Syed Ali

      Handled multiple responsibilities for TrueCall/RAN Solutions product which included leading offshore teams, research, architecture, testing and verification, cross functional collaboration, supporting customer service teams, feature PLM role, product documentation, and key proxy role for the VP to relegate ideas and requirements to the development team.

• Led multiple teams for migration to docker deployment of RAN Solutions product (microservice architecture) which included deployment wizard and administrative tools (ElasticSearch, Kibana, Zookeeper, High availability proxy, GUI Admin Portal). Achieved 600% reduction in deployment/upgrade time for our major customers.
• Built key partnerships and trust with multiple global development teams, QA team, technical sales, PLM, and performance team to deliver aggressive project goals for RAN Solution product on Docker. Claimed ownership of any unowned issues and drove them to a conclusion.
• Led customer deployment architecture & planning for major customers for our docker platform. Also led overseas teams for feature development.
• Collaborated with big data analytics product (nBA: nGenius Business Analytics) for RAN Solution related machine learning research and use cases, implemented RAN & Core network correlation and diagnostics. Led the effort for collecting large data sets from FVO (Field Verification Office) for verification of RAN uses cases in machine learning environment.

     Managed and led four global teams within the Network Management Department for new product development, feature development, and product releases for G10 (single-bladed) and GeoBlade (multi-bladed architecture) IP Telecom Network Monitoring Solutions (LTE/4G, 5G, service providers’ core network). This included personnel management, project scheduling, architecture and design, project execution, cross-functional collaboration, and interfacing with senior management to ensure successful product and feature delivery.

• Managed and led two releases of GeoBlade probe to successfully ship the product to multiple customers with initial revenues of $300 million.  Further managed global teams for feature releases and sustaining for both GeoBlade and G10 probes.
• Led a separate team for a different product, nBA (nGenius Business Analytics, Big Data), for three features: zookeeper configuration landing page, new deployment wizard, and data integrity monitor through the processing pipeline. Successfully delivered much praised intuitive workflow with demos and actual customer installation. 
• Led architecture and design of multiple hybrid probe solutions post-merger with NetScout Systems, including strategic presentations to the CEO.
• Led, managed, and mentored the offshore teams, providing training and technology transfers for probe (G10/GeoBlade), as well as numerous feature development and product support efforts.
• Led high-visibility customer acceptance efforts for multiple customer accounts to recognize revenues (received awards.)

          Performed research, design, development, documentation, and functional testing of probe (data interface boards) software within the Network Management Department on monitoring solutions for IP Telecommunication networks (LTE/4G, 5G, service providers’ core network). 

• Team member of the initial G10 probe project with EZchip and Cavium Octeon processor development. Successfully shipped our flagship product G10 probe (hardware blades and embedded software) with 200% revenue increases.
• Provided first level packet processing support for eight 1 Gig ports and four 10 Gig ports.  Provided following functionality in micro programming language on EZchip’s NP-3/NP-4 network processor: L2/L3/L4 parsing, header and length validation, duplicate detection, classification of L4 protocols, traffic filtering, statistics collection, HTTP/SIP headers deep packet inspection, tunnel processing for L2TP, GTP, and GRE tunnels, eHRPD/PPP support, etc. etc.
• Implemented additional tasks on second level processor, Cavium Network’s Octeon Plus CN5650 multi-core processor, such as OAM configuration through EZchip’s host library interface, statistics collection, and unit testing.
• Provided SME role for EZchip and training of other developers, third party vendor and internal hardware group support, functional verification/validation of pilot boards with EZchip, and continuous integration solution for EZchip code.
• Provided Subject Matter Expert (SME) support for GTP monitoring solution on G10 probes.
• Led next generation hardware project with EZchip's NP-4 and Cavium's 68xx Octeon processors.
• Led the data interface team for next generation GeoBlade architecture. Also designed and implemented a GTP Light-weight Session Tracking (LST) architecture on GeoBlade.

      Worked in the “Network Diagnostics” department on functional and load testing solutions for the Telecommunication industry. This included research, design, and development of software products and features for functional testing, load testing, and monitoring of SS7 and VOIP networks. Additional responsibilities included interfacing with and providing guidance to the hardware team, product management team, customer support team, technical publications team, and junior engineers.

• Increased market share of our department by 80% by leading the design and research of our flagship product Spectra2 for VOIP networks.
• Spearheaded embedded system development tasks for Strong ARM and IXP1200 processors, next generation hardware with XScale microprocessor, changes to proprietary OS, media processing applications, and media hardware support.
• Integrated many third-party stacks into our VOIP flagship product Spectra2 such as TLS, RTP, and FoIP stacks.
• Performed numerous tasks involving fixing critical customer reported problems. Also interfaced with customers and provided on-site critical troubleshooting and problem resolution.
• Provided guidance on hardware systems, debugging of hardware related issues, and recommended fixes for hardware vendors to work with our PCI hardware.
• Provided SME (subject matter expert) role to outsourcing company overseas, provided design and architecture, evaluation of vendors for third party stacks, and support & integration of third-party software.
• Led as an SME and Point of Contact for SIP feature in Spectra2.  Provided guidance to PLM on future development of SIP features and RFC compliance. Also provided support to customer service, QA, and SIP development teams.
• Worked on Adaptive Profiler, a new product initiative. Participated in architecture, design, and development in backend server and client areas using C# and WPF technologies.

     Team member in VoIP modem team (3 engineers) within the R&D Personal Communication Division (PCD) for retail modem products. Performed research, design, development, project scheduling, interfacing with hardware team, interfacing with product management team, and guiding junior engineers.

• Researched and designed Voice Over IP (VoIP) WinModem architecture.
• Developed Windows NT 4.0 audio driver in C++ for VoIP WinModem using NT DDK, Platform SDK, and DriverWorks.
• Designed and developed a multi-threaded, Win32, system tray application in C++ for managing handset state machine and VoIP call using service provider’s APIs.
• Performed system integration, debugging, and bug fixing tasks using such tools as SoftIce, BoundsChecker and MSVC 5.0/6.0. Developed Win 9x drivers for VoIP WinModem using Platform SDK, Win95 DDK, and Masm 6.11.

     Worked in Systems Software group with hardware design teams to ensure optimal functionality of new product designs of personal photo scanners. This included writing TWAIN data sources, low level device drivers for Windows, and providing software support to ASIC and board-level systems teams for verification/validation of their design.

• Shipped following products: SmartPage 1.5 (multi-page sheetfed photo scanner), ImageWave 1.1 (Flatbed photo scanner), TotalScan 1.0 (Flatbed photo scanner), TotalScan Express 1.0 (Flatbed scanner with compression and multi-function keys), ImageStudio VF 1.0 (Storm designed Flatbed scanner with Video capture).
• Actively participated in several full product life cycles including specification, design, implementation, debugging, testing, maintenance, feature enhancements, troubleshooting and bug fixes to our drivers as well as OEM drivers using C, C++, MFC, BoundsChecker, and SoftIce.
• Implemented (team of four) our new object-oriented architecture (Lego) for scanner drivers, in C++. 
• Designed and developed object-oriented ASIC driver in C++ for the first Storm designed ASIC called Vortex. Implemented product specific ASIC drivers in C++, leveraging the object-oriented “Lego” framework, for first Storm designed sheetfed and flatbed scanners.
• Developed a scanner driver in C with ATAPI interface using WinASPI and an NT 4.0 kernel-mode driver for parallel port communication using WIN32 SDK, NT DDK, and DriverWorks.
• Designed and developed a multi-threaded app (Watchdog) in C++ for listening to scanner-initiated device events.

       Worked in a small but dynamic company, wearing many hats. Responsibilities included research and development of new products, maintenance and enhancement of existing retail products, customization of existing or new products to fit clients’ needs, interfacing with other vendor’s products to create turnkey systems, interfacing with potential clients as technical sales representative,  providing technical support for our retail and OEM customer base, acting as a product manager for new products, writing technical documents and product manuals, interfacing with hardware engineers, and project scheduling.

• Designed and developed following programs in C using SDK: diagnostics program for our image scanners using serial communication, driving software protection devices, compression/decompression filters for our forms processing software, mark sense software for processing ScanTron documents, integrated Full Text OCR software with workflow design for high volume document processing, integrated custom APIs from such companies as CALERA, NESTOR, DUNORD, and SCANFIX into our forms processing package
• Designed and implemented help using Microsoft help compiler and created documentation for these software packages. Designed and developed C developer's kits for our OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) engine, bar-code engine (C & VBX), and forms processing software.
• Developed custom programs and modified existing tools to meet customized needs of clients. Led as the primary technical contact with the customers during design, development, and testing phases for these custom software projects. 

BS in Computer Science, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona CA

Master’s in Computer Science, California State University, Fullerton CA, (Incomplete)