© 2021 Jarrett X Pettigrew
Joe Drugan is an experienced Director of DevOps, Infrastructure, and IT.
He currently works at Slalom, a technology consultancy, and has recently worked at SchoolPass, an EdTech startup focused on campus safety and movement, as well as iDirect Government, a satellite communications contractor.
Joe is a driven and dedicated technical leader who is known for his innovative thinking, mentorship, and ability to quickly learn new technologies to solve complex problems.
He has experience building teams from the ground up and leveling up the existing teams he joins. He works collaboratively at all levels, from the C-suite to the most junior employee, and thrives when bringing people together and creating strong team culture.
He is able to manage both the project and people working on it to ensure the work is completed on time and always meets customer expectations. He also loves to roll up his sleeves and complete technical work on projects.
Endorsements
SchoolPass
Director of DevOps and Infrastructure
2022
SchoolPass is a fast-growing startup, and they have significantly grown their infrastructure and customer base since I joined the team. I built a team of DevOps, Cloud, and System Engineers that worked effectively as part of the company’s engineering department. The team immediately hit the ground running in revamping and revitalizing key parts of the infrastructure and DevOps processes. The work done by the DevOps and Infrastructure team enabled many business critical products to be released on schedule, despite making significant changes to the way our product operates, including migrating tools to Kubernetes and Docker containers, implementing CI/CD pipelines, setting up a load balanced infrastructure, and fully configuring the environment using Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
iDirect Government
Director of IT
2017-2022
iDirect Government is a government subcontractor in the satellite communications industry. I was brought in to lead the department and build it from the ground up. I joined as the only IT operations and infrastructure employee and managed an IT Business Application department (Oracle ERP, Salesforce, Jira, etc.)
I expanded the department to add IT Ops/SREs as well as additional Business Application staff. I spearheaded the effort to use Agile/Lean/SAFe methodologies to prioritize and plan work. Focus was placed on automating workflows and processes by using tools like SaltStack, Ansible, Terraform, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, and more.
We improved infrastructure stability and security and took on significant projects like migrating from colocated space to Azure and Microsoft 365 and integrating DevOps practices into daily operations.
Technical Skills and Areas of Expertise
AWS
Azure DevOps pipelines (CI/CD)
Process and procedure automation
Containerization (Docker, lxd)
Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, SaltStack, Chef, Ansible)
Linux administration
Enterprise network architecture and administration
Python
Bash
PowerShell
Other Relevant Experience
Senior CNO Systems and Network Engineer at ManTech
IT Network Specialist at iDirect Government
Service Desk Technician at Sotera Defense Solutions
Legislative Correspondent for Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI)
Staff at Prince William County Democratic Party
Editor-in-Chief of TheNatsBlog.com
More about Joe
He is a lifelong nerd and sports enthusiast. You’ll often catch him watching baseball or Premier League soccer and loves playing racquetball. He enjoys working on technical projects at home, like setting up containers to increase home security or just writing a program to figure out when his favorite team is playing next via the command line. He’s also a later-in-life Star Trek convert and is currently working his way through Voyager after finishing The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.
He plays video games to unwind. Usually, he is trying to make Everton seem like a good team in FIFA, trying to become an F1 racer, riding a horse around as Arthur Morgan, or playing something story-focused like Far Cry.