Charles Harston

Charles Harston

Senior Technical Support Engineer (L3/Escalations)

charles.harston@gmail.com | San Diego, CA[cite: 1]

Professional Summary

Performance-driven Senior Technical Support Engineer with 25+ years of experience and 10+ years specializing in complex L3 escalations for SaaS, IoT, and mission-critical platforms. Expert in SQL forensics, API integration, and root-cause analysis.

Professional Experience

Mobile App & Compliance Lab (Current Project)
Environment: Android Enterprise | 2026
  • Performing end-to-end testing of mobile compliance applications, focusing on log analysis and data integrity.
  • Debugging device-side APK behavior to resolve synchronization issues with cloud-based backend services.
  • Utilizing CLI diagnostics and remote access tools to simulate real-world field-failure scenarios.
Senior Technical Support Engineer (TS3)
Lytx | San Diego, CA | 2021 – 2026[cite: 1]
  • Served as the final escalation point for a global AI-driven video telematics platform, isolating and resolving high-priority L3 hardware, firmware, and network pipeline failures.
  • Utilized deep SQL forensics to identify systemic database and architecture defects, streamlining triage pathways for core Engineering and R&D teams.
  • Collaborated cross-functionally across product divisions to replicate complex telemetry edge cases and validate backend fixes prior to production deployment.
Technical Escalation Deep Dives
Tracing Silent Data Pipeline Failures (AWS/Athena)

The Challenge: Enterprise clients suddenly stopped receiving automated weekly report subscriptions. Portal setups were flawless, meaning front-facing support software reported zero errors while delivery failed silently.

The Forensics: Bypassed standard UI utilities to dive straight into cloud infrastructure logs. I used AWS Simple Email Service (SES) logs to rule out mail relay dropping, then built custom queries in Amazon Athena against historical data lakes to pinpoint where the reporting service data sever occurred.

The Fix: Discovered a telemetry block where an unannounced infrastructure migration code update disabled the on-prem reporting hooks before cloud triggers went live. Coordinated with DevOps to stabilize the staging layer and safely confirm pipeline restorations via backend delivery logs.

Hardware Firmware Analytics on Hybrid Vehicle Fleets

The Challenge: Major accounts experienced a sudden influx of erratic voltage alerts and power disconnect failures following massive hardware field deployments, causing critical client-retention friction.

The Forensics: Executed complex Amazon Redshift SQL scripts targeting device event databases (`device_erlogs`). By filtering distinct diagnostic event codes—specifically mapping power disconnect records (`W0000001`) against battery voltage parameters (`S0000001`)—I matched the systemic failures to Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs). I proved that the vehicle transitioning to electric power created minor voltage drops that confused the active device firmware.

The Fix: Packaged complete data lifecycle analytics for core hardware developers, accelerating validation cycles for a master firmware update that permanently neutralized the hybrid power synchronization bug.

Resolving Aggregation Gaps in Cloud Microservices

The Challenge: High-volume customers noticed that while aggregated trip distances calculated correctly on web UI dashboard modules, downloaded CSV data sheets truncated totals, throwing off fleet billing audits.

The Forensics: Engineering initial assessments labeled it "working as designed." Disagreeing with the ticket closure, I mapped API data layers against backend compilers, uncovering a severe mathematical aggregation gap inside the microservice export engine that corrupted data arrays specifically during file compilation.

The Fix: Partnered with engineering leads to illustrate the cloud migration regression pattern, effectively prioritizing the defect status to deliver a hotfix update that restored absolute reporting data integrity.

Customer Support Engineer II Lead
SupplyPro | San Diego, CA | 2017 – 2021
  • Directed support for global partners, resolving complex inventory and vending software integrations via data analysis.
  • Maintained 99%+ SLA compliance for high-profile international accounts.
Technical Support Agent II
CareFusion | San Diego, CA | 2010 – 2014
  • Managed high-tier support for Pyxis Connect ecosystem, critical to hospital pharmacy workflows.
  • Resolved complex hardware and database failures for mission-critical medical systems.