LAKSHMI PRIYA SARMA
Bangalore
Summary
Highly accomplished Software Engineering Leader with a proven track record of delivering excellent results across diverse platforms and architectures.
Demonstrates strong expertise in technical management for telecommunication and networking products, leveraging deep experience across product development life cycles and a wide range of platforms. Adept at cross-functional collaboration, working closely with engineering cross teams, product management, marketing, partners, and customers to drive successful outcomes. Manages highly talented teams of engineers through fast-paced release cycles, ensuring high productivity and on-time, high-quality deliverables. Fosters a positive, transparent, and motivating work culture that brings out the best in individuals, while continuously tracking performance efficiencies, identifying gaps, and strengthening overall team capabilities.
Overview
26
26
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Manager, Software Development – Enterprise Switching
Cisco Systems
Bangalore
04.2022 - Current
- Strong experience driving multiple programs and fast-paced releases, while keeping the overall services execution aligned.
- Led the services XL program for C9610 — Highest port-density and bandwidth Cisco Enterprise Switching platform based on Silicon One — driving the program end-to-end from engineering kickstart and marketing prioritization through concept and executive commit to customer shipment.
- Executive Sponsor for major ongoing releases, responsible for on-time, high-quality execution; providing the right guidance, decision-making authority, and exception approvals. Leading teams across SJC and BLR, working closely with PMOs and Directors.
- Served as Release Lead for multiple key hardening and feature-rich releases.
- Built and led high-powered teams delivering key services portfolio outcomes across L3, QoS, MPLS, infrastructure redundancy, and core services.
- Delivered architecture hardening, performance improvements, process enhancements, innovations, patents, and white papers.
- Delivered multiple engaging tech talks to a wide range of audiences, including cross-BU technical communities, career talks, and Cisco branding initiatives.
- Actively engaged in customer-critical escalations, triages, and solution planning.
Manager, Software Development – NEXUS 9000
Cisco Systems
San Jose
12.2016 - Current
- Led core development services team with end-to-end ownership across Cisco datacenter platforms and 3rd-party vendors. Drove large-scale feature delivery in close collaboration with cross-functional managers and technical leads.
- Managed and mentored a high-performing team of 20+ engineers through fast-paced, parallel release cycles. Defined and prioritized product roadmap, identifying gaps and driving innovative solutions.
- Partnered with marketing, customers, and ecosystem partners to align roadmap with market and customer needs.
- Key contributor in the high-velocity Insieme BU, managing concurrent releases requiring strong technical leadership and multitasking.
- Recipient of the Cisco Pioneer Award (IP Fabric for Media) for enabling broadcaster transition from SDI to IP, driving ~$50M revenue and 30% YoY growth.
- Instrumental in delivering industry-leading scale of 128K multicast routes, achieving 25% market share in the financial sector.
- Built a collaborative, innovation-driven team with 20+ approved patents in 3 years.
- Designed a scalable multicast hardware abstraction model to support platform and OS disaggregation.
Senior Technical Lead – NEXUS 9000
Cisco Systems
San Jose
12.2014 - 12.2016
- Acted as development lead in charge of complete platform side of multicast domain.
- Designed, led, and implemented platform forwarding multicast features end-to-end.
- Triaged complex internal and customer issues, providing design solutions.
- Mentored and guided teams across complex triages and design issues.
- Increased multicast fanout scale to match maximum capacity for MSDC VXLAN deployments.
- Offered solutions to improve convergence time, resulting in 50–80% reduction at customer deployments.
Technical Lead – Nexus 7000 / Nexus 9000
Cisco Systems
San Jose
03.2012 - 12.2014
- Assumed complete sole ownership of Layer-2 Multicast RIB.
- Instrumental in mentoring and growing the team.
- Collaborated cross-functionally, prioritizing tasks, and resolving highly complex technical issues.
- Led an individual effort to achieve convergence improvement above 60%, vital to FabricPath deployments.
- Played a key role in multicast next-generation fabric architecture.
Staff Engineer – 8800 Multiservice Router
Tellabs Inc.
Sunnyvale
09.2011 - 03.2012
Escalation Engineer / Manager – ZebOS Network Platform
IP Infusion Inc.
Sunnyvale
05.2009 - 08.2011
Technical Lead / Manager
California Software Ltd(Nortel)
07.2005 - 10.2007
Software Engineer
Aricent
12.2000 - 06.2005
Software Engineer
Tata Consultancy Services
Bangalore
06.2000 - 11.2000
Education
PGDBA - Marketing
Symbiosis University
Pune, IndiaB.Tech - Electrical and Electronics Engineering
College Of Engineering Trivandrum
Trivandrum, IndiaSkills
- Management - Program execution, Release execution, Cross collaboration, Team management, Technical Management, Product Development, Release Cycle Navigation, Risk Management, Product Roadmaps, Team Development, Customer Solutions, Resourcing & Metrics
- Jira, Webex, Microsoft/AI tools
- C/C,Debugging, Scripting, Traffic Generator
- Products - Cisco Enterprise Catalyst series, Cisco Nexus 9k/7k, Juniper, Alcatel OBX 7770, Nortel Switched firewall, Linux, Intel X86 based VxWorks target, PSOS based satcom terminal, Nera satellite Gateway
- Technical - Routing protocols, Multicast, VPN, MVPN Fabric solutions (Vxlan/TRM/Fabricpath/CiscoDFA), MPLS, QOS, IP for Media broadcasting, SNMP, CLI, Controller Visualization, Telemetry
- Operating systems - Polaris, NXOS, Linux, ZebOS, VxWorks, Sun Solaris, OSE
Patents And Awards
- Cisco’s most prestigious Pioneer award winner for 'IP Fabric for Media'
- 1065996, CIPOL Publication - Stateful Switchover Notification Mechanism
- 1019687-US.01, Bandwidth Awareness in a Link Aggregation Group
- 985799-US.01, Convergence of multi-destination traffic in a network environment
- 1028949-US.01, Detecting Jitter for RTP streams using Cisco Cloudscale ASIC capabilities
- Recipient of star performer award for the Nortel NSF release
- Aricent OpenIP awarded the best project of the year
Timeline
Senior Manager, Software Development – Enterprise Switching
Cisco Systems
04.2022 - Current
Manager, Software Development – NEXUS 9000
Cisco Systems
12.2016 - Current
Senior Technical Lead – NEXUS 9000
Cisco Systems
12.2014 - 12.2016
Technical Lead – Nexus 7000 / Nexus 9000
Cisco Systems
03.2012 - 12.2014
Staff Engineer – 8800 Multiservice Router
Tellabs Inc.
09.2011 - 03.2012
Escalation Engineer / Manager – ZebOS Network Platform
IP Infusion Inc.
05.2009 - 08.2011
Technical Lead / Manager
California Software Ltd(Nortel)
07.2005 - 10.2007
Software Engineer
Aricent
12.2000 - 06.2005
Software Engineer
Tata Consultancy Services
06.2000 - 11.2000
PGDBA - Marketing
Symbiosis University
B.Tech - Electrical and Electronics Engineering
College Of Engineering Trivandrum