## Chris Malek

I am a San Diego, California-based Technology Consultant with over 25 years of experience automating and implementing software solutions for corporate and institutional clients. I have worked with large and medium-sized organizations to propose, design, and implement complex back-office automation projects. These projects reduce costs, improve workflow, generate higher-quality reporting, and increase operational efficiency. I am a technical consultant but have strong soft skills. Additionally, I can interact with all levels of management and end users to extract business requirements and recommend solutions.

# Work Experience

## Cedar Hills Group, Inc

Principle IT Consultant March 2003 - Present

I am currently an independent PeopleSoft Consultant providing solutions to corporate and higher education clients. As a consultant, I design and implement solutions that automate back-office ERP business processes.

### Notable Client Projects

• Streamlined Financial Aid Process: I was contracted by a higher education client to analyze, recommend, and implement a streamlined solution for a financial aid (FA) department.

  • The FA department was using a combination of paper-based forms and an outdated electronic system that was causing significant inefficiencies.
  • I led the project by working closely with directors, subject-matter experts, and front-line staff.
  • After several prototypes, iterations, and design meetings, a solution was designed and implemented to increase productivity and remove paper from the process.
  • The delivered solution provided a drastic increase in turnaround time for the FA Department. In the previous process, the lifecycle could take weeks.
  • In the new electronic system, staff could request forms from a student and receive them back in minutes.
  • This project resulted in significant cost savings and productivity gains as well as happier students and staff.

• PeopleSoft Connectors for LMS: I was contracted by a higher education System Integrator to design PeopleSoft connectors for a Software as a Service (SAAS) Learning Management System (LMS).

  • The LMS needed a tight integration with PeopleSoft to synchronize data.
  • I used my expertise to work with the PeopleSoft client and the system integrator to deliver a robust series of web services to expose the PeopleSoft database via a modern web API.
  • The key design challenge was to deliver a solution that ensured there were low support costs and a light technical footprint for the institution hosting the PeopleSoft system.
  • Additionally, the design had to allow the LMS SAAS application to evolve and be loosely coupled with the PeopleSoft system.
  • The integration supported over 22 community colleges in the state and processed thousands of messages in a day.
  • The project met the goals and is still playing a critical role at the institution.

• OKTA SSO Integration: I was contracted by a higher education client to integrate their OKTA Single Sign-on (SSO) Provider with their PeopleSoft infrastructure.

  • The OKTA product had no native integrations with PeopleSoft and exposed only a REST HTTP API.
  • The client needed the ability to provision and de-provision accounts, synchronize group memberships and personal data, as well as audit data.
  • I designed a configurable platform where the behavior of the integration could be set up and maintained by the staff.
  • This integration allowed for a flexible framework that can evolve with the institution.
  • The integrations automated a large aspect of the student and staff account life cycle.

• Modernized Admissions Process: I was contracted by a higher education client to improve their student application and admissions process.

  • The previous solution was dated and had many limitations. The admissions process involves many stakeholders from marketing, admissions, registrar, and financial aid.
  • The challenge was to design an admissions process that delivered a modern UI for the applicant that also satisfied the complex requirements of the stakeholders. Each group had specific needs.
    • The marketing department needed the ability to track the effectiveness of outreach efforts.
    • The Admission and Registrar departments required a high level of data integrity, auditability, and automation.
  • The project was rolled out successfully and manages the majority of student admissions into the institution.
  • The solution uses a responsive UI interface that allows for the input of their application data.
  • The back-end automation allows for the automatic vetting of the applicant and integration into the student management system.

• Automated Adjunct Payroll: I was contracted by a higher education client to improve their adjunct professor payroll process.

  • The design challenge was in the variations in different methods of pay.
  • The payment could vary depending on many aspects of the class like enrollment, teaching method, and seniority level of the instructor.
  • Additionally, the integrity of the data that feeds the payroll often had mistakes leading to incorrect pay and a complex process to determine if a class was paid incorrectly retroactively.
  • The institution had been using an Excel-based solution that opened the institution up to simple copy-and-paste mistakes as well as audit complexity and risk.
    • If a professor called to ask about their pay, the inquiry could take a large amount of a payroll expert’s time to search through various Excel spreadsheets to determine what was paid and piece together the calculation.
  • I worked with the subject-matter experts to understand the requirements and catalog the desired future state process.
  • I designed and implemented a configurable solution, where pay rules could be well-defined to properly automate the business logic and calculation.
  • The system would automatically calculate pay for the classes.
  • Additionally, when data entry mistakes were corrected in the upstream data, the payroll system would automatically look back and make retroactive payroll adjustments.
  • The new system allowed for payroll inquiries to be looked up by the professor in their portal.
  • Additionally, the audit risk was decreased by several orders of magnitude as protections were put into place to flag transactions that fell outside the rules.

• Enhanced HR Benefits Enrollment: I was contracted by a client to improve their HR benefits enrollment process for new hires, terminations, position changes, and open enrollment.

  • The client had been using an inefficient paper-based process. The benefits Department wanted an electronic workflow that helped automate a complex, tedious, and error-prone process.
  • The client had different groups of employees who all qualified under different eligibility rules and coverage ranges.
  • I designed a system that would detect benefit eligibility and present employees and benefit administrators with screens to process and update benefit records.
  • The system would automatically detect if employee eligibility changed and generate workflow events in the system that could be completed by the employee or the administrator. This ensured that HR data was maintained properly and that employees received their eligible benefits promptly.
  • The project increased the data integrity in the system and decreased the amount of time for employees to be enrolled in benefits.

### Client List

Here is a list of clients I have worked directly with or who have been a part of a project I have worked on running software I wrote.

• AMN HealthCare
• Anadarko Petroleum
• Appsian
• Augusoft
• Cerritos College
• City College of Chicago
• City University of Seattle
• Coursedog
• Decision Desk
• Edvisorly
• Frederick Community College
• Glendale Community College
• Jones Lange LaSalle
• Lorain County Community College
• Los Angeles Community College District
• Los Rios Community College District
• Miracosta College
• Modern Campus
• N2N Services
• National University
• Northern Arizona University
• Option One Mortgage Corporation
• Palomar College
• San Diego Community College District
• The City University of New York
• The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
• The University of Alberta
• The University of Massachusetts System
• The Unversity of Utah
• Transocean (formerly GlobalSantaFe & Global Marine)
• University of Puget Sound
• University of Massachusetts System
• Virginia Community College System

## PeopleSoft Consulting USA

Technical Consultant

January 2000 - March 2003

I worked for PeopleSoft® in the consulting practice prior to the Oracle acquisition. I worked on various projects around the country doing all aspects of technical ERP implementations.

# Education

Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (1999)

The University of Texas at Austin

# Skills and Tools

• PeopleSoft ERP - Expert in all aspects of PeopleSoft Development
• Cloud
  • AWS, Google Cloud
• Products
  • OKTA Administration and Integration
• Programming Languages & Technology:
  • Go, Python, SAML, HTTP, REST API Design, SQL
• Areas of Current Technical Research & Interest:
  • Datastar, Hypermedia

# Additional Personal Information

• I love to learn new things and the challenge of solving complex problems.
• Interests - Surfing, Wing Foiling, Hiking, Reading, and Traveling
• Dream Vacation - Surfing from a yacht in warm water with my family
• Apps I use Daily:
  • NotePlan
  • VSCode
  • https://github.com/danielmiessler/fabric
• Recent Books
  • Nexus - Yuval Noah Harari
  • Endurance - Scott Kelly
  • Endurance - Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage - Alfred Lansing
  • The Laws of Human Nature - Robert Greene
  • Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari
  • I love Capitalism - Ken Langone
  • The Evolution of Everything - Matt Ridley
  • Skin in the Game - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • Leonardo Da Vinci - Walter Isaacson
  • Principles - Ray Dalio
  • Oryx and Crake - Margret Atwood
  • The Go Programming Language - Alan A. A. Donovan
  • The Rational Optimist - Matt Ridley
  • Super Intelligence - Nick Bostrom
  • Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. - Ron Chernow
  • Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike - Phil Knight
• Text Editor: VSCode - The amount of plugins are amazing!
• Favorite Podcasts
  • Software Engineering Daily
  • The Tim Ferris Show
  • Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History
  • Fresh Air
  • James Altucher Show
  • The Kevin Rose Show
  • This Week in Startups