Ankush Pande

Technology operations leader with 10+ years managing infrastructure, network, and AV systems across multi-site enterprise and banking environments, combined with formal team leadership experience. Proven track record balancing hands-on technical execution – incident resolution, vendor escalation, complex troubleshooting – with strategic planning, capacity management, and cross-functional stakeholder alignment. Direct experience with CAPEX planning, vendor evaluations, and cost forecasting for infrastructure refresh and lifecycle management, alongside hands-on AV systems support.

Strong network fundamentals (topology, firewalls, VLANs, VoIP) and a track record of driving SLA-based vendor governance across distributed regional sites.

Consulting Engineer, CX (Professional Services) - Cisco Systems - Pune

(2022-04)

• Led and mentored a team of engineers delivering critical infrastructure upgrade and migration programs across 40+ clusters for a major banking client, balancing hands-on technical execution with delegation and coaching; ensured high availability for 1M+ users.
• Directed CAPEX-aligned upgrade planning and vendor evaluation for multi-region infrastructure refresh programs, coordinating cost forecasting and procurement across engagements.
• Provided hands-on support for AV/video collaboration platform migrations (Webex Calling, video conferencing systems) for enterprise and airline clients, coordinating vendor rollout and troubleshooting.
• Owned vendor escalation and SLA-driven issue resolution for critical banking and government engagements, stepping in personally on complex incidents while coaching junior engineers through live troubleshooting.
• Led infrastructure and security audits for banking and defense-sector clients, documenting findings and driving remediation across internal and vendor teams.
• Authored infrastructure and security design documentation adopted as a delivery standard, supporting global knowledge-sharing and reducing tribal knowledge across the team.

Senior System Engineer - Zensar Technologies - Pune

(2020-03 - 2022-04)

• Managed vendor relationships, quotations, and cost planning across 15 remote sites for a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) engagement, coordinating hardware/software procurement with 10 vendors.
• Diagnosed and resolved a persistent multi-vendor technical issue outstanding for over two years, coordinating escalations and driving resolution to restore service reliability and client confidence.
• Reverse-engineered missing low-level design documentation to unblock a critical infrastructure migration, expediting delivery under time pressure.

Senior Specialist – Voice - KPIT Technologies - Pune

(2019-10 - 2020-03)

• Led integration of a newly acquired company's network and AV infrastructure into parent environment, improving performance and reliability while reducing hardware investment.
• Implemented disaster recovery for core infrastructure, achieving 99.9% uptime for business-critical systems.
• Provided direct technical coverage and event support for global VIP meetings, including AV and conferencing systems, ensuring uninterrupted service during high-visibility events.

Cisco IPT Admin (Contractor) - IPsoft Global Services Inc. - Bangalore

(2018-04 - 2019-10)

• Managed 24/7 monitoring, incident response, and vendor relationships across global network, telephony, and data center environments, resolving 250+ tickets monthly.
• Strengthened vendor SLA performance through streamlined escalation processes, contributing to a 20% increase in operational efficiency.

Cisco Voice Engineer - TATA Communications Transformation Services - Pune

(2015-12 - 2018-04)

• Delivered Tier 1 infrastructure and AV/telephony support, achieving 100% resolution rate across 200+ monthly customer issues; member of Emergency Response team for critical, after-hours incidents.
• Configured and optimized 150+ endpoints and device profiles across distributed sites, enhancing system reliability.

Bachelor of Engineering - Electronics & Telecommunications - Modern Education Society College of Engineering