SHIKHAR SHARMA
Manager - Technical Support Services
Gurgaon / Noida,UP
Work Preference
Summary
Network Security, Migration Delivery and Product Support Manager with expertise in leading enterprise firewall migrations and managing technical support operations. Achieved significant improvements in operational governance and customer success through effective management of cross-functional teams, including L1, L2, and L3 engineers. Committed to fostering collaborative work culture and building strong relationships with diverse stakeholders in fast-paced environments.
Overview
1
1
Language
7
7
Certifications
13
13
years of professional experience
1
1
Language
Work History
Manager - Technical Support and Delivery
RACKSPACE TECHNOLOGY
12.2025 - Current
- Lead a 12-member Migration Factory team comprising L1, L2 and L3 engineers responsible for high-volume firewall migrations across enterprise customer environments.
- Manage the end-to-end migration lifecycle including migration planning, configuration conversion, preparation, QC validation, customer cutover, rollback readiness and post-migration hypercare.
- Drive complex firewall migrations including Cisco ASA to Palo Alto, Cisco ASA to Cisco FTD and other network security migration scenarios involving VPNs, NAT, ACLs and security policies.
- Improved overall migration success rate from approximately 96.86% to approximately 99% through QC improvements, process standardization and first-time-right execution focus.
- Built and scaled a Migration Factory operating model focused on repeatable execution, predictable delivery, quality gates, automation adoption and operational governance.
- Standardize Prep -> QC -> Cutover workflows to improve quality, reduce rework and ensure cutover readiness and rollback readiness before customer maintenance windows.
- Owned backlog prioritization, migration queue management, SLA adherence, ticket hygiene, and customer communication across global time zones to enhance service delivery.
- Coordinate with customers, project managers, account teams, product teams, engineering teams, operations teams and vendors including Palo Alto for migration delivery and issue resolution.
- Drive capacity planning, hiring justification, workforce planning, engineer development and process improvements to scale migration delivery operations.
- Promoted knowledge sharing and issue tracking while enforcing runbook discipline and improving reporting standards to drive continuous improvement within Migration Factory team.
Product Support Manager
WATCHGUARD TECHNOLOGIES
09.2024 - 12.2025
- Manage an 18-member technical support team, ensuring engineers have the required resources, training and support to resolve customer issues efficiently.
- Set performance standards and conduct regular performance reviews, providing guidance, feedback and coaching to team members.
- Manage team workload and ensure appropriate resources are available to handle technical queries and issues within defined timelines.
- Hire and train technical support staff, ensuring the team remains updated on product knowledge and support best practices.
- Guide the team in troubleshooting complex product issues and escalate unresolved technical problems to engineering or development teams.
- Oversaw lifecycle of technical incidents, ensuring timely resolution in accordance with Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
- Evaluated and refined TAC processes, enhancing efficiency and boosting customer satisfaction.
- Oversee creation and maintenance of a comprehensive knowledge base for customers and internal teams.
- Tracked key performance indicators such as case resolution time, customer satisfaction (CSAT), and first response time, delivering regular updates to management.
- Analyze customer complaints, feedback and recurring issues to identify trends that inform product improvements and support strategies.
- Develop and maintain effective escalation procedures to quickly involve the right stakeholders in urgent situations.
- Serve as a liaison between customers and the company, advocating for customer needs and ensuring concerns are addressed promptly.
- Evaluate and recommend tools and technologies for customer support, including ticketing systems and monitoring tools.
- Foster a culture of knowledge sharing within the TAC team so best practices and technical expertise are shared across the team.
- Ensure all technical support activities, solutions and troubleshooting steps are documented for future reference.
- Define short-term and long-term TAC strategies aligned with company business goals.
Security Consulting Engineer
CISCO SYSTEMS
10.2020 - 09.2024
- Performed a dual role as a Security Consulting Engineer while also managing Grade 4 new joiners in Cisco Professional Services.
- Managed onboarding, mentoring, and technical guidance for Grade 4 new joiners in Professional Services.
- Delivered Cisco security services through deployment and configuration of ASA, FTD, FMC, IPS, SFR, ISE, Stealthwatch and AMP, enhancing client security posture.
- Designed and executed migration plans from third-party firewalls to Cisco FTD using the FMT tool and manual methods.
- Developed and managed traffic management and load balancing solutions to optimize client application performance.
- Acted as primary point of contact for client accounts, building strong relationships and ensuring clear communication throughout project lifecycles.
- Kept clients informed and prepared for software updates, patches and upgrades to maintain operational continuity and service satisfaction.
- Informed clients of software updates, patches and upgrades, ensuring operational continuity and high service satisfaction.
- Managed onboarding, mentoring, technical guidance, task alignment and delivery readiness for Grade 4 new joiners in Professional Services.
- Supervised and mentored junior engineers during project engagements, offering technical guidance and detailed instructions to enhance productivity.
- Defined project-specific goals, monitored progress and ensured teams met milestones and client expectations.
- Reviewed internal reports and project feedback to enhance team workflows and improve delivery outcomes.
- Handled project-related escalations and client concerns with effective communication and prompt resolution.
- Monitored project progress and provided status updates to stakeholders and management.
Application Support Senior Analyst
ACCENTURE
07.2017 - 09.2020
- Handled end-to-end design, integration, documentation and configuration of security infrastructure including Cisco ASA, FTD, Palo Alto, proxy, F5 LTM and operational management.
- Led infrastructure analysis, network design and implementation for multiple customer environments, ensuring secure and scalable deployments.
- Specified processes for maintaining project documentation, managing scope, and adjusting work schedules to ensure on-time delivery of tasks and milestones.
- Managed a team of 5 engineers for project-based engagements involving firewall migrations, product implementations and version upgrades.
- Oversaw planning and execution of firewall migrations from legacy or third-party devices to Cisco FTD, including policy transformation, validation and documentation.
- Coordinated implementation and upgrade activities by assigning tasks, tracking progress, and ensuring adherence to best practices and project timelines.
- Prepared and maintained detailed documentation including runbooks, test plans and instruction manuals for operational use and customer reference.
- Performed troubleshooting and resolution of day-to-day issues related to firewalls, F5 load balancers and proxy solutions; conducted firmware upgrades for ASA and FTD devices.
- Collaborate with upstream vendors and service providers to coordinate changes, manage dependencies and conduct root cause analysis for critical technical issues.
- Delivered consistent and compliant customer support by managing issues end-to-end, adhering to SLA agreements and escalation protocols aligned to ITIL standards.
- Facilitated customer communication on project milestones, risks, and dependencies to enhance transparency and stakeholder engagement.
Enterprise Tech Support Analyst
SONICWALL (FORMERLY DELL)
11.2015 - 07.2017
- Delivered end-to-end technical support to enterprise customers through email, phone and remote sessions, ensuring timely resolution of network security issues.
- Resolved high-priority escalations from enterprise clients using analytical skills and product knowledge to minimize downtime and customer impact.
- Diagnosed and resolved issues related to SSL VPN, IPsec VPN, HTTP, DNS, DHCP, content filtering, IPS, and basic routing/switching to enhance network security for enterprise clients.
- Managed service requests using Salesforce CRM, ensured detailed case documentation and compliance with SLA and quality standards for effective customer support.
- Logged and managed service requests using Salesforce CRM, maintaining detailed case documentation and ensuring adherence to SLA and quality standards.
- Collaborated with backend engineering and product teams to troubleshoot and escalate software bugs and hardware issues, facilitating product stability and ongoing improvements.
Network Engineer
CSS CORP
06.2015 - 11.2015
- Provided advanced technical support to enterprise customers and business partners via email, phone, and remote sessions, ensuring timely resolution of issues.
- Collaborated with Level 2/3 engineers, development teams and stakeholders to troubleshoot complex technical issues affecting critical infrastructure.
- Facilitated bridge calls with business partners, senior engineers, and development teams to expedite resolution of high-impact incidents.
- Delivered advanced technical support to enterprise customers and business partners through email, phone and remote sessions.
- Reproduced customer-reported software defects in lab environments, aiding engineering teams in root cause analysis and solution development.
Associate Network Engineer
ARICENT TECHNOLOGIES (CISCO TAC)
11.2013 - 06.2015
- Provided L1/L2 technical support for server virtualization platforms including VMware, Hyper-V and KVM.
- Troubleshoot and resolved issues related to VM performance, hypervisors, storage and networking.
- Coordinated RMA processes, diagnosing hardware issues and managing replacement requests and follow-ups.
- Facilitated VM migration, upgrades, and patch deployments for customers, ensuring minimal disruption.
- Collaborated with engineering teams to address bugs and implement feature improvements.
- Ensured SLA compliance through timely communication and resolution.
Education
Bachelor of Technology - Electronics Engineering
Gautam Buddha Technical University
01-2011
Skills
Technical Client Support
Technical Support
Technical Troubleshooting
Firewall Migration
Network Design and Implementation
Incident Management
Escalation Management
Project Management
Resource Allocation
Team Leadership
Performance Evaluation
Process Optimization
Goal Setting
Customer satisfaction
Technical Skills
- Cisco FTD Firewall: FTD, FMC, FCM, SFR module, interface configuration, ACL, VPN, NAT, upgrades and failover procedures
- Cisco ASA Firewall: configuration policies, NAT, VPN, transparent firewall, failover, context and system upgrades
- Cisco ISE: 802.1x, MAB, authentication and authorization policies, DACL, product integrations, device admin, profiling and posture
- AWS: EC2, VPC, IGW, NAT Gateway, VPC Peering, VPC Endpoint, ELB
- Palo Alto Firewall: basic configurations, security policies, NAT, App-ID, User-ID, firmware upgrades and backups
- F5 Load Balancer (LTM): virtual servers, nodes, pools, load balancing methods, profiles, SSL certificates, NAT, SNAT, X-Forwarded, health monitoring and failover
- Proxy: deployment, initial configuration, proxy services, PAC file, content filtering, forwarder, SSL traffic management, backup and upgrade
- Routing and Switching: static routing, EIGRP, OSPF, route filtering, redistribution, summarization, inter-VLAN routing, STP, VLAN, VTP and trunking.
Certification
Azure Fundamentals
Work Availability
monday
tuesday
wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
morning
afternoon
evening
swipe to browse
Languages
English
Bilingual or Proficient (C2)
Timeline
Manager - Technical Support and Delivery
RACKSPACE TECHNOLOGY
12.2025 - Current
Product Support Manager
WATCHGUARD TECHNOLOGIES
09.2024 - 12.2025
Security Consulting Engineer
CISCO SYSTEMS
10.2020 - 09.2024
Application Support Senior Analyst
ACCENTURE
07.2017 - 09.2020
Enterprise Tech Support Analyst
SONICWALL (FORMERLY DELL)
11.2015 - 07.2017
Network Engineer
CSS CORP
06.2015 - 11.2015
Associate Network Engineer
ARICENT TECHNOLOGIES (CISCO TAC)
11.2013 - 06.2015
Bachelor of Technology - Electronics Engineering
Gautam Buddha Technical University