Jesse Dudgeon
Professional Summary
Network and IT infrastructure leader with 16+ years of experience across higher education, nonprofit, manufacturing, and military environments. Leads multi-campus networking, telecommunications, security, infrastructure modernization, and technical teams while remaining hands-on with routing, switching, firewalls, wireless, voice, identity, and endpoint platforms. Experienced in stabilizing inherited environments, reducing operational risk, improving documentation and standards, and translating technical priorities into reliable services and practical investment decisions.
Core Expertise
Professional Experience
- Lead network and telecommunications operations for a multi-campus university environment spanning Fort Wayne, Crown Point, Gas City, and Lafayette, with responsibility for availability, security, standards, and lifecycle planning.
- Manage and mentor a three-person technical team while coordinating infrastructure work with systems, security, facilities, vendors, and campus stakeholders.
- Administer and troubleshoot Palo Alto firewalls, GlobalProtect VPN, Aruba/Cisco/HPE switching, Aruba GreenLake wireless, routing, VLANs, DNS/DHCP, and inter-site connectivity.
- Own day-to-day operations and modernization of Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Unity voice services while supporting expansion of Microsoft Teams Phone.
- Drive replacement of aging switching infrastructure with Aruba 6300 platforms, standardizing VLANs, uplinks, access-port configurations, PoE, and documentation.
- Improve network security through segmentation reviews, firewall and VPN policy changes, encrypted phone configurations, vulnerability remediation, and support for penetration-testing initiatives.
- Diagnose complex cross-campus connectivity and voice issues using routing, ARP/MAC, packet/session, DHCP, LLDP, switch-port, firewall, and application-layer evidence.
- Directed technology, cybersecurity, facilities, physical security, and continuity planning across three aligned organizations, six facilities, and approximately 149 managed endpoints.
- Led IT and facilities staff while managing vendors, contracts, procurement, capital projects, budgets, and day-to-day operational priorities.
- Owned Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Intune, SharePoint, Teams, endpoint management, firewalls, VPN, switching, Wi-Fi, backup/recovery, access control, surveillance, and infrastructure standards.
- Strengthened identity and endpoint security through MFA, device hardening, access controls, policy development, security awareness, incident response, and audit-focused practices.
- Modernized collaboration and business processes using Microsoft cloud services, Power Automate, and custom applications.
- Served as technology and facilities advisor to executive leadership, translating risk, lifecycle, compliance, and operational needs into practical investment and project plans.
- Managed IT operations, systems administration, networking, user support, device lifecycle, and vendor relationships for a growing multi-site nonprofit environment.
- Standardized onboarding, device provisioning, imaging, account management, and support processes.
- Planned and executed migrations to Microsoft 365 and other cloud services while maintaining continuity for staff and mission-critical operations.
- Implemented stronger governance, disaster-recovery practices, MFA, password management, endpoint controls, and repeatable operating procedures.
- Consolidated and virtualized aging server infrastructure to improve reliability, scalability, recovery, and administration.
- Connected offices with secure site-to-site VPN connectivity and standardized firewall, switching, DNS, DHCP, and core network services.
- Built internal tools and reporting solutions to reduce repetitive work and improve operational visibility.
- Used root-cause analysis, infrastructure upgrades, and proactive monitoring to eliminate recurring outages and stabilize the environment.
- Administered Windows Server, Active Directory, Exchange, networking, endpoint, and production-support systems in a manufacturing environment.
- Implemented monitoring and operational standards to improve visibility and support faster troubleshooting.
- Developed internal OEE tracking, reporting, and departmental budget tools to improve operational visibility and decision-making.
- Maintained, inspected, diagnosed, and repaired military jet propulsion systems under strict technical, safety, documentation, and readiness standards.
- Performed high-accountability maintenance in time-sensitive operational environments, building a disciplined approach to troubleshooting, procedure, and risk management.
Selected Technical Environment
Networking & Security: Palo Alto PAN-OS, GlobalProtect, Aruba 6300/5400/2930, HPE/Aruba switching, Cisco switching, Aruba GreenLake wireless, VLANs, routing, VPN, DNS, DHCP, LLDP, network segmentation, packet/session analysis.
Voice & Collaboration: Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unity Connection, Microsoft Teams Phone, Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, OneDrive.
Identity, Endpoint & Automation: Entra ID, Intune, Group Policy, SCCM/PXE, PowerShell, Power Automate, Git, C#, ASP.NET, PHP/Laravel, JavaScript, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL.
Operations: Infrastructure documentation, vulnerability remediation, incident response, vendor management, lifecycle planning, budgeting, service desk operations, business continuity.