Arun Thomas Email & Phone Number

Bengaluru, Ka, In

Leading the Dish Wireless Core Engineering team in India building the first virtualized standalone 5G wireless network over public cloudEstablishing the center of excellence for wireless core engineering, hiring the best talent, building and growing the team ground up Deploying, Integrating and validating solutions in live production environment, CICD upgrades/deployments for 5G SA voice and packet core networkWorking with vendors and partners to implement and validate new services and features as well as upgrades in a cloud-native environment

Created the test process, ramp up and project management of the validation deliverables for IMS and CNCS products; helped to achieve 1st CNCS product releaseDriven key initiatives for services and care team onboarding for new releases and improving overall customer experience for new rollouts

Leading engineering teams for product verification and achieving commercial readiness for multiple 5G/4G core network products across various domains on containers/cloud for global customers and markets.I led the product verification teams for validation of 4G core products incl CSCF, DRA and 5G core products like SCP, SEPP, BSF and cnDRA. I expanded the team from 18 to 30 members in 6 months time, led the CAPEX planning activities for the project ground up, introduced the concept of remote labs within the team, helped to maintain a high lab usage rate, validated and delivered the first 5G core product releases on multi cloud environments. Helped to define the test process and overall non-functional test areas strategy including serviceability tests and CPRS testing. I led the evaluation, prototype development, integration and rollout of the automation and performance simulation tools needed for these new products and integrated to CICD framework. I was closely working with scrum teams for the agile deliverables and test execution activities. Other key responsibilities included Business transformation and Innovation, People and Delivery management, Lean Agile and SAFe Practitioner, SDLC Expert, Customer Relationship management, CAPEX/OPEX planning & implementation, New Product Introduction support for containers and microservices.

Bengaluru Area, India

I led 5 geographically distributed engineering teams comprising of 60+ team members including Engineering managers, Architects, Release Managers and Engineers involved in IMS solution and network verification activities. I drove the end to end test strategy, functional and non-functional test deliverables, handled release and delivery management, performance engineering, serviceability testing and automation, customer solution verification activities. In this role, I collaborated with stakeholders outside RD including PLM, customer teams, program managers and executives for New Product Introduction in key customer accounts. Driven the unit's annual OKR targets and helped achieve the same. I managed the CAPEX/OPEX planning and implementation for the team. Managed the software release deliveries in 3 monthly cadence for global markets. Driven the project management activities for solution verification deliverables and helped achieve customer rollouts to meet revenue targets. Introduced Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) for product development and test execution improving the time to market. Created and driven customer collaboration initiatives with services and care team for new product introduction and driving customer growth. Led the TL 9000 certification audit for CSCF product, meeting mandatory criteria from NAM customers. I was the customer account manager within RD for a major network operator in Europe, drove several initiatives and helped enhance customer engagement.

Bengaluru Area, India

I managed the functional and feature verification in IMS for CSCF products across multiple software releases. This included interop tests with other network solution elements real and simulated as per the SDLC waterfall model. I was involved in driving robustness program to improve the stability and robustness for multiple products before mass deployment. I was driving the recruitment activities for the validation group working closely with HR and talent acquisition teams and doubled the validation team size and met the defined headcount targets. I was responsible for the people management responsibilities for the team including competence development, objective and key reviews, compensation and benefits.

Bangalore

I was responsible for building the RD labs from scratch for HIQ solution in Bangalore. In this role I was the project manager and collaborated with other product teams globally including US, Brazil and other locations, worked with finance and logistics teams, third party vendors, sub contractors and internal RD teams to setup the labs with floor area of 107 sq m. I was responsible for building a new team from scratch for the HIQ soft switch project. I hired and ramped up the team, took the competence transfer and created a center of competence in Bangalore. I handled the system verification activities for the HIQ soft switch solution for the US Military solution and delivered the first release in planned timelines.

Bangalore

I was responsible for all System Test Activities for Kodiak products like PTT services, Voice and Value Added Services like Conferencing, Messaging. I was leading the team for the Test Planning, Strategy, Estimation, Resource Allocation, Tracking, Bug Analysis, test execution Improvement activities, Coverage analysis. I led the team and handled delivery of multiple (30+) releases on time in a fast paced work environment. I took care of the people management responsibilities for a team of 12+ engineers. I also led the team for support of customer teams for demos, customer trials, live deployment.

Bangalore

I was the Project Lead for product & system test for GSM Wireless Soft switch (MSC) for various releases. I was involved in Preparation of Test Strategy and Specification, Planning, Resource Estimation, Scheduling and manpower allocation. I was also involved in Customer support activities for pilot customer rollouts and recreating customer issues in R&D labs. I was involved in functional testing, performance testing, compliance testing, installation and commissioning of various test equipments, interoperability testing with 3rd party equipments like Sonus / Audiocodes media gateways & Utimaco LI box. I worked on various features which involved various call processing scenarios in GSM, compliance tests for MTP2/3 layers of SS7 stack. I was responsible for installation and commissioning of various lab equipments for different test bed setups in multiple releases.

Bangalore

I was the design lead and responsible for test case design, test specification preparation, test planning, feature and regression test execution & customer support activities. I worked on telco grade soft switches and class 4 switching products deployed in NAM region. I performed the protocol conformance tests for Megaco and MGCP stack from scratch. These were later integrated successfully into the switching products and commercially deployed. I was responsible and successfully completed the customer demos, interoperability and acceptance tests onsite at client locations for soft switches and Megaco stacks. I worked on various features which involved testing of various call processing scenarios, GTT functionality, TCAP and MTP functionality, integrating SS7, INBAND, ISDN along with IP protocols like Megaco, MGCP.

Kochi

I was responsible for managing rollout and maintenance of GSM networks in Kottayam, Kerala region. I was part of the 4-member team which won the CEO award for fastest GSM network rollout in Kerala region.

One Year Certification Course, Senior Management Program

Post Graduate Diploma In Business Administration (Pgdba), Customer Relationship Management

Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning

Bachelor Of Technology (B.Tech.), Electronics Engineering

Model Engineering College, Thrikkakara

Education record

Education record