Garrett M. Wiedmeier

An experienced IT professional, volunteer, husband, cat parent and aviation fanboy. Take a look around and explore a little bit about me and my experience, skills and life over the past decades.

IT Director & Technical Leader | Infrastructure, Security & Systems Operations | ERP/MES/PLM · Manufacturing & Nonprofit Technology

I’ve spent 25+ years leading IT infrastructure, systems administration, and technology teams across manufacturing and nonprofit organizations — mentoring teams of up to 10, running data centers and multi-site networks, and delivering ERP/MES/PLM migrations and facility moves on schedule.

For the past two years, I’ve run that same discipline solo. As founder of GMW Systems LLC, I own the full stack for 12+ nonprofit and small-business clients: architecture, security, delivery, and client relationships, with nobody to hand the hard parts to. That includes:

• Hardened multi-server Linux infrastructure (10+ production servers, 99.95% uptime) with automated backup/DR and centralized SIEM logging
• A WAF and VPN-mesh edge gateway fronting all client production traffic, plus an automated CVE early-warning system across a 230+ package stack
• SMTP mail transport and messaging infrastructure — Postfix relays, encrypted smart-host forwarding, and transactional/marketing platforms (Constant Contact, Brevo)
• Records retention and public disclosure compliance work carried over from my nonprofit and government IT leadership roles
• A multi-tenant SaaS platform I designed and built from scratch, now running as a paying product

Running a business solo isn’t a detour from leadership — it’s a concentrated version of it. I’m now looking to bring that back to a team, at bigger scale, as an IT Director/Manager or trusted technical advisor to leadership and boards.

I work across manufacturing (ERP/MES/PLM — Oracle Agile, Aegis FactoryLogix, Fourth Shift) and nonprofit technology, and I stay current — Docker, modern PHP, AI-assisted development, WAF/SIEM — because the tools don’t stand still and neither do I.

Open to IT Director/Manager roles, fractional CTO engagements, Senior System/Application engineering roles, and technical advisory work in the Seattle area or remote.

• Founder & Principal Consultant
  GMW Systems LLC
  2024-present
  
• Own and operate a growing technology consultancy serving 12+ nonprofit and small-business clients across Snohomish and King counties — architecture, security, delivery, and client relationships on a single P&L.
• Advise nonprofit boards and small-business owners on technology strategy and AI adoption
• Architected and deployed a hardened multi-server Linux infrastructure: 10+ production servers at 99.95% uptime, automated backup/DR with 27 daily verification tests, and centralized SIEM logging (Graylog/OpenSearch)
• Built a stateless edge gateway — WAF (ModSecurity/OWASP CRS), site-to-site VPN mesh, secondary DNS — fronting all production traffic; led root-cause response to a production outage with 12 corrective actions and zero recurrence since
• Built an automated CVE early-warning system: daily scanning across a 230+ package stack, resolution dashboard, proactive client alerting
• Architect and operate SMTP mail transport infrastructure using Postfix, including encrypted smart-host relays and forwarding, plus transactional/marketing messaging platforms (Constant Contact, Brevo)
• Designed and built a multi-tenant volunteer management SaaS platform (PHP/MySQL, AES-256 encryption, offline-capable kiosk with sync) — now a paying product for its first nonprofit client

Airport Systems Administrator
Snohomish County, Everett, WA
August 2023 – July 2024

• Maintained computer and network systems for airport executives, fire, maintenance, and flight operations; served as technical liaison to county IT on shared services.
• Supported public records retention and disclosure compliance obligations alongside county records management standards
• Installed, configured, and automated deployment of access control and camera surveillance systems (Galaxy Access Control, WiseNet)

Application Administrator
DiBell Group/L3Harris, Melbourne, FL
Remote: September 2020 – September 2022
Technologies: Aegis FactoryLogix, Windows 2012, 2016, and 2019 server, Agile, Scrum, ServiceNow, Confluence, Jira, PowerShell, batch scripting

• Administered Aegis FactoryLogix MES for a major defense contractor, leading upgrades and migrations with minimal disruption.
• Partnered with Agile/Scrum teams on application support, regression testing, and Java/Tomcat performance tuning
• Delivered third-level application and Windows server troubleshooting; supported the security team on vulnerability mitigation

IT Director
TERRA Staffing Group, Everett WA
October 2018 – May 2020
Technologies: TrueNAS, Asterisk, Linux (ubuntu), VMWare, Active Directory, Windows server 2016, SQL server, Microsoft Exchange, Jira, vulnerability scanning, data center ops, VPN, firewalls

• Led and mentored a team of 6 IT professionals supporting a largely remote workforce.
• Owned IT infrastructure across headquarters, a data center, and 11 branch offices in 4 states — including Exchange, SQL Server, and firewall/VPN administration
• Improved help desk SLA times by 50%, cutting average initial response to 5 minutes
• Directed development of internal intranet tools and a public-facing employment website with mobile apps; managed SQL Server failover planning and executive dashboards

System Administrator/IT Director
Applied Technical Services (now Creation Tecnologies), Everett WA
March 2014 – October 2018
Technologies: Windows server 2008-2016, VMWare, Hyper-V, Active Directory, IIS, Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, Jira, Group Policy (GPO), Oracle Agile PLM, Infor FourthShift, VLAN, VPN, SonicWall, server hardening, network segmentation and isolation

• Promoted twice (Senior Systems Administrator → IT Manager → IT Director); led and mentored a team of up to 10 IT professionals across three factories in two countries.
• Managed ERP, MES, and PLM systems (Oracle Agile, Aegis FactoryLogix, Fourth Shift) supporting manufacturing operations, with weekly root-cause analysis
• Sat on the Extended Leadership Team, reporting to the Executive Team via weekly Business Process Review meetings
• Delivered on-time infrastructure for a new factory and a company-wide cloud email migration; managed server hardening and network segmentation (VLAN/VPN)
• Achieved 99.5% positive help desk response and 98%+ issue resolution, consistently within SLA; named Employee of the Year, 2016

Network Administrator/IT Manager
Capitol Hill Housing, Seattle WA
October 2010 – March 2014
Technologies: Windows server 2003-2012, Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, IIS, SQL Server, SharePoint, Group Policy (GPO), VPN, SonicWall, public disclosure retention policies

• Managed IT staff and infrastructure for a multi-site nonprofit network spanning headquarters, a data center, and 40+ remote offices.
• Managed public records retention and disclosure compliance processes — retention scheduling, litigation holds, responses to public disclosure requests
• Led cross-forest Exchange and Active Directory migrations alongside major office moves and network re-architecture
• Planned and executed backup and disaster recovery operations, including annual restoration drills and executive briefings; served on the cross-department Leadership Team guiding a new headquarters build-out

Download my full resume here

Most of this was taken from a biography I wrote fresh out of college. How cute, it was. Nonetheless, most points are still valid.

___________________

I was born Sunday May 7, 1972 in Everett, WA. I am a definite Taurus.

I grew up in Everett, WA and attended Emerson Elementary, Evergreen Middle and Cascade High School. I then took a year off to explore my interest areas and went back to school at Everett Community College. I graduated from EvCC with an associate degree in journalism and transferred to Central Washington University where I graduated from CWU with a BA in public relations.

My special interest in life is flying. My dad took me to my first air show when I was three and I believe ever since then I have been fascinated by flight (even though the jets scared me to death at the time!). I earned my private pilot license when I was 17. I then went on to earn my instrument rating the next year. Planning to continue on with the goal of becoming a commercial pilot, I flew more than 250 hours in the following year and a half. Unfortunately the pilot prospects for jobs was bleak at the time, and rather than spend huge sums of money on a prayer of getting a job, I chose to pursue my other talents and study communications.

Today I still consider aviation as my main interest. I have volunteered for many aviation oriented groups and associations, concentrating in youth aviation education. I find this appealing because it is great to work with kids and watch them explore and capture the same feelings I found when I was younger.

Flying may not be my livelihood, but it is very much my life.

Additional miscellany as of 2006 2013 2020:

Favorite color: Green

Favorite food: Mac-n-cheese Tator Tot casserole/hot dish (nostalgia is setting in)

Single Married

Worked 10 17 20 25+ years in IT, having spent less than 1 year in the field I studied in school 

Still an aviation nut — I’m a virtual pilot and virtual air traffic controller on game networks

ColdFusion is my rock star programming language (10 years ago)

Bought a house, sold a house, bought a condo, bought a new bathroom. Sold the Condo, moved to the burbs, bought huge house

Living Downtown — don’t think I’ll ever go back. You didn’t. You’re in the burbs now.

Worked in the SF Bay Area for a year

Living contentedly with 2 cats. Upgraded to plus one husband

Please feel free to contact me:

Locale
Everett, WA 98203
Snohomish County

Phone
4 two-five 320-5823
garrett @at@ gmwnet .dot. com

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