Brent Leekley

CCIE #24221 network architect with 15+ years designing, building, and automating enterprise networks at statewide scale across campus, data center, wireless, and WAN. I turn complex routing, VXLAN-EVPN, and SD-Access designs into zero-downtime migrations, backed by a Python automation practice (Netmiko, PyATS, Batfish, Jinja2) that replaces vendor tooling. U.S. Navy veteran.

Core Competencies

Network Architecture: Data Center (ACI / VXLAN-EVPN) · Campus & SD-Access

Wireless (Catalyst 9800 / Center) · SD-WAN / DMVPN / SASE / SSE

Routing: BGP / OSPF / EIGRP / MPLS / RIFT · Cisco ISE / Zero Trust / NAC

Multi-OEM: Cisco · Juniper · Palo Alto · NVIDIA

Automation & Platforms: Python · Ansible · Netmiko · PyATS · Batfish · CML

NETCONF / RESTCONF · Jinja2 templating · Catalyst Center

Nexus / Catalyst / UCS · VMware NSX / vSphere / HCI

AI/ML Networking & GPU Fabric · POC / ATC Lab Design

Professional Experience

Regional Principal Solutions ArchitectFebruary 2022 – Present

Trace3 Government (formerly Zivaro) — Denver, CO

Architected and led a statewide 70-location Cisco Catalyst hardware refresh for Colorado OIT, building an offline automation pipeline (Netmiko, Pydantic, Jinja2, Batfish, PyATS) to replace vendor tooling and ensure zero-downtime brownfield onboarding into Catalyst Center.
Designed and delivered large-scale Cisco Catalyst 9800 wireless migrations for Colorado state hospital campuses (CDHS), integrating Cisco ISE, Catalyst Center, and third-party systems across multi-vendor deployments.
Design Cisco-centric reference architectures for campus, data center, wireless, and WAN across public-sector and Fortune 1000 accounts, translating business objectives into validated network designs.
Lead complex network transformation engagements end to end (design, BOM, migration planning), contributing to a 75% retention improvement and ~15% client infrastructure cost reduction.
Mentor junior engineers and drive thought leadership through technical documentation, design workshops, and vendor partner events.

Solutions ArchitectMarch 2021 – February 2022

Marco Technologies, Inc. — St. Cloud, MN

Designed a Cisco ISE-as-a-Service solution for a higher-education institution — 802.1X NAC and secure BYOD onboarding across 50+ campus buildings.
Deployed Palo Alto NGFW with Panorama for a state government agency, unifying security policy enforcement across multiple sites.

Principal Solutions Architect — Data Center / Enterprise Networking2014 – 2021

Crossconnect Engineering, Inc. (Cisco Gold Partner) — Colorado Springs, CO

Lead data center and enterprise networking architect for Fortune 500 / S&P 500 clients.
VXLAN-EVPN programmable fabric: greenfield NX-API fabric (Ansible-orchestrated, BGP EVPN control plane, multi-site DCI) for a Fortune 500 electronics company.
Cisco ACI: greenfield ACI fabric with UCS compute and NetApp all-flash for an S&P 500 real-estate trust, from architecture through production cutover.
Hyperconverged: Cisco UCS HyperFlex across a primary DC and 20+ ROBO sites.

Post-Sales Implementation Engineer / Network Consultant2012 – 2014

ISC Inc. (now Venture Technologies) — Englewood, CO

Designed enterprise routing and Cisco UCS data center solutions for public-sector clients (Nexus 7K/5K/2K, UCS Fabric Interconnects, Catalyst 6500).
Led DC migration with Cisco Nexus + EMC VMAX + OTV for the nation's largest emergency air-medical provider.
Designed perimeter security, remote-access VPN, and internet WAN (ASA, IKEv2, DMVPN); coordinated ARIN BGP ASN and IPv4/IPv6 PI allocations.

Network Engineer / Consultant2007 – 2012

IntelePeer · Long View Systems · Cricket Communications · Qwest — Denver, CO

MPLS VPN transport for Colorado state agencies, including the State Capitol LAN modernization (IOS-XR 9000, L2/L3 VPNs).
Converged MPLS campus/service-provider design for Denver International Airport (NOC ops, IP multicast, IGP/BGP).
IPv6 deployment scoping for Cricket's enterprise core (LTE markets); Tier-3 support for a 1,500-node MPLS network across 350+ sites.

Certifications

Expert

CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure #24221 — Cisco (2009)
CCIE Automation — Cisco (in progress)

Cisco — Enterprise & Data Center

CCNP Enterprise · CCNP Data Center
Specialist — Enterprise Core; Advanced Infrastructure Implementation
Specialist — Data Center Core; Data Center Operations
Specialist — Enterprise Wireless Design; Wireless Implementation
CCNA · AUTOCOR (in progress)
Cisco Modeling Labs · Python Essentials 1

AI Infrastructure & Pre-Sales

Cisco Black Belt — Secure AI Factory Pre-Sales (Stage 1)
Cisco Black Belt — AI-Ready Infrastructure Pre-Sales (Stage 2)
NVIDIA InfiniBand Administration · NVIDIA UFM
Cisco Black Belt — Catalyst Center Support (Stage 2); Support (Stage 1)
Copilot Studio Agent Academy — Global AI Community

Data Center, Storage & Virtualization

VMware Cloud Foundation Pre-Sales — Certified Expert & Proven Professional (Broadcom)
Pure Storage — FlashArray Implementation Specialist; FlashArray & FlashBlade Architect Associate
Pure Storage — Technical Sales Professional; Partner SE Bootcamp; Platform Positioning
Rubrik Technical Professional (RTP)

Security & Governance

AI Security & Governance Certified — Securiti AI
Concentric AI Data Security Specialist
CISA Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPG 2.0)
Blue Team Summit 2025 — Antisyphon

Cloud, Wireless, Sales & Business Analysis

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Ekahau ECSE Design · CompTIA Network+
IIBA Member (Business Analysis)
Ericsson & Cradlepoint Certified Sales Associate

Verification at linkedin.com/in/brent-leekley

Professional Summary