Manager Engineer

Vagharshak Mikayelyan

**********@*******.*** 408-***-**** 408-***-**** cell

Career Summary:

Versatile leader with 15+ years of experience in software, hardware & system engineering with key

focus on customer support and sustaining efforts. Foster strong customer relationships through

partnering on current issues, exceptional work ethics and influencing long-term goals of

supportability. Significant experience & expertise in data networking, security, software engineering,

program management, people management & full product lifecycle.

Skills:

L2&L3 switching / OSPF / STP / VRRP / RIP / IPv4 / IPv6 / ICMP / SNMP etc.

C/C++, Assembler / RTOS / L4-L7 switching / VPN, Firewall / NAC / WLAN

MS Office / Visual Studio / VxWorks / Unix / Windows

ClearCase / CVS / Clarify / Ixia / Spirent

Marvell / Broadcom / NT Asics

Key Accomplishments:

Design & Deployment of Best Practices: Design & code reviews, fix forward propagation,

engineering fix process etc.

Shortening release cycle & 5x’s reduction of filed reported issues resulting in significant

improvements in ROI

$5+M per year, Incremental Revenue Growth

Recruiting, grooming & successfully launching development teams: US, India & China

Champion next generation of leaders through preservation & transfer of technical knowledge to

internal & cross functional teams (SW engineering, SQA, Technical Support)

Architected and Designed Key Product enhancements (SMLT extensions like stability & loop

prevention, IP Filter redesign, HW Fault detection, High Availability stabilization)

Professional Experience:

2000 – 2009: Lead Sustaining Manager, Nortel Networks, Santa Clara, CA, USA

2007-2009 Customer Advocacy, Release Management and Technical Leadership.

Led cross functional teams responsible for execution and timely delivery of software

releases for multiple products. (L4-L7 Application Switch, Application Accelerator,

Switched Firewall, WLAN, VPN Gateway & NAC)

Defined Roadmaps and delivered 15+ sustaining & minor development software releases

per year including special NAC release for Vancouver Olympics.

Point person for all field issues in SAI & UC portfolios.

Worked with OEM and other vendors to provide resolution for customer issues.

Budget planning and management for development & sustaining programs.

2005-2007 Technical Software Sustaining Manager (L2/L3 Routing Switches)

Site visits for high profile customer escalations. (Technical investigation and direct

customer management)

Hands-on engineering lead for sustaining development teams (onshore & offshore

resources)

Managed release deliverables including ownership of cross functional team meetings.

2000-2005 Sr. Software Sustaining Engineer, Team Lead. (L2 & System)

Architected and delivered strategic design improvements for major customers like SIAC.

Software engineering support for Enterprise Routing Switches

1996 -2000: Senior Software Engineer Hylink JV, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia branch of Cylink Co.

Software development for Secure Unit (C/C++, SNMP, VxWorks, ODBC,MFC, MS SQL

Server, Informix, MS Access )

Ported network device management software from SCO UNIX to Solaris and From Solaris to

WinNT (C/C++, X-Windows, TCL/TK, Motif, Informix, ESQL)

Estimated performance of cryptographic algorithm on DSP processors (TI, Lucent)

1990-1996: Software Engineer (Center of Information Technology, National Survey of Seismic Protection &

“Lokos-Marvol” JV) Yerevan, Republic of Armenia.

Developed software for statistical analysis (C++, MFC, ODBC)

Developed earthquake prediction software (Pascal, C++)

IRIS USGS Global Seismograph Network Station functionality support in the Republic of

Armenia (UNIX)

Managed and designed database applications like accounting, tax deduction etc. (Clipper,

dBase, FoxBase)

Developed firmware for network cards (Assembler)

Developed SQL server for proprietary operating system (Pascal, C++)

Education, Specialized Training and other Skills:

1987 – 1992 State Engineering University of Armenia (SEUA): Major: “Computer Science”. Diploma

of Engineer of System Technology (Evaluated as BS CS).

2003 Nortel Leadership Academy

2008 Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Training.

Recommendations from LinkedIn:

Lee Laskin, Director of Customer Engineering, Nortel: "I have known and worked with Vagharshak for over 8 years and for a number of those years, he reported to me. In Vagharshak you will

find every essential ingredient – dedication, talent, solution creativity, process innovation, a solid team player, a solid individual contributor. Through the years, he has constantly grown in

his leadership attributes as well as his impact to the business. He is always looking for the best solution and not just any solution, where “the best” may include varying attributes such

timeliness, efficiency, quality, cost, customer orientation, etc. I have seen more success in Vagharshak’s programs than any other IPT lead in terms of reducing defect backlogs, driving on

time high quality Sustaining release programs (consistently) and reducing costs. Through working with business leaders, Vagharshak has also leveraged the Sustaining program and resources

to enable incremental product revenue adding several million dollars to the top line year after year. I am extremely confident that Vagharshak can (and will) make a positive and rapid impact

wherever placed in an organization and am delighted to be able to share my strong recommendation."

Greg Landry, R&D Leader, Project Team Leader, Nortel: "Vagharshak has had a number of roles focused on leading development teams responsible for resolving customer reported

problems. He is extremely knowledgeable, technically skilled, and effective at ensuring customer needs are always met. He cuts through ambiguity, identifying real issues, and then works

closely with the design team to rapidly solve problems at hand. Vagharshak is able to deal effectively with both internal and external facing organizations, as well as customers. He is also

extremely skilled technically, and understands the technologies, the software, and the tools needed to be effective. He is passionate about what he does, and places the customer ahead of

all else. Finally, Vagharshak is also great guy to work with and a welcome member of any team."

Andrew Bojak, Manager Global Product Support, Nortel: "Vagharshak Mikayelyan and I have worked together over 5 years and he's always been completely professional and very productive

during that time. He has a very diverse technical background in data communications and has proven to be a strong people manager as well. I strongly endorse Vagharshak to any

prospective hiring manager whether it be for a individual contributor role or a management role."

Blair Gibbs, Customer Service, Telecommunications: "Vagharshak is very customer oriented and he has a strong sense of urgency. He has excellent technical skills, team leadership and can be

counted upon to meet/exceed his deliverables. He would be a welcome and valued resource in any organization."

Jason Poole, Product Line Manager (Security and Application Intelligence) EMEA, Nortel: "Vagharshak brought a drive to sustaining that was needed to enable a focus for the product lines on

which we worked. His dedication, hard work and intelligent questioning allowed all to feel involved in the process and contribute to making better quality products. He leads by example and

when, as happens from time to time, the customer is screaming, it is Vagharshak I want to turn to for his abilities to and encourage others to work hard, focus and prioritize the tasks at hand

to deliver professional solutions. He was an excellent colleague, a welcome voice on the phone and good friend."

Wassim Tawbi, Director Product Management Network Management, Security and Application Intelligence, Nortel: "Vagharshak is a great team player and very customer oriented. He has

managed and resolved difficult customer situations in a professional way. Vagharshak is very knowledgeable and has excellent leadership skills. His knowledge and leadership skills make him

a great candidate for any position in an R&D organization."

John Buswell, Senior Software Engineer, Nortel: "Vagharshak is a very thorough and precise manager. He did an excellent job to keep the entire team accountable, made sure fixes were

delivered on time, and did an outstanding job at keeping the priority on customer issues while helping to erode the backlog of legacy issues. Vagharshak keeps the best interests of the

customer at hand while making sure the company is making best use of its engineering resources. He looks at the facts, takes no nonsense from developers, support engineers or account

representatives and keeps the team focused on what is important. I would highly recommend and gladly work for Vagharshak again, he is an excellent manager."

Murali Krishna Cheekati, Senior Software Engineer, Nortel Networks: "Working with Vagharshak was a great experience for me. He is the best to bring the best out of people. His never give

up attitude is a great asset to the team and for the project schedule deliverables. I highly recommend Vagharshak."

Sunil Verma, Software Engineer, Nortel Networks : “Vagharshak is a self motivated, hard working, technically savvy individual who delivered on his responsibilities in a timely fashion while

also stepping up to manage the development team offshore and onsite. I strongly recommend him as he would be an invaluable asset to any engineering organization."

Jitendra Verma, Software Lead, Nortel Networks: "I worked with Vagharshak on industry leading Passport 8000 series routing switch portfolio. Vagharshak has excellent programming skills

and in depth knowledge of networking concepts. Vagharshak is an excellent team player and was one of the best software engineers in the group."

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