SHIRISH . BASKARAN @ gmail.com | +1 (226) 808-5497


Software development professional with a strong technical foundation, diverse interests and a proven track record of delivery; seeking an individual contributor opportunity in new and challenging problem domains


RELEVANT SKILLS


* Embedded systems; driver development; middleware; RTOS; Wi-Fi; networking; API design
* Proficient: { C } Competent: { Python, Makefiles } Novice: { C++, Shell scripting, ARM Assembly }
* Agile methodologies; continuous integration; unit, functional testing; technical & team leadership
* IEEE 802.11, TCP/IP, DHCP, DNS; SDIO; Git, Perforce, SVN; JIRA, Bugzilla, Rally


WORK EXPERIENCE


Team Lead, BlackBerry OS / Wireless Groups
February 2012 - January 2014 (2 years)


Led a team of 4 developers assigned to time sensitive projects in need of technical expertise and leadership
* Performed issue triage and codeline integrations in addition to being a productive developer on the team
* Exposed to agile methodologies; adopted principles from Scrum & Kanban suited to team and projects
* Emphasized software quality; established clear coding guidelines; thorough design and code reviews and use of wikis, continuous integration (Jenkins), static code analysis (Klocwork), unit and functional testing tools (Check, Robot Framework)

Project: Integration of a new Wi-Fi chipset on BlackBerry10

* Led project team of 6 developers spread across multiple development sites
* Managed relationship with a large chipset vendor and worked together to implement and support:
   * Hardware bring-up and porting to QNX/BlackBerry 10 OS
   * RF hardware calibration and validation at the factory
   * Station mode, Mobile Hotspot and Wi-Fi Direct/P2P functionality including Wi-Fi Display
   * Product Wi-Fi Alliance certification
* Implemented functionality between the BlackBerry proprietary WLAN Manager, customized version of the open source WPA supplicant and a network driver within the QNX io-pkt stack (based on NetBSD)
* Led investigation and resolution of complex system level issues ranging from subsystem interaction during startup to poor battery life performance

Key Accomplishments:

* Achieved fastest productization of a new Wi-Fi chipset on a BlackBerry phone, with KPIs (throughput, power, driver stability) meeting or exceeding mature solutions
* Championed and established processes for effective joint development with vendor


Project: Design of telephony middleware for BlackBerry10

* Led a project team of 9 developers, a majority of whom were new to QNX and C development
* Designed and built a critical system service from the ground up which provided:
   * A framework to support call control, call history and settings for multiple phone “lines”
   * Utilities for phone number manipulation (formatting, “smart” dialling & canonical representation)
   * A cellular phone “line” (for both GSM & CDMA technologies) as per requirements from carriers
   * High availability and reliability for emergency call scenarios
* Implemented modules for a QNX Persistent Publish/Subscribe based JSON API parser/dispatcher; state machines for the phone/call and audio subsystems and other core framework components responsible for threading, event management and logging

Key Accomplishments:

* Achieved design goals of building a reliable service capable of recovery from a process crash mid-call; passed architecture review board and security research group audits with no resulting change requests
* Successfully staged deliverables to aggressively enable alpha, pre-certification and field testing
* Mentored and built an effective agile team whose “definition of done” set a high quality bar


Software Developer, QNX Platform Team
February 2011 - February 2012 (1 year 1 month)


Member of a rapid prototyping team on the leading edge of BlackBerry’s transition to the QNX OS

* Messaging, SMTP functionality on Personal Information Manager (PIM) prototype on PlayBook
* Networking functionality on a BlackBerry JVM on PlayBook email over Wi-Fi demo
* Basic Facebook functionality (get friend list, post to wall) for a native application demo
* Driver for a tunable capacitance controller (STHVDAC-303) for a hardware team prototype


Software Developer, WLAN Radio & IP Transport
June 2008 - February 2011 (2 years 9 months)

WLAN Protocols & Firmware Developer, Intern
May 2006 - September 2007 (1 year 4 months)


Member of a team that worked on the first dual-radio Wi-Fi capable BlackBerry devices

* Maintained the core Wi-Fi stack and ported multiple vendor network drivers to the BlackBerry RTOS
* Implemented standard and proprietary IEEE 802.11 features covering power management, quality of service, call admission control, regulatory domain, rate adaptation, connection and scan management
* Experienced in IEEE 802.11 and TCP/IP protocol analysis through numerous investigations of connectivity and Wi-Fi interoperability issues reported by customers and field testers
* Implemented a DNS stub resolver for the BlackBerry IPv4 stack; also maintained DHCP, ARP clients
* Devoted significant time and effort to maximising battery life performance; BlackBerry’s “always on” Wi-Fi use cases required aggressive power saving techniques with complex trade offs
* Profiled and improved TCP and UDP throughput performance on multiple hardware platforms
* Eliminated all instances where the Wi-Fi stack starved JVM UI threads beyond 60 fps budget
* Recognized by team for taking initiative to improve code quality and eliminating technical debt
* Developed a popular tool to perform “shelving” on Perforce clients (before it was added in version 2009.2)
* Mentored new employees and delivered Wi-Fi training to remote product development sites
* Involved in Wi-Fi chipset evaluation and selection for future products

Key Accomplishments:

* Led efforts to port the core Wi-Fi and VPN stacks to the Qualcomm REX OS to support CDMA device variants; the resulting code reuse was considered a big win for the department as highlighted by the VP
* Led Wi-Fi development on several BlackBerry phones (Storm2, Tour2, Curve 8530, Style), from hardware bring-up of chipsets to supporting Wi-Fi Alliance certification programs


EDUCATION


B.Eng Honours Electrical Engineering – Internship Program, 2002-2008
McGill University, Montreal, Canada
CGPA 3.44/4.0


Electives
* Microprocessor Systems, Computer Architecture, Operating Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Signal Processing Hardware, Computer Graphics, Telecom Network Architecture

Selected Projects
* Honours Thesis: Hardware acceleration of Particle Systems using Cell Broadband Engine (2007-2008)
* Microprocessor Systems: Project included wiring and writing drivers for peripheral devices including a character LCD, touch screen pixel LCD, Real Time Clock, and an 802.11b chip on a TI MSP430 microprocessor based development board with an Altera Max-II CPLD (2005)


HOBBIES & INTERESTS


* Self development and continuous learning; taken MOOCs ranging from Data Analysis to Economic Policymaking
* Fan of fantasy and science fiction books; webcomics; film, music festivals and British TV shows
* Travel and adventure; took a year off to travel and seek out thrilling and rejuvenating experiences around the world, from snorkelling around remote islands in Palawan, Philippines to hurtling down sand dunes in Swakopmund, Namibia