About

I'm Michael, an IT professional working remotely in beautiful Chino, California. I've spent most of my life around computers. I've always been curious about what makes them tick and how to get the most out of them, and over time that curiosity pushed me from running systems to building things on top of them.

I started my IT career in 2017, and since then I've worked in both small business and enterprise environments. Along the way, I put a lot of time into self-directed learning, working through online courses and hands-on projects in both IT and software development. I also have an associate's degree in business administration from Chaffey College. Because of that mix, I've gotten comfortable learning whatever a new problem calls for. If a project needs a tool or language I haven't used before, I learn it and get to work.

Earlier in my career, I took the lead on a number of projects, including a company-wide rollout of Duo (multi-factor authentication), developing security best practices for Linux systems, setting up imaging for both Windows and macOS, maintaining the equipment in three computer labs, migrating department documentation to SharePoint, and evaluating mobile device management solutions. I also led a team of 5 IT analysts and spent a good amount of time mentoring colleagues in other roles.

Today, I'm a Lead IT Systems Analyst working on mergers and acquisitions, where I lead a team of 3 systems analysts. Once a deal closes, we handle the discovery work, figuring out what's actually in the acquired company's systems so the integration can be planned around what's really there. Early on, that meant pulling reports and checking systems by hand on every deal. Eventually, I built internal tooling to automate the discovery process. It now handles the repetitive data gathering on its own, so the process scales as the number of acquisitions grows, and our time goes to the analysis and decisions that actually need a person. My M&A discovery platform write-up covers it in more detail.

I enjoy this kind of work because it uses both sides of my background. Knowing how IT environments are actually run tells me which details matter, and writing code lets me capture them the same way every time. Most of that code is Python and PostgreSQL, though I'm comfortable across the stack, from REST APIs to the front end to the deployment pipeline behind it.

Lately, I've been focused on building systems where AI is a core part of how they work. I'll be writing about those projects here as they come together.

Outside of work, you'll find me spending time with my wife, son, and two cats, listening to music, podcasts, and audiobooks, playing video and board games, working out, watching MMA and sci-fi movies, or playing ukulele.

The best way to reach me is email. You can also find me on GitHub and LinkedIn.