Who I am

About Me

About Me

Name:

Jonathan Senecal

Email:

contact@jonathansenecal.com

Phone:

514.710.0100

Age:

39 years old

Address:

12297 Guertin street,
Montreal (Quebec), Canada

Nationality:

Canadian

My personal mission is to make things, fix stuff and help others.
I just happened to love working with high tech stuff so it became my area of expertise.

I am a detail oriented and challenge driven person so I never leave a stone unturned or a question unanswered.
I care I am passionate about what I do and I work hard for things that are worth it.
Insatiably curious, I am a quick and self taught learner that thrives on picking up and mastering new topics. I take a multi-disciplined approach to my work, incorporating ideas from the several aspects of my skillset. Asking 'what if' is something I do as often as possible, making sure everything has been thought of, and, in the process challenging myself and my teammates. I experiment constantly.

I have over 10 years of experience in telecommunications, server infrastructures and carrier-grade network design & build. Bleeding edge software technologies have become parts of my toolset to create powerful and unique infrastructures. I eat DevOps for breakfast.
Feel free to Scroll down for more details.

The world is full of "things" waiting to be built, and I love being that guy who makes them come into being.
So, let's talk about that huge [problem/idea/project/goal] you dream of, and let's see how I can help!

What I did

Resume

Resume

Work Experience:

Metro Optic

April 2022 to Now

NOC Architecture and Operations Specialist

Going back to my roots, I help to manage and scale the network environment at Metro Optic to allow for continued growth and performance.

Initiated and now lead efforts to automate infrastructure and network processes, enhancing turnaround speed and optimizing topology efficiency.

9219-1568 Quebec Inc.

April 2020 to April 2022

Manager, Network Infrastructure and Infrastructure automation

Working with a team of network gurus, I managed and scaled the network footprint to allow for continued growth and performance.

I was responsible for building and maintaining the day-to-day operation of computer networks that the organization relied on.

I also initiated and managed the automation of everything networking to enable faster turnarounds and more efficient topologies.

Key Achievements

  • Maintaining and administering networks and related environments including automation software, hardware, and configurations.
  • Troubleshooting, diagnosing and resolving hardware, software, and other network related problems.

Connect it Networks

February 2018 to April 2020

Head of Research and Developpement

Connect it Networks had an opportunity to expand their portfolio into Cloud and Connectivity services which I designed.

Doing so, I drove new business growth and customer success by providing business expertise.

I worked at improving business critical processes and related infrastructure to enable the company to withstand future growth and to solve complex problems; taking technology, people, process, culture and desired results into account.

I also automated various business processes that enabled a leaner and more efficient approach to provisionning and support.

Key Achievements

  • Ensured that applications met business requirements and systems goals and that they fulfilled business and customer requirements
  • Reviewed and analyzed existing applications effectiveness and efficiency, and then developed strategies for improving or leveraging these systems
  • Researched and made recommendations on both hardware and software products and services in support of procurement and development efforts
  • Provided technical direction and best practices to be followed by the team

ZAP Cooperative de solidarité

August 2017 to September 2018

Director of technology

I was responsible for the restructuration and scalability of everything related to technology in order to bring ZAP to their next level.

I designed and worked on a new software platform project to cut down costs and provide a better user experience.

Key Achievements

  • Managed and improved a business critical infrastructure providing services to 100k+ end users
  • Restructured the business processes to enable ZAP to be more agile in its deliveries
  • Performed a migration to the cloud for some business critical systems

EBOX inc.

December 2016 to May 2017

Director, Networking, Systems and Infrastructure

While I was at EBOX I was responsible for the restructuration and scalability of everything IT - EBOX was undergoing tremendous growth and I had to ensure the systems and network would survive it.

A new datacenter was under construction and I lead the team responsible for its realization with the different vendors and contractors. My mission: ensure it would withstand future growth, for years to come.

I also managed the developpement team and designed an authentication and access control system for a client-facing service. The system restricts content depending on a client's subscription and limits the number of devices a client can use to access the service. Due to the kind of content it protected, the system, written in Python, was designed to allow for extreme scalability.

My previous experience in building networks was put to good use to help EBOX upgrade their infrastructure to offer value added services based on MPLS technologies

Key Achievements

  • Managed and improved a business critical infrastructure providing services to 100k+ clients
  • Designed and managed the construction of a datacenter using state of the art equipment and technologies
  • Initiated and managed a software development project that provided ways to deliver new services to grow the business
  • Introduced the key concepts of the DevOps toolchain to the software development team to allow for more reliable development of applications

Pre2Post Inc. / ZEROFAIL

March 2015 to December 2016

Director, Research and Developpement

The most significant project thorough my time as Director of R&D at ZEROFAIL was the design of a complex Network Operations and Business Support System.

With the help of my devoted team, a scalable, asynchonous RPC system was built on the ZeroMQ messaging library so that workers can be added dynamically to scale to load without necessitating any changes to client configurations.
The python implementation leverages the new asynchronous programming tools available with recent versions of Python, including the new async/await syntax and the asynchronous iterator protocol.

The system also leveraged a Graph Database system to enable very powerful queries that were used to facilitate operations. DataStax Enterprise database was chosen for that purpose, especially the new DataStax Enterprise Graph (DSE).
To interface with DSE the "Goblin" project was contributed to (the lead developper being part of my team).

This OSS/BOSS project and many others I designed and built with the development team helped ZEROFAIL reach higher levels of efficiency and enabled new sources of revenue.

Key Achievements

  • Initiated and managed Research and development projects that provided new methods, solutions and improvement on existing services
  • Designed and led the developement of a complex Network Operations and Business Support System

Pre2Post Inc. / ZEROFAIL

July 2010 to March 2015

Director, Network Management Group

Due to the rapid growth of the telecommunication market in the Montreal area while I was Director of the Networking Group at ZEROFAIL, I had the opportunity to build a very extensive MPLS network accross Canada and the north of USA using cutting edge Juniper routers.
Very quickly, ZEROFAIL became a trusted source for connectivity services.

I designed the network to provide an edge over competition by making sure the whole infrastructure would have contingency plans in place in case of a problem - I wanted to build something that would stand by the name "ZEROFAIL".

To further improve the offering for highly available connectivity services, with the help of ZEROFAIL's CTO, I also designed and built the most extensive private wireless network in the metropolitain area of Montreal.

Later on, ZEROFAIL added a portfolio of fiber connectivity services leveraging the concepts and technologies I had put in place.

Key Achievements

  • Initiated and managed Research and development projects that provided new services and technologies that helped grow the business
  • Did the management and planning of a very complex MPLS network
  • Implemented and managed business processes to allow for greater efficiency
  • Lead teams consisting of many ad-hoc technicians working in many departments

Pre2Post Inc. / ZEROFAIL

May 2008 to July 2010

Network and systems administrator / Tech. Support

I started at ZEROFAIL in the Technical support department where I quickly learnt my ways through the different systems of the company.
I became someone people would rely uppon to help fix issues, the simple and the complex ones.

Due to the extensive knowledge I promptly acquired, I became an essential asset to the company and started to operate and eventually, manage, the infrastructure.

Key Achievements

  • Operated a multisite network
  • Managed multiple companies infrastructures composed of many workstations and server environments (SLAs)
  • Configured servers and network devices to grow the infrastructure
  • Offered an outstanding technical support to the customers

Education:

École de technologie supérieure

Suspended

Electrical engineering degree (incomplete)

Due to the responsabilities I had at the moment with ZEROFAIL, it became impossible to attend to the courses and achieve results on par with my personal level of satisfaction.
I may continue the program in the future, but only time will tell.

Collège Montmorency

2003 to 2008

Computer Science Degree - Networking specialization

I successfuly completed all the classes in the program without any issues or fallouts.
Furthermore, the domain specific classes were all completed with grades way above the average. I was the best student of the cohort in that program.

What I'm good at

Skills

Skills

Professional Skills

“To achieve something you’ve never had before, you must do something you’ve never done before." - Thomas Jefferson

My interpersonal and relationship building skills helped my co-workers realize that I was available for them and that I could help them achieve much more as a team than they would as an individual.
Always willing to help, my excellent leadership skills have proven themselves useful many times when they would rely on me to help them reach their potential. Torough time, I also developped strong communication skills in order to listen effectively to my managers, co-workers or clients, communicate and facilitate discussions effectively with my team mates, prepare and deliver presentations, write documentation and so forth.

Being the critical thinker I am, my very efficent researching skills and my ability to unterstand things quickly sometimes put me in a position of mentor towards my team as I can easily analyse situations from multiple viewpoints and research matters to define key issues and explain them.

Overall, I am a flexible team player who prospers in a fast-paced, but organized, team work environment.

  • Interpersonal skills
    72%
  • Leadership
    85%
  • Communication
    78%
  • Research skills
    98%
  • Adaptability
    65%

Newbie

Decent

Pretty Good

Master

Technical Skills

“The only source of knowledge is experience." - Albert Einstein

My technical expertize is very wide due to the multiple aspects of the work experience I have acquired over time.
While I do have a very extensive knowledge of telecommunications, server infrastructures and carrier-grade network design & build, I also gathered many other skills in other domains such as software developpement and electronics.

My prefered networking toolkit consists of Juniper JunOS routers running BGP and OSPF protocols and use technologies such as MPLS based L2 and L3 VPNs. Traffic engineering and QoS have no secrets for me.
I have very extensive knowledge of CWDM and DWDM fiber networks and actually know how to splice fiberoptic cables and manage outside plant fiber networks. Wireless (microwave) networking technologies have also become something I am very familiar with, using Ubiquiti networks antennaes, I've achieved links of great distance to provide high availability solutions to customers.

Having worked with highly available and scalable network infrastructures, I became quite familiar with their server counteparts using micro services architectures and distributed computing technologies.

Python (3.5+) is my language of choice to code pretty much everything backend but I am also versed in Javascript, Ruby, Perl, PHP, HTML and others.

  • Metro Ethernet and MPLS Technologies
    90%
  • Wireless networks
    83%
  • Fiber optics
    76%
  • Server infrastructures
    80%
  • Software Development
    65%

Newbie

Decent

Pretty Good

Master

See why people love me

Testimonials

Testimonials

Jonathan is definitely one of the smartest people I had the chance to work with. He excels in multiple fields, ranging from building a datacenter to designing a highly complex ERP system and anything in between.
He is not one to shy away from a challenge; on the contrary, he is constantly pushing himself to learn new things, or improve on what he already knows. To top it all off, he is always willing to help, and is always a fun guy to work with.
Jonathan was one of the reasons I was looking forward to going to work in the morning, and I hope I get to work with him again.

Oleg Sapanyuk

NOC Specialist

I had the pleasure to know Jonathan for a little more than 7 years and worked directly with him for the past 4 years.
I can say that Jonathan is a very helping and easy-going guy, full of experience and has deep knowledge in many domains including fibre optic network engineering, electrical engineering, NetOps, DevOps and SysOps. He's a great teacher, a team player and definitely a huge asset to have in your company!

Eric Dugas

Senior Network Operations

Jo is one of the most brilliant people I know. For anything related to Linux, network, or project-managing complex ERP projects, I would ask nobody else.

Philippe Blanchard

Senior Project Manager

I've worked under Jonathan's management on software and devops projects. He strives to produce quality results and to exceed expectations, and to that end he skillfully finds ways to play to his team's strengths. He has a talent for passing along his expertise, and makes good use of the expertise of others by listening and keeping an open mind to proposed solutions.
A real team player, Jonathan is usually the first to lend a hand when the need arises.

Leifur Halldor Asgeirsson

DevOps / Software Developer

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