Raul Vera
Technology Executive
Seattle,WA
Summary
Senior Technology Executive with over 15 years of experience in growth and expansion strategies, new systems, and SaaS product development. Skilled in software engineering, strategic planning, customer-driven application development, IT governance, Infrastructure operations and management, and team-centric systems engineering.
Overview
42
42
years of professional experience
1
1
Language
Work History
EVP, Software Engineering
Sangoma Technologies, Inc
04.2022 - 01.2023
- Sangoma simplifies communications by providing businesses with the industry's most comprehensive suite of cloud-native communications solutions, which work together seamlessly to streamline business processes
- Integrated numerous Sangoma technologies and products into the Community UCaaS platform including video conferencing (Meet), Sangoma desktop voip P-phones, and Sangoma IDP in record time
- Integrated and launched SMS capability consolidated into the Conversation Stream in myHUD (Community)
- Developed, deployed, and operationally tested (with customer base) Community UCaaS data center failover capability (successful failover of 30K users in 3 minutes)
- Completed development and launched new Electron app (myHUD) with fully integrated contact center.
EVP, Software Engineering
NetFortris, Inc.
02.2017 - 01.2022
- Conceived, architected and delivered next generation cloud-native UCaaS, CCaaS, CPaaS platform (Community) with stateless, extensible, micro-services architecture and feature rich API layer
- UCaaS platform incorporated numerous cutting edge technologies including stream processing technologies using Kafka and Druid for reporting analytics, Kubernetes for orchestration of all stateless microservices (including voice), CouchBase for a home built highly scalable chat engine and other text handling, all built with golang
- Incorporated real-time reporting which enabled any and all reports to be updated in near real-time and with complete cradle-to-grave detail on any and all calls regardless of the number of transfers and conferences
- UCaaS Platform was built entirely with open source technologies obviating the need for additional license costs
- Ensured the platform development was also architected for white labeling for service providers enabling the company to enter wholly new lucrative overseas markets
- Developed a fully automated, push-button, migration process for taking legacy customers to new scalable UCaaS platform including seamless migration of billing processes and mapping and assignment of entitlements and licenses
- Maintained and enhanced legacy systems as needed to allow the greenfield team to accelerate development of new UCaaS platform
- Established and maintained close contact with key customers to ensure new platform adoption while taking advantage of their expertise to continuously enhance and improve platform features and performance
- UCaaS platform was architected specifically to reduce operating costs through highly efficient horizontal scaling of both microservices and nodes and by developing a set of support tools to reduce technical support staff.
Chief Technology Officer
Fonality, Inc.
08.2011 - 02.2017
- Reduced customer churn by 50% through infrastructure and software performance improvements
- Developed and deployed custom OSS/BSS to provide quote to cash functionality for all product lines
- Developed 6 new products and significantly upgraded an existing product for re-launch
- Managed and directed multi-national software engineering team (USA, Australia, Philippines, Russia)
- Delivered major software release for reseller market on time and within 1 month of job start
- Streamlined software development and release process to speed delivery and reduce defects
- Re-architected core software for scalability and performance
- Conducted in-depth audit of all production, accounting, and back office systems and developed new architecture and plan of attack to resolve long standing and costly inefficiencies
- Developed new management structure for department and infused best governance practices for multi-national engineering operations and software development
- Developing next generation product platform integrating 100% stateless microservices-based systems for near limitless scalability
- Providing patent litigation support including depositions, research and preparation of proposed claim construction and responses to non-infringement interrogatories, etc.
Chief Technology Officer/Consultant
OnLine Computer Technologies, LLC
04.2010 - 08.2011
- System engineering and software development team leadership, concept design and creation, team building, converting product vision into full scale production system
- Jump started and delivered software-based homeland security product line prototype exploiting Location Based Services and mass location data for a wireless telecommunications company
- Created autonomous, self-healing mobile wireless network concepts.
Vice President, Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
TeleContinuity, Inc.
10.2002 - 04.2010
- Created and directed the TeleContinuity software development team which delivered the most efficient and best value SaaS-based telecommunications disaster recovery product line on the market
- Software building blocks included Linux, Windows 200 Server, Tomcat, JBoss, Oracle, Pingtel softswitch, ColdFusion, J2EE- EJB, and Struts architecture with in-house modified SIP
- Fully responsible for obtaining a $1.78 MM grant from the National Institutes of Standards and Technology which resulted in the on time and within budget delivery of a nation-wide network providing corporate and government customers with SaaS based emergency telecommunications
- Instrumental in raising over $10 MM of early stage financing
- Raised over $500,000 in grants from Montgomery County and the State of Maryland
- Directly responsible for obtaining several sole source contracts from the US Department of Treasury and Intelligence Agencies increasing revenue by as much as 30%
- Awarded patent for TeleContinuity survivable telecommunications technology.
Consultant
OnLine Computer Technologies LLC
10.2000 - 10.2002
- Invented a patent pending 'System and Method for Providing Location Independent Voice Communications Continuity through Disasters'
- Developed Voice over IP (VoIP) business concept and plan targeting the call center applications and services market.
Senior Program manager
Washington Consulting Group, Inc.
03.2000 - 10.2000
- Responsible for development of business plans and initiatives aimed at starting new ventures
- Conceived the idea and developed the business model for an ASP-based content management, storage, and delivery platform for the high volume Contact Center market
- Secured $300K of funding to develop the ASP business.
Vice President of Application Development and Telecommunications/CTO
Amerix Corporation
05.1998 - 03.2000
- Led software and telecommunications teams during company growth from $35MM to $80MM in revenue
- Led development of new product line that changed the existing business model and reduced operating costs by over 20%
- Saved the company over $1MM annually by increasing electronic payments to creditors by 30%
- Managed re-engineering of the document management, delivery, and reception process through migration to an XML-based platform saving the company over $750K per year in processing and labor costs
- Improved software development by reorganizing software developers into business unit teams to improve focus, foster cooperation, and improve software quality resulting in direct contribution to the bottom line.
Vice President of Information Technology
Biospherics Incorporated
01.1996 - 05.1998
- Turned around an IT department representing over $1MM in operating costs and transformed it into a profitable and growing revenue center in less than 1 year directly contributing over $1MM in revenue in the first two years
- Successfully recovered all development costs on project for Parke-Davis which was overrun by over $500,000 thereby ensuring retention of $4 MM (20% of total company revenue) project revenue
- Directed the development and implementation, on time and on budget, of the National Park Reservation System (NPRS), a large scale point of sale system with Contact Center, Internet, and remote terminal sales channels
- The system was brought operational within 3 months of contract award and achieved over 35% increase in revenue
- Directed a new line of business, a Nurse Triage Contact Center application, CTI enabled, based on multi-valued branching logic.
Senior Research Engineer/Project Manager
SRI International
09.1986 - 01.1996
- Lead system engineering studies, for various clients, including requirements definition, conceptual designs, architecture definition, trade-off analyses (technical and cost) and prototype development resulting in customer savings of over $20 MM in system development and operating costs
- Authored or co-authored over of 50 project reports and proposals to Federal and State governments.
U.S.S. Permit (SSN 594), United States Navy
06.1981 - 06.1986
- Nuclear Submarine Officer, Engineering Division Officer, and Assistant Engineer
Education
Bachelor of Science - Physics
United States Naval Academy
Annapolis, MDSkills
SaaS Platform Development
Process Improvement
Software Architecture
Mobile App Development
API Design
Strategic Planning
Project Coordination
Performance Optimization
Product Roadmap
Education
Physics/Electrical Engineering, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, 1981, Masters work in electrical engineering, Johns-Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 1988
Awards Grants Patents
- 2007 Frost & Sullivan North American Telecom Services Technology Innovation of the Year Award
- 2007 U.S. Patent 7,289,493 - 'System and method for providing location independent voice communications continuity through disasters'
- U.S. Patent 9,179,259 - 'Recognizing unknown actors based on wireless behavior'
- U.S. Patent 9,165,288 - 'Inferring relationships based on geo-temporal data other than telecommunications'
- 2006 Maryland Industrial Partnership Grant
- 2004 Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Award
- 2003 National Institutes of Standards and Technology Advanced Technology Program (ATP) grant
Core Leadership Competencies
- Software engineering
- Hybrid Agile
- Strategic Planning
- Customer Driven Application Development
- IT Governance
- Team-Centric Systems Engineering
- Strategic Technology Fusion
- Staff Development
- Product Oriented IR&D
- Prototype Development
- Solution Innovation using Open-Source Software
- Business Process Engineering
- Departmental Governance
Timeline
EVP, Software Engineering
Sangoma Technologies, Inc
04.2022 - 01.2023
EVP, Software Engineering
NetFortris, Inc.
02.2017 - 01.2022
Chief Technology Officer
Fonality, Inc.
08.2011 - 02.2017
Chief Technology Officer/Consultant
OnLine Computer Technologies, LLC
04.2010 - 08.2011
Vice President, Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
TeleContinuity, Inc.
10.2002 - 04.2010
Consultant
OnLine Computer Technologies LLC
10.2000 - 10.2002
Senior Program manager
Washington Consulting Group, Inc.
03.2000 - 10.2000
Vice President of Application Development and Telecommunications/CTO
Amerix Corporation
05.1998 - 03.2000
Vice President of Information Technology
Biospherics Incorporated
01.1996 - 05.1998
Senior Research Engineer/Project Manager
SRI International
09.1986 - 01.1996
U.S.S. Permit (SSN 594), United States Navy
06.1981 - 06.1986
Bachelor of Science - Physics
United States Naval Academy