About me

With over 30 years of IT experience, I bring a robust background in leadership, technical expertise, and a proven track record of driving significant business growth.

My career journey has taken me from Desktop Support Analyst to DevOps Engineer, Systems Architect, and now into Management and Leadership roles within global teams. This diverse experience equips me with the skills to navigate complex technical landscapes and lead teams effectively. I have managed environments ranging from a couple hundred servers to over 1.7 million globally across data centers, cloud platforms (AWS and Azure), hybrid solutions, and private clouds.

I am a strong advocate for solid documentation frameworks, which enhances collaboration and reduces tribal knowledge within teams. My focus on eCommerce sectors, including retail, services, travel, and hospitality, has driven improvements in site stability, performance, reliability, and customer retention. By reducing bounce rates and increasing conversion rates, I contributed to significant sales growth—achieving an increase from $1.7 million to over $3.6 million daily.

What i'm doing

  • People Manager

    IT Management

    Managing On-Site, Hybrid, Remote and Off-Shore technology teams to ensure goals are met with the highest level of quality and commitment.

  • Operations

    Operations/Incident Management

    World Class Operations and Incident Management. Consistantly reducing Engagement and Mitigation/Resolution times by multiple factors.

  • Release Management

    Release Management

    Release Manager for tracking of production releases in Monthlithic and Agile development cycles. Process, Documentation and Communications practices to support leadership and Compliance/Security.

  • Observability

    Observability/SRE

    Observability and SRE Experiece with Large Scale (1.7m servers+) to small scale (less than 100 servers) environments and the differences to know that one-size does not fit all when it comes to obvervability.

Testimonials

  • Jordan Lee

    Jordan Lee

    Dennis was a recent manager of mine and I wouldnt have asked for a better one. Never shot down ideas, always stood up for our team and greatly assisted us in moving projects forward. Sprint after Sprint. Dennis is very professional and knows what it takes to manage a team effectively. Coming from his many backgrounds in the Cloud space he has a lot of perspective to bring to the table!

    Testimonials on LinkedIn

  • Tessa Kottke Nagel

    Tessa Kottke Nagel

    I highly recommend Dennis Christilaw for any future opportunities. During our time working together at Icario, he demonstrated exceptional leadership, collaboration, and technical expertise. As an attentive leader, he fostered a positive, productive environment while consistently innovating and focusing on process improvements. His in-depth IT knowledge, combined with his eagerness to help and collaborate, made him an invaluable asset to the team. Dedicated, reliable, and always enjoyable to work with, Dennis was a standout contributor on every project and any organization is extremely lucky to have them on their team.

    Testimonials on LinkedIn

  • Nicki Roper, CTFL

    Nicki Roper, CTFL

    Dennis is very knowledgeable as a Jira administrator. He shares his Jira knowledge and best practices with others. He is also very knowledge with Change Request processes and implementation of those processes and Change Advisory Board. He has the ability to wear multiple hats even if something is out of his defined role (i.e. Jira Admin and Governance board, CAB governance, SRE Manager, etc.). He would be a great asset to any IT organization.

    Testimonials on LinkedIn

  • Jeff Troha

    Jeff Troha

    It was a pleasure to work under Dennis. He was always supportive of the team's needs and very laid back and easy to get along with. His years of experience and technical knowledge make him a great fit for management roles and his future co-workers will be lucky to have him.

    Testimonials on LinkedIn

Dennis Christilaw
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Dennis Christilaw

Stuff and Things

Tools/Process

Resume

Experience

  1. SRE Manager / Release and Incident Manager

    Aug 2022 — Jan 2025

    SRE Manager:

    • Managed a fully remote Site Reliability Engineering Team (US Based)
    • Developed and managed engineering budgets ensuring alignment with organization financial objectives
    • Developed a roadmap with a longer-term vision for Observability and Reliability
    • Developed and tracked key performance indicators (KPI’s) and operational metrics to measure and improve engineering excellence with custom dashboards and screens
    • Developed and implemented an implementation structure using best practices, targeted processes and process improvements and leveraged tools to optimize engineering operations
    • Drove Observability Engineering programs that improved visibility, efficiency, scalability and collaboration across engineering and customer experience teams
    • Partnered with cross-functional teams (Engineering, Product, Finance. Compliance, Legal, Security and more) to align Engineering Observability goal with the business
    • Standardized monitoring implementation, refactored all monitors to reduce monitoring costs by 45%
    • Engaged with vendors for selection, negotiation and contract management for Engineering tools
    • Provided coaching and mentoring for certification of engineers raising the teams technical excellence
    • Designed, implemented, trained and updated organization wide Release Management Process

    Incident Manager:

    • Created an incident management process that scaled with the organization by working with Compliance, Legal, Customer Experience and Engineering teams
    • Monitored threats, vulnerabilities and breeches to ensure proactive alerting and mitigation
    • Engaged the Compliance team to ensure incident management reporting met standards
    • Designed, tested and implemented Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plans
    • Continuously improved process, efficiency, reliability and security through active engagement
    • Developed and implemented NOC processes, procedures, and best practices to improve team performance, service quality, and incident engagement and resolution times

    Release Manager:

    • Engineered an automated Change Advisory Board (CAB) Process within JIRA, eliminating the need for add-ons by designing custom workflows and automations
    • Documented, trained, and managed CAB volunteers across all levels, from senior technical experts to C-Suite leadership, ensuring effective governance and stakeholder alignment
    • Provided detailed reporting for Compliance/Legal teams during CAP investigations, ensuring adherence to regulatory requirements and fostering transparency in the release processes

    JIRA Cloud Administrator:

    • Managed all aspects of the JIRA Ticketing platform (JIRA Software/JIRA Service Manager)
    • Standardized all SCRUM teams (13 teams) boards, screens, workflows and fields
    • Created custom JIRA automations to replace several paid add-ons reducing annual costs by over $15,000
    • Owned and Maintained organization documentation repository for technical accuracy and useability

  2. DevOps Infrastructure Manager

    Jun 2020 - Aug 2022

    • Managed a fully remote DevOps Engineering Team (US Based and Off-Shore)
    • Designed and implemented infrastructure automation with the DevOps team
    • Design infrastructure-as-code for full automation of infrastructure deployments to AWS
    • Developed and implemented an implementation structure using best practices, targeted processes and process improvements and leveraged tools to optimize engineering operations
    • Monitored threats, vulnerabilities and breeches to ensure proactive alerting and mitigation
    • Designed, tested and implemented Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plans
    • Release management for code deployment and implementation of automation tools
    • Designed and implemented monitoring and alerting for multiple environments
    • Designed and implemented incident management process and On-Call process
    • Created monitoring alerts, dashboards, and reports for all environments
    • Document automation templates and scripts in Confluence
    • Managed primary and all AWS Root Accounts and security

  3. DevOps Infrastructure Architect (contract)

    Sep 2019 - Dec 2019 - Short-Term Contract to fill a team skills gap

    • Engineered CloudFormation templates for both existing and new infrastructure, enabling consistent and repeatable deployment processes that reduce manual errors and streamlined operations
    • Documented automation templates and scripts in Confluence, ensuring knowledge sharing and compliance with organizational standards while improving team efficiency
    • Managed AWS Systems Manager to automate patching of Windows Server infrastructure, reducing downtime and ensuring compliance with security best practices
    • Configured AWS Elasticsearch Service for log collection and aggregation, enhancing monitoring capabilities and enabling efficient troubleshooting and analysis
    • Designed and implemented automation and deployment workflows across all AWS accounts, standardizing processes and accelerating time-to-deployment
    • Created comprehensive monitoring alerts, dashboards, and reports using Dynatrace, providing real-time insights into system performance and enabling proactive issue resolution
    • Oversaw scheduled maintenance and maintained accurate maintenance windows for all AWS environments, minimizing downtime and ensuring continuous operations

  4. DevOps Manager/Sr. DevOps Architect

    Aug 2018 - Sep 2019

    • Led Site Reliability Engineering initiatives to ensure optimal scalability, performance, and reliability of cloud-based systems, resulting in improved customer satisfaction and reduced downtime
    • Designed and implemented robust security policies and practices to meet compliance requirements such as ISPME PCI-DSS, US Cyber Security Framework, and FFIEC, ensuring organizational adherence to regulatory standards
    • Oversaw Know Your Customer (KYC) processes by leveraging both in-house tools and third-party services, streamlining compliance workflows and enhancing operational efficiency
    • Mentored junior DevOps staff through structured training programs, fostering their technical expertise, productivity, and confidence while building a stronger team capable of meeting organizational demands
    • Provided mentorship to field service technicians, equipping them with advanced troubleshooting skills to effectively perform Crypto ATM repairs and maintenance, reducing downtime and improving customer satisfaction
    • Established and enforced comprehensive documentation and ticketing policies and processes, ensuring clear communication channels and efficient tracking of issues across the organization
    • Directed remote location hardware repair and maintenance services for Crypto ATM machines, overseeing a network of technicians to ensure seamless operations and minimize service disruptions
    • Spearheaded the creation and implementation of new processes and procedures for Agile Software Development and Delivery, utilizing tools like Terraform (Kubernetes) and Ansible to streamline workflows and improve deployment efficiency
    • Optimized the performance, availability, and scalability of all cloud assets and applications through strategic planning and continuous monitoring, resulting in enhanced system resilience and cost savings

  5. Resume Details

    These are my most recent employers, for a full list of 25+ years of Technology Experience, please request an updated copy of my resume using the link below or emailing me.

  6. Resume Request

    For my FULL resume, please email a request to: dchristilaw@pm.me
    Thank you for taking the time to review my page!

My skills

  • Incident Management
    95%
  • Release Management
    90%
  • Site Reliability Mangement
    85%
  • Technical Documentation Writer
    80%
  • Atlassian Suite Administrator
    80%

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