Rene

My name is Rene Ramirez. I love to tinker with technology — born in '96, the same year Nintendo dropped the N64 in Japan. I was born in Mexico, grew up in the SF Bay Area, and still live out here.

After dropping out of college I learned to program at 42 — a school where you learn from your peers, and was lucky enough to meet amazing people from every corner of the world. From there I started my own IT company which lasted about 2 years, but then I got roped into the corporate world, learning AI and making amazing stuff with it.

How I got here

30 years
  1. the '90s
  2. 1996

    born in Mexico City

    meanwhile in 1996: Pokémon Red & Green launches in Japan — Nintendo accidentally invents a generation's obsession.
  3. the '00s
  4. 2004

    moved to the SF Bay Area

    meanwhile in 2004: Facebook quietly boots up in a Harvard dorm room. Nobody yet knows what they've made.
  5. the '10s
  6. 2013

    spent 3 months on liver disease research at UCSF

    meanwhile in 2013: Grand Theft Auto V shatters every entertainment release record — $800M on day one.
  7. 2014

    graduated high school

    meanwhile in 2014: Buckets of ice water cascade across the internet for ALS. It actually works.
  8. 2015

    dropped out of college

    meanwhile in 2015: Star Wars: The Force Awakens revives the franchise; lightsabers light up every screen.
  9. 2016

    found 42 and started learning to code

    meanwhile in 2016: Pokémon Go drags everyone outside — even into other people's lawns.
  10. 2017

    hired at 42 as event coordinator

    meanwhile in 2017: A total solar eclipse cuts an arc across America. For two minutes the country looks up at the same thing.
  11. the '20s
  12. 2020

    COVID. 42 closes its US doors. I start trying to infiltrate the tech industry.

    meanwhile in 2020: COVID-19 closes the world. Sourdough becomes a personality. Tiger King happens.
  13. 2021

    realized software engineering wasn't for me — pivoted to IT support

    meanwhile in 2021: Squid Game becomes the biggest Netflix debut ever; tracksuit chic ensues.
  14. 2022

    persistence paid off — opened my own IT services company

    meanwhile in 2022: ChatGPT launches on November 30. Three months later, everyone is on it.
  15. 2024

    desktop support at Mattson Technology

    meanwhile in 2024: Charli XCX's brat paints the entire summer apple green — lowercase title and all.
  16. 2025

    promoted to System Administrator

    meanwhile in 2025: Trump returns to the White House for a second term. *huge sigh*.
  17. 2026

    here. making it work, exploring new horizons.

    meanwhile in 2026: we don't know yet. but tune in for more.

Selected work

1 live · 3 reserved
  1. 01

    El Ruben's Tamales

    Hosting · dev · maintenance 2023 — ongoing

    Family business. Custom WordPress on a Dockerized stack I run from a closet in the Bay Area.

    https://elrubenstamales.com
    go to site elrubenstamales.com
  2. 02

    Reserved slot

    — · slot 2 · awaiting site
    — reserved —
    site coming drop the next project in src/data/projects.ts
    to be revealed
  3. 03

    Reserved slot

    — · slot 3 · awaiting site
    — reserved —
    site coming drop the next project in src/data/projects.ts
    to be revealed
  4. 04

    Reserved slot

    — · slot 4 · awaiting site
    — reserved —
    site coming drop the next project in src/data/projects.ts
    to be revealed

Professional

Download resume

By day I'm a System Administrator at Mattson Technology in Fremont — automating the boring stuff, locking down endpoints across 5 countries, and keeping the team from drowning in repetitive tickets. Got here by way of five years in IT: starting on the wire in Vegas, running my own consulting company through hundreds of network upgrades, then climbing into the corporate sysadmin chair.

5+
years in IT
95%
less provisioning time
50+
sites refreshed
15h
saved per week

Experience

System Administrator
Mattson Technology · Fremont, CA
Jan 2025 — Present
  • Zero-touch deploys.

    Built the system that sets up a brand-new Windows laptop with all its apps, settings, and policies automatically when someone logs in for the first time — cut provisioning from 5 hours to 15 minutes.

    Windows Autopilot + Intune, department-specific configs pushed at first sign-in.

  • Endpoint security, 5 countries.

    Designed 50+ security policies in Intune that lock down work laptops and stop company data from leaking, applied across our offices in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and India.

    Replaced legacy Group Policy with modern Intune DLP rules.

  • PowerShell automation.

    Wrote scripts that keep user accounts in sync between the cloud and on-premise login systems automatically — saves the IT team about 15 hours every week.

    Microsoft Graph API + hybrid Entra ID ↔ on-prem Active Directory.

  • Drive encryption + internal tooling.

    Got 85%+ of company laptops encrypted (so a lost laptop isn't a security incident), and stood up a self-hosted wiki for the IT team — central spot for runbooks, status, and project tracking.

    BitLocker / LAPS rollout; replaced licensed wiki SaaS with self-hosted Wiki.js.

Desktop Support Technician
Mattson Technology · Fremont, CA
Nov 2024 — Jan 2025
  • Promoted to SysAdmin in 8 months.

    Kept 10–15 minute resolution times on 100+ tickets a month, and ran a 100-device hardware refresh — earned the promotion to System Administrator before the new year.

Lead IT Technician (founder)
Ramdel IT Services · SF Bay Area
Jan 2022 — Jan 2025
  • 50+ Grocery Outlet stores.

    Led network upgrades across 50+ Grocery Outlet locations — worked alongside corporate engineering to fine-tune Wi-Fi placement until connectivity complaints basically stopped.

    Cisco / Juniper APs, retroactive cable plant work.

  • Enterprise network gear.

    Deployed serious networking hardware for clients that can't be down — including JP Morgan Chase. Cisco Catalyst 9000s, Fortinet firewalls, Juniper, SonicWall.

  • Built a team.

    Hired and trained junior techs to scale project delivery while still personally handling Tier 1/2 support for key accounts like Marin Housing Authority.

IT Field Technician
AMG Tech Support · Las Vegas, NV
Mar 2020 — Mar 2022
  • Hands-on the wire.

    Pulled Cat5e/6 cable, installed demarc points (the wall jack where ISP service meets the building), and managed point-of-sale systems and enterprise hardware across 50+ retail and project sites.

Stack

Cloud & identity
IntuneEntra IDMicrosoft Graph APIActive DirectoryWindows Autopilot
Network
Cisco Catalyst 9000FortinetJuniperUbiquitiSonicWall
Scripting
PowerShellAnsibleBashDocker Compose
Self-hosted
Proxmox VETrueNASDockerCloudflareTwingate
Security
BitLockerLAPSDLPVLAN segmentationZero-trust access

Certifications

  • CompTIA A+ May 2023
  • Google IT Support Professional Feb 2021

Currently

Reading
Stephen King — 11/22/63 — just picked up an e-reader
Learning
AI · finance · whatever else won't stop
Building
this site. the rest is a moving target
Located
SF Bay Area

lost in the amount of knowledge I tie myself in.

Get in touch

Email's the surest path. LinkedIn for recruiters, GitHub for code conversations, and the rest of the platforms — the music, the photos — live on the B-side.

music

music

music that will make you groove

live sets on twitch when the light's on. mixes on every platform that let me have the name — same person, three spellings, depending on who got there first. all of it built on the rig below: a pair of HS8s in the corner, Ableton on the screen, hands on a Push.

psychosaucequatch /psychosassquatch /psychosasquatch

In the rack 7

  • Ableton Live 12
    DAW ·the brain
  • Yamaha HS8 (pair, black)
    studio monitors ·sound that doesn't lie
  • Ableton Push 2
    control surface ·play it like an instrument
  • Ableton Move
    portable groovebox ·sketch ideas on the couch
  • Apollo Twin X
    audio interface ·clean preamps, low latency
  • Rode NT1
    condenser mic ·vocals + sources
  • Arturia KeyLab Essential 49
    MIDI controller ·keys for melody work

Wishlist 3

  • Arturia AstroLab 37
    stage synth ·stage-ready hardware
  • Universal Audio Sphere DLX
    modeling mic ·classic mics emulated in one
  • VST plug-ins
    software ·always more.
https://psychosassquatch.com
go to site psychosassquatch.com
Gorillaz Inspired v2 2025-05-18 · music · 6 tracks
hold SPACE next channel · 1–4 jump · ←→ · ESC A-side