Dan Young
Glendale
Summary
Experienced technology professional with a strong background in the HPC and AI storage industry. Seeking opportunities to advance my career and contribute my skills to an operations, sales, or professional services team. Well-equipped to drive success and deliver exceptional results. Passionate about technology and adept at adapting to evolving industry trends. Valuable asset in achieving organizational goals. Let's connect and explore how my experience can make a meaningful impact on your team.
Overview
18
18
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Sales Engineer
DataDirect Networks (DDN)
04.2024 - Current
- Company Overview: DDN are a global data intelligence and storage vendor vending parallel filesystem-based and software-defined data solutions to the majority of the worlds top 100 supercomputers and top 1000 enterprises
- They primarily sell their own proprietary storage controllers (SFA) with either Lustre (ExaScaler) or SpectrumScale/GPFS (GridScaler) installed on them as turnkey solutions as well as a next-gen key+value based composible solution called Infinia
- Lead sales opportunities with 4x account executives on the direct sales team, as well as with GSI, Channel, Partner and OEM opportunities outside of the direct sales team
- Foster onboarding and development of technical staff, other SEs as well as technical account managers and account executives on DDN’s suite of software and hardware products for their enablement
- Attend conferences, tradeshows, users groups and evangelize and grow DDN’s brand awareness and global reach
- Maintain a tool created by myself for onboarding new technical staff (HomeScaler) by virtualizing all DDN core components and after settling on a hardware platform, distributing them to a global team of 25 initially, grown worldwide to train new staff
- DDN are a global data intelligence and storage vendor vending parallel filesystem-based and software-defined data solutions to the majority of the worlds top 100 supercomputers and top 1000 enterprises
- They primarily sell their own proprietary storage controllers (SFA) with either Lustre (ExaScaler) or SpectrumScale/GPFS (GridScaler) installed on them as turnkey solutions as well as a next-gen key+value based composible solution called Infinia
Head of Operations / Professional Services
Kalray Inc/Pixit Media
04.2022 - 07.2023
- Company Overview: Pixit Media are a technology vendor most specifically focused on GPFS-based clustered filesystems for use in media and entertainment
- They’re mainly operated out of Vista, CA and Doncaster, UK - with folks remotely working spread out around the globe
- Pixit was acquired wholly by Kalray SA (FR) shortly after my return
- Lead project management for all aspects of Pixit Media’s projects in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, managing tasks and projects between procurement, professional services, development and client management
- Design and implementation of clusters from nuts to soup for a variety of M&E, high performance computing and research environments
- Manage all US professional services engineers, US support team, US presales engineering and a few global staff members that didn’t exist within EMEA
- Attend conferences, white paper events and distill and develop solutions for new and emerging problems within the VFX and broadcast communities (NAB, SIGGRAPH, etc)
- Pixit Media are a technology vendor most specifically focused on GPFS-based clustered filesystems for use in media and entertainment
- They’re mainly operated out of Vista, CA and Doncaster, UK - with folks remotely working spread out around the globe
- Pixit was acquired wholly by Kalray SA (FR) shortly after my return
Head of Technology
Goldcrest Post
01.2022 - 04.2022
- Company Overview: Goldcrest Post is a longstanding DI/color finishing shop in the West Village with a 4-wall editorial business and a handful of VFX teams housed within it
- I took a temporary position to help craft the rebirth of their linux platforms for Resolve systems and VFX workstations, as well as cleaning up the facility in general as it had been in disrepair after quite a bit of pandemic neglect
- Support and maintain the entire infrastructure at Goldcrest’s NY facility while modernizing it
- Create Rocky Linux 8.5 platform for supermicro-bound Resolve systems and deploy into a rotation of 6 systems during a busy production schedule
- Deploy OpenDrives SSD-based NAS solution, new projectors/screens, and HA networking to facilitate 4K finishing goals for Goldcrest
- Maintain and modernize 1PB Stornext SAN to provide for 15 fibre-bound clients and 40 DLC connected clients
- Calibrate, maintain, route and support 12 operator rooms (Resolve, Flame, Baselight) and their client facing activities
- Deploy, manage and maintain video over IP for remote client sessions and remote color sessions between sites (Streambox Chroma 4K, Haivision Makito/HMG/HMP)
- Tons more modernization including networking (Cisco, Arista), HA virtual cluster and services (VMware, ansible), and productivity softwares (JIRA/confluence, monday.com)
- Goldcrest Post is a longstanding DI/color finishing shop in the West Village with a 4-wall editorial business and a handful of VFX teams housed within it
- I took a temporary position to help craft the rebirth of their linux platforms for Resolve systems and VFX workstations, as well as cleaning up the facility in general as it had been in disrepair after quite a bit of pandemic neglect
Head of Technology
Nice Shoes
09.2020 - 12.2021
- Company Overview: Nice Shoes is a color finishing, VFX and editorial shop in Gramercy Park, NY
- In it’s well over 20 years, it has been many things but always on the edge of visual tech
- With the loss of an engineering team, I was hired to get Nice Shoes from 352 Park Ave down to 166 Crosby St, Soho, while keeping the facility running and designing the new one, all during covid closures and no shortage in work for NS and it’s sister company, Break+Enter VFX
- Support and maintain the entire infrastructure at Nice Shoes and all non-NY NS sites, color rooms, for a total of 12 locations
- Maintain and modernize 2PB Stornext SAN to provide for 45 fibre-bound clients and 50-75 DLC connected clients
- Calibrate, maintain, route and support 10 operator rooms (Resolve, Flame, Baselight) and their client facing activities
- Deploy, manage and maintain video over IP for remote client sessions and remote color sessions between sites (Sendcore, TVIPS, Streambox Chroma 4K, Haivision Makito/HMG/HMP, Wowza)
- Train staff and deploy/modernize technologies for the IO department and Assistants department to tighten workflow
- HVAC, electrical and facility maintenance for a 40,000ft facility while simultaneously building a new 20,000ft facility and theatre downtown
- Tons more modernization including introducing high bandwidth networking (Extreme, Arista), HA virtual cluster and services (VMware, puppet, core svcs), and productivity softwares (JIRA, confluence, others)
- Nice Shoes is a color finishing, VFX and editorial shop in Gramercy Park, NY
- In it’s well over 20 years, it has been many things but always on the edge of visual tech
- With the loss of an engineering team, I was hired to get Nice Shoes from 352 Park Ave down to 166 Crosby St, Soho, while keeping the facility running and designing the new one, all during covid closures and no shortage in work for NS and it’s sister company, Break+Enter VFX
Freelance Engineer
Sim International
06.2020 - 09.2020
- Company Overview: Sim International (now Picture Shop, part of Streamland) is based in Tribeca, NY, and finish films/commercials, 4-wall editorial clients, design sound, and run outlive event productions
- They also contain the lore of Post Factory NY, it’s origination point
- Maintain and support a DI theatre, 4 suites (Baselight, Resolve, Flame) and their client facing operations day to day
- Maintain and support a stornext SAN environment and Utah video router and panels
- Assist audio engineering teams and offline editorial teams with technical projects
- Create, tune, troubleshoot and ensure performance on video over IP technologies (Streambox, ClearView Flex+Pivot, Evercast)
- Deploy and maintain remote workstation usage technologies (RGS, Avocent, Teamviewer) for shared resources and 1:1 color/finishing suite remote operation
- Deploy technologies related to covid regulations (reception/tracking), remote dailies and anything else needed by Sim and it’s operators
- Sim International (now Picture Shop, part of Streamland) is based in Tribeca, NY, and finish films/commercials, 4-wall editorial clients, design sound, and run outlive event productions
- They also contain the lore of Post Factory NY, it’s origination point
US Operations Manager
Pixit Media
06.2018 - 03.2020
- Company Overview: Pixit Media are a technology vendor most specifically focused on GPFS-based clustered filesystems for use in media and entertainment
- They’re mainly operated out of Vista, CA and Doncaster, UK - with folks remotely working spread out around the globe
- Lead project management for all aspects of Pixit Media’s projects in the United States, managing tasks and projects between procurement, professional services, development and client management
- Design and implementation of clusters from nuts to soup for a variety of M&E, high performance computing and research environments
- Manage all US professional services engineers, US support team, US presales engineering and any global staff that became part of a project being lead by myself
- Attend conferences, white paper events and distill and develop solutions for new and emerging problems within the VFX and broadcast communities (NAB, SIGGRAPH, etc)
- Pixit Media are a technology vendor most specifically focused on GPFS-based clustered filesystems for use in media and entertainment
- They’re mainly operated out of Vista, CA and Doncaster, UK - with folks remotely working spread out around the globe
Sr. Systems Engineer (DESG)
Deluxe Entertainment Services Group
08.2017 - 06.2018
- Company Overview: Deluxe Entertainment Services Group are a corporation that owns several of the largest computer graphics, finishing and color grading services companies around the world
- With roughly 17,000 employees, Deluxe spans more than 20 companies
- Projects have entered into over 10 companies whilst being based in New York’s 18th St
- Location
- Project development, design and implementation across all Deluxe’s businesses to facilitate computer graphics, visual effects, animation and digital intermediate workflows
- Plan and interface with each individual business entity’s software development, systems engineering, production, data and facilities team to complete high-level projects
- Maintain existing infrastructure for all global Deluxe companies as well as daily operations for several studio businesses located within the 218 West 18th St facility
- Support local engineering and data teams central to Company 3 New York (film/commercials finishing and color)
- Support local engineering, data and development teams central to Method Studios New York (film/commercials computer graphics and visual effects)
- Research and develop new technologies for film and broadcast artistry as well as development operations in an effort to keep Deluxe competitive in technical arenas
- Deluxe Entertainment Services Group are a corporation that owns several of the largest computer graphics, finishing and color grading services companies around the world
- With roughly 17,000 employees, Deluxe spans more than 20 companies
- Projects have entered into over 10 companies whilst being based in New York’s 18th St
- Location
Lead Systems Engineer
Framestore
12.2015 - 06.2017
- Company Overview: Framestore is an integrated advertising and film computer graphics studio who is regarded highly as a top-tier company for all things CG, VFX and digital experiential globally
- Projects have included global rollouts of clustered storage (GPFS to replace HDS), Flame tool and pipeline developments, disaster recovery and colocation PoP amongst many other projects spanning London, LA, NY and Chicago
- Leading the systems department in all aspects to further Framestore's position as a global leader in CG/VFX and VR/Digital
- Management of entire facility resources with respect to technology teams, video teams and some tool teams
- Maintain workflows and improve architecture of infrastructure during 4 feature film productions and a handful of experience and commercial productions
- Manage engineers, MCR staffers and some development staff, liaise with production and art departments to ensure all deadlines are met with relative ease and technical competence
- Budget and implement all technology capital and operational expenditure
- Maintenance of tools, configuration management, infrastructure and continual deployment of new technologies
- Global management of large-scale technology design, development and implementation
- Framestore is an integrated advertising and film computer graphics studio who is regarded highly as a top-tier company for all things CG, VFX and digital experiential globally
- Projects have included global rollouts of clustered storage (GPFS to replace HDS), Flame tool and pipeline developments, disaster recovery and colocation PoP amongst many other projects spanning London, LA, NY and Chicago
Sr. Systems Engineer
Tippett Studio
01.2015 - 12.2015
- Company Overview: Tippett Studio is a film VFX shop in Berkeley whose main focus is the art of VFX, with specific regard to character animation
- Projects have included a full infrastructure refresh, full linux OS build architecture refresh, security audit and many other ongoing initiatives
- Leading the systems department in numerous projects to help bring Tippett into a more modern technology platform
- Management of entire facility resources with respect to technology
- Maintain workflows and improve architecture of infrastructure during 4 feature film productions and a handful of experience and commercial productions
- Manage render wranglers and junior engineers, liaise with production and art departments to ensure all deadlines are met with relative ease and technical competence
- Produce systems tools and pipeline tools for technology staffers, metrics and monitoring tools for insight and introspection
- Tippett Studio is a film VFX shop in Berkeley whose main focus is the art of VFX, with specific regard to character animation
- Projects have included a full infrastructure refresh, full linux OS build architecture refresh, security audit and many other ongoing initiatives
Systems Engineer (NYC principal)
CineSys-Oceana
08.2012 - 12.2014
- Company Overview: CineSys-Oceana are a nationwide and Canadian post-production specific VAR
- We build facilities, networks, pipelines, and workflows
- Down to the simplest calibration of TVs, racking and installing of complex SAN and clusters, deployment of workstations, we do it whatever our clients need under the umbrella of production
- Principal engineer for the NE region of the United States
- Coverage of any and every technology available to post
- Have built several complete facilities from 2000sqft to 8000sqft
- General consultancy, planning, project management and continued support and development for hundreds of clients in broadcast, VFX/CG, finishing and production
- CineSys-Oceana are a nationwide and Canadian post-production specific VAR
- We build facilities, networks, pipelines, and workflows
- Down to the simplest calibration of TVs, racking and installing of complex SAN and clusters, deployment of workstations, we do it whatever our clients need under the umbrella of production
Systems Engineer
MPC NYC
04.2011 - 08.2012
- Company Overview: MPC, or the Moving Picture Company, are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Technicolor Creative Services USA
- The nature of production in New York is geared towards visual effects, finishing, data operations, digital production, creative services and design for broadcast globally
- Built MPC NYC from construction phases to production-ready
- 13,000 sq
- Ft over 2 floors
- Provide all levels of support for all aspects technical of the building
- Integration of all MPC global, Technicolor and TPN pipelines and services to enable global workflow
- Maintain entirety of site as the sole systems engineer
- Purchase, budget and implement new solutions and technologies
- MPC, or the Moving Picture Company, are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Technicolor Creative Services USA
- The nature of production in New York is geared towards visual effects, finishing, data operations, digital production, creative services and design for broadcast globally
Sr. Engineer
Smoke&Mirrors London
07.2010 - 03.2011
- Company Overview: Smoke&Mirrors are TAG Media’s post-production house
- Mainly focused on versioning, visual effects, finishing and grading
- Provide all levels of support for all aspects technical of the building
- Maintain video routing, fibre routing, infrastructure and all VFX systems
- Develop and bring forward old systems into peak shape again
- Management and training of 2 Jr
- Engineers
- Purchase, budget and implement new solutions and technologies
- Smoke&Mirrors are TAG Media’s post-production house
- Mainly focused on versioning, visual effects, finishing and grading
Engineering Manager
Escape Studios
02.2010 - 07.2010
- Company Overview: Escape Studios are a training center, reseller and recruitment business serving all aspects of design, visualization, effects and broadcast, currently supplying much of London and many places worldwide with kit, software, training, artists and professional expertise
- Oversee all aspects of the Engineering department at Escape Studios, managing of a Linux Engineer as well as a Systems Engineer
- Budgeting, forecasting and other business critical managerial support roles
- Continual consultancy, services supplement for sales team ala Technical Consultant role as previous
- Direction of the company vise-a-vie all things technical
- Project innovation, creation, instigation and execution for all aspects of Escape’s business
- Escape Studios are a training center, reseller and recruitment business serving all aspects of design, visualization, effects and broadcast, currently supplying much of London and many places worldwide with kit, software, training, artists and professional expertise
Technical Consultant
Escape Studios
01.2009 - 02.2010
- Pre and post sales consultancy for the reseller arm of the business
- Consulted, specified and sell hardware and software to many visual effects, design visualization and architectural clients, within education, production (and post), broadcast and a wide variety of other places
- Installation and maintenance, as well as support for all software and hardware sold by Escape Studios, from phone to physical contact and site visits
- Research and development into emerging technologies, as well as development of bespoke kit for customers of Escape Studios in partnership with manufacturers, inclusive of rendernodes, storage units, 2/4K playback machines, etc
- Write for the Escape blog, on all subjects relative to technology for effects and visualization
Technology Support
Escape Studios
07.2007 - 12.2008
- Maintain two domains, windows 2003 with active directory and openLDAP with samba, including accounts, NFS sharing from a SAN and Isilon
- Recommend, purchase and configure hardware and software tools for external clients, as well as installation and ongoing support
- Maintain an email server (scalix), DNS server, FTP and many various licensing servers
- Provide support for students, tutors, office staff and outsourcing staff, with specific attention to windows and linux visual effects software and hardware
- Provide on-site support and installations for clients in postproduction, design visualization and related 3D/2D industries
- Creation of installation systems and images using PXE boot, TFTPbooting, kickstart and FOG to deploy windows and linux installations
- Provide RMA support for clients and in-house production and studios, with heavy focus on BOXX Technologies machines
- Maintain archivals and backups
Education
Network Support Technician -
Humber College
06.2007
Applied Math - Computer Science
York University
05.2007
Computer Engineering - undefined
Humber College
05.2004
Skills
- Sales training
- Requirements gathering
- Proposal development
- Competitive analysis
- Sales presentations
- Solution selling
Usersgroupsaffiliationsprojects
- 07/01/09, Present, StudioSysAdmins, London/NYC/San Francisco, Executive, StudioSysAdmins is a mailing list and users group that has a global presence in any city where technology is emerging and relevant to the post-production community. StudioSysAdmins is devoted to the improvement of workflows, pipelines and professional development of these technologies. Working with vendors, engineers, developers, studios and manufacturers – SSA works to provide events in 13 cities worldwide, and a myriad of discussion and information online.
- 12/01/10, 03/01/11, ICON Project, London, Contributor – Post-production, The ICON project was an EU/EC sponsored project to digital (in 3D) all the articles of the V&A (Victoria and Albert) Museum in London, UK. Collaboration was had between 4DMax Limited, Smoke&Mirrors, V&A Museum, ITS Southampton University and Evolutions CGI. All articles were scanned and stored as high-polygonal models for preservation and sale to production.
- 12/01/15, 05/01/16, Lockheed Martin – Field Trip To Mars, Principle Engineer, During my time with Framestore, I was the engineer responsible for the infamous Lockheed Martin 'Mars Bus', aka the Field Trip to Mars. Winner of countless awards for what was truly a monumental AR/VR project. Most notable were many Cannes Lions, including 2016 Gold wins.
Timeline
Senior Sales Engineer
DataDirect Networks (DDN)
04.2024 - Current
Head of Operations / Professional Services
Kalray Inc/Pixit Media
04.2022 - 07.2023
Head of Technology
Goldcrest Post
01.2022 - 04.2022
Head of Technology
Nice Shoes
09.2020 - 12.2021
Freelance Engineer
Sim International
06.2020 - 09.2020
US Operations Manager
Pixit Media
06.2018 - 03.2020
Sr. Systems Engineer (DESG)
Deluxe Entertainment Services Group
08.2017 - 06.2018
Lead Systems Engineer
Framestore
12.2015 - 06.2017
Sr. Systems Engineer
Tippett Studio
01.2015 - 12.2015
Systems Engineer (NYC principal)
CineSys-Oceana
08.2012 - 12.2014
Systems Engineer
MPC NYC
04.2011 - 08.2012
Sr. Engineer
Smoke&Mirrors London
07.2010 - 03.2011
Engineering Manager
Escape Studios
02.2010 - 07.2010
Technical Consultant
Escape Studios
01.2009 - 02.2010
Technology Support
Escape Studios
07.2007 - 12.2008
Applied Math - Computer Science
York University
Computer Engineering - undefined
Humber College
Network Support Technician -
Humber College
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