Fakhar ul Hassan

San Jose, California.

Contact: +1 408 914 2896
EMAIL: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fakharulhassan/
Research Work: https://bit.ly/2Itnexh
https://bit.ly/2XpbQWK

Objective
My objective is to obtain a challenging position in an organization where innovation is required. I want to
work on a position where solution to a problem is encouraged from concept to implementation. I want to
work at such a workplace where passion can drive my working and where I can contribute with my best.

Highlights:
Operating System Microsoft Azure & DevOps Automation, Scripting, QA / Development
============== ======================== ==============================
 Windows Server 2016  Azure Active Directory (AD)  Red Hat Ansible
 Windows Server 2012  Azure DevOps for  Python Scripting / Development
 Windows Server 2008 infrastructure deployment in  PowerShell Scripting
 Windows Server 2003
CI/CD Pipeline  Bash Scripting
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, 7
 Maintenance of GitHub Repos  Automaton Anywhere (RPA)
 Ubuntu 14, 16
 Microsoft Azure  CA Automic- Automation Engine
Infrastructures Resources
 Windows XP, 7, 8, 10 Configuration & Automated  Scripting Language - One
Deployment Automation Platform
 Hands On Experience of Red  BMC Control-M Workload
CIS Benchmarks Hat Ansible Automation Platform
==============  Knowledge of Docker /
 Windows 7 Hardening Containers, Kubernetes
 Windows 10 Hardening
 Windows Server 2012 Hardening
 Windows Server 2016 Hardening H/W & S/W Infrastructure Design, Deployment & Automation
==================================================
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7 Hardening
 Azure Cloud Infra. Automation Using ARM Templates
 Oracle Solaris Unix 11 Hardening
 Design/Deployment of Compute IT Infrastructure
Tools Development (In High Level Language)  System S/W Installation & Configuration
======================================  Automation of DR Ops Using VMware SRM
 NetBIOS Scanner Security Tool Development  Automation of Disaster Recovery Ops Using CA
 System Health Check Tool Development Automic One Automation Solution
Virtualization System Administration
=============== ===========================
 VMware ESXi 6/6.5  Microsoft Windows Server Active Directory 2008/2012/2016
 VMware vCenter  Microsoft SharePoint 2013
 VMware SRM  MS System Center Configuration Manager 2012
 Microsoft Hyper-V  Office 365
Research Work
=============
 "On the Energy Efficiency and Stability of RPL Routing Protocol"
13th International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC 2017) Valencia, Spain
 "Blockchain and the Future of the Internet: A Comprehensive Review “
Collaborative research work under review with University of Cambridge, UK & Information Technology University
 "Privacy Enhanced Speech Emotion Communication using Deep Learning Aided Edge Computing”
Collaborative research work under review with University of Queensland, UK & Information Technology University
Certifications Achieved:

 Microsoft Certified Azure DevOps Engineer Expert

Exam AZ-400: Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions
Certification Number: H643-1419
 Microsoft Certified: Microsoft Azure Administrator
Exam AZ-104: Certification Number: H608-5833
 Microsoft Certified Solution Expert (MCSE) - Core Infrastructure
MCSE: Windows Server 2016 – Certified
Certification Number: H082-6585
 VMware vSphere 6.5 Professional Exam (2V0-622) – Certified
CANDIDATE ID: VMW-02238051X-02285883
 VMware vSphere 6.5 Foundations Exam (2V0-602) – Certified
CANDIDATE ID: VMW-02238051X-02285883
 VMware vSphere 6 Foundations Exam (2V0-620) – Certified
CANDIDATE ID: VMW-02238051X-02285883
 ITIL® Foundation v4 Certificate in IT Service Management – Certified
Certificate Number: GR671156830FU
 COBIT® 5 Foundation Certificate – Certified
Certificate Number: GR692009638FU
 CA – Automic: AE (Automic Engine) Script Foundations – Certified
Certification Date: April 2018 – Present License 10434056
 CA – Automic: AE (Automic Engine) Admin Foundations – Certified
Date: March 2018 – Present License 10434056

Trainings:
 Automation with Ansible (D0407)– Red Hat Summit 2019, Boston, USA
 CISCO UCS Power Workshop - Fast Lane - United Arab Emirates.

 Linux System Administration - Computer Bureau, Pakistan

 CCNA Training - CORVIT Systems International, Pakistan

 Office 365 - CORVIT Systems International, Pakistan

Education:
2012-2014 MS/M. Phil (Computer Science)
Information Technology University (ITU)

2001-2003 Master of Science (Computer Science)

University of the Punjab
Key Contributions:
Microsoft Active Directory Architecture Review / Gap Assessment, Review & Design
Conducted the Active Directory architecture review. Identified the gaps and prepared the risk
and impact assessment. Designed the new proposed AD architecture.

High Availability Compute Infrastructure Design & Deployment for Data Center
Designed the CISCO Unified Computing Systems (UCS) and Fiber Interconnect infrastructure
architecture for high availability (HA) in one of the leading financial organization. Successfully
deployment of CISCO UCS and Fiber Interconnect in two Data Centers.

Designing, Deployment & Implementation of the Automated Workload Automation Solution

 End-of-Day Automation
 Configuration Management Automation
 Disaster Recovery Operations Automation
 Operating System Hardening Automation
 Many robotic process automation solutions
Prepared Windows-7, Windows-10 and Windows Server 2012, RHEL 7 Secure build image based on
CIS (Center of Internet Security) benchmarks:
In addition to the implementation of CIS controls in this secure build image, incorporated all
necessary configuration/settings required in production.

Concept, Design & Development of NetBIOS scanning program in Python:

This program does countrywide scanning of hundreds of subnets, to identify Non-Domain systems out
of more than ten thousand machines, on corporate intranet to reduce the cost in terms man-hours
and time.

Concept, Design & Development of MS Windows 7/8 System Health Check Tool in Python:
This program checks the necessary services, configurations and settings required for Microsoft
Configuration Manager Client on target machines.

Concept, Design & Development of automated troubleshooting/patch deployment solution:

Developed an automated solution in PowerShell for infected machines, where Antimalware patches
failed to deploy using industry popular automated solution i.e. the System Center Endpoint
Protection.

Core Banking System End-of-Day (EOD) Automation Using RPA:

Worked on the Core Banking System End-of-Day (EOD) automation using robotic process automation
platform “Automation Anywhere” and CA- Automic workload Automation platform “One
Automation” independently in a world’s leading Bank in Qatar.

Concept, Design & Development of automated Azure Cloud Infrastructure Application:

Developed this automated solution / application in Python for provisioning of Microsoft Azure Cloud
infrastructure required for business application and other workloads.
Professional Experience:
Ascend Technologies
San Jose, California, United States
Senior Lead Automation Engineer
November 2021 ~ Till Date
Roles & Responsibilities:
 Infrastructure automation through DevOps scripting (E.g. shell, Python, Ruby, PowerShell)
 Providing cloud solutions, including hybrid solutions on-premises or in the cloud, lift-and-shift
initiatives, migrations and upgrades
 Designing and delivering cloud solutions (Azure) on an enterprise scale
 Identify, communicate and mitigate Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Decisions throughout full lifecycle

Ashghal – Public Works Authority

(Payroll of GBM – Gulf Business Machines)
Infrastructure Cloud Architect
April 2021 ~ November, 2021
Doha - Qatar.
Roles & Responsibilities:
 Infrastructure automation through DevOps scripting (E.g. shell, Python, Ruby, PowerShell)
 Providing cloud solutions, including hybrid solutions on-premises or in the cloud, lift-and-shift
initiatives, migrations and upgrades
 Designing and delivering cloud solutions (Azure) on an enterprise scale
 Identify, communicate and mitigate Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Decisions throughout full lifecycle
 Provide technical direction and lead a group of architects to address organizational goals / objectives
 Architect and design solutions to meet functional and non-functional requirements
 Enforce adherence to architectural standards/principles, global product-specific guidelines, usability
design standards, etc.
 Provide insight and direction on roles and responsibilities required for solution operations
 Create and review architecture and solution design artifacts
 Providing guidance about DevOps practices (automation, CI/CD etc)
 Development, programming, scripting e.g. using Python, PowerShell, Bash etc.
 Developing, building and supporting mission critical technology components with DR capabilities
 Designing technology components for enterprise solutions and defining solution architectures and
reference architectures with a focus on cloud technologies

Protiviti
Manager Technology Consulting (Cloud & Infrastructure)
October 2020 ~ April 2021
Doha - Qatar.

Project: Confidential (In Health Sector)

Role: Technical Lead for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) development, DevOps Implementation on
Microsoft Azure
Details:
Prepare IT infrastructure setup for Azure Data Factory, Microsoft PowerBI, Azure Data Bricks, SFTP
Server to collect, process and present data from different data sources. Prepare Azure-landing zone,
define and apply blueprints. Create Azure cloud infrastructure and configure for optimal use.

Project: Confidential (Financial Sector)

Role: Technical Lead Microsoft Azure Cloud Migration: Strategy, Plan, And Readiness & Migration
Details:
Preparation of cloud adoption enterprise strategy and plan. Existing application workload, infrastructure
assessment. Review of on-premises applications architecture review. Design of cloud governance policy &
framework. Installation & configuration of Azure AD Connect, enabling multifactor authentication, applying
conditional access, Azure Active Directory self-service password reset deployment (SSPR). Design and
implementation of Azure policy blueprints. Design and implementation of Azure landing zone. Design &
implementation of Azure cloud application workload infrastructure. Migration of application workload from
on-premises to Azure cloud. Installation & configuration of Microsoft SQL server always-on cluster for high
availability. Setup and configuration of Azure site-to-site VPN.
Malomatia
(Payroll of PROZ Technologies)
Infrastructure Consultant
May 2020 ~ August 2020
Doha - Qatar.
Project: TASMU Project (https://tasmu.gov.qa/en)
Role: Development for Infrastructure as Code (IaC), DevOps Implementation on Microsoft Azure
Details:
Used Azure ARM Templates for creation and configuration of virtual machines and created Master
templates to create new virtual Machines. Created scripts for automated creation & configuration of
Azure resource groups. Automated creating & configuration of Storage, Load Balancer, Network
Security Groups, SQL database, SQL Server, Virtual Networks etc. Developed a Python GUI based
application for the automatic deployment of Microsoft Azure infrastructure components to Azure cloud
with custom parameters & naming conventions as per the business application needs.

Prepared builds using relevant/required artifacts and creating DevOps pipeline using Azure DevOps for
release automation. DevOps pipeline creation using Azure DevOps for infrastructure deployment in CD
(Continuous Deployment) pipeline. Creation and maintenance of repositories at Git / GitHub to trigger
pipelines in Microsoft Azure DevOps directly.

Proz Technologies
Senior Systems & Automation Consultant
November 2017 ~ April, 2020
Doha - Qatar.

Project: Active Directory Architecture Review & Design, Automated CIS Based Operating System
Hardening Assessment of Microsoft Windows 2012 Servers
Client: Ministry of Transport & Communication (MOTC) – Qatar.
Role: Main Technical Lead,
Details:
Active Directory System Design Review Consideration for Active Directory High Availability, Capacity
Planning, Security Updates, Patches and Hot-fixes, Products Installed, Logical Drives, Network Shares
Home Directories, Logon Scripts and Profiles, Logon scripts, Forest Configuration, Domain Structure,
Domain Accounts Policy, Domain Controller Policy Settings, Event Log Settings, Domain Controllers in
the Domain and Site Topology, Domain Controller Placement, Global Catalog Placement, Group Policy
Objects, User and Account Management, Accounts and Groups Defined in the Domain, Locked Out
Accounts, Domain Local groups and their members, Domain Global groups and their members, Domain
Universal Groups and their members, Active Directory Object Permissions, Password Setting Objects,
Passwords, Rights and Privileges, Discretionary Access Controls (DACL) for containers - Trusted and
trusting Domains, Servers and Workstations, Remote Access Service, Backup & Restore. Assessment of
Operating System level standards based on CIS recommendations, Preparation of detailed Operating
System wise hardening assessment report.

Project: VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) Automation & Integration with Workload
Automation Platform
Client: Qatar National Bank – Qatar
Role: Main Technical Lead, Designing, Deployment & Implementation of the Workload Automation Solution
Details:
Designing & Administration of Site Recovery Manager Privileges, Roles, and Permissions. Creating Site
Recovery Manager Placeholders and Mappings, Replicating Virtual Machines, Creating Protection
Groups, Creating, Testing, and Running Recovery Plans, Configuring a Recovery Plan, Customizing IP
Properties for Virtual Machines, Re-protecting Virtual Machines After a Recovery, Restoring the Pre-
Recovery Site Configuration By Performing Failback. Used Site Recovery Manager API to integrate with
Broadcom/Automic One Automation Platform to initiate/trigger the Fail over & Fail Back recovery
plans.

Project: Automated Deployment Microsoft Azure Resources using PowerShell

Client: Financial Industry - Confidential
Role: Main Technical Lead, Automated Deployment of Microsoft Azure Infrastructure
Details:
Automation of the creation of Azure Resources (VM, Storage Accounts, VNET, Subnets etc.) using
PowerShell and JSON ARM Templates, Configure alerting mechanism using PowerShell and App-
Insights
Configuration of Azure Storage Accounts in ARM Models, Configuration of Load Balancer using
PowerShell, ARM Template & Azure Portal, Automated configuration and deployment of Virtual
Machines (VMs) using ARM Templates – PowerShell & Azure custom templates deployment interface.

Project: Microsoft DNS Server Operations Automation & Disaster Recovery (Workload) Automation
Client: Barwa Bank – Qatar
Role: Main Technical Lead, Designing, Deployment & Implementation of the DR Automation Solution
Details:
Hands-on Working for the Automated Implementation of Switching Over and Switching Back of
Banking Applications from Production to Disaster Recover Site and back to Production, using CA-
Automatic One Automation Solution in the Barwa Bank, Qatar. Main lead in conducting the regular DR
drills in highly available (HA) banking IT infrastructure environment to meet the regulatory compliance.

Project: Automated Configuration Management of Red Hat Linux and IBM AIX based operating
systems with Red Hat Ansible
Client: Qatar Development Bank – Qatar.
Role: Main Technical Lead, Designing, Deployment & Implementation of the Automated
Configuration Management Solution
Details:
IBM AIX Operating System Hardening based on CIS Benchmarks (With Ansible), Bulk user creation at
target managed hosts, Modification configuration files, Installation of Unix Packages, Uninstallation of
Unix Packages, Preparation of Ansible Templates, Creation of Ansible Roles, Ansible User Management,
QDB Inventory Management, Post OS (IBM AIX) Install Scripts

Project: Automated CIS Based Operating System Hardening of Red Hat Linux and Sun Solaris (Unix)
Client: Barwa Bank – Qatar.
Role: Main Technical Lead
Details:
Assessment of Operating System level standard CIS controls, Detailed Operating System wise
assessment report, Creation Operating System (OS) Hardened Image (according to the IT environment
needs), Implementation of industry standard CIS Benchmarks for OS, Implementation of benchmarks in
phases to avoid any application/services downtime, Customization of benchmarks/controls as per
customer’s IT Security/Risk policies

Project: Automated Management & Execution of IBM AIX (Unix) based End-of-Day Operations Platform
Client: Qatar Development Bank (QDB) – Qatar.
Role: Main Technical Lead, Designing, Deployment & Implementation of the End-of-Day Automation Solution
Details:
EOD Automation requirement analysis. Architecting the solution design of Automation platform with
EOD server infrastructure. Installation and configuration of BMC Control-M Application for High
Availability (HA) in production and disaster recovery environments. Creation of Jobs and workflows as
per the QDB existing EOD process execution structure/hierarchy. Configuration of jobs success and
failure criteria based on EOD application needs. Configuration of appropriate email & SMS alerts with
respect to job execution status.

Project: Automated Management & Execution of IBM AS/400 (iSeries) based End-of-Day Operations
Client: Qatar National Bank (QNB) – Qatar
Role: Main Technical Lead, Designing, Deployment & Implementation of the End-of-Day Automation
Solution
Details:
Requirement analysis for EOD Automation. Designed the solution architect of Broadcom/Automic One
Automation platform, Automation Anywhere Robotic Process Automation (RPA) platform with EOD
server infrastructure. Installation and configuration of Automic One Automation Application for High
Availability (HA) in Development, UAT & Production environment. Creation of bot tasks and workflows
as per the QNB existing EOD process execution structure/hierarchy. Configuration of tasks success and
failure criteria. Configuration of appropriate email alerts with respect to job/workflow execution status.

United Bank Limited Assistant Manager Technical Support

June 2015 ~ November 2017
UBL Information Technology Group

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Designing & Deployment of Compute IT infrastructure for Data Centers
• Designing of LLD & HLD Diagrams of Compute Infrastructure at Data Centers
• Installation of CISCO Unified Compute System (@ 2 Data Centers)
• Installation & Configuration of VMware ESXi Hypervisor 6.0/6.5 on CISCO Blades Servers
• Installation & Configuration of VMware vCenter Appliance
• Up-gradation of CISCO Fiber Interconnect (FI) Firmware
• Installation, Configuration of VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) for automated Fail Over
and Fail Back from Production to DR and back.
• Planning, Execution & Monitoring of IT Operations, Compliance & Support related projects
• Providing L3 support to desktop, laptops and Servers etc. connected to the organization’s intranet
with approximately 14,000 End points and more than 20,000 users countrywide.
• Microsoft Active Directory User Administration & Group Policy Management on MS Windows
Server 2012
• Administration of Microsoft SCCM Server 2012
• Administration of Microsoft Hyper-V

• Administration of Active Directory 2012, Group policy creation, troubleshooting and management,
and Application federation, ADFS
• Experience of using SCCM for countrywide compliance related matters
• Implementation of industry standard CIS controls in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2012, Red
Hat Enterprise Linux, Sun Solaris UNIX Operating Systems.
• Installation & Configuration of Microsoft SharePoint 2013.
• Administration of Microsoft SharePoint 2013.
• Developed enterprise wide intranet portal with international scope on Microsoft SharePoint 2013
platform including Branding with SharePoint-2013, Creating Master Pages using Design Manager,
Working with SharePoint 2013 Workflow Manager, Web Parts, Lists, and Libraries etc.
• Developed complex innovative solution in PowerShell to improve the regulatory compliance
United Bank Limited Technical Support Analyst
February 2009 ~ June 2015
UBL Information Technology Group
Roles & Responsibilities:
• Used PowerShell to process and manage files, CSV, XML etc. Filtering specific data, working with
methods developed in PowerShell
• Created parameterized scripts, Used PowerShell Remoting for different system administration
tasks for managing One-to-One and One-to-Many operations on thousands of nodes. Installing
Modules & Package from repository.
• Used PowerShell comparative logics, error handling. Exception handling. Created background
Jobs and Schedule Task using PowerShell.
• Development GUI Based Applications/Tools for System Administration in Python
 • Development of Tools for Automation of IT Compliance related Tasks in Python
• Used different Python data types and implemented logic using comparison, conditional, Arithmetic,
Boolean operators
• Worked with Python Classes, Functions, Loops
• Implemented Exception Handling, Error Handling, File Handling Using Python
• Worked extensively with Python Excel Library (Openpyxl) to scan, analyze, process data and create
charts / graphs, reports etc.
• Installation, Configuration and Support of Red Hat Enterprise Linux Severs 6
• Providing L3 support to desktop, laptops running Windows 7/8
• Writing Linux shell scrips, as per system and application needs
• Managing & providing Support for Core Banking System Migration
• Providing guidance and solutions/fixes to teams for solving end user problems on Windows 7/8
• Developed Python Scrips for Automated configuration management and operational tasks.
• Deployment of Office 365 Pro Plus in Enterprise Environment
• Developed IT Security related tools, from concept, design to implementation
• Implementation of industry standard CIS controls in Windows 7/8
• Handling/responding to audit observations related to IT Operations & compliance related issues
• Reporting for countrywide IT Operations, Compliance & Support related projects (from Software
Deployments, Information security controls to system support) to the management and IT security
teams.
• Conducting training sessions of Desktop Security Policy and IT Applications/Systems being
utilized in the organization.

SINACO Engineers (PVT) Limited System Administrator

February 2008 ~ February 2009
Information Technology Department

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Managed Windows based network (i.e. Windows Server 2003, 2008 & Windows XP) Planning and
installation process of DNS Server, Active Directory Services
• Additional Services i.e. DHCP Server, RAS Server, Web Server, Certificate Server, Secure Socket
Layer, Terminal Server and Symantec Antivirus Server.
• Detailed documentation for the installation, configuration and management of software and
hardware resources.
• Maintain scheduled backup plan in order to complete restoration until failure point.
• Provide Technical Support for Microsoft Windows XP Workstations and Servers (MS Windows
Server 2003, 2008)

Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited

June 2002 ~ February 2008 Engineering Supervisor
Network Management Center (NMC)

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Installation of Hardware and Software components in Local Area Network Security/Quality of
Control of servers and internet connection
• Providing technical support to LAN users
• Weekly and Quarterly backup transfer of digital exchange
• Monitoring and Rectification of Hardware/Software faults in LAN and Digital Exchange
International Research Work/Publications:
• “On the Energy Efficiency and Stability of RPL Routing Protocol”
13th International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC
2017) Valencia, Spain. (Co-Author)
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7986578/

Worked on enhancing the stability and energy efficiency of IETF standard lightweight routing
protocol, referred as RPL. Designed a new OF (Objective Function) for RPL based on ETX and
Hop Count routing metrics. The proposed technique exploits benefits of each of these OFs.
Implementation in Contiki operating system and analysis using Cooja simulator suggested that
the proposed scheme reduces frequent parent changes, control traffic and energy consumption
and thereby improves RPL stability and network lifetime.

• "Blockchain and the Future of the Internet: A Comprehensive Review”

Collaborative research work, as lead author submitted for review, in
collaboration with University of Cambridge, UK & Information Technology
University (ITU), University of New South Wales (UNSW) Australia & The
University of Queensland, Australia

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332139853_Blockchain_And_The_Future_of_the_Intern
et: A_Comprehensive_Review
A survey of blockchain based network applications. How the blockchain technology evolved and
how it works. Explained how the proof of work, consensus, transaction validation and block
formation works. The existing challenges in quick adoption of blockchain-based application
have been discussed. Moreover, this research work also gives the future directions for the use
of blockchain technology, which is transforming businesses due to its decentralized and
immutable nature.

• "Privacy Enhanced Speech Emotion Communication using Deep Learning Aided Edge Computing”
Collaborative research work, as co-athor submitted for review @ IEEE
International Conference on Communications 2021, in collaboration with
Information Technology University (ITU), The University of Queensland, Australia
Pro-posed the use of an adversarial learning framework that can be deployed at the edge to
unlearn the user’s private information in the speech representations.
References:
 Available on Request