In 2021, I moved over to the Sales side of the business after spending almost 7 years in a technical role. I'm responsible for state and local government as well as education (SLED) customers in the 7 Northeastern-most U.S. states. As a Systems Engineer, I play a critical part in the sales process, making sure that the customer orders the right parts to solve their business need. Working along side an Account Manager, the SEs are the trusted advisor helping the customer select the products that will run their business most effectively.
In 2014, I started work at Cisco Systems as a TAC engineer. I worked on the Data Center Switching team, meaning I worked exclusively with the Nexus platform (2K, 3K, 4K, 5K, 6K, 7K, and 9K). Most of the protocols our team worked with initially were Layer 2 (switching, ARP, STP, vPC, etc.). This team eventually merged with the Data Center Routing team to become Data Center Route/Switch (DCRS). I handled everything from questions about configuration to critical outages for major payment providers and major outages for emergency services in a set of hospitals.
After over 4 years on the Data Center Route/Switch team, I moved over to the ACI team. I built on my switching experience with Nexus switches, but focused in on the 9K platform and added Software-Defined Networking (SDN) on top of it. Our team was responsible for troubleshooting all issues within the ACI platform across the stack - from top to bottom. I learned a lot about ACI's faults and benefits, including its new mechanism for packet forwarding, using endpoint learning.
I've learned an amazing amount about how these low-level technologies are supposed to work, as well as how to troubleshoot even the most complex of programming issues. I've learned to diagnose these issues systematically and effectively. I really enjoyed my work in TAC because it kept me challenged each and every day, and no two days were alike.
Aside from day-to-day casework, I helped out the team by making myself available to answer questions as they came up, and became a mentor to many new team members over the years. On the ACI team, I eventually became a team lead and put led a year-long training intensive for a cohort of new teammates. Finally, I was also able to use my coding skills to improve our automated parser, saving hours of manual work.
"I want to take a moment to provide a huge shout out to Zach Yordy in regards to a case he helped us with today. While all of our TAC engineers are excellent technically, Zach exemplified himself with customer skills that I felt were unequaled. Zach joined our call this morning after a 1+ production outage of Ally’s datacenter and we had several very senior executives on the line. He quickly assessed the situation and was able to put everyone at ease with a clearly outlined plan of attack and was very sensitive to the executives concerns. These same executives were quick to compliment his work during a subsequent call."
- Ally Bank
"I wanted to take a couple minutes and acknowledge Zach Yordy and the support he provided us regarding this case. Honestly, in the 20 years I have been working with Marriott and the countless times I have worked with TAC over those years, I have never received support like Zach provided. His support by far was the best. His promptness and knowledge was fantastic! He provided precise plans of action and was very quick to understand our environment."
- Marriott
"The engineer that worked my case (Zach Yordy) was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. He was very friendly on the phone and via email. As the issue changed, he still knew what to look for and how to proceed. I never felt any doubt that he knew exactly what he was doing. I wish all of my TAC experiences were this good."
- Minnesota State Government
Over the summer of 2012, I worked as an information security intern for Boeing Engineering Operations & Technology in St. Louis. I was a part of the Network & Host Assessments team, meaning my group was responsible for performing vulnerability assessments on routers, switches, and servers on the network. I became familiar with the process and was able to successfully conduct several vulnerability assessments.
As an intern without a packed assessment queue, I was in a unique position to take a look at the overall process and streamline it. I did some development work on a tool that the team uses for assessments. By preloading information as much information about the assessor as possible, I helped take the process of formatting each custom vulnerability report from 2-3 hours down to about an hour. I also developed a custom Linux LiveUSB distribution that saved the need for about $6,000 in computer hardware. In the short 3-month period I interned at Boeing, I made quite a lasting impact on the workflow and team.
"Zach’s key strengths were demonstrated as careful planning, technical excellence and solid communication... exemplified by his collaboration with employees."
- Kevin Fuller, Supervisor
When I first got out of Grad School, I worked with Mapletronics, a local IT company. They provide IT services for many industrial clients in the greater Goshen and South Bend area. I was a road tech who went on-site to companies to help them with their bevy of IT issues. I worked with a diverse set of clients including a chicken production plant, RV manufacturers, and a plastic injection molder.
"With the use of advanced technology and the MapleTronics Team, we have been able to improve the way we do business. The hardware and expertise they offer is the best in the area. Who needs the Geek Squad when you have these guys!"
- Insight Accounting Group, Mapletronics Client
Course Highlights:
Course Highlights:
I can program! I've dabbled in a number of different langauges, and I love writing small utilities to help me accomplish a task. I've written everything from a program that keeps track of the bus schedule everyday to text me when my desired bus is coming to a script that monitors my current Webex status and lights up a USB on a raspberry pi as a status indicator.
Fluent (Extensive Experience)
Proficient (Moderate Experience)
Limited Working Proficiency (Some Experience)
In my work, I've often served in the roles of Mentor and/or Team Lead. Not only does this combine my natural ability for teaching and mentoring, but also energizes me since I get to do something outside of day-to-day and get to know my role more thorougly through a new lens.
In college, I taught in an undergraduate physics laboratory. I was present for lab sessions, helping answer questions and guide students when they had questions. I also graded all of the completed labs.
I lived abroad in Peru for 3 months, which helped me to become semi-fluent in Spanish (proficient in speaking, reading, and writing). Aside from learning a language, we also focused on learning about the culture, history, and cuisine that Peru has to offer.
I love to listen to music when I get time. I collect records, and love the tactile, analogue feel that only comes with playing a record. I have a very ecclectic taste in music. Although I'm picky about what I'll listen to, I enjoy music from a broad variety of genres.
Aside from listening to music, running, and spending good quality time with friends, I'm a computer engineer at heart. I put this website together (with a bit of design help, of course), and it's currently powered through the use of Vultr, git, GitHub, Cloudflare, Cloudflare Pages, and Bunny CDN. I have VPSes in the Cloud and also a beefy server at home. These servers help run small utilities that I self-host, as well as share larger files, and run cron jobs that need an always-on host. It's been quite a bit of fun for me, and I look forward to making improvments to the site and to my servers as time goes on.