About
A systems engineer who prefers the whole map.
I am Simon Lively. I work across disciplines because the difficult failures—and the useful solutions—rarely stay inside one.
I have spent more than a decade moving through enterprise operations, systems and network engineering, SaaS, cloud, identity, automation, and security engineering. That progression shaped how I work: start from the person or business outcome, follow the dependencies, and keep going until the system makes sense.
I am comfortable moving between architecture and implementation, between a technical team and a business stakeholder, and between an immediate incident and the operating model that should prevent its return.
What I value
- Evidence over theater.
- Clear ownership over ticket routing.
- Practical security over performative control.
- Automation with guardrails and human judgment.
- Documentation that preserves decisions, not just screenshots.
- Privacy by design.
Professional work and the lab
My professional experience is described at a high level to respect employers, clients, colleagues, and confidential environments. Personal and lab projects are labeled explicitly; they are places to learn, test architecture, and build practical systems outside professional engagements.