Ashwin Kumar D
Hackensack,New Jersey
Summary
Dynamic and results-oriented IT leader with 20 years of experience in engineering, managing, and optimizing Unified Communications and Collaboration Products & Services. Seeking Director / Senior Director positions to leverage expertise in Unified Communications & Collaboration Engineering, Digital Workplace Technology, and Operations Management within a larger organizational framework.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
Work History
Director, Unified Communications & Collaboration Engineering - Digital Workplace Technology
NBCUniversal
06.2023 - Current
- Leading efforts to enhance cross-tenant collaboration capabilities across Comcast group of companies – Comcast, NBCUniversal, Sky & Universal Parks & Resorts
- Leveraging Microsoft’s latest offering of multi-Tenant organization (MTO)
- Spearheaded the engineering and optimization of collaboration platforms, including Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint, and Power Platform, facilitating seamless global communications, and enhancing productivity
- Orchestrated high-profile virtual corporate events, demonstrating technical prowess and ensuring smooth operations during critical business initiatives
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams including Cyber Security and Legal departments to ensure regulatory compliance and mitigate risks
- Provided leadership in talent acquisition, performance management, and career development, fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth
- Manage and direct budgeting & financial forecasting year on year, responsible for managing ~$30 M in the Operational budget in addition to managing ~$10 M in Capital budget
- Responsible for the governance & management of Licenses and associated costs across the collaboration platform
- Led efforts to optimize licensing costs providing over $ 2.5 M savings in the annual true-up for Microsoft renewals
- Service owner for over 40 business critical applications that includes all Collaboration & Unified communications tools and services.
Manager, Workplace Collaboration Engineering
NBCUniversal
11.2018 - 05.2023
- Led the implementation of Office 365 rollout for 60,000 users globally, serving as the lead technical expert and ensuring optimal system architecture
- Led the efforts to consolidate and migrate collaboration solutions arising out of multiple mergers, acquisitions to NBCU’s M365 collaboration platform – Delivering projects entailing M365 to M365 tenant migrations, GSuite to M365 migrations
- Responsible for the deployment and transition of conference room reservation solution from a legacy 3rd party solution to native Microsoft Room Finder capabilities
- Helped achieve significant cost savings by eliminating a legacy tool
- Directed overall system administration and management of collaboration and productivity services, ensuring alignment with business objectives and optimal end-user experience
- Supervised administrative, operational, and engineering functions for NBCUniversal's Enterprise Productivity and Mobility environment
- Conducted annual performance appraisals, interviews, and career mapping for direct reports, driving employee engagement and retention
- Managed operational support during high-profile events such as Olympics and Presidential Elections, ensuring uninterrupted service delivery
- Maintained inventory of IT infrastructure and facilitated compliance with regulatory requirements, including legal holds and data privacy regulations.
Manager, Messaging Operations
NBCUniversal
04.2018 - 10.2018
- Led the implementation of Office 365 rollout for 60,000 users globally, serving as the lead technical expert and ensuring optimal system architecture
- Led the efforts to consolidate and migrate collaboration solutions arising out of multiple mergers, acquisitions to NBCU’s M365 collaboration platform – Delivering projects entailing M365 to M365 tenant migrations, G-Suite to M365 migrations
- Responsible for the deployment and transition of conference room reservation solution from a legacy 3rd party solution to native Microsoft Room Finder capabilities
- Helped achieve significant cost savings by eliminating a legacy tool
- Directed overall system administration and management of collaboration and productivity services, ensuring alignment with business objectives and optimal end-user experience
- Supervised administrative, operational, and engineering functions for NBCUniversal's Enterprise Productivity and Mobility environment
- Conducted annual performance appraisals, interviews, and career mapping for direct reports, driving employee engagement and retention
- Managed operational support during high-profile events such as Olympics and Presidential Elections, ensuring uninterrupted service delivery
- Maintained inventory of IT infrastructure and facilitated compliance with regulatory requirements, including legal holds and data privacy regulations.
Team Lead, Messaging Operations
NBCUniversal
10.2014 - 04.2018
- Lead Operations for Messaging & Mobility team of Service Delivery vendors
- Manage and lead a team of Level 2 / Level 3 Microsoft Exchange Server Support Engineers, who maintain and administer the messaging infrastructure of NBCUniversal
- Provide Messaging Administrative, Operational, and Engineering functions for the NBCUniversal Enterprise Messaging and Collaboration environment
- Constant review of messaging infrastructure services, proactively identify areas of improvement to provide better end user experience
- Review operational metrics, analyze trends on issues reported, take proactive steps to eliminate and reduce repetitive incidents
- Perform role of a lead technical consultant in matters related to email and mobility daily operations
- Ensure Messaging Infrastructure is monitored constantly, ensuring service uptime at all times
- Lead efforts to restore messaging services at times of service disruption due to unforeseen outages / incidents
- Establish and maintain a working relationship with all vendors and service providers whose products and services – physical hardware and applications / software are in use to run the messaging infrastructure
- Be alert and knowledgeable on any new solutions and / or application updates or bug fixes as and when being released by vendors, review such solutions and applicability on environment being supported
- Coordinate, schedule, and implement solutions, bug fixes released by the vendors without any production impact to the business
- Establish and maintain a working relationship with business stakeholders and IT teams representing end users
- Be informed on various new business requirements raised up
- Assist and implement solutions, to customize and improvise messaging infrastructure to suit requirements as and when they come up
- Identify and bridge gaps if any, which could result in degraded service delivery – Resource Availability Required skill set to perform job duties
- Tech requirements
Education
Bachelor of Science - Computer Sciences
JNTU University Hyderabad India
India01.2003
Skills
- Technical Proficiency: Expertise in Windows Server, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft 365 Suite covering Exchange Online, Teams, OneDrive For Business, SharePoint Online, PowerPlatform, Intune, VMWare Workspace One (AirWatch), Cisco IronPort, Ribbon SBC, Cisco Unified Communications Manager, In-house conference Bridges, Video Interop, AWS Connect, Cloud PBX, SaaS based Unified Communication (UC) solutions, Voice Codecs, and various collaboration tools such as Adobe Creative Cloud, Cisco Webex, Zoom, Slack, Smartsheet, Dropbox, and DocuSign
- Leadership & Team Management: Proven track record of building and mentoring high-performing teams, driving operational excellence, and fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration
- Strategic Planning & Execution: Skilled in aligning IT initiatives with business objectives, driving Technology solutions for mergers and acquisitions, and managing multi-million-dollar budgets effectively
- Client Relationship Management: Strong focus on understanding client needs, building strategic partnerships, and delivering exceptional customer service
- Business Acumen: Data-driven decision-making with a keen understanding of regulatory compliance, business processes, and operational efficiency
Prior Roles
- Principal Consultant, Genpact, 04/01/13, 09/01/14
- Consultant, Genpact, 09/01/10, 04/01/13
- Lead Associate, Genpact, 02/01/08, 09/01/10
- Technical Support Analyst & Specialist, Genpact, 04/01/04, 02/01/08
Timeline
Director, Unified Communications & Collaboration Engineering - Digital Workplace Technology
NBCUniversal
06.2023 - Current
Manager, Workplace Collaboration Engineering
NBCUniversal
11.2018 - 05.2023
Manager, Messaging Operations
NBCUniversal
04.2018 - 10.2018
Team Lead, Messaging Operations
NBCUniversal
10.2014 - 04.2018
Bachelor of Science - Computer Sciences
JNTU University Hyderabad India
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