Network Engineer · CCNA · Monticello, MN
I spent 15 years leading operations teams at FedEx Ground. Now I design, build, secure, and automate networks. I earned my CCNA in August 2026, and I run a working multi-site Cisco and UniFi lab where everything on this page is built, broken, fixed, and documented.
An entry-level network role: network technician, NOC, network administrator, or wireless/ISP field technician, within about 30 miles of Monticello, MN (St. Cloud, Buffalo, Maple Grove, and the NW metro) or remote.
Hands-on Cisco and UniFi skills, plus years of running shifts, leading people, hitting service deadlines, and solving problems under pressure. I document everything I build.
Led delivery operations: daily route planning, staffing, safety, and on-time service. I learned to troubleshoot fast when a system or plan breaks mid-shift.
Ran a high-volume package sort, which is a real-time flow system much like a network. That meant throughput, bottlenecks, people, equipment, and process discipline. It's what pulled me toward how networks move traffic.
Monday–Friday daily check-ins with Jeremy Cioara (CCIE), Zach Hill and Chuck Keith (NetworkChuck). 2–3 hours a day of subnetting, VLANs, STP, OSPF, ACLs, NAT, wireless, and security fundamentals.
Started a 90-day plan: five portfolio projects, targeted applications, and interview prep.
Designed a dual-stack two-site hospital network, published a multi-site troubleshooting lab (11k+ impressions), and started network automation with Ansible.
Racked a two-zone Cisco lab (OSPF campus and eBGP branch), connected it to my UniFi network, built a Raspberry Pi console server, and ran a security review of the production firewall.
Bringing up every console and device in the lab, working through the Ansible phases, and documenting it all here every week.
Each project lists the problem, what I built, and the tools I used.
Problem: Find and fix faults across an HQ, branch, and data center network.
Built: A three-site topology with deliberately injected routing, switching, and ACL faults, and a step-by-step write-up of how I isolated each one.
OSPFVLANsACLsTroubleshooting
Read the post (11k+ impressions) →Problem: A network for a 200-employee hospital: a main campus with 140 staff and a remote campus with 60.
Built: A dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 design with four VLANs per site (Clinical, Admin, Support, Management), OSPF single area, HSRP at the core, DHCP, NAT, edge ACLs, SSH-only management, a /30 WAN link, and loopback addressing.
IPv6OSPFHSRPVLSMDesign docs
Problem: Practice campus and branch networking on real Cisco gear, not just in a simulator.
Built: A Lab1 campus zone on OSPF and a Lab2 branch zone on eBGP. VRRP gateways across the 3750 and both 2811s. 3560 PoE access switches with BPDU Guard, DHCP snooping, and DAI. An optional L3 EtherChannel. I validated the design first in an FRRouting simulation, then wrote 14 setup and test documents (95 pages).
OSPFeBGPVRRP802.1QL2 securityFRRouting
Configs on GitHub →Problem: Connect a lab to a live home network without either side breaking the other.
Built: A trunk from a UniFi switch, route exchange with the UDM Pro over OSPF and BGP, ACLs that limit the lab to the internet and the Proxmox host, and SSH-only management from one dedicated station.
UniFi UDM ProBGPOSPFACLs
Problem: Could any device on my network be pulled into a DDoS botnet?
Built: A read-only audit of the UDM Pro: port forwards, UPnP, IPS, and VLANs. I found the gaps (flat IoT network, unfiltered outbound traffic, no inter-VLAN segmentation, partial IPS coverage) and wrote a six-step hardening build sheet: an IoT VLAN, IPS on all networks, anti-spoofing, segmentation, outbound IoT filtering, and rollback steps.
Firewall policyIPS/IDSSegmentationIoT security
Problem: Reach every device's console without moving cables around.
Built: A Raspberry Pi with a 7-port USB hub and stable udev device names. It also runs ser2net for network console access, plus TFTP for config backups and rsyslog for central logging. I debugged silent consoles down to individual cables and USB-serial chipsets.
Linuxudevser2netSyslogTFTP
Problem: Full coverage across two floors, plus enterprise controller practice.
Built: A UniFi U6 Pro and U7 Pro deployment on each level. In the lab, a Cisco 5508 WLC runs lightweight 3502 APs, and one AP is converted to autonomous IOS.
Cisco 5508 WLCCAPWAPUniFi U6/U7 ProPoE
Problem: Stop configuring every device by hand.
Built: A seven-phase plan based on Automate Your Network by John Capobianco, updated to current Ansible. The phases cover toolchain setup, reconnaissance, tactical changes, data models and Jinja2 templates, documentation generated from data, drift detection, and CI with GitHub Actions. I use Ansible Vault from day one and libssh to reach older IOS SSH.
Ansiblecisco.iosJinja2GitGitHub ActionsWSL2
Repo →Problem: Extend an on-prem network into AWS, then design a greenfield network end to end.
AWS VPCSite-to-site VPNTerraform
Real hardware that I own, cable, and configure myself.
My roadmap. If you're starting the same path, feel free to follow it.
What I worked on each week. Newest first.
Next: Push the lab configs and Ansible playbooks to GitHub.