James Deist

James Deist has a diverse work experience that spans various roles and industries. James began their career as a Technical Support Representative and On-Site Trainer at Core Technologies, where they provided daily phone support, customer service, and troubleshooting. James also analyzed web cart businesses and offered advice on improving efficiency. After that, they worked as a Cook at Copper Mountain Resort for a period of six months. Following this, James became a self-employed IT and SEO Consultant, offering independent consulting services until 2013.

In 2013, James joined StarRez, Inc. as an Implementation and Support Consultant. James led a rapid response team, performed advanced troubleshooting across Microsoft stack, managed implementation of new product modules, conducted client training, and contributed to technical product documentation. James worked in this role until 2019, gaining extensive experience in the University Housing Management System industry.

From 2019 to 2020, James transitioned to a Cloud Implementations Specialist position at StarRez, Inc. and was responsible for implementing cloud solutions. In October 2020, they were promoted to a Platform Engineer role. Here, they worked on a 24/7 oncall program, utilized Kubernetes and Cloud Platforms to run StarRez Services, built monitoring systems, improved build deployment processes using CI/CD best practices, debugged production issues, and contributed to infrastructure optimization and upgrades.

Currently, James holds the position of Site Reliability Engineer at StarRez, Inc., starting in October 2022. In this role, they continue to build and optimize platform infrastructure, assist in capacity planning, document operational details and processes, and ensure the reliability, efficiency, and security of the platform. Overall, James's work experience highlights their technical expertise, problem-solving skills, and ability to adapt to different industries and roles.

James Deist attended the University of Colorado Boulder from 2007 to 2009 but did not obtain a degree or specify a field of study. Prior to that, they completed high school at the Colorado Springs Christian School from 2004 to 2007. In terms of certifications, James obtained the Certified Kubernetes Administrator designation from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) in November 2022. James also became a Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) in October 2020 through Microsoft.