Profile
I am a seasoned WordPress support expert coming from a hosting background with system administration experience. I have worked for multiple hosting companies and have been part of the IT industry for 18+ years. I have helped with the building out of data centers as well as migrating from metal hardware to cloud-based platforms.
I believe in automation being implemented where it can with the use of bash scripts and advanced PHP scripts to get the job done in an efficient manner.
Specialties: LAMP and various control panel software (Plesk, cPanel, etc). WordPress, Ubuntu, bash, PHP, NGINX, Apache, Docker, Google Cloud, and MySQL.
Experience
UTAC
IT Systems Administrator
Jun 2023 – Present
Location Northville, Michigan
- Maintain computer networks, including servers, VPNs, routers, and other physical hardware.
- Installing, configuring, and administrating network equipment.
- Creating firewalls and updating virus protection software.
- Troubleshooting, resolving, and communicating network issues to other employees and management.
- Implementing disaster recovery procedures.
- Maintaining current knowledge of security and networking best practices.
- Design and assist with the implementation of customer-specific project LANs.
- Work with the IT team, sharing responsibilities for maintaining internal devices and employee access.
- Provide 2nd and 3rd-level support to employees seeking assistance.
- Track needs and requests to ensure tickets are closed.
- Analyzing and auditing network solutions and architecture.
- Participate in software testing and reviews and project update meetings.
- Analyze and improve internal processes for efficiency and security.
Kinsta®
Sales Engineer
Sep 2019 – Feb 2023 (3 yrs, 4 mos)
Location Lansing, Michigan Area (Remote)
- Training of new sales and marketing employees
- Worked on, and created internal sales and billing procedures
- Brought in on high-level calls with leads and account executives
- Researched WordPress, including but not limited to core, plugins, and themes
- Researched Hosting providers and stayed on top of their offerings
- Researched application and database-specific hosts
- Created training videos for new and existing employees
- Worked with the legal department to create a security questionnaire to provide to leads
- Created walkthroughs and FAQs to assist account executives with leads
Inbound Sales Engineer
Feb 2019 – Sep 2019 (8 mos)
Location Lansing, Michigan Area (Remote)
- Handle all sales leads
- Created internal sales procedures
- Handled custom billing plans
- Distributed and updated internal sales tools
Tacoma Hills HOA
President
Dec 2022 – Present
Location Okemos, Michigan (Remote)
Board Member
Dec 2020 – Dec 2022
Location Okemos, Michigan
- Converted the website from Squarespace to a custom WordPress theme
- Setup newsletter via Mailchimp for the neighborhood
- Maintained website updates and hosting
- Setup newsletter with the approval of board members
- Created annual events such as “Meat and Eat“
- Monitored multiple social media accounts.
Systm Web, LLC
Owner
Sep 2018 – Present
Location Okemos, Michigan (Remote)
- WordPress Hosting, Support, and Optimization Services
- Internet consulting for small and medium-sized businesses
- Custom PHP programming
Envato
WordPress Installer for Envato Studio customers
Nov 2016 – Aug 2020 (3 yrs, 9 mos)
Location Okemos, Michigan (Remote)
- WordPress theme installs
- WordPress plugin installs
- WordPress Migrations
- WordPress site optimizations
Hosting Experience Specialist
Jul 2017 – Jul 2018 (1 yr 1 mo)
Location Okemos, Michigan (Remote)
- Handled escalated advanced WordPress issues
- Directly assisted Partners with WordPress support tickets and requests
- QA for Platform infrastructure
- Answered customer support tickets
- Built out the documentation for the support department
- Assisted customers in optimizing their WordPress sites
- Troubleshoot and clean hacked WordPress sites
- Directly worked with the theme authors and acted as the point of contact
- Performed QA on new themes, including detailed reviews and on-boarding themes
- Researched and creation of new support tools
- Optimized support team workflow
I had the pleasure of meeting and working side by side with Shelby at Pressed.net and then again at Envato.com Whether he’s planning, implementing, or problem solving, Shelby puts his best foot forward and stands behind his work. He’s an awesome team mate and his rapport with customers is exceptional. Resourceful, reliable, and really a genuinely good person. I would absolutely work with Shelby again in the future.
Michael Musgrave – Director of Customer Support / Operations & Customer Experience Specialist
Shelby is a very well rounded engineer with a deep background in WordPress and customer support. This experience gives him a great ability to see all sides of a problem and he can be counted on to provide lasting solutions. He is great at automation and QA, and working with him on such projects was always a treat. Shelby is friendly and eager to share his knowledge with team members and customers. His large skillset and support experience would be a valuable asset to any team.
Joshua Priddle – Senior Developer
Modern Tribe Inc.
WordPress Support (Contract)
Sep 2018 – Aug 2019 (1 yr)
Location Okemos, Michigan (Remote)
- Premium support for Modern Tribe plugins
Pressed.net
Senior WordPress Support Engineer
Feb 2016 – Jul 2017 (1 yr 6 mos)
Location Denver, Colorado (Remote)
Acquired by Envato, July 2017
- Handling all escalated advanced WordPress issues
- Directly assist Pressed Partners with WordPress support tickets and requests
- QA for the Pressed Platform infrastructure
- Answering customer support tickets
- Building out the documentation for the support department
- Assisting customers to optimize their WordPress sites
I worked with Shelby for nearly two years. He’s got a flexible skillset from handling customer support issues and debugging WordPress to writing automation scripts and other software tools. He has a great personality and is enthusiastic about his work, and that carries over to his team. I have enjoyed working with Shelby and I think you will too.
Mike Boone – Senior Software Developer and Project Manager
sd3labs, LLC
Founder
Apr 2012 – Feb 2016 (3 yrs 11 mos)
Location Boulder, Colorado (Remote)
Shutdown in Feb 2016
- Providing Design, Development, and Hosting centered around WordPress.
- Internet consulting for small and medium-sized businesses
- Custom PHP programming
- Print and logo design
Laughing Squid Web Hosting
Senior System Administrator
May 2011 – Feb 2016 (4 yrs 10 mos)
Location Boulder, Colorado (Remote)
- Maintaining the overall system health of servers
- Answering customer calls and tickets
- Assisted in billing issues
- Created an internal control panel (SquidPanel) to manage customers and billing information
- Migrated all clients from legacy bare-metal servers to our cloud platform
- Managing cloud and legacy customer accounts
- Helping customers get set up with WordPress and offering suggestions to what they need to do next to get their site going in a manner that suits them best
Agilysys
Senior Support Technician
Jan 2008 – May 2011 (3 yrs 5 mos)
Location Las Vegas, Nevada Area
- Troubleshoot and research issues for customers via phone and email support
- Maintain Revelation software installations on Agilysys and Self Hosted Windows 2000/2003 servers
- Installation of Windows XPe terminals that interfaced with the Windows Server
- Troubleshoot customer network installations
- Programmed a custom internal ticketing system to track employee stats
- In-depth journaling of customer calls for future reference in our tracking software
Shelby is one of the most thorough and intelligent individuals that I have had the privilege of working with. His attention to detail and drive for customer satisfaction are extremely impressive and I was fortunate enough to witness, on many occasions, his ability to remain calm and focused during high-pressure situations. His abilities are a rare and valuable combination in the Technology field which can benefit any organization.
Jeff Birchmeier – Technical Trainer/Sr. Application Support
I worked with Shelby for three years and was impressed by his initiative when spotting opportunities to improve office operations. When a need developed for our department to be able to quickly see the current workload of our co-workers Shelby created and maintained a web based solution to allow us to do just that. He did this while continuing to cover his normal workload and in doing so exemplified his dedication to a job well done.
Shane Kidd – Senior Project Manager
WordCamp Las Vegas
Lead Organizer
Dec 2011
Location Las Vegas, Nevada Area
Head organizer for WordCamp Las Vegas 2011
- Booked venue and after-party Locations
- Arranged hotel deals for attendees
- Placed orders for shirts, stickers, etc
- Gave an introduction to the first track of the morning
- Combed over speaker submissions
- Organized speaker dinner
- Planned/Executed speaker dinner; transportation
- Planned/Executed after-party for the event
WordCamp Las Vegas exceeded my expectations and the low key, informal atmosphere made the event comfortable and very enjoyable.
Brian Bourn – Bourn Creative
InMotion Hosting
System Administrator
Aug 2006 – Apr 2008 (1 yr 9 mos)
Location Greater Los Angeles Area
- Deploy in-house Asterisk-based VOIP phone system between multiple VPN connections.
- Manage and maintain over one-hundred shared and dedicated Linux servers
- Research and implement optimal Virtuozzo server configurations
- Handle tier-two escalation tickets and customer calls.
- Install operating systems and secure all servers placed in the Los Angeles datacenter
- Responsible for overlooking daily machine and network operations
I have worked with Shelby a couple time over the last few years and have always been impressed with his adaptability, technical knowledge, and good attitude. He is easy to work with and someone you can count on to get up in the middle of the night and head to the data center! He will also always bring energy and fun to a team.
Todd Robinson – President at BoldGrid, InMotion, HUB
Nightscaping
Director of Technological Communications
Aug 2005 – Aug 2006 (1 yr 1 mo)
Location Redlands, California
- Research and implementation of custom video and audio communication solutions for Windows,
- Macintosh and Linux platforms
- Maintain multiple internal and external websites running on various versions of Linux
- Increased security level on companies Slackware Linux mail and web server
- Brainstormed and implemented Internet/print marketing techniques
Liquid Web
System Administrator
Apr 2005 – Aug 2005 (5 mos)
Location Lansing, Michigan Area
- Managed and maintained over one thousand shared and dedicated Linux and Windows servers
- Performed customer support and billing calls
- Setup of Virtual servers on the Virtuozzo platform
CoreComm
Technical Support Representative
2001 – 2005 (4yrs)
Location East Lansing, Michigan
- Assisted Residential and Business customers with their Dialup/Cable Internet
- Troubleshoot email issues for all customers
- Sold and dispatched CoreComm Telephone service
In my tenure at CoreComm, perhaps no employee possessed more of a unique skill set than Shelby DeNike. I had the pleasure of working with Shelby on the Technical Support team, as well as managing him for several months. Shelby always managed to find creative ways to solve the customer’s problems in an efficient manner, and was able to integrate sales into his technical support skill set as well. As you can see by his career progression, Shelby would make a valuable addition to any team he joins.
Shane Brion, MBA, MSF – Support Manager
Shelby was a very fast learner at CoreComm. He taught many co-workers quite a bit about technology and it wasn’t long before he became the ‘goto guy’ for advanced situations. A valuable asset on the team in Technical Support. Most memorable was Shelby’s demeanor and having fun on the job. He lightened the mood on many situations and it was contagious to those around him. Someone who helped this cranky guy crack a smile once in a while. Thanks Shelby. My 2nd most memorable moment of working with Shelby at CoreComm was the day he came in the office with an lcd screen from a laptop in a picture frame. This was multiple years prior to the e-frames we see today. I remember thinking, “This kid’s got talent”. He didn’t disappoint. I’d recommend Shelby for any position that requires a high degree of technical knowledge and also for any team that needs a true team player that will bring a positive atmosphere to his surroundings.
Joseph Zanti – Director of Operations