John Liehr

About John Liehr

I am the Manager of Infrastructure for Associated Electric Cooperative, an electric cooperative focused on providing economical, reliable power to our members. In this role I lead the delivery of resilient and secure infrastructure to support our corporate and energy systems. Responsibilities include guiding a team of technology professionals, developing technical roadmaps, and managing the department budget. The team is focused on providing intelligent infrastructure via the adoption of DevOps and Agile principles into traditional Infrastructure Engineering. We are a tightly connected team working to Empower, Protect, and Connect our business and users.Prior to Associated I had the privilege to lead multiple technical teams across infrastructure and operations roles, serving as a trusted advisor to business partners and executives for technology solutions across the globe. I have over ten years experience designing and leading highly complex technical projects and change initiatives. I consider myself a technology enthusiast and enjoy connecting with fellow professionals. While I deeply enjoy the technical aspects of my role, I am most excited when working to develop and mentor others. Helping others leverage their skills to reach senior and leadership roles has been the most fulfilling part of my career.I appreciate hearing from current and former colleagues, leaders, or fellow professionals looking to expand their network, so please reach out to connect.

Experience

1. Senior Technical Architect

   Associated Electric Cooperative Inc.

   Jan 2025 — Present · Springfield, MO, US

   Technical Leadership & Infrastructure StrategyEnterprise Infrastructure Transformation: Architected and led the multi-year technical refresh of the AECI Energy Management System. Directed the budget and implementation for compute, networking, and storage across two primary data centers and 11 remote facilities, delivering the entire scope on-time and within budget.Strategic Licensing & Negotiation: Spearheaded the high-stakes transition from perpetual to subscription-based VMware licensing. Secured a 5-year renewal with 0% APR annual payments and a 40% total discount through direct negotiation.Cloud Financial Optimization: Audited the corporate Azure environment to identify 10% annual budget savings. Developed high-level visualizations to effectively communicate cloud investment value and cost-reduction opportunities to C-suite leadership.Vendor Consolidation & Procurement: Managed a $2M+ Cisco portfolio, consolidating dozens of individual Smartnet and Enterprise Agreements. Accomplished a full co-terming of contracts to increase future negotiation leverage and eliminate significant administrative overhead.Critical Connectivity Innovation: Led a board-level initiative to modernize substation data communications. Developed a Proof of Concept (POC) integrating SD-WAN and Starlink satellite technology for seamless failover; the success of this POC led to a full-scale deployment across the entire footprint.

Education

• Missouri State University

  Bachelors, Computer Information Systems

  1999 — 2004

Skills

• Disaster Recovery
• Cerner
• Healthcare
• Healthcare Information Technology
• Integration
• Ehr
• Active Directory
• Windows Server
• Project Management
• Networking
• Troubleshooting
• Process Improvement
• Network Security
• Healthcare Information Technology (Hit)
• Firewalls
• Servers
• Routing
• Sharepoint