Network Architect Palo Alto

LAYTH SHAHEEN

● 310-***-****● *****-*******@*******.***

SUMMARY:

Senior NOC Manager and Network Architect with 15+ years of experience, specializing in owning and maturing global Network Operations Centers. Proven success in leading US and India-based teams, driving incident management excellence, and developing shift leadership structures. Focused on raising operational maturity, reducing executive dependency during major incidents, and ensuring robust store connectivity and cloud application flow support.

EDUCATION:

Widener University - Chester, PA

Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering

Master in Computer Design Architecture.

TECHNICAL & LEADERSHIP SKILLS

Leadership & NOC Competencies: Global Team Leadership (50+ engineers) Major Incident Command & Bridge Call Facilitation Shift Leadership Development Operational Maturity & Process Improvement Vendor & Contractor Management Mentoring & Upskilling Follow-the-Sun Coverage Models ServiceNow Ticketing & Workflow Management

Networking & Cloud: Cisco/Meraki Stack SD-WAN BGP, OSPF ACI Firewalls (Palo Alto, Cisco) AWS & Azure Cloud Services Application Flow Analysis

Certifications: CCIE (Written and Lab) F5 Certification Palo Alto Firewall Cisco ACI Certification

EXPERIENCE:

Swift Advanced Network lnc.

April 2023 to Present

NOC Manager & Cloud Architect (AWS and AZURE).

Own and mature cloud infrastructure operations, achieving 99.99% uptime for a user base of 100,000+.

Integrate advanced analytics for proactive system monitoring and predictive maintenance.

Orchestrate deployments to reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) and implement automation for proactive monitoring and predictive maintenance.Integrate AI-powered analytics into the NOC dashboard to enhance event correlation and alert management.Led a cross-functional team in the migration of legacy systems to the cloud, resulting in 30% savings on operational expenses and improved scalability.

Instituted comprehensive cybersecurity measures using industry standards, diminishing security incidents by 70% within a year.

STELLANTIS. V2Soft On behalf of Stellantis.

June 2022 April 2023

NOC Manager/Network Architect.

Automated resource provisioning to improve operational efficiency and reduce manual ticket volume.

Collaborated with application teams on application dependency mapping, creating documentation used for faster NOC troubleshooting and root cause analysis.Collaborated with application owners to define dependencies and optimize workflow, ensuring understanding of application flow.

Ensured ACI designs include IT strategy initiatives, middleware implementations, and leveraging overall technical architecture knowledge across multiple technologies

Defined the migration from ‘network centric’ model to an application policy model infrastructure, created plans in include ACI, Hybrid cloud and use of containers and orchestration tools.

Defined how orchestration/automation would be used for resource consumption, provisioning and application development.

Designed and implemented Cisco ACI in Datacenter’s, created a strategy that allows use of containers, cloud orchestrations tools for end users and developers.

Wrote code in Python for deploying applications within ACI fabric

Monitored APIC Cluster.

NTT GLOBAL Phoenix, AZ

July 2021 to May 2022

Network Infrastructure Manager/Lead.

Managed a 12-person global NOC team, establishing a follow-the-sun coverage model and shift leadership structure.Managed and mentored 3 shift leads, empowering them to independently manage network issues.

Drove ticket quality in ServiceNow by implementing standardized categorization, descriptions, and escalation procedures.Confidently led bridge calls for major incidents, coordinating efforts between US and offshore teams.

Acted as primary Incident Commander for major incidents, confidently leading bridge calls and coordinating response between onshore and offshore teams to reduce executive dependency.

Managed the implementation of network monitoring for SD-WAN and Meraki systems across 300+ branch locations.

Managed the design and the build with hand-on in Data Centre switching, routing with overlay technologies.

Delivered Advanced Leaf>Spine>Leaf Architecture, validted dessigns and Methodologies.

Led Palo-Alto Firewalls project. That included Configurations and Deployments.

Conducted wireless site survey to provide adequate wireless coverage.

Expert with network protocols such as BGP and OSPF.

Holtec International Inc. Camden, NJ

Jan 2019 To June 2021

Network Infrastructure Manager/Lead.

Managed corporate network infrastructure, establishing NOC monitoring and alerting for complex BGP and VPNs.

Responsible for capacity management and performance reporting, providing data for NOC planning and SLAs.

Maintained accurate network documentation, a critical resource for the NOC team for swift incident resolution.

Responsible for capacity planning, budgeting, and evaluating network services for future developments.

Maintained accurate documentation and inventory for all network equipment, establishing a single source of truth.

Responsible for conducting feasibility studies on strategic and tactical plans.

Evaluated network services and technology for current and future network developments.

Managed and maintained VPN products for remote (SSL VPN and L2L peers).

AlphaBroder. Contact Trevose, PA

2/2018 To 12/2018

Network Infrastructure Lead.

Primary technical lead responsible for implementing and maintaining the network infrastructure hosted Exchange Environment and working with the lead Exchange Admin to customize settings to meet the needs of numerous agencies.

Documented standards for the corporate network and for the fiber zoning to keep the team consistent in zoning practices.

Worked extensively with VMware tools to manage our growing environment.

Deployed WAN iCloud solutions for several warehouses, Meraki hardware utilitied for the iCloud environments.

Documented standards for fiber zoning to keep the team consistent in zoning practices.

Led the successful implementation of network performance management products for Paradigm's infrastructure, improving visibility into network optimization.

Planned and implemented disaster recovery/fault tolerance across two sites.

Expert in Troubleshoot complex protocols such as BGP and OSPF’s issues.

International SOS Inc. Trevse, PA

March 2017 To Jan 2018

Team Lead Network Engineer.

Provided Tier 3 escalation support to the NOC, resolving complex network incidents and reducing ticket backlog.

Led major incident bridge calls for security and system upgrade events, defining communication protocols and resolution workflows.

Developed and delivered NOC training materials to upskill engineers on new technologies, improving the team's first-call resolution rate.

Worked on complex customer Multicast and VRF routing issues.

Designed and documented critical upgrades and migrations.

Provided support for Verizon provider of Edge network.

Managed/supported Cisco, Alcatel, Brocade, Juniper routers and Palo Alto Firewall.

Troubleshoot complex BGP and MPLS issues.

Provided detailed documentation of existing architecture and future architectures

Ugraded 280 Cisco’s Devices with newest version that supported IPv6 that included next generation Nexus code.

PJM Interconnection Audubon, PA

Oct 2016 To Feb 2017

Team Lead Network Engineer.

Led project effort to upgrade Enterprise Network Intrusion Detection solution. Upgraded and installed over 30 10Gig Intrusion Detection devices and all associated SPAN configuration.

Coordinated the efforts to decommission multiple unneeded datacenters. This consolidated multiple customer workloads into different datacenters allowing for the closing of redundant facilities.

Developed network design to segregate IaaS environment from existing networks standards.

Implemented the design in two major datacenters allowing customers to auto-provision Virtual Datacenter (vDC) assets through VMware Cloud and vCNS 5.1.

Developed training material for Cisco Nexus equipment migration. Instructed engineers and technicians on Cisco Nexus technologies such as FabricPath, Virtual Port-Channels (VPC), and Fabric Extender (FEX) implementation.

Responsibilities included, F5 load balancing that supported over 425 VM Servers

Firewall Design and deployment with new generation of Cisco (FirePower) model 4.2

GSK Pharmaceutical Collegeville, PA

May 2014 To Oct 2016

Senior Network Engineer.

Designed and Deployed Cisco ACI technology by utilizing top of the layer Nexus switches Cisco 93k as leaf with Nexus 9500 as spine switches.

Managed and carried out various IT projects, including licensing, project scheduling and hardware acquisition.

Oversaw migration of 2 Data Centers from Frame Relay to private MPLS WAN links to new service provider.

Improved network optimization by successfully implementing network performance management products for companies.

Managed Blue Coat system that was used as the proxy and Security for the company.

Designed and configured complex switching environments.

Farmers Insurance Inc. (Zurich)

June 2010 April 2014

Subject Matter Expert III

Managed and reported on service level agreements (SLAs)

Supported Tier 3 level for issues and problems management.

Involved in Capacity Management including Planning, Budgeting and Execution

Monitored systems for proper performance (KPIs)

Provided direct support for all related budget management for annual maintenance and refresh upgrades for the specific technologies.

Installed and Managed firewalls and legacy load balancers (F5 and ACE) for the Company.

Cisco Nexus 7k, 5k, 2k / ASA 5585 firewall virtualization/network replacement at all US Data Centers.

Installed and migrated the various cloud/customer physical network pods into this new virtualized Cisco Infrastructure.

Cisco ACS v5 appliance rollout across the Data Centers. Installed and Integrated new ACS appliances with existing legacy RSA infrastructure and migrated network devices to it for authentication.

WAN optimization utilizing Riverbed Steelhead Cisco WAAS and Silver peak appliances. Configured and installed devices into sites and production data centers.

Designed and configured Palo Alto for the entire company “lab and then corporate”.

Implemented VPN SSL remote access across North America users for the entire company.

Highly motivated team player with excellent Interpersonal and Customer Relational skills.

Project Management Institute.

Dec 07 To May 2010

Lead Network Engineers

Managed entire Local Area Network and Wide Area Networks for Project Management Institute

Managed and supported Productions network Systems at RackSpace in Texas.

Managed and maintained Data Center

Implemented and Migrated T1’s Circuits to new redundant DS3 Circuits.

Designed redundant model for Local Area Network that included Firewall, Routers Switches and with DS3 Circuits.

Migrated Internet Public IP Addresses from Level3 to AT&T Internet Public IP Address.

Implemented VPN access to all employees using the Firewall ASA for Remote Client. Also implemented LAN to LAN VPN for Siemens access Remotely.

Designed and Supported Wireless Network for Project Management Institute.

Responsibilities included Load Balances ACE, CSS and F5 for Project Management Institute.

Supported Voice over IP Network for Project Management Institute

Migrated Wide Area Network for remote side T1 to different carrier.

Responsibilities included Network Security for Internal and External Networks.

Built and Administrated Microsoft Operating System including Exchange, Virtual Servers and Active Directory.

Managed/Supported over 480 windows server 2003 and 2008

Managed and Supported Citrix for all remote sides access for all Project Management Institute Service Centers

and The Data Center.

Supported VMWare Servers for Productions Network of 825 VM Servers

Implemented new Email Spam System

Managed and Administrated all Routers, Core Switches and Firewalls.

Republic First Bank - Philadelphia, PA

3/07 To 10/07

Lead/Sr.Network Engineer

FISERV INC - Philadelphia, PA

08/05 To 03/07

Network NOC Lead

Wellsfargo Bank

05/2004 To 12/2004

Network Engineer

Johnson and Johnson -Skillman, NJ

07/2003 To 4/2004

Network Engineer

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