Don Coco

Engineer I, Software at Crown Castle | Observability & Monitoring | Datadog | Grafana | Prometheus | Moveworks

Lawrence, Pennsylvania, United States

About

I'm an Observability Engineer focused on helping teams see, understand, and improve their systems through effective monitoring and alerting. Currently at Crown Castle, I lead enterprise-wide adoption of observability platforms like Datadog and Moveworks, working across teams to implement monitoring solutions that actually help engineers do their jobs better. Before that, I spent nearly three years at Dick's Sporting Goods building comprehensive monitoring infrastructure—Grafana dashboards, Prometheus alerts, and automated incident response workflows. What I'm good at: - Implementing observability platforms (Datadog, Grafana, Prometheus, Elasticsearch) - Building alerting systems that catch real problems without creating noise - Automating incident response to reduce MTTR - Training teams to effectively use monitoring tools - Translating metrics into actionable insights Some wins I'm proud of: - Reduced MTTR from 6 minutes to 45 seconds through intelligent automation - Cut Kafka incidents by 45% through systematic monitoring improvements - Built 83 targeted alerts that actually help teams prevent outages - Drove Datadog adoption across an entire technology organization I came to tech through Tech Elevator's full-stack bootcamp after years in operations and team leadership roles, which gave me a unique perspective on how monitoring needs to serve real people doing real work.

Experience

  • Software Engineer I, Software Reliability and Operations - Datadog, Moveworks at Crown Castle
    May 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 3 mos

    Leading observability platform adoption and implementation across the enterprise technology organization. Key projects: - Driving company-wide Datadog rollout, partnering with Platform and Product teams to deliver comprehensive monitoring for distributed systems - Led end-to-end Moveworks AI platform implementation from vendor selection through production deployment - Providing technical training and documentation to help teams effectively leverage observability tools - Managing ongoing platform support, troubleshooting, and optimization Earned Moveworks Agent Studio Developer: Level 1 certification.

  • Site Reliability Engineer Observability - Prometheus, Grafana, Elastic at DICK'S Sporting Goods
    Nov 2020 - Aug 2023 · 2 yrs 10 mos

    Built and maintained observability infrastructure supporting Dick's e-commerce and retail operations. Accomplishments: - Designed interactive Grafana dashboards integrating Prometheus, Elasticsearch, and application metrics across 5 product teams—improved cross-team alignment by 15% - Implemented 83 Prometheus and Elasticsearch alerts for proactive issue detection - Reduced Kafka incidents and logging issues by 45% through systematic monitoring improvements - Automated 75% of L2 alert responses using Ansible playbooks - Streamlined incident troubleshooting, reducing MTTR from 6 minutes to 45 seconds—saved ~$49K during holiday peak

  • Fullstack Student - .NET, JavaScript at Tech Elevator
    May 2020 - Aug 2020 · 4 mos

    -Vending Machine Capstone --created unit test and wrote the change return method -National Parks Capstone --created SQL commands necessary for accessing the database -Tenmo Capstone --created Models, DAO and Interfaces for server --co-ordinated HttpGet and HttpPost Methods -Virtual Stock Market --Design Database to connect all parts of the program --Create an appealing front end experience using Vue.js

  • Glen Carbide, Inc. (4 yrs 10 mos)
    • Manual Machinist - Lathe, Vertical Mill, Forklift
      Feb 2019 - May 2020 · 1 yr 4 mos

      -Fabricated and assembled precision metal components to exact customer specifications, ensuring adherence to quality standards and tolerances. -Used 1200 degree oven to heat steel to then insert carbide nib.

    • Shipping and Receiving Specialist
      Aug 2015 - Feb 2019 · 3 yrs 7 mos

      -Analyzed hundreds of incoming products daily to ensure adherence to tolerances. -Coordinated shipping logistics, including UPS, FedEx, and Freight systems exporting 20 to 50 packages daily. -Maintained and inspected the forklift daily.

  • Manual Machinist - Lathe, Hydraulic Steel Punch, Vertical Mill at Capintec
    Feb 2015 - Aug 2016 · 1 yr 7 mos

    -Ensured quality production of medical parts within .001 of specified tolerances. -Collaborated daily with engineers to optimize production and assembly methods