Solution Architect Project Management

AHMED ELSAFTY

************@*****.*** · +* ***- **4 -7973 · https://www.linkedin.com/in/Aelsafty

SUMMARY

Seasoned technology professional and servant leader with 20+ years of experience in Product Development & Management, Program and Project Management, Customer Success, Vendor Management, Risk Assessment and Management, Audit and Assurance, Regulations and Compliance, Change Management, SDLC, Agile, Waterfall, Scrum, and Lean. I possess a solid background in technology management and data-driven decision making, as well as a passion for leading large, diverse technical and non-technical teams through medium- and large-sized organizations. Known for engineering and management consulting services, completing complex and strategic projects ahead of schedule, and within budget.

CORE COMPETENCIES

Management Consulting Product Development & Management Product Ownership Solution Management Requirements Analysis Analytics Integration Verification and Testing Service Delivery DevOps Team Leadership Project Management Strategic Planning Risk Management Critical Thinking Waterfall & Agile Methodologies SAFe 4.x & 5.x Scrum Kanban Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) CI/CD Wireless Technologies ERP Cloud Computing Big Data Presale AWS Azure SaaS PaaS Virtualization Data Analytics Pre-sales IOT Product Roadmap Customer Satisfaction Release Management Vendor Management Marchant Technologies

EXPERIENCE

Bank of America (via Genesis10), Sr. Consultant– Cloud Technical Program Manager V Application Architect V - Enterprise Payment Technology - Marchant Gateways Technology

Apr 2023 - Apr 2025 (Charlotte, NC)

Accountable and responsible PM for onboarding Axia Technologies, Inc. applications (AxiaMed, now healthcare payment systems, HPS) in line with the strategic business objectives of Bank of America.

Work closely with the internal line of business and technology teams, as well as external technology firms, to initiate and deliver projects.

Works with the line of business partners to refine the scope of the project and project outcomes

Works with technology teams to prepare detailed design and testing approach documents

Manages the release activities and is responsible for all governance-required deliverables for acceptance and entry into the release

Works with the Service Delivery Lead Analyst for alignment of Jira work items assigned to a release

Solicits the system application owners for a successful release of the system of record submission and tracks progress

Solicits and receives development team estimates for release; confirms funding commitments for release.

Work with channel and business leadership to develop a strategy for the execution of product roadmaps.

Communicate development and production status and issues to management and stakeholders, and navigate at all levels in the organization.

Manage a complex Merchant Services suite of projects

Deliver large projects with significant impact on multiple lines of business, that may have cross-functional or inter-departmental implications

Skills: Technical Program Management · Release Management · Jira · Confluence Horizon · Kanban · DevOps · SecDevOps · CI/CD · Cloud Applications Architecture · Payments, Merchants · Financial Services · Agile · Global Technology Management · Merchant Processing Technology · Cloud (AWS/Azure) · Presentation skills · cross functional skills · MS Projects · Visio · Sharepoint · Excel · AWS · Azure · XML · Healthcare Payment Services · Technology Management · User Stories · Vendor Management · Business Control

Deloitte (via Kanini SW solutions), Sr. consultant - IT PM/ Agile Delivery Lead - Engagement Management ITS Deloitte Application Studios (Audit & Assurance) (Remote from Greensboro, NC)

Jul 2022 – Feb 2023 (Nashville, TN - Remote)

Accountable and responsible for the end-to-end delivery program of application technology solutions in line with strategic business objectives.

Ensure that the business needs are clearly understood, and the technology implemented meets the needs and expectations of the business.

Provide consultation directly to Client Application Studios leadership and customers around solution options and vendor product selection as needed.

Collaborate with channel leadership to budget and prioritize planned and unplanned development and maintenance project engagements.

Collaborate with Business System Analysts and Solution Architects to develop a high-level understanding of the scope and feasibility of technical solutions.

Oversee product planning, delivery, release management, and deployment to ensure technology standards and business needs are met.

Manage the day-to-day decision-making involved in project/product portfolios.

Work with channel and business leadership to develop a strategy for the execution of product roadmaps.

Seek ways to reduce application-related costs and increase the efficiency of program delivery applications in production. (Cost reduced by 32.25% in 6 months)

Integrate the business strategy and knowledge of software capabilities (current and future) into the vision and direction for all channel-related products.

Own product releases and provide status to Client Application Studios and ITS leadership; escalate issues proactively.

Communicate development and production status and issues to management and stakeholders.

Manage both internal teams and offshore vendor teams' project delivery, and plans, and ensure proper staffing.

Skills: Micro Services Architecture · Program Management · Release Management · Delivery Program Management · Budgeting · Analysis · Strategic Communications · Presentation Skills · Cross-functional Collaborations · CI/CD · DevOps · SecDevOps · Java · JavaScript · Micro services · Cloud · ML/AI · UX · Figma · PostgreSQL · MongoDB · XML · SQL · Python · REST/JSON · .Net · CosmosDB · ADO· Azure.

Apple Inc. (via TEKsystems), Sr. Technical PM/ Software Engineering PM - AppleCare Hardware Production Management and Engineering.

Nov 2021 - Jun 2022 (Cupertino, CA - Remote)

Lead development of program scope, deliverables, timeline, and execution within the SW Diagnostics teams

Prepare presentations illustrating project intentions

Coordinate project reviews; communicate project status and top engineering issues to the project team, and executive management (Bi-weekly)

Understand and communicate complex, technical, and engineering issues (hardware, software, etc.)

Lead design reviews and approve design milestones and criteria

Coordinate the design process to ensure the design meets the intended project goals

Ensure tight inter-team coordination and communication

Lead cross-functional collaborations across different engineering teams in different workspaces and domains (Hardware engineering, software engineering, hardware testing equipment, etc.)

Lead supplier and vendor management per program/project development progress, and iteration needs.

Drive product development analysis, retrospective, cost-benefit analysis, and execution plan for continued improvement.

Coordinate test plans, schedule, and tracking progress between different engineering DevOps, Stakeholders, and DRIs (Directly Responsible Individuals)

Skills: Product Development · Program Management · Project Management · Pricing Strategy · Analysis · Strategic Communications · Presentation Skills · Cross-functional Collaborations · Wrike · Confluence · Quib · Radar · ML/AI · HW development · SW development · NPI · Triage · Apple care services · User story · User Experience

TEMPEST Telecom Solutions, Principal Solutions Architect, Technical Advisor - Mobile Packet Core - Technical Adviser Center (TAC)

Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 (Dallas, TX - Remote)

•Analyze business data to define and evaluate problems and recommend solutions.

•Develop, document, and revise system design procedures, test procedures, and quality standards.

•Operational support, configuration change, and delivery management.

•Lead technical solutions for customers in North America for their operational networks applications and services, methods of procedure preparation, and approval per statement-of-work.

•Lead security audits, key performance indicators, and quality assurance projects.

•Generate reports and present documentation of results to stakeholders.

Volvo Group Technology (via Xdin, an Alten company), 2019 – 2021 Local Features Functions Owner (Product Manager/Owner) for North America Markets – Electrical Eng. & Vehicle Connectivity.

Feb 2016 - Nov 2021 (Greensboro, NC)

•Define EPIC and Capability Jira structure and breakdown for Agile Release Trains (ARTs) stream/sub-streams. •Stakeholder within Volvo's global development technology of Vehicle Functions Streams and sub-streams, and release train engineers (RTEs) for Volvo GTT NA development and solutions.

•Lead the business owners’ discussions for the North American portfolio in preparation for PI planning to prioritize the agile release trains (ARTs).

•Lead cross-functional discussions for Program Cadences (Review, Planning, Refinements), Executive Updates, and Quarterly Planning for Volvo Group's different Inter Blocks (IB) roadmap

•Lead cross-functional teams to plan high-level Program Increment (PI) objectives per End-User functions across 5 global Agile Release Trains (ARTs) following SAFe.

•Lead End User function development teams from requirement analysis, acceptance, integration support, and delivery.

•Lead feedback and retrospective cross-functionally for continuous improvements.

•Lead the business owners’ discussions for NA portfolio End User Functions and customers' voice to prioritize them in relevant backlogs within agile release trains (ARTs) and technology streams (globally).

•Drive the program visualization & priorities, for effective backlog planning across program and product teams using Volvo tools (Jira, Power BI, SE-Tool, others)

•Senior Scrum master for 2 local DevOps teams of the Volvo group technology agile release train in the USA. (Tea2+ and Tea2BP architectures)

2016-2019 Senior consultant, Project Manager, Scrum Master, Portfolio Manager, Project Management Office North America.

•Lead project execution of new products and services (Telematics Gateway 2.1/3, Infotainment, and Entertainment Modules).

•Lead the Cross-functional team(s) locally in North America (US, Canada, Mexico), and globally as part of the development loops per the NA Market Portfolio and strategy.

•Drive new leads with cross-functional organizations. •Risk assessment and recovery plans

•Drive new leads, budget estimates, quotes, and audit support.

•Drive collaboration and communication necessary to ensure delivery and risk management..

Skills: Program Management · Release Management · Product Ownership · Project Management · Agile (SAFe PMPO, Leading SAFe) · budgeting · Pricing Strategy · Market Analysis · Presentations · Strategic Communications · Presentation Skills · Cross-functional Collaborations · Product Management · software development · ML/AI · Jira · Confluence · Requirement Analysis · Jira · Confluence · MS Projects · Visio · Sharepoint · Excel · User story · ML · UX · Studio Design · User Experience

Ericsson Inc. (Consultant via Alten SE) Senior Technical Configuration Manager, System test and development, mobile packet core development.

Jan 2015 - Jan 2016 (Gothenburg, Sweden)

•Senior Technical Configuration Manager, Ericsson end-to-end Testing and System Test within Packet Core NDO GW LSV&CI department. Products: EPC, vEPC, EPG, vEPG, CEE, OpenStack, Mirantis.

•Led Cross-functional teams within different product development units and organizations in Lindholmen and Kista (Sweden), San Jose (USA), Shanghai (China), and Bangalore (India).

•Member of stakeholders of Ericsson enterprise and solutions architecture (Cloud Execution Environment 'CEE' based on OpenStack 'Marintis', Ericsson Cloud Manager 'ECM', vEPG) •Supported customers' Demos and Trials (Three-host, and One-host solutions)

•Led the System test and verification for maintenance correction packages for various product lines for North American customers.

•Scrum Master for I&V DevOps teams at Ericsson labs in Gothenburg, Sweden – PSMI (Professional scrum master I).

•Led Cross-functional coordination with all groups involved in projects

•Support customers' Demos (vEPG based on Three-host and One-host solutions)

•Lead the System test efforts for maintenance correction packages for various product lines for North America carriers (AT&T Wireless 2.0 & others)

•Led Risk management – identification, mitigation, communication, and escalation process. •Reporting across all tracks involved in projects to the Steering groups

Skills: Release Management · Agile (Professional Scrum Master I - PSM I) · DevOps · CI/CD · Analysis · Presentations · Strategic Communications · Cross-functional Collaborations · Jira · Confluence · 3GPP · MS Projects · Visio · Sharepoint · MS Project · MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

Ericsson Inc., Senior engineering staff - Consulting and System Integration services

Feb 2009 - Nov 2014 (Plano TX, San Jose CA)

Evolved Packet Core Release Program, Ericsson AB

Apr 2014 - Nov 2014 (Gothenburg, Sweden)

•Release Program member of stakeholders for the Evolved Packet Gateway application, EPG product global first office application (FOA).

• Led cross-functional teams within the Ericsson product development unit.

•Customer interface and remote support for global FOA and FFI activities that include Telstra (Australia), Softbank (Japan), and TIM (Italy).

•Daily meetings with the project management team and Stakeholders for delivery progress, risk analysis.

•Led the analysis efforts for root causes of customers' critical TR (Trouble Report) issued on the customer side, and resolutions.

•Led the virtualized EPC solution E2E support and cross-functional teams.

Engineer IV Svcs - Solution Architect - Consulting and System Integration services.

Feb 2009 - Nov 2014 (Plano TX - San Jose, CA)

•Engineer IV (Senior Engineer and Team lead) – Consulting and System Integration member, held roles in solution Design, implementation, and service delivery management, system integration, roll-out and implementation manager, solution architect, and consultant (RAN/EPC). Worked with tier I, II, and III service providers and carriers on multi-million projects (i.e. Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile 'MetroPCs', Motorola Solutions for public safety, BAMA customers, and others), Customer interface experience, Regional Competence Hub Team lead - consultancy and systems integration organization. Lead handler responsible for Mobile Broadband's new Add-on sales leads.

- Consulting and Systems Engineering, Service Delivery and Implementation management for RNAM (Region North America Market).

• Lead and coach the Competence team within Network deployment and integration (NDI). Transitioned to (IP Packet BB & Core) then 4GIP LTE Evolved Packet Core (Regional Competence Hub).

• Solution Architect/Management, Implementation Management

• Network Design (HLD and LLD), Deployment & Integration.

• Service delivery and project management

• Lead Handler Responsible (LHR) AoS and Pre-Sales

• Develop and create a statement of work (SOW), proposals, and demos.

• LTE trials and Proof of concept (PoC).

• Customer Network Support

• Technical consultancy, mentoring, and training customers' technical teams either for operations or planning for Ericsson products and services.

• Customer Interface with Tier I, II & III networks. (AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Motorola solutions, T-mobile 'MetroPCs' and others)

• PDU (R&D) assignments for in Packet Core (Gothenburg, Sweden) and IP products (San Jose, CA, USA)

Skills: Release Management · Agile (Professional Scrum Master I - PSM I) · 2G/3G/4G/5G · 3GPP · TCP/IP · Wireless Technologies · Mobile Packer Core · DevOps . SGSN-MME. CPG. EPG. SPGW . ePDG . Cross-functional Collaborations · Jira · Confluence · 3GPP · MS Projects · Visio · Sharepoint · MS Project · MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

Ericsson Inc. (via multiple consulting companies), Senior Consultant - Tech lead – Enriched Communication and Multimedia services

Jul 2006 - Feb 2009 (Plano, TX - Bellevue, WA)

Led & Delivered next generation gateway program as a consultant on behalf of Ericsson USA, Stakeholder member of award-winning and strategic key projects with a $120 million budget to replace AT&T vendor to Ericsson Next Generation Gateway NGG Solution – Now multiservices-proxy MSP platform – to support new overseen traffic for the new partnership and exclusive iPhone from apple Inc.

Sr. consultant - Program Management – Network Build and Services (Denver, CO)

AT&T wireless resident program manager on behalf of Ericsson USA, responsible for IP & packet core engineering program (replacing Nortel Solutions), Midwest region, USA. Operational support for migration and upgrades on the customer side. Led, Mentored, and Trained customer operation teams for their operational roles and responsibilities in operational support, risk management, KPI & security audit.

Vodafone Inc., Value Added services Operations support engineer within the Technology Management

Dec 2004 - Aug 2006 (Egypt)

Technology and Program Management is responsible for multiple value-added services in production within areas of core networks, value-added services, and intelligent networks– managed services, with multimillion dollars in terms of budgets and revenues.

•Developed integration and test activities conducted on new and existing Services.

•Provided technical support on emergency problems, root cause analysis, and vendor management.

•Stakeholder member to determine the upcoming Request for Proposal (RFPs) for new services, and the service level of agreement (SLA)

•Performed configuration changes, checks, and assessments regarding the quality of service (QoS) and the key performance indicators (KPIs).

•Prepared capacity forecasts to determine upcoming needs and recommend modifications to existing configurations and services to reduce costs (cost control) and improve service.

•Maintained and supported networking hardware and software components, including monitoring, managing, and tuning networks to ensure expected availability and performance levels are achieved.

•Technical project implementation management from the operational perspective for the new services.

•Led Security audit to ensure the implementation of all security recommendations and policies.

EDUCATION

Information Technology Institute

Postgraduate · Software Development · 2002 – 2003

Higher Technological Institute

Bachelor of Science · Electrical & Computer Engineering · 1996 – 2001 (Honors)

SKILLS, TRAINING, AND CERTIFICATIONS

Project Management & Tools: MS Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Teams), MS Visio, MS Project, Primavera, Jira, Confluence, ClearCase, ClearQuest, Wrike, Slack, ADO, PowerBI.

Multi-tier architecture technology, Micro Services Architecture, Programming languages: UML, Java, JavaScript, Apache, Websphere, PostgresSQ, MongoDB, AWS Services EC2, RDS, Route53, XML and messaging (MQ), Scripting (BASH, ksh, tcsh, awk), SQL, Python, REST/JSON, .Net, CosmosDB Azure

2022 SAFe Release Train Engineer Course (5.1) – SCALED AGILE [CERTIFICATE ID: 008*****-****]

2021 Be the Manager People Won't Leave – Linkedin [AdGtEvL6oR1cZKKShpFlCsV_upig]

2021 Data Analytics: Dashboards vs. Data Stories - Linkedin [AYxC62cVOWQlOetbVwBnUZSfS2ue]

2021 Agile at Work: Reporting with Agile Charts and Boards - Linkedin [AeJTDfs1ypVYworLPMiB6g6zph_3]

2021 Strategic Thinking - Linkedin Learning [AeY9otZclMhFKw0o3jxFWrqzY_eo]

2021 John Maeda on Design, Business, and Inclusion – Linkedin [Ab5OfLvO7_1_U2KNjKui1Rha-xt]

2021 IoT Foundations: Fundamentals – Linkedin [AVKnDkgD5vmTirdFUevP_Q6ZZzNb]

2021 Learning Jira Software – Linkedin [AeJFvxxbXxwE2PSF5NuMyH5TEMUq]

2021 Selling to Executives – Linkedin [ASvCpH0cjGi78WGry2wZKC-cjx8I]

2021 5G Technology Strategy: Next-Generation Mobile Networking - [ AbiCedED9ocyhV5oyf5N15dU7cJu]

2020 Igniting Emotional Engagement - Linkedin [AXWrwyioo1G8AknNW_WBgwsOQJnW]

2020 How to Handle Political Conversations at Work – Linkedin [AbQ4D_ChOIVqVBvhwrOHy1aB2qc_]

2020 Projecting Intelligence - Linkedin [Ad32dDJ1C_zdta3ivx6oyQ4sHt8J]

2020 SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (5.0) – SCALED AGILE [CERTIFICATE ID:727*****-****]

2019 Leading SAFe (4.5) – SCALED AGILE [CERTIFICATE ID: 128*****-****]

2019 FMEA - Failure Mode Effects Analysis – Volvo group University [Greensboro, NC, USA]

2018 SAFe for Teams (4.5) – SCALED AGILE [ Certificate ID: 424*****-****]

2018 Project Management Diploma – Volvo group University [Greensboro, NC, USA]

2015 Professional Scrum Master I - Softhouse [Gothenburg, SE]

2014 PMP Bootcamp – Ericsson Academy [Plano, TX, USA]

2014 ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management - Certificate GR750098674AE [ AXELOS]

2014 ITIL® and IT Service Management Training [ Global Knowledge Dallas, TX, USA]

2014 Ericsson Certified IP Technology [ Plano, TX, USA]

2013 Ericsson virtualized evolved packet core solution workshop [ Ericsson AB]

2011 QoS End-to-End troubleshooting for both WCDMA/LTE solutions [ Ericsson AB]

2010 Negotiation and Conflict Management - Ericsson Learning North America [ Bridge Resolutions Group]

2009 OSS-RC R6.3 for RNC [ Ericsson USA]

2009 LTE system techniques [ Ericsson USA]

2006 Oracle Database 10g: SQL – Vodafone

2005 Professional Development Program - Dale Carnegie Training - Vodafone

2005 Human Relations & Effective Communication - Professional Management - PMC (ProMark Corporation ltd.)

2003 Solaris 8 Certified System Administrator (Sun microsystems – Oracle)

2002 Java 2 Platform 1.2 Certified Programmer (Sun microsystems – Oracle)

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