Joined as part of the acquisition of IBM’s Networking Division in 2016. Was subsequently recruited in 2018 to join a select team of 20 to launch the Hyperscale Networking Group. Highlights included responsibility for the rearchitecting of the lower levels of the Cloud Network Operating System (cNOS). Achieved rapid porting to a wide variety of OEM/ODM platforms with little code modification required for new/future devices. Reduced new-product bring-up periods from being measured in months to a matter of days. Successfully mitigated many critical issues via personal interaction with customers and vendors. Produced a single SW Payload to deploy on all platforms utilizing differing ASICs and port complements. Developed an extensive support library for the increasing variety of required port interconnection speeds and media; and developing generic support of Fans and PSUs from 5 different vendors to create a universal API utilized platform-wide. One additional highlight to this particular position was stepping outside of the usual SWD role to apply Linux security patches & driver enhancements for corporate compliance.

This was a great role involving the management of internal development and customer critical issues involving hardware interface, network connectivity, product interoperability, and transceiver support for the Flex System and Rack Switch line of products. Highlights included leading the team responsible for Design Verification, Bring-up, Manufacturing, and Debug on over 30 industry critical leading switch product platforms; creating powerful APIs to exploit the platform HW and achieve the value-added features that distinguished the product line; designing and implementing a flexible API and mechanism for handling IBM Vital Product Data to allow faster compliance; and supporting the HW Team with rapid-turnaround diagnostics utilities as new platform designs were developed and delivered.

Recruited as one of 30 original employees in this startup incubated at Nortel Networks, this role involving leading the development of embedded and top-of-rack system diagnostics for IBM, HP, NEC & Hitachi. Specializing in low-level hardware/software interface abstractions and increased support for pluggable interconnects, I was responsible for bring-up, design verification, and manufacturing diagnostic software on all platforms, developing and deploying Diagnostics & Test software on every embedded switch platform supporting a wide variety of ASICS and port compliments, creating a design verification and manufacturing diagnostics suite that resulted in a highly reliable product brought to market quickly, and achieving an industry-leading reputation for hardware reliability and performance. The company was purchased by IBM (2010) on the eve of the company going public.

I was recruited to this public telecom and data networking equipment manufacturer to revitalize an underperforming diagnostics engineering platform and to build configurable systems to be easily modified for all future systems. With responsibility for the development, bring up, runtime, manufacturing, and debug diagnostics software, highlights included driving new product bring-up from weeks to days due to abstract and reusable software design; and designing, developing, and implementing the entire SW diagnostics architecture for Nortel embedded switches.

This was another great opportunity to work with a start-up (acquired by Nortel on July 28, 2000) and to oversee UI and networking configuration. Moving into the Customer Advocacy arena due to my ability to provide rapid deployment of customer desired features in critical situation events, I was successful in providing a novel means to enable the switches to access data centers in a safe and reliable manner and to work in a SWAT-team capacity to satisfy Google, Disney, Universal Studios, and Ticketmaster for critical issue resolution.

With emphasis on GUI and Visualization Software for Windows 95, I supported 3Com and Bay Networks, Inc., network hardware vendors and early innovators of Ethernet products. Working with Alteon on user interface issues, I was invited to join the company on a full-time basis in 2000.

I cannot envision a more exciting opportunity for a newly minted EE grad than working for this Silicon Valley high Advanced Technology Directorate (later acquired by Northrop Grumman) that was engaged in advanced research projects for defense, including signal intelligence for the strategic reconnaissance marketplace as part of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative system (Star Wars). Highlights included leveraging expertise in pattern recognition, data visualization & GUI to provide the military with novel intelligence capability; writing a new system in the government mandated ADA code that for the first time connected all branches of the military; and acquiring Secret Clearance for projects with the Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS)