Infrastructure leader · Melbourne
Kyle I build capable teams and dependable infrastructure.
Hybrid estate 200+ servers, hybrid estate + Team 4 engineers, onshore and offshore + Reach 6,000+ people, Australia and New Zealand + Certified AZ 305 Azure Solutions Architect Expert + Infrastructure as code resource vm 'Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines' = { name: 'srv-${env}-01' properties: { hardwareProfile: vmSize osProfile: standardBuild } } + PIR-01 4 engineers, one team Rebuilding a team around its engineers + PIR-02 50+ physical hosts moved Moving production without moving the risk + PIR-03 ARM → Bicep readable by the whole team Automation the whole team can read + PIR-04 Overnight from outage to recovery A restored server that wouldn’t rejoin the domain + Clarity first When pressure rises I slow the noise down: establish the facts, make ownership visible, then give the team a way through.
Engineers, not dependencies I measure my leadership by what the team no longer needs from me.
Outlast the author Understandable choices, useful runbooks, disciplined operations. Good systems survive the person who built them.
Path · scope grows with every step 2007 LAN Administrator University of KwaZulu-Natal 200+ lab PCs 2011 Microsoft Solutions Specialist Prophecy Networks 250+ user rollout 2019 System Administrator LANtech Many small clients 2021 WinTel Administrator DXC Technology 50+ physical hosts 2021 → now Associate Manager, Infrastructure DXC Technology 200+ servers · 4 engineers Beyond the day job: board member, Southern Cross Church (2023–25) · co-host, The XboxCast · founder, Southlight I/O · Microsoft MVP, Windows Insider (2016–18)
Hybrid estate A hybrid estate I’m accountable for Azure and on-premises, running for people in Australia and New Zealand. My job is that it keeps running and keeps getting easier to run.
200+ servers across Azure and on-prem
6,000+ people depending on it
What I own Availability, patch compliance, monitoring standards, platform lifecycle, senior escalation and business continuity.
What runs on it Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Entra ID, Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online, on Hyper-V and VMware.
How I keep it healthy Lifecycle upgrades from Server 2012 to 2022 and 2025. Monitoring with SolarWinds and ManageEngine plus custom scripts. Patching moved from WSUS to ManageEngine Patch Manager.
Team Four engineers, one team Onshore and offshore. I set priorities and take the hardest escalations, and I’m deliberate about not being the only person who can.
4 engineers I lead
Next Automation the whole team can read → How we work Weekly sprints and a shared Kanban board beside the ticketing system, and living notes engineers can update as the work changes.
What good looks like Runbooks, knowledge-base articles, as-built designs and written incident reports, so every failure leaves a record and a follow-up.
How people grow Engineers who started in desktop support now carry server responsibility. I teach Azure and Infrastructure as Code, and show how to draft scripts with AI, then review and test before use.
Automation Automation the whole team can read Infrastructure as code is only an improvement if more than one person can safely change it.
ARM → Bicep Azure deployments, simplified
Next Certified, and recognised by peers → The problem Deployments leaned on advanced PowerShell that only its author could safely change.
What I built Bicep deployments including backup and disaster-recovery modules, plus reusable PowerShell for consistent builds, documented for junior engineers.
An earlier proof At a previous employer I wrote PowerShell that recovered around 30,000 deleted emails for a client. Small tools can matter a lot.
Credentials Certified, and recognised by peers Current Microsoft certifications, plus years of community work with Microsoft’s Windows Insider programme.
AZ-305 Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Next Rebuilding a team around its engineers → Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305), August 2024. Administrator Associate (AZ-104), July 2024. Fundamentals (AZ-900), March 2024.
Windows Server MCSA: Windows Server 2016 (2018), building on earlier MCSE, MCSA and MCP certifications.
Community Microsoft MVP, Windows Insider, 2016 to 2018. Windows Insider since 2014. Board member, Southern Cross Church, 2023 to 2025.
PIR-01 · Review Rebuilding a team around its engineers Major staffing changes folded our Windows infrastructure function into a wider end-user computing group.
4 engineers, one working team
Next Moving production without moving the risk → Situation I was given one onsite and two offshore engineers and had to build a working team around them.
What I did Introduced weekly sprints and a shared Kanban board, moved documentation to notes engineers could update, and taught Azure and Infrastructure as Code on the job.
Outcome Engineers who started in desktop support now carry server responsibility. Work that used to wait for me now doesn’t.
PIR-02 · Review Moving production without moving the risk A business separation meant new infrastructure and a new domain across Australia and New Zealand. My first major assignment here.
50+ physical hosts moved
Next Automation the whole team can read → Situation New servers, a new domain and a hard deadline, with the business still running on the old estate.
What I did Owned delivery end to end apart from procurement: build standards, outage windows, cutover plans and structured decommissioning.
Outcome Around 100 virtual machines moved with the business running. A later three-week migration moved 14 more across two sites.
PIR-03 · Review Automation the whole team can read Advanced PowerShell that only its author could safely change is a risk, however clever it is.
ARM → Bicep and simpler scripts
Next A restored server that wouldn’t rejoin the domain → Situation Azure deployments depended on complicated scripts and one person’s memory.
What I did Moved deployments from ARM templates to Bicep, simplified the PowerShell and documented it for junior engineers.
Outcome Fewer manual steps, consistent builds, and no single person who has to be on call for a script.
PIR-04 · Review A restored server that wouldn’t rejoin the domain An Azure virtual machine was damaged and restored, but could not authenticate.
Overnight from outage to recovery
Next A hybrid estate I’m accountable for → Situation Domain trust, password age and the computer account were all in question while stakeholders waited.
What I did Stayed on the bridge, kept stakeholders informed, and kept investigating into the early morning until I found the cause and scripted a computer-account reset.
Outcome Access restored, and the team had a written recovery procedure for the next time.