Robert W. Smith Email & Phone Number

Providing data communications and data management consulting services throughout the Satellite industry. Focus in on business intelligence and data analytics from multiple business systems.

Betzdorf, Luxembourg, Lu

Lead a team of highly skilled data scientists and analysts to help SES mine their trove of data repositories for insights, trends and modeling for various stakeholders and executive management. • Manged team of data scientists to create the Weather Impact Predicting and Analysis tool for the VP of Operations to reduce the workload of the operational staff by 70% in automatically closing weather related events and outages. • Managed development team as lead technical architect of the Metrics Reporting Center as the primary data warehouse for all performance and utilization metrics for all customer services across the entire SES services delivery network. Included the MRC business-oriented API to map the network elements to the many business objects such as customer, contract, service, teleport, satellite and transponder for internal and external customer access. • Managed an agile team as the lead technical architect to develop the Service Provisioning and Automation Portal to automate and streamline the customer on-boarding and service provisioning process. • Collaborated with Digital Transformation Office and other departments on defining data sources, systems interfaces, data flows and data relationships to expedite and innovate new solutions and applications to internal and external customers.

Betzdorf, Luxembourg, Lu

Responsible for leading a team delivering compute and storage resources for all applications and systems in support of the geostationary data and communications services. • Built two virtual compute infrastructures, one in the US the other in EU, to provide a robust and reliable infrastructure. Managed all aspects of the virtual infrastructure from design, planning and installation through to operational hand-over. • Work with multiple teams and stakeholders from network engineering, satellite operations, product owners and upper management on the applications, systems and customer facing portals. • Provided engineering and support for all levels of the virtual infrastructure from the compute hardware, storage SANs, virtualization based on Citrix Xenserver, operating systems and applications for all major stakeholders.

Betzdorf, Luxembourg, Lu

Responsible for keeping abreast of the latest technology developments, the directions that our core customers are heading and developing product plans to ensure that SES World Skies is at the fore-front and competive.

Betzdorf, Luxembourg, Lu

Lead engineer in the assessment of DVB-S2 and compatibility testing with leading S2 vendors. Identified several key issues with DVB-S2 and developed mitigating strategies. Developed and managed company-wide transition and deployment of DVB-S2 on existing DVB-S IP platforms affecting 16 platforms, hundreds of customers across 600+ sites world-wide.

Principal Infrastructure Architect for the International Programs Branch as part of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). • Designed and developed all aspects of the communication infrastructure, to include the satellite communications network, networks at all international sites, and networks and communications infrastructure used in the US. • Designed and implemented the IP routing architecture, wireless networks, and Voice over IP communication and gateways in the US and internationally. Implemented the communications infrastructure that met the requirements and vision of the NIAID CIO. • Coordinated the activities of the local and international teams ensuring fluid operations within and between sites. • Developed and coordinated engineering activities; provided assistance and training to the international staff; and managed the satellite operator and its activities.

Betzdorf, Luxembourg, Lu

Responsible for the overall Internet architecture for New Skies' world-wide teleports. Coordinated the efforts of several groups involved in the specification, design, installation and integration of New Skies' global satellite-based Internet service based on the ITU/T DVB-S satellite broadband specifications. • Evaluated and tested vendor hardware and solutions that best fit New Skies design criteria and customer requirements. Set up test and evaluation lab to evaluate vendor’s products, conducted capability assessment against defined requirements, and performed integration and performance testing. • In conjunction with the Network Development team, charted the direction of business growth by developing new products and services and strategic partnerships to expand into new markets. • Worked closely with product management, sales and marketing to develop marketing collateral and sales training materials.Lead engineer working with sales, marketing and product development to developed a DVB-S video architecture that permitted all levels of video distribution service to be performed at New Skies teleport to include occasional use video, video turn-around, and creating full video programs for direct-to-home applications. • Designed flexible and scalable architecture to include video source feeds, MPEG2 encoding/decoding, format conversions, testing and monitoring, DVB multiplexing with program insertion, conditional access, and video satellite distribution. • Evaluated next-generation Video-over-IP products from Harmonic, Skystream’s MediaPlex, and Scopus to integrate with New Skies' internal Gigabit Ethernet network.Defined the requirements and developed a solution to permit satellite transmission and reception of data rates from 52Mbps through 120Mbps using existing products with slight modifications as specified. • Achieved a substantially lower cost receiver solution than was currently unavailable in the market place.

Worked with customers in analyzing their business practices to determine their business requirements and develop solutions that best met the requirements and cost goals. • Developed detailed network design documents, technical specifications, technical architectural drawings, and security models to meet those needs. The results were then presented as proposed alternatives and solutions in common language for senior decision-makers. • Accomplished design goals and objectives within given budget and time constraints. • Developed group and individual skills and knowledge to create an efficient, productive, and successful team. Major projects: • Sr Developer/Sr Team Lead. Real-time Automated Personnel Identification Systems (RAPIDS). Designed and developed the initial RAPIDS systems for the DOD Personnel Office for automating the verification, validation and process of the military personnel and dependents identification card. • Sr. Team Lead. Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD) Office Automation. Managed a team responsible for the deployment of OA workstations and software through the OSD offices. • Sr. Developer. DOD Health Affairs (HA) Decision Support System (DSS). Developed a system for processing 10+ million medical records across the entire DOD treatment facilities to provide reports and dashboards to DOD HA executives and senior staff. • Sr Architect. DOD Health Affairs Office Automation Modernization. Organized, oversaw and coached a team of 25 engineers across multiple disciplines to upgrade the offices of HA to include TCP/IP networking, Unix servers, Windows-based PCs and all aspects of office automation and software. • Principal Network Engineer. VA State House of Representatives Network Modernization. Worked with the VA HoR IT office and provided network architectural support for the network upgrades. Deployed, installed and configured all network switches, routers, and wireless networking.

M.S., Telecommunications

B.S., Physics, Computer Science