David Norman, Ph.D.
I manage cloud server infrastructure. I like to focus on projects that heavily rely on Ansible and AWS.
Previously
Application configuration, web application architecture and deployment, IT management, and Drupal development. I'm also the author of the Norman keyboard layout and discoverer of the prime number 366216162^65536+1.
Experience
Datavant
Senior Systems Engineer • June, 2016 — Present
Work in devops, security, and infrastucture roles to design the secure hosting environment of medical records storage and retrieval systems for ~60% of the United States' medical records.
- Unify and de-duplicate corporate IT infrastructure tools from M&A activity.
- Perform datacenter migrations between AWS, Azure, and VMWare-based datacenters.
- Achieved 99% compliance with several cloud configuration compliance frameworks including CIS, HITRUST, NIST-CSF, FedRAMP, AWS Well-Architected Framework, and Azure Architecture Framework.
- Write proprietary Ansible roles, Terraform plans, Github Actions worfklows, and Jenkins pipelines for systems management of Microsoft, Java, and Python-based applications.
Pegasystems
Security Analyst • June, 2015 — June 2016
Inspected security measures for the protection of Ruby-based, AWS-hosted web application and IT environments. Monitored and analyzed security controls, reviewed vulnerabilities, maintained and enforced security policies, and performed risk assessments.
- Established vulnerability management program based on Tenable SecurityCenter.
- Wrote policies and technical configuration documents to align with security standards and European privacy regulations.
- Performed internal audits of cloud and IT infrastructure.
- Drafted major components of the company’s yearly risk assessment.
- Created Ansible playbooks to bootstrap Ubuntu-based Vagrant environments.
Imagine Print Solutions
Web Development • Sept, 2007 — Jun, 2015
Developed, tested, deployed, supported and maintained custom Drupal websites for Fortune 50 customers, including banks and retail firms.
- Designed and wrote web-based software to direct collation of printed items and kitting plans for shipping.
- Setup and configured end-to-end continuous integration using Jenkins for an Ubuntu-based environment.
- Trained developers on existing processes and web applications used for print manufacturing.
- Wrote policies and procedures for compliance with ISO 27001, HIPAA HITECH, and PCI-DSS.
Quality Rater • Dec, 2006 — Dec, 2007
Help train the Google Pagerank engine to show timely and accurate results.
Advanced Automation Inc
Director of Instructional Technology • Aug, 2003 — Jul, 2006
Collaborated with executives, sales, and support departments to develop online training curicullum for hundreds of insurance agencies.
- Managed server infrastructure for delivery of virtual sales meetings, dynamic web-based training, and interactive inter-agency information sharing.
- Responsible for remotely diagnosing IT problems and making repairs.
- Trained employees on new IT infrastructure as needed.
The University of Texas at Tyler
Computer Lab Sysadmin • Feb, 2002 — Jun, 2003
Responsible for operation of 3 campus computer labs. Monitored and updated software on student email, Blackboard (web courseware), and Snort-based, OpenBSD network traffic monitoring servers. Trained computer lab staff. Performed hardware inventory audits. Configured centralized antivirus updating and reports.
Education
University of Central Florida
Doctor of Philosophy, Instructional Technology
Master of Science, Management Information Systems
The University of Texas at Tyler
Bachelor of Business Administration, General Business
Certifications
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
ISC2, Jan 2014 — Jan 2026
Information Systems Security Architecture Professional (ISSAP)
ISC2, Apr 2014 — Jun 2025
Terraform Associate
Hashicorp, 2024 — 2026
AWS Certified Security - Specialty
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Feb 2019 — Jan 2026
Azure Security Engineer Associate
Microsoft, Feb 2020 — Feb 2026
Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP)
ISC2, Sep 2013 — Jun 2025
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Jun 2017 — May 2023
Certified Information Privacy Technologist (CIPT)
IAPP, Sept 2015 — Aug 2025
AWS Certififed DevOps Engineer - Professional
Amazon Web Services (AWS), May 2020 — May 2023
Azure Fundamentals
Microsoft, Feb 2020
Drupal 7 Back-end Specialist
Acquia, Nov 2014
Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
Cisco, Jan 2005 — Jan 2008
Zend Certified Engineer
Perforce Zend, Jan 2006
Amateur Radio Operator
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 2021 — 2031
General Mobile Radio Service
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 2021 — 2031
Legal Expense, Life, Health & Annuity Agent
Florida Department of Financial Services, Jan 2004 — Jan 2006
Wilderness First Aid
APA Emergency Care and Safety Institute, Aug 2019 — Mar 2026
Swimming and Water Rescue
Scouting America, Sept 2022
Adult and Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AED
American Red Cross, Feb 2023 — Feb 2005
Recognition
The President's Lifetime Achievement Award
AmeriCorps • 2024
In recognition of more than 4000 hours of unpaid acts of volunteer service benefitting others.
Amateur Radio Service to Scouting Award
American Radio Relay League (ARRL) • 2024
In recognition of promoting Amateur Radio through the Scouting America program.
Community Organization Award
Scouting America • 2024
Recognition of Scouters for voluntary service and achievement to Scouting youth in the community.
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. Award
Civil Air Patrol • 2023
The Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. Award is presented to senior members who successfully complete the second level of professional development. Members must complete the technical training required for the Leadership Award and must also attend Squadron Leadership School.
Brigadier General Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager Aerospace Education Achievement Award
Civil Air Patrol • 2023
Crisis Service Award
Civil Air Patrol • 2021
CAP Crisis Service Ribbon was established to recognize the CAP membership during periods when the entire organization was under significant stress responding to a lengthy, nationwide emergency.
District Award of Merit
Scouting America • 2021
Etowah District, Northeast Georgia Council - for service of an outstanding nature at the district level.
Scouter's Training Award
Scouting America • 2019
Recognition for training, tenure, participation, and performance as a Scout leader.
Den Leader Training Award
Scouting America • 2018
Recognition of den leaders who have completed training, tenure, and performance requirements.
James E. West Fellowship
Scouting America • 2018
As designated by the Northeast Georgia Council in honor of Wood Badge S9-101-35.
Recognition of Merit for Service
University of Central Florida • 2006
Provided complementary instructional technology consulting to Hospice of the Comforter in Orlando, FL.
Honorary Sea Aggie
Texas A&M University at Galveston • 1999
In recognition of research I performed of common contaminates in various watersheds in Southeast Texas and their impact on water-borne macro-invertebrate populations.
Eagle Scout
Scouting America • 1995
Eagle Scout project was to install permanent benches at the observation marsh area for the Lady Bird trail of Armand Bayou Nature Center in Pasadena, Texas. The benches survived until ~2023 before a routine flood finally destroyed them.
Projects
Norman Keyboard Layout
Primary Designer • 2012 — Present
Creator of the Norman keyboard layout, which is now widely used and included as an alternative in the Linux xkeyboard library.
Guardr
Co-Founder & Developer • 2012 — 2015
Guardr is a Drupal distribution with a combination of modules and settings to enhance a Drupal application's security and availability to meet enterprise security requirements.
Thatware
Founder & Developer • 1998 — 2005
I wrote my own Slashdot clone in PHP, which was superseded by the superior speed and feature-set of Drupal.
Volunteering
Scouting America
Scoutmaster, District Member-at-Large • Jun, 2018 — Present
Plan and chair activities run by volunteers in a 3-county area, including camps, lock-ins, workshops, leadership training, target sports, career exploration days, and Eagle rank boards of review.
Civil Air Patrol
Communications Officer • Nov, 2021 — Present
As part of the Forsyth County Cadet Squadron.
NTP Pool Project
NTP pool server host • Apr, 2012 — Feb, 2023
Hosted a stratum 2 time server in the pool for us.pool.ntp.org.
OpenNIC
Tier 2 server host • May, 2012 — Jul, 2013
I hosted an open resolver DNS server on the OpenNIC network until it was abused in DoS reflection attacks.
Local Church, Cumming, GA
Financial Peace University Table Leader • Oct, 2014 — Apr, 2019
Financial Peace University is a class taught by Dave Ramsey on video. It teaches a way of handling personal finances. I helped the class participants with some of my experience going through Ramsey's baby steps to get rid of debt, manage money, and spend and save wisely.
Drupal
Project contibutor • Mar, 2001 — ~2015ish
I contributed core patches, modules, installation profiles, themes, documentation, automated testing, and reviewed project applications. I had elevated privileges on https://www.drupal.org to help people with the management of pages, input filter settings, ownership of projects, and approval for people to commit as "vetted" users to the git repositories hosed by Drupal.
Summer of Code mentor • Jan, 2009 — Jan, 2011
Mentor high school-aged kids mentoring and a stipend as incentive to get involved with Open Source project. Included mentoring for the ultimate LaTeX module for Drupal by Daniel Gutekunst and Validation API Module for JS/PHP by Craig Jackson (TapocoL).