resume

Chris A. Dennis

texomawaves@tx.rr.com

Summary

I am a Software Development Engineer/Team Lead for XO Communications, Information Technology, Network Management Systems Engineering team. At the present I am heavily involved in development of specialized applications meeting the XO telecom business needs as well as administration and maintenance of many of XO’s core business applications. My previous career was with MCI as a senior network engineer. I have 20 years of telecommunications network engineering experience. I have very extensive knowledge and experience on engineering and operational support of DWDM fiber optic, transport, microwave radio, data networks, and anything telecom related. My focus has been on network management systems integration and administration of these networks. My experiences include network architecture, systems integration, lab evaluations, deployment, writing application standards and equipment specifications. I have strong software development skills. I have 27 years of computer experience, and 7 years of heavy IT experience.

Education

Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering, graduate of The University of Texas at Arlington, December 1989

High School: DeSoto High School, DeSoto, Texas, Graduated 1983 with honors, National Honor Society

Engineering Work Experience

Sr. Engineer/Team Lead, XO Communications (Nextlink), Plano, Texas (June 2000 to present) My job responsibilities are to install, configure and test element management systems (EMS) in the XO network. Integrate EMS and network elements to the Micromuse Netcool as well as many other Network Management Systems. Provide EMS or other business application administration and 24X7 technical support for the XO Network Operations - Network Management Center, NOC, Tier I/II Support, and Engineering organizations. I have written many various web based software tools and developed "homegrown" applications for XO. Provide ongoing software upgrades and application support. Implemented Vendor Technical Management process for tracking software issues and planning for future software release upgrades. Developed network management integration and lab evaluation processes for new technology into the XO network. I developed several applications that discover networks, collect data, build databases, and create reports. In 2004 I developed a user friendly web based application “Netmax Explorer” which was an application with hooks into several systems (alarming, ticketing, provisioning, circuits, customers, maintenance, etc..) that various organizations use to eliminate “swivel chair” troubleshooting in a one stop shopping application. It is a very popular and heavily used application. In 2007 I developed a graphical based application that analyzed capacity on the Infinera DWDM network. This Network Capacity Planning tool significantly improved productivity in Sales, Engineering, Planning, as well as Operations. It enabled XO to sell lightwave services very quickly. This project received special recognition at the CIO and CEO level as well as the Telecom Industry Association.

Sr. Engineer, MCI, Richardson, Texas (January 1990 to June 2000) Engineered network management application standards for transmission equipment. These standards include master drawing sets, databases, and engineering rules to be used for project implementation. Performed laboratory evaluations focused on system integration test. These tests primarily involved software compatibility as well as environmental, electrical and mechanical testing. Wrote system integration test requirements for various network management systems including element managers (EMSs) and network management layer systems. Wrote network management specifications as a reference for vendors of SONET transmission equipment. Responsibilities included vendor technical management. Received the MCI Commendation Award in November 1992 for solving complex serial monitoring problems, accuracy of evaluations and completeness of standards documentation. Received a promotion to Engineer II in December 1992. Received the MCI SMART award in May 1995 for significant contribution to alarm storm testing, ATM, Diginet and other areas of fault alarm engineering in the MCI network. Received a promotion to Engineer III in June 1995. Received promotion to Engineer IV in December 1996 (now a Senior Engineer I).

Engineer Intern, MCI, Richardson, Texas (August 1987 to June 1989) Monitored fiber optic and microwave network performance. Built and maintained a database history of performance statistics for publishing corporate level reports. Developed software programs to transfer and manipulate data between software applications. Analyzed and solved many various network related problems.

Concentrated Knowledge of Equipment

Infinera DWDM networks
Sonus Softswitch GSX,PSX,SGX
Nortel OC-192, OC-48 and OC-12 SONET, Optera LH, Optera DX, and Optera Metro
Ciena CoreStream DWDM, OLAs, and CoreDirector switches
Fujitsu OC-192, OC-48 and OC-12 SONET
Fujitsu 810, 1.8 async fiber
Alcatel 1648, 1603 SONET
Cisco (Cerent) 15454/15327
Cisco routers and switches
Positron/Marconi SONET ADM
Tellabs Titan 5500 DACS
Alcatel Litespan 2000
ONI 2500, 7000, 9000 Metro DWDM
Other optical amplifiers, Ciena, Oki, Bosch, Siemens
Applied Innovations AI180 switch
NEC 405, 560, 1.12Gb async fiber
ANT-Bosch RPS-370 DS3 switches
NEC ITS-600, 2400 SONET
Pirelli optical amplifiers, post amps, line amps
Nortel Reunion LMDS
DMC XP4
AT&T DR-6/11 Digital Radio
NEC 500 Digital Radio
Triton radios
Ceregon radios
Hughes radios
California Microwave Telestar 10 Digital Radio
Foundry Big Iron and Net Iron router/switches
Siemens X.25 packet switches, Dynapac PADs
Accelerated Networks Integrated Access Device (IAD)
Lucent/Ascend CBX500
Lucent Stinger DSLAM
AFC UMC1000

Management Systems (EMS and NMS)

Acterna/JDSU NetAnalyst
Micromuse Netcool / Omnibus
Sonus Insight EMS
Infinera DNA
Nortel Preside
Ciena On-Center / Switching Node Manager
Cisco ISC (IP Solution Center) - VPN Management
Lucent Navis Core ATM
Lucent Navis Access DSL
Fujitsu Netsmart
Veritas Nerve Center
Nagios/ Netsaint
Amdocs Clarify
Metasolve TBS
Sandwell/Datap SONM
developed several "homegrown" applications for XO

Power Systems

I have extensive knowledge in operation and maintenance of generators, transfer switches, UPS, inverters, rectifiers and battery plant systems.

Miscellaneous / Old Technology

Sun and HP server hardware, experienced in UNIX (Solaris, HPUX)& system administration
M13s, channel banks, dial-up/dedicated modems, orderwires, protocol converters, and just about any typical piece of test gear.
Remote telemetry units including Analogic RMUs (remote monitoring units), Pulsecom Datalok-10 RMUs, and Harris/Westronic RMUs, WS1000, WS2000, WS3000

Skills/Experience

Software Development Skills

PERL (heavy experience), korn shell scripting (heavy), TCL/Expect, HTML, PHP, JavaScript, SQL (very heavy), and PL/SQL (training from Oracle University), and Java (light), Apache web servers. It doesn’t matter what language, I’ll code it.

Protocols/Data Analysis

Experienced in many various data protocols such as TCPIP, X25, etc.. Also experienced in popular telemetry protocols such as TL-1, SNMP, TABS, TBOS, and many other proprietary protocols. I have used protocol analyzers extensively and analyze data on a daily basis.
Experienced in analyzing, troubleshooting, and manipulating complex data.

Management Skills

Product Management: Work with users (my customers) of a tool to implement their requirements. Collect/Analyze metrics of several applications within XO. Identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of those applications. Take those "opportunities" and make enhancements to improve the "customer experience".
Lead a small team of software engineers: Can manage several projects and timelines and host regular staff meetings.
Budget Planning: Forecast annual capital and operational budgets.
Plan out complex projects, Gannt charts, Power Points, execute, and meet the dates.

Brainbench Transcript (#5975621)

Personal Attributes

Aggressive, will get the job done in a timely manner
Experienced technical writing and communication skills
Presentations/good public speaker
Ability to troubleshoot and solve problems individually and as a team
Team player, share ideas and projects with others
Always looking for ways to automate processes
Able to learn new technologies quickly
Positive attitude and good sense of humor
Adapt well to changes
Very customer focused, I treat everyone as my customer.
Discipline, perseverance, responsibility, honesty and hard work describe my work ethic
Leadership: Able to lead a team of engineers and manage complex projects.
A Visionary: taking a concept and making it happen

Activities & Interests

Public Service / Volunteerism: Member of the Murphy Fire Department, firefighter and EMT medical first responder, March 1995 to December 2005

· Member of the Murphy City Council and planning committee, May 1998 to May 1999

· Certified EMT Emergency Medical Technician (Texas Department of Health) - maintain current certification

· CPR Certified (American Heart Association)

· Certified Basic Firefighter (State Firemen's and Fire Marshall's Association)

· Fundraiser Projects for the Oklahoma and Texas Wildlife Conservation – Marine Biologists , Six Old Geezers, Lake Texoma

· Participation in city wide functions: Murphy Country Fairs, National Night Out activities, block parties and anything to promote public safety.

· 2006, 2007 Fundraiser Projects for the Oklahoma and Texas Wildlife Conservation – Marine Biologists, Six Old Geezers, Lake Texoma

Hobbies: firefighting/EMS responder, striper fishing on Lake Texoma, golf, chess, cards, water skiing, R/C model planes, garage tinkering, playing guitar and drums, welding, auto restoration, engine rebuilding, riding my Harley, surfing the net, building computers, writing software, fantasy football, genealogy research, read history, ham radio, building antennas, and collecting antiques. If I have any spare time, I like to read a book or work in the yard. I am an outdoorsman, and love the outdoors. I like to read business news, and world news every day. I am a very active person.
Licensed Amateur Radio Operator: FCC licensed, general class license, KD5EIA
Athletic: golf, tennis, swimming, and firefighting