Niki Wolf's Resume

Telecommunications

A brief note: In January 2022, I was laid off from Lumen Communications, after almost 23.5 years of employment with them. I am currently working part-time for Aquarian Web Studio. I do not yet know yet where I go from here.

On this page lives my resume covering my entire career with my former employer in the Telecommunications industry, as well as the telecommunications specific skill sets I utilized while working there, which included being a 'subject matter expert' in many cases.

I did hold other jobs prior to my years with my former employer. In no particular order: contracts clerk at Orange Tree resort; retail clerk at Blockbuster Video and Paradise Bakery, though not at the same time; order entry for another small but different ISP, GetNet; concessions clerk at Harkins Theatres; and reserverations operator for Best Western.

I am a quick learner. I have an excellent work ethic, and I work well both alone and in teams.

Here you can find a more web development focused resume for me, and this page explains my web development skills more in depth.

Operations Engineer II

March 2014 - January 2022 Level 3 Communications | CenturyLink | Lumen

  • Ongoing participation in bulk migrations of voice equipment from aging, limited capacity network to new, scaling capacity network. Nearly done with North American sites, only three left! And two in Europe.
  • Turn up and turn down of routers, and backbone circuits.
  • EOD (Engineer on Duty) on a rotational basis, acting as an escalation point for the IPNOC.
  • Creating internal web tools for self and colleagues to increase efficiency in completing tasks
  • Audits of network for configuration consistency.
  • Edit internal Wiki documents as needed to keep up with changing procedures.
  • Assist in migrating Wiki documents from old, to-be-retired, Wiki, to the new one.
  • Worked with Engineering to turn up six 2x20G NNIs between legacy Level 3 and legacy Global Crossing networks for Voice.
  • Trained groups on new network designs related to the voice network.
  • Turned up and turned down of circuits with Settlement Free Peers.
  • Traffic engineered Settlement Free Peers when paths are hot.

IP Technician III

August 2013 - March 2014 Level 3 Communications

  • Transferred to DIA team, and away from IPVPN Team Lead.
  • Trained legacy Level 3 team members on configuring dedicated internet builds on the legacy Global Crossing network.
  • Trained on legacy Level 3’s configuration for dedicated internet services, utilizing OMC, Pipeline, Siebel and 3Scape.  Able to build for both networks at this point.
  • Assisted coworkers with complex issues, including interpreting orders that may be vague or difficult to understand; assist with analyzing and correcting configurations that may be invalid, usually due to user error; training coworkers on new processes or procedures.
  • Shifted to dedicated internet team’s on-call rotation in early 2014.
  • Retained IP Admin privileges and continue to perform IP assignments for customers.
     

IP Technician III / Team Lead

January 2012 - August 2013 Level 3 Communications

  • Assisted the manager on internal issues as necessary.  This included queue management, order assignments, defect identification and analysis, and minor corrective actions.
  • Trained team members and ensured adherence to processes and production of quality work by team members.
  • Process and policy system change approver.  Participated in Lead meetings; identified problems and solutions and worked with the appropriate teams to execute the solution; reviewed and approved, or rejected process and policy change proposals from the Process and Solutions team before implementation; and reviewed and approved system requirements for IT projects for internal build tools.
  • SME support.  This included being subject matter expert for product related offerings, Specials, and cross-organizational issues.  
  • Acted as SME for the introduction of the Alcatel 7750 for customer builds, worked with Architecture & Engineering and IT to help develop the needed configurations for the build tool SPLICE.
  • Acted as SME for development on an order management project, the goal of which was to combine the legacy systems for Level 3 and Global Crossing into one cohesive order system.  Worked with Product, BPI and several others for a period of time, collecting data from EON and helping the other groups understand the purposes of said data, which would be required for a good order on the legacy Global Crossing network.
  • Liaison between Sales Engineers, Customer Care Managers, Account Directors, etc., and my coworkers on various matters, to allow coworkers to focus on their builds.
  • Continued to build and configure dedicated internet and IPVPN interfaces for customers, although more on an as-needed or escalated basis.
  • Trained coworkers on assigning IPs.
  • Continued to assign IPs for dedicated internet, IPVPN with IPVIDEO and IPVPN with Voice customers.
  • It was also during this time frame that the IPVPN and DIA teams were split into distinct teams.  I remained IPVPN Team Lead for the legacy Global Crossing team.
     

Sr. Network Design Engineer/IP Technician III

July 2011 - January 2012 Global Crossing/Level 3 Communications

  • Promotion; continued with all duties from previous position.
  • Assisted coworkers with complex issues, including interpreting orders that may be vague or difficult to understand; assisted with analyzing and correcting configurations that may be invalid, usually due to user error; trained coworkers on new processes or procedures.
  • On-call was implemented and rotated on a weekly basis, sometime after Level 3 bought Global Crossing.  This was also when our titles were changed.

Network Design Engineer/acting Sr. Network Design Engineer

February 2007 - July 2011 Global Crossing

  • Took over IP Admin duties from the former owner.
  • Worked with the software development team to develop and fine tune the new IP database.
  • Build and configure dedicated internet and IPVPN network interfaces on Cisco and Juniper routers, Cisco and Foundry switches, and Lucent ATM/Frame Relay switches.  Also, perform disconnects on the same network equipment.
  • Build BGP configurations upon customer request.
  • Perform reclaims of IP blocks submitted internally by colleagues. Learned allocation of IP blocks for new requests by customers for various services.
  • Build configuration for VOIP on ACME devices, both over dedicated internet and IPVPN via Juniper routers.  Perform disconnects on same devices.
  • Perform network audits on various platforms – routers, internal database systems, etc. – as needed.
  • Answer emails within internal mailbox as scheduled.
  • Work with proprietary company systems and tools on a daily basis: EON, Remedy, SPLICE, and other configuration tools.
  • Migrated technical documents from a Sharepoint repository, to the department's own Wiki.
  • Acted as Sr. Network Design Engineer while waiting for official promotion.  This involved assisting other Network Design Engineers upon request for various issues.

GDS Network Access Specialist

April 2001 - February 2007 Global Crossing

  • Troubleshoot a wide range of issues on various sizes of data circuits, from 56k to OC-192. DIA/IP, IP/VPN, GigE, TenGig, ATM and Frame Relay.  Systems utilized are Cisco and Juniper routers, HP Open View (NavisCore), LUCENT PSAX 1200 and 2300, LUCENT switches, Alcatel, Centest, proprietary customer databases LEXM, Improv, eASR, and EON.  
  • Coordinate with circuit carriers to troubleshoot issues, both with domestic and international carriers.  Communicate estimated time to repair to customers, colleagues, and managers.
  • Maintain highly detailed trouble reports utilizing Nortel Clarify (transitioned from Remedy Action Request to Nortel Clarify).
  • Work directly with the customer, providing status reports on repair progress and cooperatively testing with customer to isolate trouble.
  • Took on the roll of shift lead when necessary.  These duties included assigning tickets to technicians on shift, taking escalations on trouble tickets from customers, OSMs and CSMs and escalating to higher level engineers or managers as required.  

In the beginning

September 1998 - March 2001 Global Crossing, Frontier Global Crossing, Primenet/Global Center

  • Dial-up & DSL Group Technician (Global Crossing)
  • Technical Support Representative, Lead/Level 2 (Frontier/Global Crossing)
  • Technical Support Representative, Level 1 (Primenet/Global Center)