Nathan Britton

Profile

17+ years of innovative, progressive leadership and solutions engineering – driving enterprise-scale transformations across platform engineering, infrastructure, site reliability engineering (SRE), security, and operations. Experienced in leading ~100+ person organizations with budgets over ~$20M, reporting directly to CIOs, CTOs, and Presidents, and regularly presenting to the ELT & Board. Recognized for building high-performing teams, modernizing hybrid platforms, and enabling secure, scalable, and resilient systems that accelerate business growth.

Experience

Quantum Health, Inc.

Dublin, Ohio

VP, Platform, Operations, & Security

2023 - Present

  • Innovative Player/Coach style leader responsible for a ~80 person org with ~$21M Budget overseeing Network, Cloud/Platform/DevOps/SRE, Infrastructure, Database, Quality Automation, Service Desk, End User Services, Operations, Security Governance & Compliance, and Identity. Recruited to restructure and modernize these teams with a vision to improve reliability, speed, agility, operational readiness, security first mindset, processes, and innovation required to support the dramatic growth of Quantum Health.
  • Led the complete redesign and implementation of a platform of hybrid services enabling engineering and development teams to safely and securely develop and deploy applications with speed, observability, stability, and security never before experienced by our enterprise. In the process saved over ~1.5 Million per year in unnecessary cloud spend and implemented FinOps tooling and practices for end to end visibility.
  • Led the complete overhaul of our call center technology (the core of our business) moving from Legacy Cisco & Verint to AWS Connect & FCS product line for over ~1500 associates. Incorporated Natural Language Processing and AI to drive operational efficiency for our associates and a higher level of satisfaction for our clients. Implemented Real-Time Smart Summarization AI to eliminate manual note taking for our associates.
  • Respected as an innovative thought leader and business partner willing to step outside of the box and out of scope to isolate and correct operational issues and design new robust solutions - well-regarded as a ‘go-to’ resource for peers and brand executives alike as they address increasingly complex issues.
  • Built and Scaled the first company SRE & DevOps practices, reducing MTTR and improving platform reliability and developer productivity with an emphasis on open source frameworks and tooling - arming teams with the tools to manage increasing rates of change and become more agile while being good stewards of spend.
  • Re-Implementation of ALL observability frameworks – Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, Open Telemetry, and Tempo to replace Dynatrace, LogRhythm, and Splunk.
  • Implementation of tools to support Agile processes and AT/CI/CD/CD – GitHub Actions & Advanced Security Suite, Sonar Cloud, Level Access, Terraform, Vault, Ansible, and more.
  • Security
  • Platform
  • Operations
  • Network
  • Cloud
  • Infrastructure
  • AT/CI/CD
  • Engineering
  • Cloud Native
  • FinOps

Designer Brands, Inc. f/k/a DSW, Inc.

Columbus, Ohio

Sr. Director, Platform, Infrastructure, & Ops

2019 - 2023

  • Responsible for a wide range of technology teams including Network, Cloud/Platform/DevOps/SRE, Store Technology, Infrastructure, Database, Quality Automation, Solutions Desk, End User Services and Operations.
  • Led the design and implementation of a platform of hybrid services enabling engineering and development teams to safely and securely develop and deploy applications with speed, observability, stability, and security never before experienced by our enterprise.
  • Respected as a thought leader and business partner willing to step outside of the box and out of scope to isolate operational issues and design robust solutions - well-regarded as a go-to resource for peers and brand executives alike as they address increasingly complex issues.
  • Led the successful innovation and deployment of store technology to replace several legacy, purpose-built devices with a multi-function iPhone -- Legacy terminal applications, Bluetooth RF scanners, inventory systems, RFID, in-house applications, training devices, productivity, and m365. Benefits included a massive scale of increased productivity, high availability, speed, agility, and cost savings overall.
  • Introduced teams to numerous open-source frameworks and tooling — arming teams with the tools to manage increasing rates of change and become more agile while being good stewards of spend.
  • Kubernetes
  • AT/CI/CD
  • Operations
  • Platform
  • Store Systems
  • Network
  • Database
  • Automation

L Brands, Inc. d/b/a Mast Global Technologies

Columbus, Ohio

Director, Digital Infra & Operational Security

2018 - 2019

  • Recruited and developed a Silicon Valley team in Central Ohio, recognizing high-potential leaders and providing each member of the team with stretch opportunities to expand their expertise as a key component of creating a true culture of innovation. Lost only two team members, one to Google and the other to Apple.
  • Led the design of numerous architectures — from infrastructure and security to business processes — positioning the enterprise with the tools to manage increasing rates of change and become more agile.
  • Co-Led the design and implementation—over the course of just 6 months—of an active/active data center to increase availability, empower growth, and drive customer conversion. Combined a robust platform of infrastructure, applications, and security tools to support the ability to handle peak order rates which have increased from 30 orders/minute to 3,000+ orders/minute.
  • Implemented the Company’s first Machine Learning Web Application Firewall to protect our E-Commerce sites and reduce account takeovers and credit card fraud saving the business millions per year.
  • Participated in / or led numerous continuous improvement initiatives including the transformation to a DevOps organization—reducing the margin of human error, stabilizing employee turnover, and increasing speed by adopting Agile tools and methodologies.
  • Containers
  • Cloud
  • Datacenter
  • AT/CI/CD
  • DevOps
  • Security
  • Store Systems

Sr. Manager, Digital Infrastructure

2013 - 2018

Sr. Systems Engineer, Digital Infrastructure

2011 - 2013

The Ohio State Alumni Association, Inc.

Columbus, Ohio

Senior Systems and Network Engineer

2006 - 2011

  • Accountable for the 24x7x365 operation of the Association’s enterprise network, infrastructure, and related applications, ensuring high availability and recoverability. Partnered with cross-functional groups across the university to meet existing and advancing business needs, maintaining knowledge in multiple technical areas to foster productive collaboration. Led the cultivation of the Association support services, leading the Support Desk Manager and their staff.
  • Played an instrumental leadership role in the design and implementation of the Association’s enterprise network, becoming the first building on campus to have all 1GB network connections to both desktops and servers. Implemented open-source OpenBSD router/firewall systems for customer wireless, perimeter, and DMZ security, significantly reducing the cost associated with legacy Cisco Systems.
  • Virtualized 80% of both Windows and Linux Servers to VMware, achieving a 10-1 consolidation ratio
  • Served as liaison and technical lead between the Association team and the vendor teams on two complete website redesign projects and the implementation of an Association Management System (CRM) to replace legacy systems, delivering all projects on time and within budget.
  • Windows Server
  • Linux
  • MS SQL Server
  • VMWare
  • Cisco
  • Datacenter

Network & Unix Engineer

2002 - 2006

Help Desk Technician

2000 - 2002

Education

Network Communications Management

Devry University

2008

References

Available Upon Request

photo of me

Skills

    • Strengths
    • Transformative Leadership & Talent Development
    • Executive & Board Level Communication
    • Cloud Engineering (Hybrid)
    • SRE & Dev/SecOps Practices
    • Information Security & Risk Management
    • End User Enablement
    • Service Desk Empowerment
    • Operational Efficiency
    • Observability & Monitoring Frameworks
    • Vendor & Budget Management
    • Business Continuity & Resilience Engineering
      Systems
    • Solaris
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • VMWare
    • Nutanix
    • Windows
      Cloud Native
    • Kubernetes
    • Containers
    • Serverless
    • AT/CI/CD
    • IAC
    • Observability Patterns
      Cloud Ecosystems
    • Microsoft Azure
    • Google Cloud
    • Amazon Web Servuces
    • Oracle Cloud

Certifications

  • Kubernetes & Cloud Native Associate (KCNA)
  • AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
  • Azure Fundamentals
  • Azure Administrator Associate
  • Azure DevOps Engineer Expert
  • Chef Certified Developer
  • RedHat Certified Engineer (RHCE)
  • Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA)
  • Security+
  • Linux+

Interests

  • Yachting
  • DJing
  • Freemasonary / Shriners
  • Water Sports
  • Amatuer Radio
  • Camping