Jonathan Brenes Fernández

Senior Technical Support Engineer · Azure Linux Escalation · Open Source & Automation

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Professional Summary

Senior Technical Support Engineer with 25+ years in Linux and UNIX systems engineering and 15+ years in enterprise infrastructure support, currently serving as the final point of escalation for the most complex, high-severity Linux workloads on Microsoft Azure. Deep expertise across compute, storage (NVMe/SCSI/LVM), and networking, spanning modern cloud (SUSE, RHEL, Ubuntu, Azure Linux) and on-premise UNIX (HP-UX, AIX, Solaris). Known for turning individual escalations into reusable open-source tooling, automation, and AI-assisted diagnostics that scale beyond single cases. Active technical educator who helps lead the Azure Linux Academy. Microsoft Certified in Azure Fundamentals and Azure AI Fundamentals.

Core Skills

Cloud & Infrastructure

Microsoft Azure (IaaS, VMs), Azure Linux, AWS (EC2, S3), VMware ESX / vSphere, F5 BigIP, Akamai

Linux & UNIX Systems

RHEL, SUSE, Ubuntu, CentOS, Azure Linux; HP-UX, Solaris, AIX; storage (NVMe, SCSI, LVM), high availability, disaster recovery, Red Hat Cluster Suite

Automation & AI

Bash / Shell scripting, Ansible, SaltStack, Puppet, Cobbler, Jinja2, AI-assisted diagnostics, Azure AI Foundry

Networking

Computer networking, network administration, Cisco IOS

Escalation & Leadership

Escalation management, incident management, root-cause analysis, ITIL, cross-team collaboration, mentorship, technical training

Open Source & Projects

Selected work. Full repositories are on my GitHub profiles: jonathanbrenes (opens in a new tab) and jonbrefe (opens in a new tab).

Professional Experience

Senior Technical Support Engineer (SEE), Azure Linux Escalation

Microsoft · Costa Rica · Jul 2024 – Present
  • Lead resolution of high-severity, ambiguous issues across Linux distributions (SUSE, RHEL, Ubuntu, Azure Linux) spanning compute, storage (NVMe/SCSI/LVM), and networking on Azure, serving as the final point of technical escalation for enterprise customers.
  • Identify recurring escalation patterns and drive systemic fixes beyond individual cases, reducing repeat escalations and improving platform reliability.
  • Design and build diagnostic tooling and automation that scale, including a VM disk architecture conversion utility (SCSI to NVMe).
  • Contribute to open-source Azure Linux supportability and diagnostics, including the Azure CLI, Azure Linux extensions, and the sosreport project.
  • Introduce AI-assisted workflows for diagnostics and documentation, including automated analysis of Linux support bundles, accelerating root-cause investigation.
  • Help lead the Azure Linux Academy: modernize storage, networking, and troubleshooting curricula and stand up Infrastructure-as-Code lab environments for hands-on learning.

Support Escalation Engineer, Azure Linux

Microsoft · Costa Rica · Oct 2020 – Jul 2024
  • Diagnosed and resolved high-severity issues across Linux distributions (SUSE, Ubuntu, RHEL) in Azure environments, covering networking, storage, and compute layers.
  • Acted as the final point of technical escalation, collaborating with engineering teams to deliver timely solutions for mission-critical workloads.
  • Developed scripts and tools that streamlined diagnostic processes and reduced case resolution time.
  • Authored internal troubleshooting guides and contributed to public documentation, enabling customers and support engineers to self-resolve common issues.

UNIX RUN Delivery Lead

DXC Technology · Heredia, Costa Rica · Apr 2017 – Oct 2020
  • Served as primary point of contact across teams during incident escalations and planning of new opportunities, improving overall team delivery performance.
  • Owned high-visibility Level 4 support of UNIX infrastructure (Solaris, Linux, HP-UX), including remediation and tuning of high-availability services.
  • Applied ITIL processes end to end to improve team results and service consistency.

Senior Linux Engineer / Site Reliability Engineer

Backcountry.com · San José, Costa Rica · Apr 2013 – Apr 2016
  • Managed a large fleet of Linux servers using SaltStack and Ansible for configuration management and automated application-stack deployment.
  • Reduced server provisioning time from scratch to full service using Cobbler, improving deployment efficiency.
  • Administered load balancers (F5 BigIP), AWS (EC2/S3), and Akamai technologies for production web infrastructure.
  • Installed and configured a Hadoop (Cloudera) cluster and administered its components.

UNIX / ESX Service Delivery — HP & HPE

Hewlett-Packard / HPE · Costa Rica · May 2008 – Mar 2017
  • Delivered Level 4 UNIX (Solaris, Linux, HP-UX) and VMware ESX infrastructure support across enterprise best-shore operations.
  • Led a data center migration of 500+ servers from Solaris to HP-UX, covering applications and clusters (2009–2010).

Earlier roles: IT Server Coordinator & Network System Administrator, Universidad Latina (1998–2007); NOC / Linux Support, BetonSports PLC (2003–2005).

Certifications

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