Resume

John Lam

5G Cloud Solutions Architect

Email: johnlam90@gmail.com
Phone: +1 (832) 846-7719
Location: Dallas, TX
Website: https://johnlam.io
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnlam90
GitHub: github.com/johnlam90

Professional Summary

Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (DMTS) and two-time Nokia President's Award winner with 10+ years designing and delivering first-of-their-kind 5G cloud networks across public-cloud and on-prem environments. Expert in cloud-native architecture, multi-cloud automation, GitOps, and large-scale Kubernetes platforms that slash time-to-market and unlock new revenue for Tier-1 operators. Recognized for translating complex telecom requirements into elegant, reliable solutions and for mentoring global teams in cutting-edge DevSecOps practices.

Professional Experience

Senior Solutions Architect

Nokia

Dallas, TX Mar 2018 - present

Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (DMTS) leading cloud-native 5G architecture for major telecommunications providers.

  • Architected 20+ cloud-native 5G cores for Dish, AT&T, T-Mobile, Comcast & federal agencies, cutting full network stand-up from weeks to < 24 hrs via IaC and GitOps pipelines
  • Developed CCHCTL & ncpctl toolchains (Go) adopted in Nokia blueprints; automated multi-cluster Kubernetes provisioning, saving > 3,000 engineer-hours annually
  • Built custom Kubernetes controllers & mutating admission webhooks (Go) to enforce telco networking standards
  • Designed secure SSO bastion architecture leveraged by 120+ engineers, meeting FedRAMP & Nokia CyberSec controls while accelerating privileged access workflows
  • Led first-in-market deployments: OCP/NCP on NFV 4.1 for T-Mobile; NCD on Azure for AT&T; CNCS on AWS; 5G roaming PoCs that secured multi-million-dollar contracts
  • Serve as regional lab manager (budget $2M) maintaining 99.9% availability across 50+ clusters; instituted automated patching and observability

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Southern Methodist University

Dallas, TX Feb 2016 - Jan 2018

Teaching assistant for graduate-level data center and network engineering courses.

  • Designed & launched the DCNE graduate course, covering OpenStack, SDN, and Kubernetes; facilitated labs for 40+ students each semester
  • Built research Kubernetes clusters (500+ NF pods) and automated provisioning with Terraform/Ansible, reducing setup time by 80%

Network Engineer

Avaya

Hyderabad, IN Jan 2013 - Jan 2015

Network engineer providing high-severity support for Fortune 500 customers.

  • Resolved high-severity outages for Fortune 500 customers, achieving 100% case-resolution satisfaction and earning the Avaya Client Choice Award
  • Diagnosed & remediated complex L2/L3 issues (STP, BGP, OSPF, SPB-M) and QoS policy mis-configurations across global carrier networks
  • Led disaster-recovery engagements with Emergency Recovery Team, restoring critical voice/data services within SLA windows

Education

M.S. Telecommunications & Network Engineering

Southern Methodist University

Telecommunications & Network Engineering

2015 - 2017 Dallas, TX

B.S. Computer Science

Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University

Computer Science

2008 - 2012 Hyderabad, IN

Technical Skills

Cloud

AWSAzureOpenStackVMwareOpenShiftGoogle Cloud

Containers

KubernetesHelmIstioMultusSR-IOVDPDK

Devops

GitOps (Argo CD)TerraformAWS CDKAnsibleGitLab CI/CDCrossplane

Networking

5G Core SAVNFs/CNFsETSI MANOSDN/NFVBGPOSPF

Programming

GoPythonBashTypeScriptREST APIsYAML/JSON

Observability

Prometheus/GrafanaELKJaegerSSO bastionsCIS hardening

Certifications

AWS Certified Solutions Architect

Amazon Web Services

Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)

Cisco

Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)

Cisco

Selected Projects & Open-Source Work

Telco-Grade EKS (AWS CDK)

One-click deployment framework for multi-interface, performance-tuned EKS clusters; open-sourced with 400+ stars

Technologies: AWS CDKEKSKubernetesTerraform
  • Enables one-click deployment of telco-grade clusters
  • Multi-interface and performance-tuned architecture

ClusterAPI GitOps Helm Stack

Helm-driven GitOps reference for managing ClusterAPI providers via Argo CD

Technologies: HelmGitOpsArgo CDClusterAPI
  • Reference implementation for GitOps workflows
  • Automated cluster lifecycle management
  • Integration with Argo CD for continuous deployment

AWS Multi-ENI Controller for Telco CNF Deployments

Kubernetes controller enabling dynamic ENI provisioning and management for multi-network telco CNFs on AWS EKS

Technologies: GoKubernetesAWSMultus CNIDPDKSR-IOV
  • Eliminates complex CloudFormation templates for ENI provisioning
  • Supports three deployment modes: regular ENI, SR-IOV, and full DPDK integration
  • Enables declarative multi-network configuration for 5G UPF and control plane functions
  • Provides Helm chart deployment with v1.3.5 release on GitHub Container Registry
  • Integrates seamlessly with Multus CNI for telco workload network isolation

Awards & Honors

Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (DMTS)

2025

Top < 0.1% of 35K R&D staff

President's Award

2020 & 2021

Two-time recipient

Market Services Excellence Award

2022

For extreme automation innovations

CS&C "WOW" Award

2019

For Dish 5G trial

Avaya Client Choice Award

2015

For outstanding customer support

Publications & Patents

SMS-Driven Configuration Management for Cloud Infrastructure

Patent Application (NC325212)

2022

GitOps for 5G Core in Public Cloud

Speaker & panelist at Kubernetes Community Days Dallas

2023