DAVID C. FIELDS, M.S.

Professional Summary

Senior technology and operations leader with 35+ years of experience defining technology strategy and directing infrastructure, cybersecurity, automation, cloud, software, managed services, and mission-critical operations across financial services, government, defense, healthcare, consulting, and entrepreneurial environments. Combines executive leadership with deep technical credibility in Python, DevOps, network automation, cybersecurity, cloud platforms, enterprise infrastructure, AI-enabled workflows, and business continuity. This combination of infrastructure automation, enterprise networking, cybersecurity, infrastructure as code, CI/CD, platform operations, and operational resilience provides strong alignment with modern DevSecOps leadership, engineering, and architecture environments.

Built and led teams of more than 10 engineers and technicians, directed a $1M+ managed-services and engineering practice, established centralized service operations, and delivered enterprise automation that accounted for more than half of incoming ticket volume and supported 10,000+ incidents and requests annually. Founded and currently lead technology consulting and transportation businesses; current work includes leading Lighthouse Digital Logistix, developing CharterVantage, and directing technology and operations for a seven-vehicle interstate charter company with approximately 30 independent contractors and support personnel.

Leadership Competencies

• Technology Strategy & Roadmaps
• Infrastructure & Cloud Operations
• Cybersecurity, Risk & Compliance
• AI, Automation, DevSecOps & Digital Transformation
• Program & Project Leadership
• Team Building, Mentoring & Organizational Development
• Vendor, Contract & Stakeholder Management
• Business Continuity & Incident Leadership
• SaaS & Software Product Development
• Budgeting, Service Delivery & Operational Improvement

Professional Experience

• Founded and currently lead an IT consulting practice delivering technology strategy, infrastructure modernization, cybersecurity, automation, AI-enabled workflows, software development, and business-systems solutions for small businesses and owner-operated companies.
• Advise clients and internal business stakeholders on technology roadmaps, cloud and SaaS adoption, cybersecurity controls, business continuity, vendor selection, process improvement, and operational risk.
• Direct solution architecture and delivery across Windows, Linux, cloud, networking, identity, endpoint, website, database, API, backup, and business-application environments.
• Lead product strategy and development for CharterVantage, an AI-enabled multi-tenant SaaS platform for charter transportation operations, covering requirements, architecture, workflows, integrations, testing, documentation, deployment planning, and human-approval controls.
• Design and evaluate AI agents, automation platforms, and data-driven workflows for operational analysis, customer communications, administrative support, reporting, scheduling, and decision support.
• Build and manage Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Git/GitHub, Raspberry Pi, local-agent, and cloud development environments supporting AI research, automation development, prototyping, and technical validation.

• Own and lead an interstate charter transportation company with a seven-vehicle fleet and approximately 30 independent contractors and support personnel, with accountability for sales, dispatch, finance, compliance, safety, fleet planning, vendor relationships, and day-to-day service delivery.
• Define technology strategy and serve as systems owner for Google Workspace, websites, booking and CRM platforms, payment systems, telematics, electronic logging, mobile devices, computers, user accounts, cybersecurity controls, backups, and cloud applications.
• Lead digital transformation and process automation using Python, APIs, Zapier, AI tools, databases, forms, email, and reporting platforms to improve pricing, sales, dispatch, payroll, customer communications, and operational decision-making.
• Establish operating policies, dashboards, pricing models, customer-communication standards, and risk-control workflows supporting service quality, compliance, business continuity, and scalable growth.
• Translate operational challenges into product requirements, workflows, test cases, and validation scenarios for CharterVantage.

• Led the design and delivery of enterprise-scale automation initiatives using Python, Ansible/AWX, Terraform, Git/GitHub, Azure DevOps, ServiceNow, PagerDuty, Rundeck, Docker, and Kubernetes.
• Developed automated infrastructure-health reporting and remediation capabilities that improved executive visibility, operational awareness, and support for 24x7 financial-services environments.
• Created a Palo Alto firewall policy-analysis solution that evaluated hundreds of thousands of objects and rules in minutes, strengthened disaster-recovery and site-recovery readiness, and eliminated extensive manual analysis.
• Directed automation of incident and service workflows spanning network, security, remote access, ATM, WAN, VoIP, proxy, power, and bandwidth events; automated processes accounted for more than half of incoming ticket volume and supported 10,000+ incidents and requests annually.
• Partnered with infrastructure, cybersecurity, operations, application, vendor, and management stakeholders to deliver automation and decision-support solutions for regulated, mission-critical banking systems.

• Supported enterprise network, cybersecurity, remote-access, branch, and ATM operations in a regulated financial-services environment, including critical business-continuity support for Huntington’s remote-access infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Developed Python automation and operational workflows supporting WAN circuits, VoIP, web proxies, power events, high-bandwidth incidents, vendor escalation, conference bridges, monitoring, and management reporting.
• Partnered with network, security, operations, service-management, and vendor teams to coordinate incident response, standardize procedures, improve documentation, and support audit and regulatory readiness.

• Provided technical leadership and served as subject-matter expert for a 500+ device Cisco enterprise supporting regulated financial-services datacenters, call centers, and business operations across the United States and Canada.
• Led evaluations of Cisco ISE, Aruba ClearPass, and Forescout network-access-control platforms and supported technology selection, Aruba ClearPass implementation, 802.1X adoption, and compliance remediation.
• Coordinated enterprise network and security initiatives involving LAN, WAN, MPLS, VPN, firewalls, wireless, load balancing, multi-datacenter services, WAN migrations, and disaster-recovery testing.
• Partnered with infrastructure, cybersecurity, operations, application, management, and vendor teams to resolve complex issues, establish technical standards, improve documentation, and support reliable service delivery.

• Directed a $1M+ managed-services and engineering practice delivering SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, hosting, monitoring, virtualization, storage, networking, systems integration, and infrastructure consulting services.
• Recruited, developed, mentored, and led a team of more than 10 engineers and technicians supporting client projects, managed services, technical operations, and service delivery.
• Built centralized monitoring, alerting, service-desk, support, and managed-services capabilities that improved operational visibility, incident response, service consistency, and recurring client support.
• Led architecture and delivery of high-availability VMware, storage, load-balancing, VPN, Windows, Linux, SaaS, and IaaS environments for healthcare, government, hospitality, energy, and commercial clients.

Additional Leadership & Technical Experience

• Plannet Group — Senior Network Architect
• Ohio Department of Job and Family Services — Unix Firewall Specialist
• C-TEC — Cisco Networking Academy CCNA & CompTIA Security+ Instructor
• The Longaberger Company — Senior Information Security Analyst
• Cisco Systems — Systems Engineer, Military & Enterprise Accounts
• Miami Jacobs College — Cisco CCNP & CCDP Instructor
• ACS Defense / 88th Communications Group — Senior Systems Engineer, Wright-Patterson AFB; held Secret clearance
• Electronic Data Systems — Systems Administrator
• Freudenberg Spunweb Company — LAN Administrator

Education & Certifications

Master of Science, Information Security & Assurance — Norwich University

Bachelor of Science, Computer Information Systems — DeVry University

Current Certifications: CompTIA Security+ | ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC) | ITIL v3 Foundation

Previously Held / Expired: VMware VCP5-DCV | CISSP | CISM | CISA | CCNP Enterprise | CCDP | CCSE | CCNA | CCDA

Professional References

Multiple professional references available upon request.

Current online version based on David-Fields-MASTER-Leadership-ATS-2026-v1.3-FINAL.