Project Manager Engineer

PROFILE

Proven leader with demonstrated ability to manage large strategic engagements and practice areas focused on Telecoms

Over 12 years of extensive experience in Project Management, Solution Architecture, Account and Vendor Management with

industry leaders like Alcatel & Nortel

Led technical projects, RFPs and contracts over $100M+.

First ever woman member of the Nortel Asia Pac Wireless Cabinet. Country representative for Women’s Business Council, a

Nortel corporate initiative to promote women into executive roles.

Member of the Leadership Team of “Women in Wireless”, Seattle Chapter and volunteer for AT&T’s OASIS Program to engage

young girls in Mobile App Development.

EXPERTISE

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End to End Wireless Solutions Network Planning & Deployment

• •

Telecom (GSM, GPRS, CDMA, LTE) Project Management Account Management

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RFP Strategy, Negotiations & Contract Management Channel and Vendor Management

Professional EXPERIENCE

Consultant Project/Program Manager 2008 – 2012

K2 Software Solutions, Denver CO:

• Program Manager for customized software solutions within Operations Support Software (OSS) space for Telecommunications

Carriers.

• Defined scope for a software dashboard product, K2 Front Tier®, that allowed users a unified view and access to collective back

office systems based on user roles and type of engagements.

• Successful product led to a Joint Development Agreement with Qwest/CenturyLink Communications, Whole sale division to develop

an all encompassing reporting tool for the metro networks.

Sereniti Inc., Denver CO:

• Carried out product and project management of Sereniti’s home networking solutions product suite including successful delivery of the

Active Security Manager Product.

• Defined overall business and functional requirements, product feature set and project scope.

• Implemented and analyzed the product test results, including usability, feature and marketing feedback.

NORTEL NETWORKS, ASIA-PACIFIC 2002 - 2007

Joined Nortel Asia Pacific in 2001 for a 6 years successful career that evolved through project management, product presales and

marketing to Wireless Solutions leadership, covering all components of Wireless core and access networks.

WIRELESS PRODUCT SOLUTIONS LEADER Nov 2004

Mar 2007

Responsible for developing Wireless business in collaboration with the Sales, Operations and Services teams. Led market entries of new

products and technologies (WiMAX, CDMA, High Capacity BTS & BSCs, EDGE, AMR, IMS, etc.) and devised regional product strategies

as member of the Wireless Cabinet.

Etisalat Expansion for 10M GSM Subscribers ($930M):

• Led the team to prepare the bid response for 10M GSM subscribers’ expansion on a turnkey basis including OEM systems, Network

level Integration and Managed Services.

• Defined RFP solution architecture, network design, product strategy and pricing. Authored RFP responses and technical proposals.

Defined SOW, OEM partner deliverables and BOMs.

• Carried out technical negotiations with customer engineering teams.

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AMR Trial & Deployment:

• Successfully led a strategic time sensitive AMR trial followed by network wide deployment.

• Ensured business continuity by de positioning competition and by devising feature pricing to ensure return on investment while

maintaining low CAPEX for customer.

Regulatory Engagements:

• Mobile Number Portability Key contributor in defining and implementing Mobile Number Portability with the regulatory authority on

behalf of the wireless operators

• Single Cell Mobility Engaged in critical discussions between the regulators and the wireless operators to finalize the decision on

Single Cell Mobility for Wireless Local Loop CDMA operators.

• GSM EIR Collaborated with key telecom players to effectively implement a National EIR (Equipment Identity Register) system.

PRODUCT MANAGER, ACCESS NETWORKS Dec 2003

Nov 2004

Led Nortel’s regional Access Networks (RAN & BSS) product strategy which ensured product features to price value within the competitive

analysis model. This renewed product strategy resulted in immediate success in terms of expansion contracts with Pakistan Telecom (now

Etisalat) in the cumulative amount of $140M.

EDGE Trial & Deployment:

• Planned first entry of Nortel EDGE solution in AsiaPacific region by leading a trial EDGE deployment in live customer network,

working strongly with core R&D and engineering teams.

• Carried out EDGE demo in open industry, regulator and media presence and demonstrated overall product value in terms of

technology applicability and competitive landscape.

• Devised pricing strategy for EDGE focused on reduced CAPEX for the operator

GSM Expansion Project Phase 4 ($120M):

• Led the engineering team to finalize the pre sales RF and BSS design for introduction of 462 new sites and expansion in 364 existing

sites in the PTML network.

• Prepared RFP Compliance statements, red teamed technical proposals, generated Bill of Materials and evaluated OEM vendor

products.

• Led the contract negotiations for Access Networks and the corresponding commercial offer for contract closure.

GSM Dual band 900/1800 Redesign ($20M):

• Led the engineering team to redesign the existing GSM900 customer network to dual band GSM 900/1800 as per regulatory

requirements.

• Carried out the technical negotiations with customer, authored technical proposal, Bill of Materials and pricing contract.

PROJECT MANAGER – WIRELESS OEMS SOLUTIONS & INTEGRATION Mar 2003

Dec 2003

As OEM Solution Manager, successfully delivered product and project management for seamless integration of over 20 systems including

Core Networks, Prepaid/IN, Voicemail, MMSC, Billing, Mediation, Call Center, Data Ware House, Fraud Management, Call Monitoring and

Financial Reporting.

• Managed multiple vendors at pre and post sales phases to deliver complex information systems across various platforms.

• Mitigated risk by defining clear responsibility and accountability at each project milestone. This ensured conflict resolution measures

for multi vendor systems.

• Managed budget, resources, scope creep and change order processes.

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PROJECT MANAGER – GSM/GPRS OEMs & OSS DEPLOYMENT (PHASE II) Jan 2002

– Mar 2003

Joined Nortel on the PTML project to build a green field GSM cellular network of 600k subscribers at a net worth of $110 million as a

turnkey solution.

• Led multiple regional teams to deliver wireless network expansion of additional 500k subscribers including upgrade of existing

infrastructure and introduction of new core switching elements (MSC, HLR) and Value Added Service Platforms (IN, SMSC, Voice

Mail, Call Monitoring, etc.).

• Acted as a the key point of contact for the customer on all project activities. Provided weekly status reports and held regular customer

meetings.

• Responsible for network wide integration and acceptance of all third party systems including OSS (Billing, Mediation, Customer

Care, Data Ware House, etc.)

PROJECT MANAGER – GSM/GPRS NETWORK ACCEPTANCE (PHASE I) Oct 2002

– Mar 2003

Successfully drove a halted phase 1 project towards completion and achieved project acceptance sign off resulting in the release of $7

million in targeted revenue and transition into the next phase of the project.

• Oversaw BOM/BOQ audits and performed Gap Analysis against Contractual Acceptance Criteria.

• Led a series of customer meetings to achieve consensus on final list of outstanding deliverables and committed timelines

• Tracked project progress and ensured creation and processing of internal and external Job Change Orders (JCOs) to document all

acceptance activities

ALCATEL CIT, FRANCE & PAKISTAN

1998 - 2001

Joined the R&D division of Alcatel, called Alcatel CIT as software engineer in the Operations and Maintenance team of Alcatel’s Switching

System. During the course of four years, progressed from different tiers of Software Engineering to Team Leader, leading developers from

distributed off shore Centers of Excellence in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Technical Team Leader UMTS Project

• Led the UMTS rotational engineering team in France to deliver UMTS Core Software Enhancements. Scheduled and tracked

deliverables and evaluated overall performance based on established project goals.

Liaised between the core engineering teams and engineer home based teams to report progress and design follow up goals.

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Software Engineer VoATM, SDH & Maintenance Projects

• Carried out development of multiple projects for Voice Over ATM, SDH and Billing Server for the Alcatel Switching Core following the

V cycle methodology.

• Responsible for maintenance of multiple releases of Switch software by providing resolution of faults or introduction of customer

requested changes in the O&M Software.

Education

Master’s in Computer Science, Quaid e Azam University, Islamabad – Pakistan (1996)

Bachelor’s in Mathematics & Physics, Punjab University, ICG, Islamabad – Pakistan (1993)

awards and conferences

• 2003 2006 Awards of Excellence for Outstanding Contribution, Nortel Asia Pacific

• 2006 CommunicAsia, Singapore

• 2006 Speaking engagement, Topic “Nortel’s evolving IMS portfolio”, Nortel IP based Multimedia Services Road show

• 2005 – 2006 Women in Business Conferences, Malaysia

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• 2005 Nortel User Group Conference, Munich, Germany

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