Systems administrator · security · indie developer

I secure systems by day and build small, private software by night.

I'm Blake, a cybersecurity-focused Systems Administrator at Palladyne AI. I harden Windows, macOS and Linux fleets, automate the busywork with PowerShell and Bash, and make apps that keep your data on your device.

See my work View résumé
  • 4+years in systems administration
  • 300+lab VMs deployed per semester
  • M.S.Cybersecurity, 2026

01 — Work

Things I've made

Side projects built with a security mindset: local-first, no ads, no tracking, and nothing leaves your device unless you send it.

Little Things

Android app · Kotlin & Jetpack Compose

“It's the little things.”

An app for ADHD and busy brains to remember what matters to the people you love: their coffee order, their sizes, gift ideas, the dates that count. Save it in seconds and get a gentle nudge when it matters.

  • Quick capture from the app or a home-screen widget
  • Gentle reminders for birthdays and important dates
  • Everything stays on your phone, with zip backups you control
  • $0.99 once. No ads, no subscription, no account.
Get it on Google Play Visit the site

mv2ios Early

Command-line tool · Go · AGPL-3.0

Switching to iPhone shouldn't cost you years of texts.

Apple's “Move to iOS” leaves RCS and group chats behind. mv2ios pairs with Google Messages like Messages for Web does, exports every conversation, and adds them to your iPhone backup so they show up in Messages after a restore.

  • Brings over RCS, group chats and attachments
  • Nothing leaves your computer
  • Dry run first, and undo puts your backup back
  • Free and open source, for Windows, macOS and Linux

Still early: tested on a sample backup, not yet confirmed on a real iPhone restore. Try it on a phone you can set up again.

View on GitHub
  • Local-firstYour data lives on your device.
  • No accountsOpen it and start using it.
  • Few permissionsOnly what the feature needs.
  • Plain languageDocs a normal person can follow.

02 — Experience

Where I've worked

Enterprise infrastructure, endpoint management and security hardening across Windows, macOS and Linux.

  1. Systems Administrator II

    Palladyne AI · Salt Lake City, UT

    Dec 2025 – Present
    • Designed and rolled out Microsoft Intune for Windows and macOS, moving devices to cloud management with automated enrollment, compliance and app deployment.
    • Remediate vulnerabilities across Windows Server, Linux and end-user devices within SLAs, under formal change management.
    • Build Linux provisioning aligned with NIST SP 800-171 and enforce CIS Benchmarks.
    • Support Veeam backup and disaster recovery, and write PowerShell and Bash automation to cut manual work.
    • Intune
    • Entra ID
    • Active Directory
    • SentinelOne
    • AlienVault SIEM
    • Veeam
    • Ninja RMM

  2. System Administrator (Technician III)

    Utah Valley University · Orem, UT

    Mar 2022 – Dec 2025
    • Deployed and managed 300+ instructional VMs per semester in vSphere/vCenter with role-based access and patch automation.
    • Wrote PowerShell for configuration compliance and vulnerability remediation, cutting security drift by 40%.
    • Integrated MECM, Intune and Jamf for unified endpoint management across Windows and macOS.
    • Ran lab security testing with Snort, Wireshark and Nmap, and wrote incident response procedures.
    • vSphere
    • vCenter
    • MECM
    • Jamf
    • PowerShell
    • Snort
    • MySQL

03 — Labs

Security & automation labs

Hands-on projects from my cybersecurity master's and homelab.

Ansible VM automation framework

Automated VM provisioning through Ansible and the vSphere API. Reads Active Directory groups to decide role, network placement and OS customization, with patching and snapshot policies built in.

  • Ansible
  • vSphere API
  • PowerShell
  • Active Directory

Honeynet intrusion detection

Snort IDS and iptables set up to detect and log intrusions, with Splunk dashboards mapping attack patterns to the cyber kill chain.

  • Snort
  • iptables
  • Splunk
  • Kali Linux

Web app vulnerability assessment

Found OWASP Top 10 issues through hands-on testing. Burp Suite for interception, Nessus for scoring and remediation planning.

  • Burp Suite
  • Nessus
  • OWASP Mutillidae
  • Wireshark

Reconnaissance & OSINT

Mapped an external attack surface with Nmap and Shodan, and visualized relationships between assets with Maltego.

  • Nmap
  • Shodan
  • theHarvester
  • Maltego
Blake Riding outdoors in front of an autumn forest
Somewhere with no Wi-Fi, briefly.

04 — About

Security by trade, builder by habit

I started at Utah Valley University running instructional labs and endpoint management, and now I'm a Systems Administrator at Palladyne AI. Most days that means hardening systems against NIST SP 800-171 and CIS Benchmarks, closing vulnerabilities, and writing the PowerShell and Bash that makes the repetitive parts disappear.

Security work changes how you see software. Every account, permission and server is something to defend, so in my own apps I leave out whatever isn't needed. No sign-ups, no trackers, and your data stays with you.

Away from a keyboard you'll find me on a golf course, deep in a video game, or looking up at the night sky. (Hence the stars up top.)

View résumé Get in touch

05 — Skills

What I work with

Security & monitoring

  • NIST SP 800-171
  • CIS Benchmarks
  • Vulnerability remediation
  • SentinelOne
  • SIEM
  • Splunk
  • Nessus
  • Burp Suite
  • Snort
  • Wireshark
  • Nmap
  • iptables
  • SSL/TLS

Identity & endpoint

  • Microsoft Intune
  • Entra ID
  • Active Directory
  • Group Policy
  • Jamf
  • MECM
  • Patch automation
  • Role-based access

Infrastructure & automation

  • VMware vSphere / vCenter
  • Proxmox
  • Veeam
  • PowerShell
  • Bash
  • Ansible
  • Terraform
  • Docker
  • Git
  • Network segmentation
  • Firewalls

Operating systems

  • Windows Server
  • Windows
  • Ubuntu
  • Debian
  • Red Hat
  • macOS

App development

  • Kotlin
  • Jetpack Compose
  • Go
  • Python
  • MySQL
  • HTML, CSS & JS

Ops & collaboration

  • ITSM / ServiceDesk
  • Change management
  • Runbooks
  • Incident response
  • Jira
  • Confluence
  • Teams

06 — Contact

Say hello

Hiring for a sysadmin or security role, curious about an app, or just want to talk shop? Send a message and I'll get back to you.