Lucas Elzinga
Senior Systems Engineer | Lab Infrastructure & Technical Lead
Lab infrastructure engineer with 13+ years supporting Microsoft datacenter and engineering lab environments as a contractor. Experienced in leading day-to-day lab infrastructure operations across server deployment, networking, liquid cooling, hardware validation, capacity planning, and system troubleshooting. I combine hands-on systems engineering with automation, dashboards, internal tooling, and cross-team coordination to keep complex pre-production environments reliable, available, and ready for engineering validation.
Experience
Senior System Engineer
Microsoft Lab Services / WCS - Wipro (Redmond, WA)
- Support large-scale HPC and pre-production hardware testing environments, keeping critical systems online, healthy, and available so engineering teams can qualify and validate new platforms before production deployment
- Deploy, integrate, and support high-density NVIDIA and AMD accelerated compute platforms, including H100, GB200, and GB300 systems, with hands-on experience in rack bring-up, hardware validation, power, networking, system readiness, and troubleshooting across CPUs, GPUs, memory, firmware, BIOS, iLO, iDRAC, and OpenBMC
- Support direct liquid cooling infrastructure including CoolIT and Vertiv CDUs, rack manifolds, hoses, quick disconnects, coolant loops, flow monitoring, leak investigation, and coordination of cooling infrastructure changes
- Coordinate lab operations and infrastructure work across engineering teams, Site Services, Facilities, networking, security, and other partners, including rack layouts, equipment deployments, asset inventory, port audits, capacity planning, spare hardware, and issue escalation
- Develop automation, dashboards, documentation, and standardized workflows using PowerShell, Python, Kusto, Power BI, Power Automate, and Microsoft Fabric to improve lab reliability, visibility, and operational efficiency
Senior Systems Engineer | APS Hardware & Automation
Microsoft - Wipro (Tukwila & Redmond, WA)
- Supported APS hardware and engineering lab environments across multiple sites, including server infrastructure, networking, power capacity, hardware readiness, and spare parts management
- Coordinated and performed system deployments, lab moves, and hardware relocations, including rack planning, physical installation, cabling, networking, power, system bring-up, and post-move validation
- Performed hardware validation, functional testing, build verification, and troubleshooting for new and existing system configurations through Azure Pipelines
- Managed firmware lifecycle activities across lab hardware, including upgrades, downgrades, configuration validation, troubleshooting, and maintaining required firmware revisions for test environments
- Developed and maintained PowerShell automation, Azure DevOps pipelines, and Power BI/Fabric reporting for hardware deployment, validation, diagnostics, data collection, vulnerabilities, and recurring lab operations
Senior Systems Engineer | APS Hardware & Automation
Microsoft - TCS (Redmond, WA)
- Supported APS hardware and lab infrastructure, diagnosing server, storage, firmware, and networking issues while maintaining system availability for engineering and validation work
- Deployed and relocated lab systems during infrastructure changes and lab moves, including rack installation, cabling, network connectivity, power, system bring-up, configuration, and validation
- Built and maintained Azure DevOps pipelines and PowerShell automation for firmware deployment, hardware diagnostics, system validation, build testing, provisioning, and data collection across multiple lab environments
- Performed remote and on-site firmware management and hardware troubleshooting, including firmware upgrades, downgrades, configuration validation, and maintaining required revision levels for testing and system qualification
- Investigated high-priority hardware and infrastructure issues across lab sites, coordinated with partner teams to restore affected systems, and created standardized configuration and troubleshooting procedures
Lab Engineer, Automation Specialist, & Full Stack Developer
Microsoft - HCL (Redmond, WA)
- Developed PowerShell automation for server provisioning, firmware reporting, and lab diagnostics, reducing repetitive manual work
- Designed an inventory system tracking power usage estimates and hardware status across multiple lab environments
- Developed the system validation component integrated into Analytical Platform Systems (APS) software and ran hardware certification test passes
- Created bare-metal deployment tooling with WDS, DHCP, MDT, Hyper-V, WinPE, and PowerShell, from PXE boot to production-ready systems
Lab Technician & Junior Software Developer
Microsoft - Xtreme (Redmond, WA)
- Built an ASP.NET ticketing system with time tracking, attachments, and reporting, plus a companion inventory app for hardware lifecycle tracking
- Extended lab tools with remote firmware reporting and WMI-based diagnostics, automating local and remote data collection
- Diagnosed and resolved Analytical Platform Systems (APS) deployment issues
Lab Technician
Microsoft - CompuCom (Redmond, WA)
- Racked, cabled, and configured Dell, HPE, and Quanta servers and set up Ethernet and Mellanox InfiniBand switch fabrics
- Coordinated lab expansion deployments and documented wiring and configuration procedures used by the team
- Performed bulk firmware upgrades using scripted rollout processes
Skills & Technologies
- Systems & HPC Infrastructure:
- HPC & Pre-Production Labs · Server Deployment & Integration · NVIDIA & AMD Accelerated Compute · Ethernet & InfiniBand · Power & Capacity Planning · PXE & Bare-Metal Deployment · Hyper-V · Hardware Validation
- Hardware, Firmware & Cooling:
- iLO / iDRAC / OpenBMC · BIOS & Firmware · Hardware Diagnostics · Liquid Cooling · CoolIT & Vertiv CDUs · Rack Integration · Flow & Cooling Monitoring · System Bring-Up
- Automation & Engineering:
- PowerShell · Python · Lab Automation · Azure DevOps · CI/CD Pipelines · WinPE / WDS / MDT · Firmware Automation · Power Automate
- Data, Tooling & Operations:
- Kusto · Power BI · Microsoft Fabric · C# / ASP.NET · TypeScript / SvelteKit · Inventory & Asset Management · Infrastructure Auditing · Technical Documentation