Raj Thilak

Career Summary: Technical/Solutions architect with 14 Plus years of experience in Networking & Telecom industries, having a versatile exposure into managing Stakeholders,Client relationships, Revenue Generation, partnership management, Desing and Delivery and operations management across onshore and off-shore teams Dealing with O&M, SLA definition, commercial pricing, internal delivery costs.

About Me: I believe in achieving excellence in the field of Telecom & Networking. I am a firm follower of hard slog with an inclination to take initiative and the ability to lead a competitive team. I consider my profound analytical ability along with my innovative thinking as my leading strength. I am looking to be a part of an innovative and dynamic organization where my diligence, experience and vision will help me to contribute in the growth of the organization and diversification of my expertise.

Technical Skills:
Technologies:
Transmission : SDH, PDH, DWDM, Microwave,
Radio :2G,3G, LTE
Data/IP :SDN,SD-WAN, CDN, DC ,Enterprise, OTT, Security ,L2 & L3 Protocols (MPLS, BGP, OSPF,VPN, IPv6,ISIS)
Cloud :AWS and GCP, Security, Datacentre.
Automation : Python ,REST API, DIAL, JSON, Netconf
Products : TIMOS & IOS-XR platforms , CISCO ASR9K, Cisco NCS 5K routers, NOKIA R&S products, NEC Passolink ,NEC microwave, NMS,ECI EMS ,Nokia Flexi Packet Radio, Palo Alto
Certifications:
DEVASC (Cisco Devnet Associate certified 2022) - ID -CSCO13728767 CCIE Routing & Switching certified written (2017-18) - ID CSCO12116381 CCNA Certified (2012-2015)
CCNP Certified S,R, TS (2014-2017)
ITIL Foundation certified
SIX Sigma – Blue belt (Ericsson Global Solutions)
Projects & Achievements:
• Have been awarded Sky star Awards for past 4 years consistently for various process improvements and Delivery excellence.
• Achieved 250k USD savings as a SIX SIGMA project Green Belt- by improving Service Delivery Quality in Circuit Provisioning through process changes for Ericsson.
• Two internal process enhancement DI initiatives and Two customer/market ordering lead time reduction DI . implemented with an estimated saving of over 50K EURs for Nokia.
• Received Nokia service excellence , 50K INR cash award from APJ market Team for the support excellence and streaming lining order processing and logistics management

Work Experience
Cognizant UK (March 2023 – Till Date) :
Designation: Senior Solution Consultant – Network Rail
• Stakeholder Management, Customer Management, Product/services lifecycle management.
• Engage relationship managers to scope out requirements and problem statements from customer and develop Solutions based on services and products offered by Network Rail and other solution partners.
• Liaise with services and product development teams to identify potential opportunities to expand the service and product portfolio.
• Create and own high quality customer facing solution documentation and presentations, Influence stakeholders at all levels to gain buy-in to solutions and secure approval for funding progress with implementation.
• Work with SMEs and Solution Architects to provide end to end solution for new leads and opportunities.
• Work with Delivery and operational teams to provide immediate support for fault resolutions and long term solutions.
• Manage interactions with delivery managers,3rd party product providers and other approved suppliers to develop and support various solutions based on latest technology capabilities.
Tata Consultancy Services, (Feb 2019-March 2023) Designation: Technical Architect –Sky UK Client
• Engage client to understand requirements and problem statements from end-users and other key stakeholders to ensure that existing and new technology solutions are in alignment with business needs, and Enterprise Architecture defined by technology capabilities.
• Manage stakeholder understanding and expectation within SKY organization and their Enterprise Customer teams to align the requirements and business needs to achieve the business goal as desired by the client.
• Design and build technology environments to proper standards with associated documentation and processes and aligned to business requirements. This includes leading and managing projects in adherence with the PMO framework, participating in vendor management, creating/maintaining documentation, and helping to create standards and documentation.
• Dealing with O&M, SLA definition, commercial pricing, internal delivery costs, team player. Technical Documentation RFP, HLD, LLD, NRFU, Staging Plan, Test Plan, Network Migration Plans
• Worked on solutions for SKY Q Diagnostics (IOT), DC load sharing, Supercore network Refresh, CDN region migrations.
• Supporting client team during POCs, Pilots UAT and other solution based on requirements.
• Experienced in Planning and provisioning of Data Centre and Content Delivery Network setup by providing connectivity between Client Broad Band network to content provider servers.
• Proficiency in Telecom and Routing Protocols like BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, RIP v2,IGMP. SIP, VOIP, VPLS,VPN,QOS and traffic engineering.
• Proficiency in Designing/Implementing MPLS L2 / L3 VPN. Working on PE- AWS/GCP Cloud handoff peering design and implementation for Enterprise network setup/OTT Teams
Nokia Solutions & Networks Private Ltd., (Sep 2016-Feb 2019) Designation: Solution Manager (Pre/Post sales)– Chennai
• Played Key role in setting up centralized OSC team in Chennai location and in overseeing the transition of work from various countries across APJ to newly created centre.
• Managing Team of Technical consultants in providing solution support for presale team while handling Design solution of IOT domain on my own for Nokia’s entire Asia Pacific Client pool
• Acting as a bridge between various stakeholders product community, Customer Presale/Solution teams and Logistics to provide E2E solution support
• Responsible for system integration and testing for customer by first carrying out configurations changes in lab Environment and then implementing the changes into live network during the outage intervals.
• Provide consulting on configurational changes to customers by analysing the network capabilities
• Interfacing with product line to understand the feature capabilities and provide solution accordingly to customers.
HCL technologies Pvt Ltd (Dec 2014- AUG 2016) Designation: Lead Test Engineer - Chennai
• Responsible for making sure the Weekly CISCO ASR9K IOS-XR Images are reliable by testing for the bugs at L2&L3 levels using TCL and Python Scripts.
• Made sure the images are stable by setting up various topologies in labs for regression testing with IXIA & Agilent traffic generators.
• Liaise with CISCO partner manager to understand the testing requirements and work on use case scenarios for feature testing
Ericsson India Global Services Private Ltd, (Aug 2012-Nov 2014) Designation: RAN Migration Lead - Bangalore
• Lead IP planning for UK based Telecom giant MBNL in RNC and Site migrations project to ensure load balancing is achieved by planning RNC migrations all across UK network for Vodafone and 3UK managed by MBNL.
• Responsible for planning 2G 3G & 4G QOS to ensure optimal services for customer.
• Worked on building and managing circuits in Cramer for the planned migrations and work along with operations team during cutover.
Nokia Siemens Networks Private Ltd., (Feb 2010 -July 2012) Designation: Transmission Planning SPOC – Chennai
• Accountable for site wise E1 and Microwave link planning from ground up for Videocon customer during the roll out phase.
• Liaise with various leased line providers and other stake holders to plan for capacity upgrades ,MUX upgrades and network setup
• Worked on Circuit migrations, E1 provisioning, leased line provisioning, MUX installations, and other SDH and PDH network planning.
• Worked as part of configuration team for 3G MW (flexi packet radio) transport system implementation for Vodafone India.
• Worked on 2G,3G and LTE Transmission and IP service planning

Bachelor of Technology - Electronics and communications engineering.