Neil Bliss 3234 Neal Ave San Jose, CA, 95117 Tel: 408-838-9632 E-mail: neil@neilbliss.com Position Sought Software Engineer, Geek Work Experience 2005-present Technical Support Engineer Mendocino Software Shell scripting, C/C++ debugging, On-site technical support, 24/7 technical support, Customer Education, Utility Infielder With Mendocino, a startup software company, I was one of the initial hires into the Support department. As with any startup, the tasks to be performed were many and varied ranging from on-site Customer education (including writing the initial revision of the training materials), to pre-sales customer conferences, to OEM relationship management with partners such as EMC and HP. Within the Support role, I provided 3rd level escalation support to our frontline support engineers, interfacing with the Engineering department and managing customer defects through the development cycle. I also worked extensively with our Technical Documentation staff to ensure and improve the quality of our End-User documentation. 2003-2005 Hub Integration Engineer, E2open, LLC Java coding, XML document transformation, shell scripting, B2B Server configuration/management, on-call support, troubleshooting At E2open, I was responsible for java coding, shell scripting and troubleshooting a complex solution of b2b and Supply Chain process management applications. I investigated and resolved complex software defects, created new java classes and integration scripts, and worked with several teams of developers (located in Redwood City, Dallas, and Singapore) to bring a major revision of the Seagate "hub" into the production environment. I also created a number of software tools to automate previously manual processes. I used shell scripts and customized java classes to construct tools for software administration tasks such as database table cleanup, starting and stopping application sets, and testing application health. Additionally, I provided on-call support for the Seagate Supplychain hub, which consisted of 11 servers running 5 different applications, such as B2B connectivity applications, E2open's in-house document routing and transformation application, reporting servers and Supplychain process management applications. 2002-2003 Linux Consultant Engineer, MontaVista Software Troubleshooting, C coding, Customer support, Linux kernel support, GCC support With MontaVista I was brought on board to manage all support aspects of the Company's new Carrier Grade product line, marketed towards Telecom customers. I analyzed and debugged linux kernel and driver-level customer issues, in addition to GCC compiler issues (including analyzing and resolving GCC compiler bugs). I also oversaw setting up support processes, and worked closely with several distributed engineering teams to ensure product and documentation quality. MontaVista had traditionally marketed a toolkit for producing a Linux system to work on an embedded device, things like switches, routers, etc. In the case of the Carrier Grade edition, MontaVista built a more robust version of the Linux kernel to be used in Telecom type environments where High-Availability and fault tolerance are crucial to business success. 1999-2001 Technical Support/Software Engineer, Integratus, Inc. Customer support, C++ coding, shell scripting, HA solution design As the Director of the Support department for Integratus, a UNIX oriented High-Availability software development shop, I designed and built the infrastructure needed to support a worldwide customer base on a 24x7 basis. As a support philosophy, I adopted the "fix 'em before the customer sees 'em" approach, and spent a great deal of time in QA-type work, locating and resolving problems in both the software and its related documentation. I was a major contributor of "agents" for UHA (our high-availability product), which were principally written as Bourne shell scripts. Additionally, I was the principal maintainer of our Java-based GUI, and I worked extensively with the engineering team to both fix bugs in existing code (C and C++) and add new feature functionality, as well as porting UHA from it's original Solaris codebase to Linux, FreeBSD, and Win2k. 1996-1999 Staff Engineer, VERITAS Software Customer Support Customer support, troubleshooting, shell scripting At VERITAS, I was part of the support team that handled the transformation of our 150-person, source-code OEM based company into the 3000-person, end-user focused company that VERITAS is today. I handled source code OEM customers for VxVM such as AT&T and Digital. I also provided third-tier escalation support for high profile cases involving large or sensitive customers (e.g. AT&T WorldNet, CIA, Wells Fargo, Visa International, and NTT DoCoMo). I was the main support interface into VxVM engineering, attending weekly VxVM project planning meetings with engineering and marketing, and providing end-user experiences as feedback into the engineering process. 1995-1996 Help Desk Technician, San Antonio Express-News Online I provided telephone support to end users of this ISP. I also performed system administration tasks such as script-writing, new account setup, resolution of email and net news problems, and development of html and cgi for our website. Education 1990-1995 San Jose State University, School of Music I pursued a Bachelor of Music degree, which I did not complete. During my time at SJSU, I studied classical and contemporary theory, jazz arranging, film scoring, music history, and conducting. References available on request.