Wayne McKnight #

Senior Systems & Infrastructure Engineer // U.S. Navy Veteran

Columbus, TX · 979.661.9362 · wayne.mcknight@gmail.com · github.com/waynemcknight-code

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY #

Senior systems and infrastructure engineer with 30+ years of professional experience across K–12 education, county government, healthcare, and law enforcement environments. Primary ownership of server, virtualization, storage, identity, and unified communications infrastructure: Proxmox/Ceph hyper-converged clusters, VMware ESXi, Active Directory, Cisco CUCM/Unity/InformaCast, and Python/shell automation throughout the operational stack. Works daily in a collaborative network engineering environment (Cisco Meraki, VLANs, VPN, firewalls) and has independently resolved Cisco CUCM and CUBE issues. Proven under pressure: led a full VMware-to-Proxmox migration, recovered a production cluster from a critical ZFS outage, and delivered infrastructure for a courthouse historical renovation on a public-sector budget. U.S. Navy veteran. Disciplined, thorough, and available for relocation.

CORE COMPETENCIES #

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE #

Network / Systems Administrator #

Brenham Independent School District | Brenham, TX | Feb 2023 – Present

• Primary owner of server, virtualization, and storage infrastructure across multiple campuses: Proxmox/Ceph hyper-converged cluster (EPYC-based), VMware ESXi, Active Directory, Group Policy, DNS/DHCP, backup, and monitoring.
• Lead administrator for Cisco CUCM Pub/Sub, Unity Connection, and Singlewire InformaCast: dial-plan management, voice gateway configuration, UC failover, and end-to-end troubleshooting including independent resolution of a Cisco CUBE fax infrastructure failure (root cause: fax rate disable on inbound dial-peers).
• Works daily in a collaborative network engineering team (Cisco Meraki switching/wireless, VLANs, firewalls, VPN); independently resolves server-adjacent network issues and UC-layer connectivity problems.
• Designed and procured Proxmox/Ceph HCI cluster; retained dedicated VMware ESXi nodes for Cisco UC workloads to preserve voice failover integrity across the migration.
• Recovered production Proxmox cluster from full ZFS pool outage; restored services and Ceph quorum, then engineered post-incident hardening (ZFS reservations, ZED/SMTP alerting, fleecing redirection) to eliminate the failure mode.
• Administer district IP-based video surveillance under FBI CJIS Security Policy: Milestone XProtect camera management server and all recording servers supporting 400+ Axis cameras district-wide; manage Access It! access control server software. Responsible for system configuration, retention management, and law enforcement coordination.
• Contributed to MUNIS-to-ASCENDER financial system migration: identified and engaged a specialized MUNIS contractor for financial reporting needs, bypassed vendor-imposed SQL Server access restrictions to enable direct data extraction, and executed extensive data exports supporting the migration effort.
• Manage ClassLink SSO, OneSync directory integration, and OneRoster data provisioning for district-wide application access and automated identity/roster sync across platforms; administer Eduphoria for staff appraisal and compliance workflows.
• Authored Python and shell automation across monitoring, alerting, backup verification, and operational tooling.

IT Support Specialist (Contract) #

QA Systems | Austin, TX | Aug 2022 – Sep 2022

Short-term enterprise K–12 contract supporting one of the largest school systems in Texas: hardware, imaging, computer-lab builds, and network configuration across Microsoft, Apple, and Google ecosystems, working alongside Data Center, NOC, and Tech Design teams.

IT Administrator (Department Head) #

Colorado County, Texas | Columbus, TX | Apr 2010 – Dec 2015

• Department head for the county’s IT function across every county department on a public-sector budget.
• Project-managed upgrades of the County Data Center and the 911 Data Center serving law enforcement across every city in the county, plus the technology buildout of the Colorado County Courthouse historical renovation including a new courthouse data center with redundant fiber to the County Annex.
• Issued public RFPs for major purchases, presented technology projects to the Commissioner’s Court in open public session, and provided direct technology guidance to the courts, County Attorney, and Sheriff’s Office.

IT Field Technician #

Tekcom Technologies | Brenham, TX | Jan 2008 – Apr 2010

Pre-sales scoping, sales, and service of high-end computers, servers, and networking. Led Saturn of Houston’s transition from legacy ISDN dealer-network interconnects to site-to-site VPN.

IT Field Engineer #

Med-Net Solutions | Beaumont, TX | Aug 2004 – Dec 2007

Deployed medical software, server hardware, and networking infrastructure for hospitals across the Beaumont region. Built redundant server arrays handling HIPAA-regulated patient data including systems supporting Nuclear Heart Imaging, CT, MRI, and other clinical imaging modalities. HP-authorized for server hardware and peripherals.

Early IT Career — Field Tech, Service & QA #

Advanced Digital Technologies · Integrated Office Systems · Inacom Corporation · Intuit (QA, contract) Texas, California & Ohio | Apr 1996 – Jun 2004

Progressive HP-authorized field-tech and service roles. Data center server hardware, networking, and printing equipment for SMB, enterprise, and healthcare-adjacent customers. Earned HP Tech ID SC5065.

MILITARY SERVICE #

Personnel Administration, U.S. Navy — Honorable Discharge #

USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) | Sep 1993 – Mar 1996

Managed enlisted personnel records aboard a forward-deployed supercarrier. Awarded the Navy Achievement Medal during WestPac 1994 deployment for designing and building a dBASE III application that automated personnel record tracking, replacing manual processes shipboard.

CERTIFICATIONS & EDUCATION #

• FBI CJIS Security Awareness — Active certification, Criminal Justice Information Services Security Policy
• HP Authorized Technician — Servers (entry through Blade), Networking, Routing & Switching, LaserJet (Tech ID SC5065)
• Personnelman “A” School, U.S. Navy — Nov 1993 – Feb 1994
• High School Diploma, Columbus Grove High School, OH — 1993