxy-based solution, delivering substantial cost savings without compromising performance or reliability. This decision reinforced the value of thoughtful technical evaluation and strategic financial planning.
Critical System Modernization and Risk Mitigation
Led the modernization of an antiquated backup system at Infinite Campus, addressing a critical single point of failure. Recovered 30 million files despite the absence of vendor support, and transitioned the system to a modern S3-based platform, reducing risk and preparing the organization for future cloud adoption.
Improved Remote Workforce Operations
At Twin Cities Orthopedics, designed and deployed a VMware Horizon VDI solution supporting over 1,100 concurrent users. This ensured secure, efficient access for remote workers while maintaining HIPAA compliance. Successfully led a data center migration, using Site Recovery Manager (SRM) for seamless failover and failback.
Cambria USA | Eden Prairie, MN | Dec. 2024 - Present
Managed a team of 4 System Engineers and 3 Application Administrators, driving efforts to enhance team collaboration and operational clarity. Focused on fostering structured processes and improving project workflows while navigating organizational constraints.
Western National | Edina, MN | 2023 - 2024
Designed and implemented a comprehensive **Hybrid Layered Architecture to streamline infrastructure processes and modernize cloud environments. Spearheaded the organization’s migration to AWS EKS and Fargate, driving scalable solutions and improving disaster recovery readiness.
Infinite Campus | Blaine, MN | 2020 - 2023
Led the modernization of the company’s infrastructure through the adoption of hyperconverged platforms and Kubernetes, significantly improving scalability and reducing overall operating costs.
Twin Cities Orthopedics | Golden Valley, MN | 2016 - 2020
Led major infrastructure initiatives, including a data center migration, the deployment of a new hyperconverged infrastructure, and the design and maintenance of a VMware Horizon VDI solution. Additionally, implemented a new Dell-based virtual backup system to ensure HIPAA compliance.
ShopNBC (Evine Live) | Eden Prairie, MN | 2012 - 2016
Served as a senior engineer on critical infrastructure projects, including PCI compliance, remote data center builds, and virtualization. Played a key role in modernizing the company’s security infrastructure, as well as designing and deploying solutions for remote and distributed operations.
Available upon request.