Judgment under pressure
Deciding when to push ahead, pause or roll back a production change, with carrier traffic on the line and incomplete information.
Proof: platform upgrades across 3 high-concurrency systems with zero unexpected downtime.
Ingram, Texas
Shannon DonagheyMBA · MS Information Systems
Senior Linux Administrator
Senior Data Analyst
17+ years keeping enterprise Linux platforms fast, secure and online, and turning the data they produce into decisions people can act on. I automate the repeatable work so I can spend my time on the judgment calls.
17+years in production Linux & infrastructure
DistinguishedEngineer, Verizon Wireless
100sof RHEL & Ubuntu servers supported
2Master's degrees: MBA & MS in IS
Two roles, one skill set
Where I add value
The same instincts that keep a production platform healthy (monitoring, root-cause analysis, automation) are the ones that make data analysis useful. I bring both.
Senior Linux Administrator
Reliable, hardened, automated systems
Enterprise RHEL and Ubuntu at scale, from bare metal through OpenStack to Kubernetes and OpenShift.
- Led the migration of 4G virtualized infrastructure to 5G containerized OpenShift/Kubernetes
- Planned and executed OpenStack and kernel upgrades with zero unexpected downtime
- OS hardening, encryption and compliance in partnership with InfoSec
- Ansible, CI/CD and Bash/Python tooling that removed manual deployment work
Senior Data Analyst
Data turned into decisions
Full-stack ETL with Python (Pandas) and SQL, delivered as dashboards that lean teams actually use.
- Built system-health dashboards ingesting log data with Pandas, Grafana and Highcharts
- Designed Python/MySQL web tooling for secure operational data sharing
- Set nightly pricing for a vacation rental from occupancy, seasonality and market data
- MBA training in finance, strategy and communicating results to decision-makers
The human edge
What AI can't replace
I use automation and AI every day; they make me faster. But the parts of this work that matter most still come down to people: judgment, trust and accountability. Here is where I bring that, with the proof.
Accountability & ownership
An algorithm can suggest a fix. Someone still has to sign the change, own the SLA and answer for the outcome. That's me.
Proof: wrote and owned the MOPs that standardized upgrades and patching across production nodes.
Cross-functional influence
Getting security, development, transport and vendor teams to agree on one plan, and keep agreeing when it changes.
Proof: led hardening, encryption and compliance initiatives with InfoSec and stakeholders.
Teaching & mentoring
Reading a room, finding where someone is stuck and building their confidence, not just handing them an answer.
Proof: designed and led team training in Python, Bash and automation principles.
Ethics & governance
Knowing what should be done with data and systems, not only what can be. Weighing risk, privacy and regulation.
Proof: regulatory compliance and security posture work on carrier-grade platforms.
Empathy & client care
Hearing what a guest or stakeholder actually needs and making them feel looked after, especially when something goes wrong.
Proof: personally handle every guest conversation for a vacation rental, from booking through check-out.
"Automation handles the repeatable work. My job is the judgment calls, the relationships and the responsibility that go with them."
Portfolio
Selected work
Projects I've designed and built end to end, from data ingestion through analysis to the finished interface.
Guadalupe River at Hunt, TX
A live river dashboard for USGS station 08165500 that puts today's conditions in the context of 85 years of daily records (1941–present), computed in the browser from USGS Water Services data.
- Live discharge, gage height, rainfall and distance to flood stage, with plain-English takeaways generated on every load
- Hydrograph against historical percentile bands, wet/dry month heatmap and flow-duration curve
- Long-term trend testing (Mann-Kendall with Sen's slope) and downloadable CSV data
JavaScriptUSGS Water Services APIStatisticsData visualization
Career
Experience
Linux administration
Data analysis
Client & business operations
Highlight what matters to your role
12/2024 – PresentIngram, TX
Senior Systems Engineer & Property Operations
Sprig Investments
Infrastructure
- Run enterprise-style virtualization on Proxmox VE with Ubuntu Server guests: provisioning, patching and lifecycle management.
- Designed storage architecture on OpenMediaVault with automated backups to protect data integrity.
- Engineered and secured the network, including DNS-level filtering with Pi-hole.
- Integrate and maintain self-hosted services (Jellyfin media server, financial platforms) and smart-home infrastructure.
Vacation rental operations
- Manage nightly pricing using occupancy, seasonality and local market data to balance occupancy against revenue.
- Own the booking calendar and schedule guests, cleaners and maintenance so turnovers run on time.
- Handle all guest communication end to end: inquiries, pre-arrival, on-stay questions, issue resolution and reviews.
- Keep listing media current: photography, descriptions and amenity updates across booking platforms.
12/2023 – 12/2024Southlake, TX
Distinguished Engineer, Network Engineering
Verizon Wireless
- Led the large-scale migration and containerization of critical 4G virtualized infrastructure to a 5G web-scale OpenShift/Kubernetes environment, ensuring high availability and horizontal scalability.
- Used Ansible and CI/CD pipelines to automate builds and migrate legacy workloads off OpenStack, sharply reducing manual deployment effort.
- Architected centralized system-health dashboards with Nagios, Grafana, Highcharts and Python (Pandas) ingesting log data, letting a lean team monitor a massive distributed footprint.
- Partnered with security and cross-functional teams on OS hardening, encryption and regulatory compliance.
- Designed and led team training in Python, Bash scripting and modern automation principles.
12/2019 – 12/2023Southlake, TX
Principal Member Technical Staff, Network Engineering
Verizon Wireless
- Managed operations and health of 3 large-scale, high-concurrency production systems; executed kernel and platform upgrades from OpenStack 1.x to 2.x on new hardware.
- Wrote, validated and documented Methods of Procedure (MOPs) for upgrades, patches and maintenance, with zero unexpected downtime.
- Diagnosed low-level OS, storage and networking issues with development and transport teams to secure and optimize critical data transfers.
11/2007 – 12/2019Southlake, TX
Senior Member Technical Staff, Network Engineering
Verizon Wireless
- Administered hundreds of RHEL and Ubuntu servers in high-availability production environments for more than a decade.
- Built web-based operational tools in Python, Bash and MySQL to streamline operations and automate secure intranet data sharing.
- Automated health checks, backups and storage/volume management across virtualized platforms (Net-IoT, SCEF, MTC Core).
- Launched and maintained commercial production platforms with engineering and product teams while meeting strict SLAs.
Toolkit
Skills
Operating systems & virtualization
RHELCentOSUbuntuProxmox VEOpenStackWindowsmacOS
Data & analytics
Python (Pandas)SQLMySQLPostgreSQLETL pipelinesGrafanaHighchartsLog analysisPricing analysis
Automation & DevOps
AnsiblePuppetBashGit / GitHubGitLab CI/CDActive Directory
Cloud & containers
KubernetesRed Hat OpenShiftDockerAWS (EC2, S3, IAM, VPC)GCP
Security, networking & storage
OS hardeningSSL/TLSOktaComplianceTCP/IPDNS / DHCPFirewallsSAN / NAS
Monitoring & languages
NagiosGrafanaPythonBashPerlPHPJavaScript
Education
Degrees
MBA
Master of Business Administration
Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ
MS
Information Systems
Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ
BS
Computing & Software Systems
University of Washington, Bothell, WA
Let's talk
Hiring a Senior Linux Administrator or Data Analyst?
I'd love to hear what you're building and where I can help.