Engineer Project Manager

Location:

Discovery Bay, CA, 94505

Posted:

October 12, 2010

Contact this candidate

Resume:

Stephan KAplan

**** ******* **. ********* ***, CA 94505

TEL: 925-***-**** EMAIL: abjnjv@r.postjobfree.com

WEB SITE: WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/IN/STEPHANKAPLAN

SUMMARY

. Telecom Equipment Engineer specializing in equipment procurement

and Granite provisioning. This position required a broad range of

responsibilities including those of Equipment Purchasing Manager,

Financial Analyst, RF/Microwave/SONET Systems Engineer, and several

others

. Telecommunications professional with a broad range of technical and

managerial experience in both wireless and wireline working on the

leading edge of technology. Worked with industry leading vendors

to direct products and services to meet the needs and requirements

for successful rollouts to the customers. Successfully managed and

negotiated contracts and enforced SLAs.

. Design and management of first AirTouch Walnut Creek

interoperability laboratories and facilities.

. Designed the Verizon Wireless Southlake interoperability lab.

. Provides team members, customers, and system users with assistance

in troubleshooting equipment and operational issues.

Areas of Expertise:

GSM (MSC / BSC), UMTS (Spatial CS & MGW), TDM, ATM, IP, Switch Trunking,

Broadband Transport. Policy/Procedure Development, Security, Project

Development/Scheduling, Conflict Resolution, Budgeting/Forecasting,

Materials Management, Team Management, Troubleshooting, Vendor Management,

Network Architecture Planning, Communication Networks, and

Maintenance/Service-Level Agreements

Technical expertise includes:

STP SS7 DACCs/Transport Backhaul RNC

MGW HLR Upgrade-Deployments Visio NodeB

Professional Experience

Jun 2010 to Aug 2010 - (contractor) San Ramon, CA

Acting Design Manager Healy & CO.

Rresponsible for managing the design transport & trunk, BTS, and PSTN

circuit for provisioning, GRANITE/Xng documentation and engineering and LEC

management. Designs, receives, and track work orders generate or update cut

sheets as necessary. Monthly forecasting reports must be generated. Update

and track quality metrics on a weekly basis. Added responsibilities will

involve tracking Work Orders tasks, created designs for transport & trunk

service provisioning and managing issues between Planning and Provisioners.

Person will be in continual contact with carriers regarding the status of

orders.

July 2009 to May 2010 Kingman, AZ

Director Engineering, NACOM LLP - (SAK Consultant)

Lead a team of telecommunication engineers, QA engineers, systems

engineers, responsible for the infrastructure design, deployment process,

testing and documentation for NACOM's product and service offerings.

Specifically, support the build out of a new cellular network, the strategy

for how we test our products and services, provide various forms of product

information to users, and provide the environments used by network deployed

equipment on a territorially basis. This includes defining engineering

processes, delivering development platforms and automation capabilities and

managing very diverse locations.

Other key responsibilities include:

Working closely with NACOM's Senior Management, Business/Corporate

Development, Engineering Management, Tribal council members, Sales and

Marketing, this position involves:

. Manage a NACOM team of technical writers, release engineers, QA

engineers, senior developers, and systems engineers

. Recruit and hire additional NACOM resources as necessary.

. Manage vendor product schedule and project plans to successful

completion

. Interact with customers and understand their needs and work

. Interact with UI design, documentation, training development, QA and

other engineering teams to understand and manage dependencies and

requirements

. Communicate with sales, support, marketing, business development and

other parts of the company to ensure the product meets their needs

. Ensure that vendor product deliverables are internationalized and

ready to be localized across a variety of languages and cultures

. Provide mentorship to individual contributors and managers.

. Provide proactive and strong direction in external partnership

opportunities for ensuring technical compatibility and solution

characteristics.

. In conjunction with the Chief Technology Officer, work with the entire

engineering management team to focus on broader organizational issues

in accelerating change, process improvement, energizing the culture,

and mentoring of other engineers.

Oct 2008 to June 2009 Discovery Bay, CA

SAK Consultant

Telecommunications professional with a broad range of technical and

managerial experience in both wireless and wire line working on the leading

edge of technology. Worked with industry leading vendors to direct

products and services to meet the needs and requirements for successful

rollouts including those of Equipment Purchasing Manager, Financial

Analyst, RF/Microwave/SONET Systems Engineer.

Jun 2008 to Sep 2008 Family - (Personal Time) Woodland Hills, CA

Helping with a sick out of town family member

2007 to 2008 FiberTower/ San Francisco

Telecom Equipment Engineer

Telecom Equipment Engineer specializing in equipment procurement and

Granite provisioning. This position required a broad range of

responsibilities including those of Equipment Purchasing Manager,

Financial Analyst, RF/Microwave/SONET Systems Engineer, and several

others.

Summary of Responsibilities:

. Forecasting, procurement and supply chain management of major capital

telecom equipment

. Translating overall network designs into site-specific equipment

requirements

. Generation of site installation and commissioning instructions

including equipment Bill of Materials

. Updating the Network Inventory Database (Granite) with details of new

equipment location and configuration

2006 to 2007 Scientific Technologies Corporation/ Tucson, AZ (contractor)

Senior Quality Assurance Engineer/Analyst

. Review system requirements and product specifications for adherence to

QA policies, procedures, and standards.

. Prepare test plans that adhere to functional specifications and system

integration requirements.

. Respond to technical and administrative direction from QA and Product

Leadership.

. Review and/or help construct test plans, test cases, and test

executables for product development team testing.

. Develop/execute/maintain testing strategies, testing procedures, test

cases, and test executables for:

. Functional, regression, and customer acceptance testing to

validate, in Production-like environment, requirements

implementation in the product.

. System test suite (fault, stress, performance, and load) to

validate, in Production-like environment, availability,

reliability, and graceful recovery capability of the product.

. System integration tests to validate, in Production-like

environment, product impact on client IT infrastructure.

. Automated test scripts to support regression testing on automated

test platforms.

2005 to 2006 T-Mobile / Concord, CA (contractor)

Senior Design Engineer-Western Region USA

. Project Management

. Symmetricom TH5500 upgrade for Western Region.

. Managed and maintained SS7 BTS network including, monitoring and

management systems with 5-9's reliability.

. Coordinate project resources between inter market area for western

region.

. Support Inter region project management teams with current status

issues

. Establish new Purchase orders.

. Establish Ordering guidelines with Vendors to satisfy Market needs.

. Request quotes from multiple vendors and determine the best price

within the budget

. Generate reports on PO's to markets and internal Managers.

. Work with Operation Managers and Vendors to correct any ordering

deficiencies

. Determine the market priority on quarterly PO's with Vendors and

schedule accordingly

. Forecasting

. Forecast and capacity plan MSC, MSC HW and SW expansions

. Assist in Media Gateway planning and implementation

. Forecast all NSS off board systems such as:

WAP, Voicemail, Prepaid Ericsson MSC's, SS7 (MSC, BSC, VMS)

Identify NSS related peripherals and the HW effects to baseline

. Maintain a monthly NSS exhaust forecast.

. Determine NSS and SS7 needs for new markets.

. Assist in development and beta testing of new Corporate tools.

. Utilize existing assets to complement forecasting needs

. Maintain all NSS baseline HW inventory

. Maintain all NSS purchase order history

. Engineer specific NSS business plan concepts

. Capture all NSS-FSC impacts on switching equipment

. NSS Performance

. Support and Maintain Corporate NSS performance indexes and standards

. Recommend NSS performance improvements.

. Assist in the development of NSS tools to increase NSS performance

. Assist Corporate in new NSS tool verification and rollout.

. Document NSS processes and Performance guidelines

. Develop and maintain Voicemail reliability performance measures

. Update Engineering Rules and Guidelines

. Engineering/Planning Services:

This service covers the initial planning and engineering of wireless

telecom systems and includes services as follows:

. Engineering site survey

. Development of site drawing

. Installation instructions

. Statement of work

. Installation bill of materials

. Installation and Quality checklist

. As-built or redline drawings

. Purchase, delivery and inventory of equipment

2000 to 2005 Verizon Wireless / Walnut Creek, CA

Maintenance Engineering - Signaling System 7

Senior Maintenance Engineer - SS7, R&D Laboratory Manager for Verizon

Wireless

. Designed and engineered Verizon Wireless Walnut Creek interoperability

lab valued at $30 million which allowed testing and integration of

multiple vendor products prior to production rollout.

. Managed and operated Verizon Wireless Walnut Creek, CA lab during

which time new features and functionality were developed for the SS7

network.

. E911 testing and integration with Public Safety Answering Point

(PSAP)

. PDE testing (Position Determining Equipment)

. MMS testing (Multimedia Messaging Service)

. SMS testing (Short Message Service)

. OTAF testing (Over the Air Service Provisioning Function)

. Develop lab infrastructure to accommodate VZW lab network design

objectives. Chair meetings and develop schedules to manage and

integrate multiple vendor installation and project schedules within

the lab environment.

. Design, develop and implement lab evolution and along with

infrastructure and strategy, supporting test and prototype equipment

and service development.

. Participate in technology evaluations and special projects with a

focus on network and/or RF, transport, and integration areas. Develop,

implement and manage lab security policies. Manage lab project

scheduling and conflict resolution.

. Manage yearly lab budget input, develop forecasts, and

responsibilities for tracking and managing progress to date of

purchases by project(s). Act as prime interface to lab vendors,

contractors, building owners and engineering staff. Responsible for

day-to-day lab operations, including response to and resolution of

alarm conditions (24/7), installations, project scheduling and

management, test plant design and configuration, insuring compliance

with state and local building and RF regulations, as well as adherence

to safety and OSHA requirements in the lab.

. Develop network transport architecture for multiple integrated lab

locations and identify transport network elements and configurations.

In support of multiple test efforts in multiple locations, assess

requirements and provide for power, electrical, grounding, shielded

facilities, seismic, interconnection, facilities grooming, and

physical interface configurations. Identify and resolve transport

level integration issues. Provide consultation and input to cross-

functional project teams in test architecture design, implementation

and evolution.

. Participate in technology evaluations and special projects with a

focus on network and/or RF, transport, and integration areas.

Implement and maintain the wireless radio test architecture, and

develop a strategy for its evolution in support of technology

development and client use. Maintain and manage lab test equipment

supporting the wireless test network infrastructure.

1993 to 2000 AirTouch Communications / Walnut Creek, CA

Network Planning and Development

Senior Network Engineer, Technology Center Laboratory for AirTouch

Communications Hq.

Responsible for SS7 Signaling Network Planning and Development. Wide range

of duties has included engineering, installation, inspection, service,

repair, overhaul, and modification configuration of STP hardware and

software for both Alcatel and Tekelec STP platforms.

. Member of Project Planning Team. Participated in vendor selection,

hardware and software selection, and configuration RFP contract

negotiations for Los Angeles, and Atlanta cellular markets.

. Provided engineering and vendor support to 4 regions.

. Responsible for remotely accessing, monitoring, and testing SS7

network elements to recognize and prevent network events, both major

and minor to restore proper functioning. Evaluate and make

recommendations on SS7 Network Monitoring Systems Protocol Analyzers.

Ensure that all monitoring and restoration is done in a timely manner.

. Lead for AirTouch - Pacific Bell SS7 Network Certification (20 July

1994)

. Participated in planning, deployment installations of STP pair for Los

Angeles cellular market. Functioned as Project Manager for

installation and operation of AIN/STP Lab, AirTouch Network

Reliability Center. Served as Project Manager for Atlanta STP/SS7

installation, testing and acceptance. Provided all STP translations to

support transfer of SS7 service from Bell South Signaling network onto

AirTouch's SS7 Network.

. Responsible for technical validation of new network elements wireless

services prior to commercial implementation. Facilitated

establishment of test network for both Alcatel and Tekelec STP

platforms successfully tested each solution.

. Successfully negotiated agreement with Tekelec to be FOA customer for

FCC Mate LNP triggerless implementation, completed testing and

implementation of triggerless functionality.

. Implemented validation of fixed network infrastructure's compliance

with government mandates. Successfully implemented Y2K compliance

testing on Tekelec release 23.1 prior to implementation. Implemented

laboratory facilities supporting wireless data testing for net access,

facilitating on-going development and testing of new products.

1991 to 1993 Pacific Bell / Anaheim, CA

Network Services South Communications Technician ESS / SS7

MegaHub STP Operations - ANHMCA0100W & ANHMCA0101W

. Technician, CSS7 Data and Telecommunications Systems, maintenance

assignments to include, but not limited to, inspection, service,

repair, overhaul, modification, calibration, configuration, and

testing on a planned and scheduled basis to lead to a more efficient

network while providing the optimum service attainable.

. Observed and responded to changing conditions in network switching

operations for the AT&T 4ESS and Nortel DMS-200 digital switching

equipment. Assessed and diagnosed operation of said equipment.

Identified and coordinated the repair or replacement of effected

facilities with the far-end technical staff of MCI, Sprint and LA

Cellular. LA Cellular sent a letter of commendation to our district

office for demonstrated professionalism and dedication to meet their

requirements. Documented events and trouble-shooting procedures as

they occurred on effected facilities to restore service. Implemented

preventive maintenance as directed.

1990 to 1991 USAF, KAFB, Saudi Arabia

USCENTAF, Base Computer Security Officer/Operations - Desert Shield/Storm

. Base computer security officer, Digital Data Communications Systems

Manager. Duties included directing the installation and repair of

computerized message converting systems utilizing MS-DOS based

computer systems re-configured especially for JANAP-128 format message

traffic.

. Satellite and Wideband Communications Equipment installed and checked

operation of wideband and earth terminal communications systems;

assemble, program, adjust, and secure system components; review

technical instructions, plans, and installation drawings to install

wideband and earth terminal equipment and systems; ensure conformance

to standard installation practices; measure, adjust, and operationally

test equipment and systems; establish, manage configuration, and

maintain communications links via satellite transponders; ensure high

quality circuits for long distance information relay; employ orbiting

communication satellite, line of sight, and tropospheric scatter

techniques; and conduct tests to restore and maintain systems.

. Managed, installed and responsible for trouble shooting digital data

communications systems to include Zenith, Grid, Motorola, IBM and

Sperry processors, modems, multiplexes and terminals at fixed and

remote tactical sites to provide dedicated point-to-point command and

control connectivity between two headquarters.

Additional duties

2E1X1 - SATELLITE, WIDEBAND, AND TELEMETRY SYSTEMS

NOTE: In October 1993 the merger of Wideband Communications Equipment (AFSC

304X0) and Satellite Communications Equipment (AFSC 304X6) comprised the

newly named AFSC 2ElXl

. Specialty Summary: Deploys, operates and sustains ground and space

based satellite, Beyond Line-of-Sight (BLOS) wideband communications,

telemetry, and instrumentation systems.

. Manages and performs design support, installation, calibration,

testing, operation, maintenance, and repair of facilities, systems,

equipment, and related subsystems.

. Monitors, analyzes, and directs performance checks and measurements to

ensure acceptable performance. Configures equipment.

. Establishes and maintains communications links with distant terminals.

. Operates earth terminal control console and monitors system

performance indicators.

. Implements operational directives. Manages wideband and satellite

earth terminal facilities or activities. Related DoD Occupational

Subgroup 110000.

Security Clearance:

Information provided by California Air National Guard as of July 25, 2003

Eligibility: SCI- DCID 6/4, February 13, 1998 AFCAF

Investigation: SBPC, February 3, 1998 DSS

Current Organization: S73IFLX9, AIR RES PERS CE CM, AIR RES PERS CE CM,

LOWRY AFB, CO 80280

Adjudication Summary:

PSI Adjudication of SBPR DSS: Opened February 3, 1998, Closed February

3, 1998, determined Eligibility of SCI - DCID 6/4 on February 13, 1998

AFCAF

PSI Adjudication of NAC Unknown: Opened, Closed January 14, 1994,

determined Eligibility of Secret on March 7, 1994 Army CCF

1989 to 1990 Pacific Bell / Anaheim, CA

Network Services South Communications Technician ESS / SS7

MegaHub STP Operations - ANHMCA0100W & ANHMCA0101W

. Technician, CSS7 Data and Telecommunications Systems, maintenance

assignments to include, but not limited to, inspection, service,

repair, overhaul, modification, calibration, configuration, and

testing on a planned and scheduled basis to lead to a more efficient

network while providing the optimum service attainable.

1984 to 1989 Pacific Bell / Anaheim Ca.

Network Services South - Communications Technician ESS

Trunk Operations Center / Machine Administration Center / Inter-Exchange

Maintenance

Maintenance / Provisioning for ANHMCA0295T & ANHMCA0252T