F5 and Network Infrastructure SME

AHMED TOWOBOLA

332-***-**** **************@*****.*** linkedin.com/in/ahmed-t-67038468

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Accomplished Senior Network Infrastructure Engineer and F5 Technical Subject Matter Expert (SME) with over 10 years of extensive experience optimizing, securing, and scaling large-scale enterprise network infrastructure. Proven expertise acting as a lead architect for enterprise-wide F5 Application Delivery Controller (ADC) platforms, defining strategic roadmaps, modernization initiatives, and multi-datacenter disaster recovery (DR) architectures. Adept at managing high-availability platforms across F5 BIG-IP and VMware Avi (NSX ALB) environments to enforce Zero Trust frameworks, program advanced traffic policies via custom iRules/iRulesLX, and orchestrate DevOps automation pipelines.

CORE TECHNICAL SKILLS

Application Delivery & ADC: F5 BIG-IP (LTM, GTM/BIG-IP DNS), VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer (Avi), Global & Local Load Balancing (GLB), Content Switching, Capacity Planning

Traffic Engineering & Policies: iRules, iRulesLX, Layer 4–7 Traffic Steering, SSL/TLS Offloading & Decryption, Advanced Application Profiles, HTTP Policies

Enterprise Security & Defense: Advanced WAF (AWAF/ASM), Access Policy Manager (APM), Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM), Bot Defense, DDoS Protection, Zero Trust Architecture

DevOps, Automation & IaC: Ansible, Git/GitHub, IBM DevOps Framework

Routing, Switching & Core Net: BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, VRFs, VLANs, vPC, ACLs, NAT, DNS, DHCP, STP, Cisco Nexus (5k/7k/9k), Cisco Catalyst Center (SD-Access), SD-WAN, VxLAN

Diagnostics & Infrastructure: Packet Decode Analysis, Wireshark, NetScout nGeniusONE, PRTG, SecureCRT, Putty, ITSM (ServiceNow, Jira), AppViewX IAM

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

NYC OTI — New York, NY

Senior Network Infrastructure and Application Delivery Engineer (F5 / Avi SME) 08/2022 - Present

Serve as the Subject Matter Expert (SME) and for enterprise-wide F5 BIG-IP and VMware Avi platform infrastructure across 30+ multi-tenant government agencies.

Define strategic roadmaps, modernization initiatives, capacity planning paradigms, and multi-datacenter disaster recovery (DR) architectures to ensure continuous system availability.

Design and implement high-performance Global and Local Load Balancing (GLB), traffic steering, content switching, and custom programmatic traffic policies utilizing advanced iRules and iRulesLX.

Architect, deploy, and manage comprehensive F5 security solutions including Advanced WAF (AWAF/ASM), AFM, and APM to enforce Zero Trust models, Bot Defense, and robust application defense layers.

Partner with cybersecurity teams to standardize end-to-end SSL/TLS decryption profiles, enforce strict agency compliance guidelines, and execute secure application onboarding.

Drive DevOps integration and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) by developing automated provisioning, configuration management, and self-service deployment workflows via BOMs, MOPs and SOPs.

Establish strict operational standards, lead firmware lifecycle management, and resolve complex enterprise incidents through deep root cause analysis across TCP/IP, routing, DNS, and authentication flows.

Provide senior engineering leadership, serving as the primary technical escalation point for mission-critical platform events and reducing major Layer 4–7 application delivery bottlenecks.

Orchestrate enterprise-wide campus fabric automation and software-defined network (SDN) deployments utilizing Cisco Catalyst Center (DNAC / SD-Access), managing core routing and switching topologies across Cisco Nexus (5k/7k/9k) and Catalyst environments using BGP, OSPF, VRFs, and VxLAN.

Utilize ServiceNow to automate approval workflows and perform risk assessments, successfully lowering change-conflict rates to near zero.

Goldman Sachs — New York, NY

Network Infrastructure Consultant (Short-Term Deployment Contract) 06/2022 – 08/2022

Led senior network advisory workflows and complex root-cause analysis for intricate Industrial Control Networks (BMS/BACnet).

Deployed enterprise Claroty CTD platform to achieve complete end-to-end infrastructure visibility across OT, IT, and IoT environments.

Drastically reduced MTTR (Mean Time to Resolution) to near-zero for high-priority network routing anomalies and baseline cross-functional disruptions.

Apex Systems — Remote / Contract

Contract Network Engineer (Healthcare Deployment Contract) 05/2022 – 06/2022

Revamped high-availability healthcare network infrastructure to sustain continuous up-time across critical care environments.

Executed major platform refreshes and hardware upgrades by collaborating with vendors and establishing rigorous post-deployment validation plans.

Hedwol Consulting and Projects — Johannesburg, South Africa

Network Engineer 12/2018 – 04/2022

Provided tier-3 advanced technical support, packet-level decoding, and complex IP-based troubleshooting for enterprise network architecture.

Configured and optimized high-density switched and routed infrastructures utilizing BGP, OSPF, and advanced ACLs to guarantee core business uptime.

Dimension Data MEA — Johannesburg, South Africa

Senior NOC Engineer 04/2017 – 12/2018

Served as the Lead NOC Engineer, spearheading priority root-cause analysis and resolving complex global network disruptions.

Built customized infrastructure monitoring dashboards to track performance KPIs and strictly maintain rigorous enterprise SLAs.

Mentored and guided regional NOC engineering teams, optimizing technical escalation workflows and lowering ticket resolution times.

SBV Services PTY LTD — Johannesburg, South Africa

NOC Engineer 02/2016 – 04/2017

Monitored traffic steering and path utilization across national MPLS networks via NetScout nGeniusONE and PRTG monitoring platforms.

Performed detailed packet analysis and network protocol decoding to diagnose multi-tier application delivery and load-balancing failures.

EDUCATION

University of Derby — Derby, United Kingdom 09/2015 – 09/2018

Master of Science (M.S.) in Information Technology

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS

Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) – Enterprise Cisco Certified Specialist – Enterprise Core IBM DevOps and Software Engineering Professional Certificate ITIL® Foundation Certified (ITSM) CompTIA Network+ LPI Linux Essentials

ASSOCIATED TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE

Linux Enterprise VPNs Windows Server Architecture Cisco ISE Cisco ACI Agile & Scrum Essentials MS SQL Server AWS Network Fundamentals

Contact this candidate