Communication Engineer (Project Management Team)
Aramco
Total years of experience :27 years, 7 Months
I am currently involved in an ongoing project (Support Facilities) administered by Aramco and executed by the contractor Al Muhaidib. I am in the capacity of a Communication Engineer, member of the project management team. I supervise and guide the contractor so that Aramco standards are achieved and that the work is executed as per IFC (Issued for construction) document. My duties involve ISP and OSP functions.
ISP: All indoor related IT infrastructure (conduit, Ethernet and telephone cabling, SACS installations, Wireless installation, router and switch installations and configuration, VOIP telephones, CCTV, IPTV and PA systems installations, procurement).
OSP: oversee the communication duct bank installations. Compensation with many other utilities (mechanical, civil etc.), makes this a challenging item.
Material and procurement: Ensure product correctness and readiness and delivery dates are as per schedule and as per scope.
Other: Review new project submittals and making comments and recommendations. Feedback to management regarding bottlenecks and progress of all IT related work.
My involvement in a vast number of aspects of project management, enables me to have a good handle on the contractor and follow their progress accurately.
I oversee the testing and commissioning of all completed and installed systems.
Previous project: King Abdullah Monument (KAUST). Completed in February 2015. My involvement and participation in the project management team was the same as my current involvement mentioned above.
Responsilble for overall Information and Communication Technology infrastructure for the KZN Region. This involves adhering to organizational policy standards and strategic planning.
Striving to formulate ways to improve IT services, whether it’s performance enhanced, cost reducing, scaling and disaster recovery.
Formulates approaches and deliver technology-based solutions that achieve desired business objectives, including defining system scope and objectives
Oversees installation, troubleshooting, systems backups, archiving, network security, disaster recovery and provides expert support when necessary.
Coordinates with management on IT strategy and project prioritization
Ensure security and integrity of data, data system and data networks across the entire region
Designing and implementing disaster recovery processes and business continuity procedures for re-establishing servers, databases, and operating systems in the event of a disruption, both minor and catastrophic.
Responds to escalated help desk issues by interacting with internal clients on all levels to help resolve IT related issues and provides answers timely.
Provides regular communication to management and staff on IT issues/projects.
Coordinates training opportunities to ensure staff are current with IT policy and systems
Manage 2 individuals.
Responsible for 18 sites in the region. 1st and 2nd line support.
Recently (06/2010 to 11/2010) did a national system upgrade. Moved from old legacy systems (Rims and Quick-Till) to a uniform Arch-system, running on a SQL platform.
Point-of-sale systems are crucial and needs to be online 99% of the time. Many problems and obstacles make it interesting and challenging.
Notice period - 2 months
Network infrastructure maintenance.
This involved:
• Network infrastructure layout and design.
• Rollout of network hardware
• Configuring routers and switches (Cisco)
• Monitoring and maintaining traffic flow
• Maintaining the DHCP servers (Linux)
• IP addressing and sub netting
• Wireless (Point-to-point and Access points)
• Security (PIX and Linux)
• ACL’s
• VPN’s
The University of Zululand has completed a major infrastructure upgrade (2005). I played a major role in the evaluation of the RFP for the networking side. I played an integrate part in the project management. This upgrade has started in March 2005 and was completed in November 2005. My responsibilities within this upgrade:
• Managing the rollout of infrastructure cabling (fibre optics and copper),
• Proof of concept for all the network devices, all Cisco (routers, switches and wireless),
• Rollout of network devices,
• Monitoring devices, traffic flow, ACL’s, bandwidth control.
• Project management experience
I gained good experience with criteria, network solutions, RFQ, RFP and evaluation procedures.
The University of Zululand is a “full” Cisco site. I have experience in the following Cisco models: 6505, 3750, 2950T/2950SX/2950G/2960/1900T/1900SX, Cisco wireless bridges and AP’s, Point-to-Point wireless connections, PIX-525, Cisco PacketShaper, 5 ATA’s (VOIP).
Infrastructure maintenance (cabling) is organized by me via external contractors.
The maintenance and configuration of the DHCP server and one of the web servers (Linux) is my responsibility.
Was involved in the preparation of the RFP for a complete VOIP system (+/- 1000 phones).