Paul Zgondea
Verified Expert in Engineering
Database Developer
Codlea, Brașov County, Romania
Toptal member since November 11, 2020
Paul is a database engineer and DBA with the following stats: 13 years with Microsoft SQL, eight years in Microsoft SQL performance engineering and scale-out architecture planning, four years of hands-on knowledge of AWS IaaS service as a SysOps and DevOps, and a year of experience as an AWS architect. Paul's successfully worked remotely as a DevOps, DBA, and database engineer. He joined Toptal to work on challenging projects, especially those involving SQL, DBA, DevOps, AWS, and CI/CD.
Portfolio
Experience
- SQL Server DBA - 14 years
- Databases - 14 years
- Database Architecture - 10 years
- Data Architecture - 10 years
- Windows PowerShell - 4 years
- Amazon EC2 - 4 years
- AWS Systems Manager - 3 years
- Automation - 3 years
Preferred Environment
Amazon Web Services (AWS), IIS, Windows PowerShell, AWS Lambda, Python 3, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
The most amazing...
...thing I've developed was a golden image automation system from scratch—providing on the fly autoscaling for hundreds of application and database servers.
Work Experience
SQL Database Administrator
Commonwealth Financial Network - Main
- Worked on architecture and management for Snowflake databases.
- Worked on Azure Data Factory pipelines and data flow in migration effort from on-premises to Azure.
- Monitored and managed real-time data operations in Azure SQL/Snowflake and on-premise databases.
AWS and SQL Consultant
NumberCruncher
- Created the AWS architecture from scratch based on previous plans and proposals.
- Created a self-maintained SQL Server DR (disaster recovery) architecture.
- Optimized the performance on both IIS applications and SQL Server databases and SQL code.
- Implemented ElastiCache, CloudFront distributions based on the geolocation of customers, load balancing, and DNS routing.
AWS Engineer
Omnitracs LLC
- Acted as a SysOps/DevOps on a day-to-day basis with EC2, ELB/ALB, VPC, RDS, Direct Connect, Route 53, Lambda, Systems Manager, SNS, S3, SES, ElastiCache, Athena, Guard Duty, WAF & Shield, Trusted Advisor, and AWS Inspector.
- Worked as a performance tuning engineer for application and database servers.
- Acted as an architecture and security expert for a large production and test infrastructure in AWS.
- Created golden image automation from scratch capable of auto-scaling a fleet of hundreds of app and database servers on the fly; it could be deployable to any AWS region and built the networking and security infrastructure.
Senior Database Administrator | Systems Engineer
RIA Solutions Group
- Developed, maintained, performance-tuned, architected, and improved distributed, high-availability databases and data marts amounting to terabytes of data.
- Developed highly customizable T-SQL, SSIS, and SSRS reports.
- Maintained a highly scalable architecture capable of sending up to 10 million emails per day.
Team Lead | SQL Expert
OSF Global Services
- Managed and maintained various SQL Servers (2012, 2008R2, 2008, 2005) for backup and recovery plans, alerts, scripting, performance monitoring, and disaster recovery through log shipping, mirroring, replication, and clustering.
- Developed ETL mechanisms through SSIS and for various processes ranging from data import and validation, data obfuscation, custom environment synchronizations, consolidation, and automated historical clean-ups.
- Architected and implemented data warehouses through Kimball methodology.
- Migrated Oracle and MySQL to a Microsoft SQL Server.
Senior SQL Database Administrator
ING Bank
- Architected, set up, configured, and managed production SQL systems for both retail banking and insurance using SQL clustering, mirroring, and more.
- Developed SQL for a private pension fund application that managed pension funds for over 2 million Romanians.
- Oversaw and prepared projects for security, penetration, and performance audits.
Experience
Golden Image Deployment Automation Solution
http://www.omnitracs.comI created golden image automation from scratch, capable of auto-scaling a fleet of hundreds of application and database servers on the fly. It could be deployed in any AWS region, and I also implemented the networking and security infrastructure.
Created Infrastructure in AWS
Data Architect and DBA
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Transilvania University - Brașov, Romania
Certifications
AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Amazon Web Services
Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert: Data Management and Analytics
Microsoft
Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert: Data Platform
Microsoft
Skills
Tools
Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Systems Manager, AWS CloudFormation, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon CloudFront CDN, Amazon Athena, Amazon ElastiCache, Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), Boto 3, AWS IAM, VPN, SQL Management Studio
Languages
SQL, Python 3, Python, Snowflake
Platforms
Amazon EC2, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Lambda, Linux
Storage
SQL Server DBA, SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), Databases, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), Database Architecture, SQL Performance, Database Administration (DBA), Microsoft SQL Server, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon Aurora, Amazon EFS, Redshift, Amazon DynamoDB, Redis Cache, Memcached, IIS SQL Server, Azure SQL Databases
Frameworks
Windows PowerShell
Paradigms
Automation
Other
IIS, Data Architecture, Performance Tuning, Monitoring, Amazon Route 53, Storage, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Autoscaling, Amazon API Gateway, Billing, Events, Boto3, VPN Data Entry, Azure Data Factory (ADF)
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
Share your needs
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring