Aaron
Pollock
I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from Wisconsin in 2008, chasing better weather and bigger problems to solve. Since then, I've built an IT practice for four very different companies, made lasting friendships, and found my wife along the way.
First was TierraCast — a manufacturer with no IT function when I arrived. I built one: upgraded the network, fixed the long-broken things, and coded their website. At 3VR I was the first IT hire; rolled out early collaboration tooling like Lync (which eventually became Teams) and rebuilt the network underneath. Jawbone expanded the scope to global — IPsec tunnels between US and China offices, HA VM clusters in the data center. Since 2016 I've owned IT at ThredUp, through growth, a pandemic, and an IPO.
Twenty years in, I still prefer the terminal.
The practice.
Deployments to date.
- →Run IT practice for a 2,200-person public company — 4 direct reports, 18 total — spanning 4 warehouses and 2 corporate offices (peaked at 6 warehouses).
- →Built the compliance and controls posture that carried ThredUp from private company through IPO.
- →Expanded cloud infrastructure from the ground up; brought structural organization to systems supporting 500 corporate and 2,000+ total endpoints.
- →Managed virtual hosts and network connectivity across 3 global offices (2 US, 1 China), including IPsec site-to-site VPN tunnels.
- →Operated dozens of hosts and HA-clustered servers in a colocated data center, as part of a 10-person IT team.
- →Expanded scope across enterprise systems — identity, storage, virtualization, networking — at real scale.
- →First IT hire: built the function solo, from servers and phones to end-user support.
- →Rolled out early unified-communications tooling — Microsoft Lync (which evolved into Teams) — well ahead of the curve.
- →Rebuilt server and network underpinnings as the company grew.
- →Joined a manufacturer with no existing IT function — built one from scratch, covering networking, servers, software, and support.
- →Coded and maintained the company website and online store end-to-end.
- →Configured Cisco and HP switches, routers, and access switches.
- →Created detailed network diagrams using Microsoft Visio, and then implemented them with new cabling and cabinets.
Field artifacts.
Created and hosted the website for Pete Holmes since 2016.
Coded the backend for the FilmFights website.
Website created to host animated GIFs for UniFi doorbells.
Coded the backend for a website to showcase contests for filmmakers to show off their skills and creativity.
Let’s talk shop.
Best reached by email. I reply fast to anything concrete — less so to “quick calls.” Good coffee recommendations especially welcome.