Jared Smith
Maumelle,AR
Summary
Detailed Network Engineer proudly offering over 15 years' experience in network repair and technical support. An enthusiastic employee with knowledge in LAN and WAN infrastructure planning and deployment. Skilled in task prioritization, project oversight and effective communication.
Overview
17
17
years of professional experience
Work History
Staffing Manager –Architecture and Technology
Windstream Communications
Little Rock, AR
08.2022 - Current
- Managed team of engineers focused on the evaluation, testing, and certification of hardware and/or software for in-home network devices.
- Prioritized and organized tasks to efficiently accomplish project goals.
- Worked with cross-functional teams to achieve goals.
- Created processes and procedures for the certification, testing, and deployment of residential, small business, and enterprise customer premise equipment
- Met with stakeholder, vendors and technicians to determine solution requirements.
- Trained staff members on various aspects of customer premise equipment usage and software applications.
- Performed tests on newly installed hardware and software to provide components that interface correctly with each other and network.
Senior Network Engineer –Architecture and Technology
Windstream Communications
Little Rock, AR
11.2016 - 08.2022
- Designed scalable and user-friendly network architecture to meet business objectives.
- Evaluated emerging technologies that could improve the reliability or performance of existing networks.
- Met with departmental managers to discuss project status and determine action plans.
- Tested new products or technologies in a lab environment prior to deployment into production environments.
- Conduct hardware and software testing for data equipment such as routers, switches, DSL access multiplexers, residential gateways, and other network devices as it relates to the service provider.
- Design, Write, and Publish Reference Architectures to guide the evolution of the Network.
- Write and Publish Technical Specification Documents (TSDs) that are vendor-specific and include provisioning and troubleshooting guidelines.
- Managed multiple vendor relationships with service providers and hardware and software vendors.
Senior Network Analyst-Video Network Operations
Windstream Communications
Little Rock, AR
01.2015 - 11.2016
- Service as the Tier III escalation point to resolve video outages and impairments.
- Diagnosed, troubleshot and resolved Integrated Receiver Decoders and Encoders failures due to incorrect configuration, hardware, and software faults.
- Troubleshoot and resolve Live/Local TV, Video on Demand, and Paid Per View service due to incorrect configuration, hardware, and software faults in a Microsoft Mediaroom 2.0 environment.
- Write network Methods of Procedures to schedule customer-impacting work during local market maintenance hours
- Author detail procedures and command sets for turn-up and troubleshooting guidelines.
- Develop policies and procedures to improve repair times for service impacting events in the IPTV network.
- Provide 24x7 365 on-call escalation support for Tier I/II Network Analysts.
- Trained junior staff members on basic network troubleshooting techniques.
Network Analyst III – Data Network Operations
Windstream Communications
Little Rock, AR
11.2013 - 01.2015
- Service as the Tier II escalation point to resolve LAN & WAN outages and impairments.
- Assisted in troubleshooting complex networking problems related to LAN and WAN communications.
- Perform break/fix network re-engineering to alleviate customer affecting outage
- Analyze and evaluate the current WAN infrastructure and making recommendations to improve the overall performance of the network
- Participate in onboarding process for new employees
- Provide classroom and on the job training for new and existing employees
- Develop and disseminate documentation and training on new equipment and processes within Windstream network
- Write network Methods of Procedures to schedule customer-impacting work during local market maintenance window hours
Network Analyst II – Data Network Operations
Windstream Communications
Little Rock, AR
08.2011 - 11.2013
- Identified and resolved network performance issues.
- Managed DSLAM's switches, routers and firewalls for the Windstream network.
- Maintained production network according to company SLAs to fulfill agreed-upon client specifications.
- Assisted in troubleshooting complex networking problems related to LAN and WAN communications.
- Troubleshooting and resolving network outages and service degradation due to network configuration changes, layer 1 circuit failures, software, and hardware faults
- Working with vendors, carriers, and internal departments to accomplish customer migrations, network changes, upgrades, and repairs to improve the overall health of the network to deliver a positive experience to our customers
- Write network Methods of Procedures to schedule customer-impacting work during local market maintenance window hours.
Tier III Technical Support Representative
Allied Wireless Corporation
Little Rock, AR
09.2010 - 08.2011
- Provide level three technical support assistance to Alltel Communication customers.
- Handling highly complex technical troubleshooting via CASE management trouble tickets or internal transfers
- Troubleshooting and resolving service impairments related to network hardware, software faults, in voice and data network elements
- Isolate and resolve wireless voice and data faults including correlating customer complaints with network element performance to resolving service impacting conditions
- Troubleshooting hardware and software issues related to the installation and usage of wireless data cards installation and configuration of Blackberry Enterprise Servers
- Develop instructor-led course content and facilitate customer service & technical support training classes.
Technical Support Analyst
Verizon Wireless
Little Rock, AR
04.2007 - 09.2010
- Provide level three technical support assistance to Verizon Wireless and Alltel Communication customers.
- Consulted via telephone to understand user problems, run through testing scripts and ask probing questions to locate root causes.
- Handling non-routine technical escalations and highly complex technical troubleshooting via Remedy trouble tickets, Fusion trouble tickets or internal transfers
- Troubleshooting includes hardware and software issues related to the installation and usage of wireless data cards, smartphones, and Blackberry Enterprise Servers
- Responsible for receiving inbound emergency 911 calls from law enforcement requesting customer account information, location traces, and calls records.
Education
Bachelor of Business Administration- Management Information Systems -
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
05.2010
Skills
- Infrastructure Planning and Design
- Technical Troubleshooting
- Hardware and Software Configurations
- Network Operations
- Technical Leadership
- IT Service Management
- Documentation Management
- Equipment Configuration
- Hardware Installation
Accomplishments
First to Market: Partnered with Zyxel Communications to evaluate, test, and certify the kinetic 8G Residential Gateway. The deployment has led to Windstream becoming the largest 8G internet provider in North America
Cost Reduction: Partnered with IT Management to evaluate, test, and certify a device management platform. The migration to a new management platform resulted in a cost reduction by eliminating pro-services cost.
Cost Reduction: Partnered with Product Marketing to evaluate, test, and certify a cost-effective network extender. The deployment of the extender achieved a 38% cost improvement while delivering a great Wi-Fi experience to the home.
Lab Creation: Partnered with Qauli network to design, test, and deploy a DSL automation infrastructure. The deployment of the infrastructure resulted in a 50% decrease in residential gateway testing time. This has led to faster hardware and software deployments for residential gateways.
Timeline
Staffing Manager –Architecture and Technology
Windstream Communications
08.2022 - Current
Senior Network Engineer –Architecture and Technology
Windstream Communications
11.2016 - 08.2022
Senior Network Analyst-Video Network Operations
Windstream Communications
01.2015 - 11.2016
Network Analyst III – Data Network Operations
Windstream Communications
11.2013 - 01.2015
Network Analyst II – Data Network Operations
Windstream Communications
08.2011 - 11.2013
Tier III Technical Support Representative
Allied Wireless Corporation
09.2010 - 08.2011
Technical Support Analyst
Verizon Wireless
04.2007 - 09.2010
Bachelor of Business Administration- Management Information Systems -
University of Arkansas at Little Rock