Muhammad Kamran Ayaz

Achievements and Transformations:

• Platform and Infrastructure Evolution: Guided a team of 20 + engineers and 4 scrum teams towards adopting "platform as code" and "infrastructure as code." Influenced implementation of learning algorithms for auto- detection and auto-healing mechanisms, enhancing robustness of platforms
• Operational Excellence: Introduced weekly operational rigor, closely monitoring key metrics to significantly enhance NPS score through focused execution
• OKR-Based Execution: Fostered a culture of focused execution based on Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), driving team to maintain momentum and achieve ambitious goals
• Efficient Data Center Migration: Played a crucial role in executing a seamless migration of on-premises cloud platform's data center with zero downtime, resulting in substantial cost savings for both products and infrastructure
• Transition to Hybrid Cloud: Successfully led team through the transition from a private cloud platform to a hybrid cloud, aligning our technology stack with modern cloud solutions

Leadership Role and Responsibilities:

• Product Engineering Leadership: Headed product engineering team, responsible for end-to-end ownership of in-house product (full stack) that includes defining product roadmap, leading development scrum teams, program management, and customer support. Product operates across on-premises private cloud data centers and Azure data centers, scaling to several million executions per month
• Microservices Architecture: Orchestrated a product built on a microservices architecture, ensuring compatibility with Windows, Mac, and Linux datacenters, with automatic service deployment
• DevOps Culture: Cultivated DevOps culture, promoting continuous delivery of features based on a ranked backlog that addresses product architecture, customer needs, and business requirements
• High Scalability and Reliability: Designed product to meet high scale, availability, maintainability, and serviceability standards
• Technology Stack: Utilized a technology stack that includes C#.net, MySQL, MongoDB, Docker, Terraform, NGINX, VMWare, Atlassian Tools
• Led the team responsible for providing CI/CD pipeline support to Norton client products, such as Norton 360, Norton Internet Security, and Norton Antivirus including internal automation framework project
• Oversaw several Jenkins servers and 1000+ nodes and managed the maintenance and provisioning of the CI pipeline

Skills Used: Technical Leadership | Technical Engineering | Team Management |Coaching and Mentor | Continuous Integration Pipelines - Continuous Improvement | Cross-functional Team Leadership | Test Automation Framework | Process implementation and improvement | Decision making.

Transformational Achievements:

• Delivery Transformation: Led a team of 15 members, including 3+ scrum teams, focusing on strict quality guideline and best quality control methodologies to focus on, on time delivery of projects and enhancements
• Enhanced Test Efficiency: Streamlined testing procedures and executed test plans, reducing the time required for testing legacy products from once per quarter to once every sprint, resulting in more frequent product releases
• Cultivated Innovation: Pioneered the creation of an innovation backlog and related events, fostering a culture of innovation within the organization, encouraging novel ideas and approaches
• Scalable Automation: Developed services to provision automation test jobs in VMware vSphere, enabling a substantial increase from 1,000 to 20,000 test automation jobs per day, enhancing the overall test automation capability
• Improved Database Model: Designed a robust database model that enabled the platform to efficiently handle concurrent jobs, facilitating more effective parallel processing of tasks
• Multi-Platform Deployment: Successfully executed both single VM and multi-VM deployment configurations for Windows, Linux, and Mac platforms for automation jobs, ensuring comprehensive testing coverage
• Efficiency Gains: Reduced manual testing efforts by 60%, accelerating the release cycle and allowing for more extensive testing across multiple OS variants, delivering significant time and cost savings

Leadership and Responsibilities:

• Engineering Excellence: Led an engineering team of 15 + engineers across multiple geographical locations, providing automation support to many product teams for successful delivery of consumer products, including Norton Security, Norton Antivirus, and Norton 360 suite, consistently meeting consumer demands
• Performance Benchmarking: Directed the engineering team to focus on performance benchmarks, resulting in high external reviewer scores from organizations.
• Complex Program Management: Managed multiple agile scrum teams spanning four geographies, expertly handling dependencies, and providing clear program direction and roadmaps, ensuring seamless cross-team collaboration

These achievements reflect a dedication to delivering quality and innovation while effectively leading large teams and complex programs in the field of Quality Assurance and Engineering.

Skills used: Technical Leadership | Technical Engineering |Team Management | Coaching | Quality Assurance Methodologies |Forward Thinking | Problem solving | Multitasking

Achievements:

• Test Optimization: Successfully executed test plans and test cases in diverse development environments, improving the efficiency of testing processes and ensuring comprehensive coverage
• Enhanced Product Quality: Conducted black box testing on evolving product versions by adhering to established test plans and scripts, leading to the identification and rectification of defects, ultimately elevating product quality
• Efficient Defect Management: Diligently logged defects into the defect tracking system, ensuring swift resolution and effective communication with the development teams
• Scalable Test Environments: Created virtual test labs for complex testing scenarios, simplifying the process of OS installation, system image downloads, and configurations, which significantly enhanced the testing environment's scalability
• Proactive Problem Solving: Adapted quickly to new tasks, exhibiting a high level of autonomy and reducing the need for constant oversight, allowing for the rapid resolution of emerging issues
• Effective Time Management: Managed time effectively in alignment with team objectives and priorities, ensuring the timely completion of testing milestones
• Communication Excellence: Demonstrated strong communication skills both in written and spoken forms, facilitating seamless collaboration with cross-functional teams and stakeholders
• Continuous Learning: Actively sought knowledge and skills development through mentorship and practical experience, contributing to ongoing personal and professional growth
• Collaborative Quality Assurance: Collaborated closely with QA team members to understand QA strategy and standards, actively contributing to the creation and maintenance of test plans and cases
• Robust Test Environment Setup: Set up and configured test environments for software validation and executed additional scripts for automated testing, ensuring rigorous and comprehensive testing coverage
• Effective Technical Support: Assumed responsibilities in the Tech Support department, adeptly handling technical calls, troubleshooting, assisting customers with maintenance, training, support issues, and conducting web sessions for product training
• Comprehensive Testing: Conducted various types of testing, including functional, regression, user acceptance, negative, and installation testing, to guarantee the product's quality and readiness
• Security Testing Expertise: Proficiently conducted security testing to assess basic security levels in the Client Link application security mechanism, contributing to a secure and reliable product
• Meticulous Documentation: Maintained a detailed record of test results and findings using PTR (Problem Tracking Request), enabling efficient issue tracking and resolution.
• Versatile Testing Contributions: Played a pivotal role in various testing types, including functional, negative, regression, system integration (SIT), user acceptance (UAT), load/performance, security, browser compatibility, and performance testing, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation of the product.

These achievements highlight my commitment to ensuring product quality, proactive problem-solving, and effective collaboration within the Quality Assurance domain.

• Streamlined Software Management: Installed and maintained software in the computer lab efficiently using DOS batch files, ensuring a smooth and organized software management process
• Enhanced Network Reliability: Ensured the reliability of the computer network by addressing security-related issues in the engineering department, resulting in a secure and dependable network infrastructure
• Effective Educational Outreach: Conducted workshops and presentations as part of teaching responsibilities, effectively imparting knowledge and skills to students and faculty
• Responsive Technical Support: Collaborated with the Technical Support Department to provide timely assistance to students facing IT issues, contributing to a more supportive and efficient learning environment
• Comprehensive Compatibility Testing: Conducted thorough compatibility tests with various software programs, hardware, multiple operating systems, and network environments, ensuring seamless and interoperable IT systems
• Proactive Performance Monitoring: Monitored program performance post-implementation, identifying and addressing potential operational problems promptly, thus ensuring continuous operational efficiency
• Methodical Documentation: Documented, tracked, and communicated test plans, test results, analysis, and unresolved problems, maintaining a well-organized record of essential information for future reference
• Efficient Defect Management: Developed computer programs to test, track, and verify defects in software programs, ensuring the identification and resolution of software issues
• Responsive Technical Support: Provided exceptional technical support by promptly answering user questions and addressing problem recognition, research, isolation, resolution, and follow-up, resulting in satisfied and well- supported users
• Thorough Problem Documentation: Maintained historical records and related problem documentation, contributing to the effective management of recurring issues and solutions.

These achievements highlight my dedication to maintaining efficient and reliable computer systems, offering educational support, and ensuring the smooth operation of the computer lab.

• Collaborated closely with the Senior Systems Analyst to research and define user requirements
• Designed and developed applications for testing, tracking, and verifying defects in software programs
• Assisted in problem recognition, research, isolation, resolution, and follow-up for routine user problems
• Installed and maintained software applications as needed
• Conducted testing and installation of network storage devices, including NAS and SAN
• Provided technical support for applications and addressed other IT-related issues reported by all Product teams.
• Interviewed users to collect information about problems and guided them through diagnostic procedures to identify the source of errors.

• Collaborated with senior engineers to upgrade control systems, hardware equipment, and software for data acquisition, specifically for reading pressure and temperature of various gas samples
• Responsibilities included installation, compatibility testing, troubleshooting, software testing, and hardware analysis
• Conducted cost analysis for equipment and software solutions
• Tested compatibility issues between new equipment and existing hardware
• Prepared comprehensive reports and delivered presentations to senior team members
• Worked with relays, switches, data acquisition cards, and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to ensure system operation.

• Monitored lab computers, helping students and faculty with various software applications
• Assisted in conducting workshops and presentations as part of the teaching team
• Maintained records of lab usage and managed inventory
• Troubleshooted machines experiencing issues and documented trouble tickets for resolution.