Systems Engineer Final Report¶
1. Summary¶
During my internship at Mohawk Northeast, Inc., a Department of Defense subcontractor, I served as the sole IT administrator responsible for managing approximately 125 users across a hybrid on-premises and cloud environment (Mohawk.local domain and mohawknortheast.com tenant). Over the course of the internship, I built significant portions of the company’s IT environment largely from scratch, including a help desk platform, a company intranet portal, a centralized logging/SIEM solution, and modern device management infrastructure, while also handling day-to-day systems administration and supporting the organization’s CMMC compliance efforts across three company locations.
This work spanned identity and device management (Intune/Autopilot, Entra ID, Active Directory), IT service management (ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus), security monitoring (ManageEngine Log360), internal web application development (a Power Pages/Power Apps/Dataverse-based intranet), server administration, and vendor evaluation. Based on this work, company leadership has expressed intent to bring me on full-time after graduation.
2. Key Points and Projects¶
Work Connect - Company Intranet Portal¶
Built and migrated a Power Pages intranet portal (workconnect.mohawknortheast.com) from a development environment to production.
Developed Power Automate flows for time-off approvals, a company events calendar, and user synchronization via the Microsoft Graph API.
Configured Dataverse table permissions and Entra ID authentication with custom web roles; managed ALM solution export/import between environments.
Diagnosed and resolved managed solution locks, hardcoded file references, expired client secrets, and missing production runtime solutions.
Built core features from scratch: a FullCalendar-based company events calendar (Power Automate HTTP flow → Dataverse), a passcode-gated HR section, a three-tier permission model (Public / company-code / Entra ID), and a Dataverse-backed Announcements system with image attachments via the Dataverse Web API.
Managed the full user lifecycle for the portal: External Identity records, web roles, and Entra ID identity provider configuration; troubleshot invite redemption issues.
Built a Power Apps canvas app (Onboarding Canvas App) to manage new-employee records in Dataverse, including gallery selection architecture and multi-select Choice column handling.
Authored management-facing documentation: site architecture, permission model, a company intranet access guide, and the WorkConnect launch announcement.
Device Management - Intune/Autopilot/M365 Licensing¶
Led extended troubleshooting of Hybrid Entra Join, including ODJ Connector configuration on a member server, dynamic Entra group rules, and the Enrollment Status Page.
Deployed applications via Intune, including Chrome, Microsoft 365 Apps, CrowdStrike Falcon, Duo, and Zoho Desk.
Identified missing Entra ID P1 licensing as the key blocker preventing automatic MDM enrollment.
Evaluated Microsoft 365 Business Premium against Office 365 E3 for ~125 seats as a cost-effective path to close licensing gaps for Autopilot, Conditional Access, and MDM enrollment.
Deployed an Edge startup URL policy via the Intune Settings Catalog, resolving ADMX Central Store access issues.
Delivered the initial Intune rollout: Company Portal branding, PowerShell/Win32-based printer deployment, Windows Update rings, and MDM/GPO conflict resolution.
SIEM Research and Deployment¶
Deployed and configured ManageEngine Log360 (both cloud and on-premises) across ESXi hosts, Meraki firewalls, Synology NAS devices, and network switches.
Troubleshot syslog forwarding and ongoing agent health monitoring.
Worked with CrowdStrike’s next gen SIEM across the entire environment
ServiceDesk Plus - IT Help Desk Platform¶
Stood up ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus with Microsoft 365 OAuth/Graph email integration.
Configured Entra app registrations for inbound/outbound mail, resolved SMTP AUTH tenant restrictions, and evaluated SDP Cloud.
Built automation so the HR new-employee request form auto-generates a second request to the CUI manager for training/certification when a CUI checkbox is selected.
Systems Administration & IT Operations¶
Administered Active Directory: resolved Exchange ActiveSync child object deletion issues, wrote Python/ldap3 scripts to audit inactive accounts, and managed the AD user/computer object lifecycle.
Stood up a Windows Server 2025 RDS terminal server for HeavyJob (HCSS construction management software); used Procmon to trace a missing network drive mapping and resolved it with Group Policy Preference drive mappings.
Resolved a range of operational issues: BSOD/hardware failures (including a MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION), NVMe SSD data recovery guidance, OWA Error 440, DHCP/networking issues on domain-joined machines, and remote wallpaper deployment via PowerShell Remoting.
Migrated a virtual machine from VMware to Hyper-V, diagnosing and resolving an inaccessible boot device error on a Gen 1 Windows Server 2016 guest (IDE controller placement and Hyper-V storage driver fixes).
Authored a vendor comparison proposal evaluating Mimecast, Barracuda, and KnowBe4.
Prepared a formal business justification and market data to support a pay-rate adjustment request to HR, reflecting a transition from intern to part-time technical contributor.
3. Skills to Add to Resume¶
Identity & Device Management¶
Microsoft Intune & Windows Autopilot — app deployment, Settings Catalog policies, Enrollment Status Page, MDM licensing analysis
Microsoft Entra ID — Hybrid Entra Join, dynamic groups, Conditional Access licensing, identity providers
Active Directory administration — user/computer lifecycle management, Group Policy (GPO/GPP), scripting-based auditing
Microsoft 365 administration — licensing strategy (E3 vs. Business Premium), Exchange, OWA troubleshooting
Systems & infrastructure¶
Windows Server administration — Server 2016/2025, Remote Desktop Services (RDS)
Virtualization — VMware to Hyper-V migration, storage/boot troubleshooting
Networking & diagnostics — DHCP, syslog, Procmon-based root cause analysis
PowerShell scripting — PSRemoting, Group Policy automation
Python scripting — LDAP automation (ldap3) for account auditing
Application & Platform Development¶
Microsoft Power Platform — Power Pages, Power Apps (canvas apps), Power Automate, Dataverse
Microsoft Graph API integration — user sync, OAuth-based email integration
Web application permissions & authentication design — tiered access models, Entra ID-based auth
Security & IT Service Management¶
SIEM deployment — ManageEngine Log360 across servers, firewalls, NAS, and network switches
IT Service Management (ITSM) — ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus deployment and workflow automation
Security vendor evaluation — email security/anti-phishing platform comparison (Mimecast, Barracuda, KnowBe4)
CMMC compliance support — remediation work across multiple company locations
Professional Skills¶
CO IT ownership — One of two administrators for a ~125-user hybrid environment
Technical documentation — architecture guides, access policies, business justification writing
Vendor & business analysis — cost/licensing comparisons, proposal writing
OSHA 10 Construction