Andrew Comba

Insightful, analytical & intuitive, and responsive MANAGER with a proven history of success. Innovative and persistent problem solver who thrives on challenges, is calm under pressure and gets the job done. Dedicated, bright & pragmatic team builder who possesses excellent interpersonal and business writing skills. Hands-on, empowering leader and motivator, organized & thorough planner, and win/win negotiator dealing effectively across all levels of the organization. Accustomed to a fast pace & multiple projects, fulfills priorities and meets business objectives while delivering high quality systems and outstanding user satisfaction when managing complicated projects.

• NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT, Safety Manager, 2015-01-01, Present, New York, New York, A public authority comprising the largest transit system in North America, Safety Manager for NYCT that uses self-certifying safety process, software and hardware for equipment with automated signaling and interlocking controls. Many automated systems/designs successfully in-service. Direct Report to Vital System Integrity (VSI) Assistant Director Commission 2022 -2024 Stabilization of Interoperable CBTC Systems CBTC Chair for Culver (F- Line) CBTC Tech Writer/Lead Reviewer. Project Safety Process Control Queens Boulevard East (SSI/CBTC) Safety Manager I for CBTC suppliers, involved in over 60 in service bulletins/system safety control board meetings, day to day reviews for in service activity/testing (Wayside Controllers, Onboard Train Controllers and ATS on B division. All systems in currently service on (E,F,M,R) train lines. Lead Manager/Developer Speed Enforcement Installed and in service at 5 locations with diverging routes on MTA property (Brooklyn -Bronx-Manhattan). Associate Project Manager (Level 3) - April 2015 to 2022. Testing and Commissioning for Evolving CBTC Systems Proof of Concept Advance Communications and Robotics Installer Program Proof of Concept testing on MTA property resulting in successful dry-runs and executive-level demos that established viability. Third Supplier CBTC Qualification To project manage 3rd supplier CBTC for interoperable system, safety case for Mitsubishi Electric including safety assessment, writing statements of work, lead and guide conditions & requirements, engineer specs and evolution in specs, readjust & manage timeline, safety reviews, audits, and manage workshops. Resulting in Qualification as CBTC 3rd Supplier Managed Safety and System Design for L line new odometry for Canarsie fleet as the chair and facilitator, created System Safety Control Board presentations informing Board members of all software and system level installations on L Line fleet. Conducted System Safety Working Group (SSWG) meetings. Result: deployed certified software to the revenue fleet. Conducted 20 SSCB Board meetings (2015-2017) using
• New York Gov declared state of NY subway emergency in 2017. N
• CBTC Systems Consultant, 2012-06-01, 2015-04-01, Responsible for managing process controls to meet NYCT transit board level acceptance for safe automated train control systems. To provide technical leadership, provided requirements to Developers then prepared DODAF use cases for Transit (Assumptions CV-OV, Evidence SV-DV). Provided recommendations for data driven hazard management systems. Result: achieved customer-based User Cases that met growing complexity of CBTC acquisitions. Publication found online: Joint Rail Conference Proceedings Publication 2012.
• Principal System Engineer, 2003-01-01, 2011-01-01, Responsible for the design, build and test of electronic solutions for the defense industry. Managed projects between $50,000 and $500,000, and reported to the Manager of WaveForm products. To insure competitive bidding and traceable auditing of historically complete development jobs consisting of hardware, software, systems, project management, and supportability, mapped legacy projects with varying degrees of precision to a fixed (WBS) work breakdown structure compliant to 881A Department of Defense (DOD). Wrote software that organized and reduced large scale data into Excel forms to be imported for use into master database. Worked with experts to perform work scope mappings into new dictionary. Provided guidance and mentoring to ease the utility of the tool. Result: successfully compiled and reduced $500 Million dollars of business over 12 strategic development jobs to a new WBS; passed internal auditing methods and calibrations. US NAVY operator had to manually control radio lock and supply reset and reacquisition commands to in-flight systems. Improved design cycle using tools to auto generate the real time C code for consumption by field integrators. Full product life cycle including software design, test, integration of subsystems, simulation, and configuration management. Result: Achieved innovation and substantial cost savings; design won awards for customer performance by bringing a completely new approach to the table. In response to the crash of a U.S. military transport in Bosnia in 1996, while flying a non-precision approach during adverse weather, a task force was formed & determined requirements for a near term, rapidly deployable precision approach system. In 2011 BAE was tasked with the receiver implement-ation of the JPALs datalink. Personally instrumental in designing a complete receive architecture that was quickly distilled into off the shelf hardware components and also filled in algorithms not clearly available. Developed receiver operating characteristics in presence of noise providing high quality simulations detailing performance curves for various pick off points in the signal processing chain. Developed complete test scenarios from a simulated transmitter. Result: completed field demonstrat-ions with remarkable precision; achieved design in 50% less manpower and 50% time loading. To determine impacts of adding features to an already deployed system, developed system requirements and managed database domains to share data in transparent ways. Acting as System Lead, developed analysis that was verified and accepted by the customer defining traceability tiers of the specification tree (KPP, FBL, Flow-down to SW and HW a changes to implementation), potential cost impacts, risk mitigation plans, documentation and updates according to schedule. Managed delegation and cooperation amongst team members across CONUS. Result: Able to determine cost of adding new features was not within cost and time constraints; customer adopted alternate approach. To counter the inefficiencies of fixed allocation spectrum usage, acted as System Lead in prime contractor system role to develop a complete supply chain framework. Worked with customer to develop service capabilities, operational requirements, systems requirements, data and regulatory constraints in addition to acting as acquisition and risk reduction guideline specifying the computer languages, software agents, types of policy, data schemas, system interfaces, system.dynamics, and timeline for the development of the capabilities. Result: $500K contract executed with complete supply chain designed end-to-end acting as the acquisition guideline.
• Systems Engineer Level 2, 1998-01-01, 2003-01-01, Responsible for producing analysis, software and hardware that would support company’s business activities. Reported to Senior Member of Technical Staff. To determine available frequencies across the US and Europe to support the free flight navigation for the Navy and FAA, analyzed the information through data mining and developed an automated tool. Result: proposed three frequencies; the customer chose one.
• System Engineer Level 1, 1996-01-01, 1998-01-01, Responsible for technical documentation and providing support for software defined radio. Reported to Senior Member of Technical Staff. Built a software defined model that handled 5 modulation schemes with one design. Set precedent in company on innovative approach.

• Matlab/Simulink
• C/ C++
• MS Office
• PSQL/Python
• R
• Maple
• Perl
• Unix shell scripts
• Visual basic