John M. Gammons
Executive Leader — Architecture, Engineering, Operations & Reliability
Summary
Results-driven, highly technical executive leader with over 15 years of experience leading, scaling and optimizing platforms, services and networks across the entire delivery lifecycle including architecture, engineering, development, and operations.
Platform Evolution — champion multi-year evolution roadmaps & funding
Solution Architecture — efficient, scalable & secure designs to meet reqs
Customer Experience — measurable data-driven reliability improvements
Eng/Dev/Ops Processes & Orgs — scaling and optimizing the business
Program Delivery — successful delivery in matrix orgs using agile & waterfall
Platform Lifecycle & Ops — 24×7×365 service provider networks and CI/CD
Professional Experience
Cox Communications, Inc.
Jun 2012 – Present
Sr. Director, Engineering & Operations
- Lead, cultivate and mentor a diverse cross-discipline team of expert engineers and developers spanning access, core routing & switching, cloud & virtualization, policy, mobility, hardware selection, software development, next-gen fixed wireless, and operations.
- Launch a Cox Mobile seamless offload experience across our 4M hotspots and roaming across 25M partner hotspots, delivering a differentiated user experience while reducing $4M+/yr in MVNO direct costs.
- Deliver and support managed network services across 60K+ APs, switches, gateways, core routing and systems infrastructure at Cox Business and MDU, delivering tens of millions of annual recurring revenue.
- Set a vision and deliver a closed-loop programmable network leveraging infrastructure as code principles, streaming telemetry, analytics and ML to improve mean time to resolve issues and reduce direct costs.
- Drive capital efficiencies with a 50% capital reduction over 5 years through a consolidated platform architecture across product lines.
- Deliver a next-generation premise network leveraging disaggregated software and commoditized hardware to improve experience and cost efficiencies.
- Develop, integrate and maintain a scalable carrier-grade custom gateway & firewall full-stack BSD based application to meet business requirements.
- Chart a course for the future with a 10 year technology and financial roadmap to deliver on the next generation of business objectives.
- Secure and protect complex internet-facing network environments by proactively securing infrastructure, responding to security incidents, and reducing potential customer and business impact.
- Champion Wi-Fi as the accountable Service Owner for end-to-end platforms and services delivery, in a matrix organization by leading through influence.
- Accountable for day-to-day Tier III Operations and providing operational oversight over Wi-Fi and next generation fixed wireless access services.
- Continually assess emerging technologies, solutions and services for viability and disruption.
Prior roles at Cox: Director, Eng & Ops → Sr. Mgr, Eng → Mgr, Eng → Contract Eng (Aug 2010 – Jun 2012)
Main Street Broadband / Xiocom Wireless
Feb 2009 – Aug 2010
Principal Engineer
- Productized residential and hospitality Wi-Fi/DOCSIS deployments offering data and voice services in the Dominican Republic within aggressive financial and time-to-market commitments.
- Led phased deployment and ongoing support of Wi-Fi and WiMax services in South Georgia, Northern Florida, and Alabama to support revenue goals.
- Developed custom web applications for NOC technicians with real-time network analytics to improve mean time to repair.
- Drove improved reliability through inception of fault and performance monitoring.
City of Houston, TX
Jun 2008 – Dec 2008
Wireless Solutions Engineer (Consultant)
- Optimized HoustonWiFi public hotspots and Wi-Fi parking pay stations throughout downtown Houston to improve experiences and efficiencies.
- Designed and deployed fixed wireless (WiMax) solution for affordable Internet, utility and public safety applications.
- Oversaw architecture and deployment of an automated water meter reading (AMR) pilot project to reduce city operating expenses.
EarthLink, Inc.
Jul 2006 – Sep 2008
Lead Network Optimization Engineer
- Oversaw operational readiness of six markets simultaneously, averaging one tower site and 3 sq. miles of coverage per week each, enabling rapid revenue growth.
- Optimized performance and coverage of newly deployed networks, tracking issues through to resolution.
City of Chaska, MN
Jun 2004 – Jul 2006
Network Analyst
- Designed, deployed and maintained one of the first city-wide Wi-Fi access networks in the nation, including county-wide fixed wireless networks and corresponding BSS/OSS components.