Koustubh Kulkarni

• Member of Technical Expertise Centre (TEC) in Central Cloud Services (CCS) team tasked with providing technical consultancy & governance for key 5G Core deals in the South-east Asia, Oceania and India Region.
• Member of Tiger Teams established for Tier-1 Operator in Australia and Tier-1 Operator in India to review the current 5G SA network architecture and provide recommendations to improve network resiliency..
• Specialized 5G Core Architect responsible for consulting Regional Pre-Sales team and interfacing with 5G Strategy team of Tier-1 Operator in India for specialized areas of 5G SA Core such as Signaling (SCP, BSF), National Roaming and Tiered Architecture for pan-India NRF.
• Driving Lab Consolidation program to bring labs spread across the Region, under central control and establishing a tenancy model to utilize these labs for crucial 5G & 4G Core Demos and PoCs.
• Reviewing technical artifacts of 5G Core High Impact Deals (HIDs) in the Region with the purpose of identifying potential gaps in solution, architecture, costing, dimensioning and risk assessment so as to mitigate future escalations, cost overruns, and incorrect solution deployment.

• Worked as Chief Solution Architect for Proof of Concept (PoC) & proposed Field Deployment of Ericsson's 5G Standalone Core at top Tier-1 Service Provider (Reliance Jio) in India.
• Instrumental in laying out the architectural framework across central, aggregate & edge Data Centres for deployment of 5G Core Network Functions in the Operator's network including integration with existing ecosystem as part of Architecture Blueprint exercise.
• Responsible for providing technical leadership to the Ericsson team while front-ending Customer discussions to define e2e architecture for 5G Core deployment. Solution blueprinting included CNF deployment on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP), 5G Call Flows & Services, Indirect Communication Strategy via SCP, Registration/Discovery/Selection through NRF, 4G-5G Interworking, Voice/Video/Messaging Service, WiFi Interworking, Regulatory/Lawful Interception, Roaming, Charging & OSS.
• Regularly briefed Leadership Team on technical progress of project to define action plan
• Proof of Concept (PoC) ownership from solution design to execution with the aim of demonstrating agreed Test Object List (TOL) to Customer.

• Technical Pre-Sales Head for Nokia's Core Product Portfolio for business opportunities targeted towards India's leading Tier-1 Service Provider - Reliance Jio. Core Portfolio of Nokia comprises 4G Packet Core, Complete 5G Core, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Subscriber Data Management (SDM), Signalling suite (PCRF, DRA, SCP, NRF) etc.
• Led pre-sales engagements with Customer's Techno-Commercial team for E2E 5G Core opportunity comprising Packet Core products (AMF, UPF, SMF, NRF, NSSF), Signalling & Exposure products (CSP, BSF, SEPP, PCF, CHF, SMSF, NEF), Subscriber Data Management Products (UDM, UDR) to support Mobility and IoT use cases.
• Instrumental in winning first 5G contract in Reliance Jio to support Voice over New Radio (VoNR) on IMS network.
• Partnered with Sales team to establish and grow Nokia's Core business in Reliance Jio to support subscriber base of 400Mn+. Together achieved Order Intake targets several years in row covering both run-rate and new business.
• Engaged and cultivated lasting rapport with executive stakeholders belonging to multiple cross-functional and geographically dispersed teams of Reliance Jio such as Planning and Engineering (NPE), Operations, Procurement, and QA to address their strategic objectives of business, engineering and operations.
• Responsible for pitching new products, upselling and cross-selling complementary products/features/functionality and actively assisting sales team to convert leads into opportunities.
• Worked on transformation program with Reliance Jio that aimed at replacing legacy HW platform with Cloud based Solutions (Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) / Cloud-Native Network Functions (CNFs)). Familiar with Nokia's Cloudband Infrastructure Software (CBIS) platform based on OpenStack and Nokia Containers Services (NCS) platform for deployment and management of Kubernetes Cluster nodes.

• Worked as Chief Solution Architect for Nokia's Pan-India VoLTE solution deployment in Reliance JIO, India for 400Mn+ subscribers.
• Defined logical & deployment architecture, technical solution design, high level call flows, redundancy schemes among other things while ensuring compliance to regulatory requirements.
• Contributed to successful project deliveries by hand holding team of delivery architects during implementation phase, managing escalations and collaborating with Pre-Sales and R&D for product roadmap alignment with Customer's requirements
• Ensured successful adoption of Nokia's IMS Core by guiding Customer through strategic and technical facets of Nokia's products by drawing on customer-facing skills and technical acumen.
• Led governance meetings and participated in executive sessions to review status of ongoing engagements. Organized multiple workshops and conducted Proof of Concepts (PoCs) to build Customer momentum towards Nokia's products.
• Designed innovative deployment architecture strategies such as Hub & Spoke, N+1 Disaster Recovery architecture, and National Long Distance Call connectivity for VoLTE network to reduce HW footprint and ensure efficient flow of traffic in network
• Other key assignment as Solution Architect in Nokia was to propose Customer Experience Management (CEM) solution to Idea Cellular Limited. This solution provided important insights into usage patterns of their mobility subscribers to their Planning, Operations and Marketing teams to improve overall customer experience through effective planning, proactive & preventative maintenance and attractive service plans.
• Part of Nokia's Business Consultant, Architects and Product Line team tasked with engaging Idea Cellular's technology and procurement organizations to influence commercial outcome for CEM opportunity.

• Lead Portfolio Architect in Tech Mahindra's Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Next-Gen Services, which was established with purpose of providing System Integration Services to global Telecom Operators delivering multi-play services such as IPTV, Voice, Internet, and Interactive Applications to their Subscribers.
• Worked extensively with customers and prospective customers to develop integrated solutions and led detailed technical dialogues to influence RFPs and facilitate delivery of comprehensive solutions to meet business objectives
• Collaborated with multiple OEMs and Product Vendors to define turn key solutions based on their products to address business needs of Telecom Operators
• Drove internal teams in response to customer evaluations, technical deliveries and escalations.

Key assignments:

• Tier-2 Operator, Middle-East: Deployed a pre-integrated Triple-Play Platform in a greenfield scenario to deliver interactive application services such as voice, video, multimedia and Internet accessible using TV (STB), Tablets, Mobile Phones and Personal Computers. As End to End Solution Architect, owned complete technical solution right from RFP response stage to UAT. Consulted with executive level stakeholders in Customer's organization to translate their vision of a multi-play platform into a turn-key solution by collaborating with internal delivery teams and product vendors.
• Cox Communications, US: Conceptualized Application Developer Platform (ADP) that would allow quick creation of a rich tapestry of interactive applications using APIs exposed by underlying voice platform. Key constituents of ADP were Developer Portal, API Exposure Platform, and Marketplace.
• British Telecom, UK: As a Solution Architect, participated in the e2e lifecycle of BT's 21C Transformation Program for Business & Retail VoIP Services. Key stages of the Program were RFP definition, evaluation of RFP compliance, SWOT analysis, witness testing, vendor selection followed by project design & delivery. Interacted extensively with multiple vendors such as Alcatel, Motorola, Nortel and Sonus during these key phases as a representative of BT to deliver to the program's objectives .
• British Telecom, UK: Designed IP based "Meet-Me" or Conferencing Solution to replace existing TDM solution. Drove technical solution design covering definition of high level use cases, interface specifications, deployment architecture, non-functional design, operations support.
• Vodafone, Germany: Devised an integration strategy based on Tele Management Forum OSS/J API to connect the Customer's Trouble Ticketing & Work Order System with their Service Monitoring System as a means of automating the resolution lifecycle of a network fault. Coordinated with Customer, product vendors and internal development team to attain the technical goal of the project.