Zac Youngdale

Senior System Administrator · Full-Stack Developer · Bilingual (EN/FR)
Haliburton, Ontario, Canada · zac.youngdale@gmail.com

About Me

I’m a lifelong computer enthusiast with over a decade of hands-on experience keeping infrastructure running, systems modernized, and teams productive. I grew up in Haliburton, Ontario, and I’ve built my career at the intersection of deep technical skill and practical problem-solving — whether that means architecting a cloud migration, writing custom automation tools, or debugging a late-night server issue nobody else can crack.

My background spans two distinct but complementary worlds: enterprise IT administration and software development. On the IT side, I’ve spent years managing Windows and Linux environments, AWS infrastructure, VMware virtualization, Active Directory, and VoIP telephony systems. On the development side, I’ve shipped commercial video games, built business intelligence pipelines, and written custom tooling that saves teams hours of manual work every week.

I’m fluent in both English and French, and I bring that same bilingual mindset to technical communication — translating complex infrastructure concepts into plain language for stakeholders, and translating business needs back into actionable technical solutions.

What I Do

I specialize in keeping organizations running smoothly and moving forward. That means wearing a lot of hats: some days I’m architecting a cloud migration strategy, other days I’m deep in a PHP codebase fixing a WordPress issue, and some days I’m building a Tableau dashboard that helps leadership make better decisions. I enjoy the variety and I thrive in environments where no two days look exactly the same.

My technical toolkit is broad by design. I believe the best system administrators are also developers — and the best developers understand infrastructure. That dual perspective lets me build solutions that are not only functional but maintainable, scalable, and sensible to operate.

Experience

System Administrator

Patient News · 2016 – Present

Patient News is a healthcare marketing company, and as their System Administrator I’ve been the backbone of their IT operations for nearly a decade. I joined to help modernize an aging infrastructure and have since led some of the most significant technical transformations in the company’s history.

When I arrived, much of the company’s data and infrastructure lived on-premises. Over time, I architected and executed a full migration to a cloud-based hybrid model — enabling the organization to embrace flexible, remote-first work without sacrificing security or reliability. This wasn’t just a lift-and-shift; it required rethinking how people work, what they need access to, and how to keep everything running through the transition.

One of the largest single projects I led was a complete overhaul of the company’s telephone infrastructure — replacing the legacy POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) with a modern VoIP platform. This involved vendor evaluation, system design, staff training, and a phased rollout that kept the phones ringing throughout.

Day-to-day, I manage a diverse environment: Windows and Linux servers, AWS cloud services, VMware virtualization, and Active Directory. I handle everything from the IT support desk to long-term infrastructure planning. I also administer the company’s VoIP systems and have built out integrations that make communication smoother across the organization.

On the development side, I’ve become the go-to person for business intelligence. I design and maintain Tableau dashboards and Python-based reporting pipelines that give leadership and operations teams clear visibility into the data they need. I also built a custom C# tool that automates the processing of thousands of client mailing lists — a task that used to take hours now runs in minutes.

I additionally manage the company’s web presence, maintaining and developing PHP-based sites on both WordPress and Drupal.

Key contributions:

• Architected and executed a full on-premises-to-cloud migration, enabling hybrid and remote work at scale
• Led a company-wide POTS-to-VoIP phone system replacement from vendor selection through go-live
• Built Tableau and Python BI dashboards that are now central to operational reporting
• Developed a C# Excel automation tool that processes thousands of client lists with minimal manual input
• Administer Windows Server, Linux, AWS, VMware, Active Directory, and VoIP infrastructure daily
• Develop and maintain WordPress and Drupal websites in PHP

Unreal Engine 4 C++ Programmer

Attainable Entertainment · 2016 – 2017

Attainable Entertainment was an indie game studio working on Detective, to the Office — a puzzle-adventure game built in Unreal Engine 4. I joined as a C++ and Blueprints programmer, responsible for implementing the core gameplay systems that brought the game’s detective mechanics to life.

Working in Unreal Engine at a small studio meant wearing multiple hats. Beyond writing gameplay code in C++ and wiring up logic in Blueprints, I contributed to game and puzzle design — helping shape the moment-to-moment experience players would have. I also handled DevOps responsibilities, managing the build pipeline and ensuring the team could iterate quickly and confidently.

The studio closed in 2017, but the experience gave me deep exposure to professional game development workflows, real-time systems programming, and the unique challenges of shipping interactive software under tight constraints.

Responsibilities:

• Gameplay and systems programming in C++ and Unreal Engine Blueprints
• Game and puzzle design, contributing to the overall player experience
• DevOps administration, including build pipelines and version control

Unity C# Programmer

House Hippo Games · 2015 – 2016

House Hippo Games was a small independent studio where I served as the primary C# programmer on In The Grey, a game I worked on from pre-production all the way through to completion. Being the sole programmer on a project like this is an immense responsibility — and an incredible learning experience.

I was responsible for every line of gameplay code in the project. That meant implementing the core mechanics players interacted with, building the internal tools the rest of the team used to author content, writing the animation state machines and controller logic, and developing the AI systems that governed non-player character behaviour. It was a full-stack game development role in the truest sense of the phrase.

Responsibilities:

• Core gameplay systems programming in Unity C#
• Internal tooling and editor extensions for the content team
• Character animation controllers and state machine logic
• AI behaviour systems for non-player characters

Editor-in-Chief

Haliburton Highlands Secondary School · 2011 – 2013

For two consecutive years, I served as Editor-in-Chief of the HHSS yearbook — a role that was equal parts creative direction, project management, and people management. I was responsible for the overall look and feel of the publication, coordinating a team of contributors, managing the photography, recruiting local advertisers to fund the project, and ensuring everything came together on deadline.

It was my first real taste of leading a team toward a shared creative goal, and it gave me an appreciation for the organizational discipline that makes creative projects actually ship.

Education

Graduate Certificate — Game Development: Advanced Programming

Sheridan College · 2015 – 2016

Sheridan’s advanced game development program is one of the most rigorous in Canada, and it gave me a deep foundation in the systems-level thinking that underpins both game development and software engineering more broadly. The curriculum covered real-time graphics programming with OpenGL, AI algorithm design, multiplayer networking, and professional-grade engine architecture in both C++ and Unity C#.

The program culminated in a full semester dedicated entirely to a capstone project — a complete game developed from concept through ship, applying everything learned across the program in a real production environment.

Coursework included: Game Architecture (C++), Computer Graphics (OpenGL/C++), AI for Games, Gameplay Programming 1 & 2 (Unity C#), Multiplayer & Online Services, Mobile & Console Games, Game Tools & Data-Driven Design, Game Engine Fundamentals, Game Project Management.

Diploma — Computer Programming & Administration

Sheridan College · 2013 – 2015

This two-year diploma program gave me a comprehensive foundation in both software development and IT administration — the combination that has defined my career ever since. I studied object-oriented programming in Java, Linux and Windows server administration, database design and implementation, networking fundamentals (routers and switches), and enterprise web development with .NET and C#.

The program also covered project management methodology (PMP framework), systems analysis and design, and mobile web application development — rounding out a broad and practical skill set that I’ve drawn on every day since graduating.

Coursework included: OOP 1 & 2 (Java), Linux/Unix Administration, Windows Server Administration, Database Design & RDBMS, Data Network Design (Routers & Switches), Web Services (.NET/C#), IT Project Management (PMP), Systems Analysis & Design, Mobile Web Applications, Enterprise Java Development.

Skills

References available upon request.