SAM S. ALI, PMP®

Email: Sam@Sam-Ali.com

Click here to view Sam’s web page in developed in flash

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY:

Mr. Ali is a skilled Technical Project Management Professional with over 8 years of experience in the IT industry.  His experience includes systems engineering, integration, and configuration as well as operations management, configuration management, consulting, and project management.  He has managed and worked on various multi-million dollar projects including (but not limited to) mission critical billing and rating systems for the Telecommunications industry, biometrics based IT Projects for the Department of Justice, Web-Based Prescription Drug Monitoring systems for state healthcare agencies to share interstate prescription information, along with Forensic information sharing exchanges between CSI crime laboratories, law enforcement, and prosecutors’ offices.   Additionally, Mr. Ali has a demonstrated ability to develop and nurture client relationships, engage in business development efforts to increase revenue, and also rationalize and solve complex problems with a particular attention to detail.

EDUCATION:

The George Washington UniversitySchool of Business                                                     Washington, DC

n  M.S. in Information Systems Technology

n  Graduated:  May, 2006; Cumulative G.P.A. 4.0

George Mason UniversitySchool of Management                                                                      Fairfax, VA

n  B.S. in Decision Sciences (Quantitative Methods) and Management Information Systems

n  Graduated:  May, 2002; Cumulative G.P.A. 3.98 (4.0 in major).

SECURITY CLEARANCES:

n  Department of Justice – Certification of Investigation (NACI); U.S. Citizen

CERTIFICATIONS:

n  Project Management Professional (PMP)

n  Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE: 2003)

n  Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional (MCITP - Enterprise Administrator: 2008)

WORK EXPERIENCE:

Integrated Justice Information Sharing (IJIS) Institute               Dulles, VA.                                                           2008-Present

Project Manager

n  Managed various Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) XML based projects to help state and local governments develop ways to share information between homeland security, justice and public safety disciplines. 

n  Managed a $1.5 million project to develop web service specifications for state intelligence Fusion Centers based on a OASIS SOA Reference Model, entitled the Justice Reference Architecture (JRA); which is a framework for identifying and specifying services in a SOA environment.

n  Led a 13 member multi-discipline team while managing a health care related project (which included physicians, chief pharmacists from several state boards of pharmacy, software developers, and systems analysts) to develop and build a prototype system to share suspicious controlled substance prescription data between states and help identify patients that engage in “doctor shopping” to obtain large amounts of prescription drugs.

n  Supported a National Information Sharing Architecture (ISAC) Advisory committee to develop white papers and publications on Federal, State, Local, and tribal public safety Information Sharing initiatives.  This committee was comprised of industry, academia, and government.

n  Tripled projected revenue while managing a forensic (CSI) project to develop an XML based data exchange system to allow law enforcement and prosecutors to send forensic requests and case disposition to CSI crime laboratories.  The increase in revenue was realized by identifying additional needs for the client and developing a proposal for additional funding to add features crime labs desired but was not in the original statement of work.

n  Implemented change control procedures for all four projects that were managed.

n  Created and maintained detailed project plans for multi-million dollar efforts.

n  Managed cross functional and virtual teams on several projects.  This included facilitating web conferences to discuss issues not resolved during face to face meetings.

n  Created and scored RFPs and managed numerous subcontractors working on simultaneous projects in addition to managing internal resources.

n  Participated in process improvement committees within a Project Management Center of Excellence environment.

 

 

America Online (A Time Warner Company)               Dulles, VA.                                                                            2007-2008

Technical Project Manager

n  Managed numerous highly visible projects including AOL News and MapQuest.com in a matrixed environment within AOL’s Portal Services Systems Operations and Web Hosting division. The technical groups within the Systems Operations division include Linux and Windows Server Systems Administrators, Oracle and MySQL Database Administrators as well as Systems and Network Architects.

n  Interfaced with technical and product leadership within various divisions along with external customers and third party software vendors to gather requirements and discuss hosting/server solutions.

n  Created project plans and coordinate project schedules.

n  Oversaw operational launches by leading coordination efforts with geographically dispersed Development and Quality Assurance teams.

n  Compiled and disseminate status updates to customers and management.

n  Developed escalation and troubleshooting procedures for AOL’s Network Operations Center to handle newly launched channels and projects.

n  Handled a wide range of projects utilizing traditional development lifecycle methods as well as agile development methods utilizing Scrum methodology.

 

Nortel Government Solutions                                      Fairfax, VA                                                                    2004-2007

Technical Team Lead for Systems Support group (2005-2007)

n  Managed a team of Systems Support Engineers responsible for supporting the US Department of Justice’s Joint Automated Booking System (JABS) project, a nationwide biometrics criminal-intelligence tracking application for 6 Federal Agencies (FBI, DEA, ATF, Bureau of Prisons, United States Marshals Service, and Department of Homeland Security). Duties include assigning tasks, reviewing work products, holding status meetings and providing status/performance reports.

n  Developed system requirements in conjunction with JABS Program Management Office (PMO) and United States Marshals Service personnel.

n  Managed client relationships and project tasks.  Monitored technical issues and follow-up with stakeholders to ensure the issues were resolved according to SLA requirements. Provided technical leadership and subject matter expertise to team members.

n  Designed a complex spreadsheet and pivot table aggregating technical support requests and response time, and resolution time. Researched and recommended changes to technical support procedures and processes.

n  Conducted technical presentations regarding the system architecture, data flow and performance metrics measurements for the project.

n  Supervised the design, configuration and integration of various booking systems.  Responsibilities include requirements analysis for new booking stations along with researching and recommending equipment to be procured by the USDOJ.

n  Integrated documentation, implementation (deployment), and inventory groups from different corporate divisions within the organization into one team under the same corporate division comprised of the Systems Engineering team. This streamlined various processes and ultimately increased client satisfaction.

Systems Engineer: Nortel Government Solutions Cont. (2004-2005)                                                                          

n  Managed and maintained three USDOJ laboratories mimicking a production environment. Ensured the labs were fully operational along with facilitating development and testing efforts within the environment.  Equipment in these labs included Windows 2000 Servers, Exchange 2000, Cisco Catalyst Series 1900 and 2950 switches.

n  Resolved technical and functional issues during system installations at sites throughout the United States by serving as a Central Point of Contact and Subject Matter Expert for system deployment teams.

n  Created and modified technical documents for engineers, administrators and end users.  Responded to BMC alerts that monitors system performance and generates alerts when any component of the system is malfunctioning or non-operational.

n  Responded to BMC alerts that monitors system performance and generates alerts when any component of the system is malfunctioning or non-operational.

n  Chief architect on all System Change Requests for the United States Marshals Booking Systems.  This included conducting change management and integration functions.

n  Established server trust relationships, configured changes to Windows 2003 servers, and reviewed log files and check for anomalies.

 

 

Convergys Corporation                                                         Reston, VA                                                        2002 – 2004

Implementation Consultant/Tier II Technical Support Consultant

n  Generated detailed technical/operational documentation for various clients pertaining to current operations and procedures within the organization's Telecom billing departments.

n  Created complex SQL queries to obtain client specific data (not obtainable by the clients through the Normal User Applications) from an Oracle database.  Debugged and provided Hot Fixes for supported non-core Perl scripts used as a post processor utilized by the billing system.

n  Configured price plan and rate plan changes on an ongoing basis for several clients through their respective billing systems.

n  Interfaced with Global software development/release management staff within North America, Europe, and Latin America to ensure successful design change implementation.

n  Conducted scope studies and requirements analysis for several clients.  Generated requirements documentation used by implementation consultants used in configuration of Convergent Billing Systems.

n  Supervised the installation of mission-critical billing software both on Unix (Solaris) servers along with the client applications. Collaborated with Tier I System Administrators and Technical Support Consultants regarding issues they were unable to resolve. Provided workarounds for software bugs encountered by Tier 1 and 2 clients.

 

USA TODAY.com  (A Gannett Co.)                            McLean, VA                                         January 2002–May 2002        

Internet Research and Brand Marketing Analyst (Intern)

n  Conducted benchmarking analysis to assess tactical positioning of sales products, market receptivity, and competitor threats.

n  Analyzed and reported on page-view traffic data for USATODAY’s web site. Generated trend and demographic analysis by utilizing Media Metrix and Nielson Net Ratings data.

n  Participated in project activities that included working with syndicated audiences to attain market share data, mined databases for competitive information.

n  Implemented research initiatives that provided business intelligence across the USA TODAY organization, serving the advertising, circulation, editorial, marketing, and online units, as well as senior management.

n  Tracked weekly ad campaign effectiveness though Real Media’s Open Ad Stream interface.

 

Network Solutions                                    Herndon, VA                                                                                   1998–1999

Customer and Domain Technical Support Representative

n  Resolved technical issues through various troubleshooting techniques and documented resolutions in a Remedy ticket tracking system.

n  Assisted end users and monitored domain registry errors through a UNIX OS.

n  Re-routed and re-pointed Domain Name Servers based on client requests.

n  Developed client relation review surveys for enterprise clients.

 

COMPUTER SKILLS

Operating Systems: Windows Server 2000, 2003, and 2008; Linux (Red Hat, Fedora), and UNIX (Solaris, SCO).

Office Applications: Microsoft Office 2000-2003 (MS Project, Excel, Front Page, PowerPoint, and Word) Microsoft Visual Source Safe, Microsoft Visio, and Lotus Notes.

Languages:                   Java Script, XML, C#, PERL, HTML, and PL/SQL.

Databases:                     Oracle 8i-10g, MS SQL Server 2005, and MS Access

Networking:               LAN Architecture Design, TCP/IP, OSI Model, Telnet, FTP, and WS-FTP.

Other Software:          Microsoft Exchange 2003, 2000, 5.5; PL/SQL Developer, Erwin Data Modeler, Visible Analyst, PVCS Tracker, Crossmatch Biometrics Applications Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, VMWare, Windows Live Meeting, XML Spy, FreeMind, and MindJet MindManager.


 

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS:

n  Self-motivated, analytical, problem solver, quick learner, reliable, flexible.

n  Strong interpersonal, analytical skills, written, and verbal skills.

n  Able to work independently and contribute to a team effort. 

n  Able to manage time between many projects and solve complex problems that require independent thinking.

n  Awarded recognition for academic achievement in college by having my biography published in the 24th Annual Edition of The National Dean’s List, 2000-2001 (Only awarded to ˝ of 1% of the nation’s college students).