Engineering Manager or Director, Project and/or Program Management

Bruce Wakai

Address: Buena Park, CA *****

Home: 714-***-**** Email: **********@*****.***

QUALIFICATIONS PROFILE

Engineering Project Management

Engineering Leadership / Executive Interdepartmental Collaboration / Expert Full Product Life Cycle / Avionics Industry Experience

Extensive experience in engineering program/project management with hands-on technical expertise in the product development process. Entrepreneurial spirit in taking lead initiatives from design concepts to delivery. Broad experience gathering accurate technical and cost inputs for customer proposals. Skilled at recruiting, hiring and training for developing startup teams. A coaching/pacesetting management style that excels at developing people for the future while driving excellence and self-direction. Proven track record of leading a large engineering organization partnering with cross functional teams to meet aggressive schedules while adhering to approved budget. Promotes team harmony and smooth customer program flow by evangelizing positive corporate culture with internal and external teams. Highly effective at managing relations and expectations in all customer interactions. Seeking a program/project position where my work will make a significant positive impact.

CORE COMPETENCIES

Extensive Project Management Experience

Team Building and Leadership Vision

Continuous Improvement of Processes & Policies

Product Design and Implementation

Analytical Problem Solving

KPI / Performance Metrics Management

Budget Planning and Management

Cross-Functional Collaboration

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Leadership & Management Experience / Skills:

Multitask to manage and lead multiple complex development programs and projects simultaneously with teams across multiple global locations.

Excellent communication skills - Natural ability to communicate with customers (internal and external) at all levels within the organization from executives to interdepartmental support teams to project team members.

Performance standards management / staff development – coaching, mentoring, goal setting, monitoring and corrective action.

Technical Expertise / Skills:

Drive / perform complete product life cycle process - gather and document product requirements, architect and design optimal solutions, prototype / implement / integrate / test, transition to production, support deployment and manage obsolescence.

Create and track detailed technical development, deployment and initial service plans to coordinate enterprise, customer and third party activities needed for program success.

Problem solving ability - proficient at investigations / diving into technical details (HW/SW/mechanical) to drill down to root cause(s) and devise innovative optimal solutions to solve complex problems.

Skills sets transferable to aerospace /military industries with renewal of security clearance.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Panasonic Avionics Corporation (PAC)

Director of Project Management/Senior Principal Engineer 2002-2018

PAC is the world class leader in providing innovative In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) Systems to the major airlines around the globe. Successfully delivered five generations of IFE systems from concept to deployment.

Partnered with Product Planning, Business Development and Finance executives on product strategy / new product definition.

Managed full software/hardware life-cycles and releases.

Led a diverse team that champions user experience while encouraging all team members to influence decisions that enhance the end product.

Managed cross-functional teams to develop / deliver HW units, SW applications and system level products to meet FAA and OEM certification requirements.

Responsible for RFQ responses, proposal quotes, customer change requests and shipment / invoicing of software / media and support services per contract.

Developed and improved engineering processes to meet CMMI level 3 for control with flexibility.

Determined fluid priorities as conflicts arose. Provided key input necessary to guide executive leadership in problem solving and making corporate strategic, technical and business decisions.

Enlisted team members from Engineering, IT, Procurement, Operations and Quality Assurance departments to participate throughout the development process to ensure smooth deployment.

Managed activities and supply chain in coordination with factory in Japan, partners in Europe and Asia and ODM in Taiwan.

DIRECTV Incorporated

Senior Manager, Hardware Development Engineering – Start-up of New Media Systems Division 2000-2002

DIRECTV formed a new organization to develop the next generation set-top box to incorporate all future services. My accomplishment was the creation of the hardware platform R&D organization.

Assembled the talent, processes and infrastructure to support subscriber hardware development and to develop advanced platform prototypes and support equipment.

Generated plans, schedules, roadmaps and specifications for multidisciplinary development projects.

Generated presentations and conducted reviews to obtain approval of manpower / budget for several research and development efforts.

Managed outsourcing, researched vendors and developed relationships with chip and consumer electronics manufacturers that provided building blocks for the software and hardware developments.

EARLIER CAREER

Sony Trans Com Incorporated

Manager Product Development – P@ssport Engineering – Product Launch of P@ssport System

Matsushita Avionics Development Corporation

HW Manager/Sr. Staff Engineer–Architected System 2000 and designed key ASIC that launched start-up that became $3B Panasonic Avionics

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (BS/EECS) - cum laude - Princeton University

SKILLS

Technical leadership, program management, project management, Scrum Master Certified (SMC), vendor management, risk management, product development, system engineering, technical requirements, requirements management, change management, communication tools, team-building, recruiting, hiring, training, attention to detail, excellent interpersonal skills, process development, CMMI, CPI, best practices, R&D, electrical engineering, hardware development, digital design, ASICs, embedded systems, DFM, DFT, DVT, NPI, Ethernet, Internet, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Excel, Visio, SourceForge, TeamForge, DOORS, Synergy / Change, Oracle / Agile, Hyperion, Concur, Confluence, Orcad, Verilog, Synopsys, expired security clearance

PATENTS

An Integrated Video and Audio Signal Distribution System and Method for Use on Commercial Aircraft and Other Vehicles. Pat. Nos. 5,596,647 1/21/97 & 5,953,429 9/14/99

Combined Digital Audio/Video on Demand and Broadcast Distribution System. Pat. No. 5,973,722 10/26/99

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