Ahmed Obied

Senior Project & Program Leader with 13+ years of experience owning complex telecom and enterprise programs from strategy and planning through governance, execution, risk control, and measurable business outcomes. Recognized for leading cross-functional delivery, operational readiness, executive governance, stakeholder alignment, and disciplined execution across high-value customer and internal programs. Own end-to-end program planning and execution, including risk management plans, RAID governance, communication and escalation plans, stakeholder alignment, and executive-level risk visibility.

Drive disciplined delivery by managing risks, issues, dependencies, and escalation paths across customer, executive, technical, finance, operations, and cross-functional teams, delivering measurable improvements in delivery predictability, operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, cost control, and stakeholder confidence.

Network Program Director at Ericsson AB, Middle East, Africa & Europe Region (2025-08 – Present)

• Delivery Governance & Program Readiness: Own high-value, multi-workstream programs, aligning scope, delivery strategy, resources, dependencies, and operational assumptions to reduce execution exposure, improve delivery control, and accelerate execution readiness.
• Governance & Operational Excellence: Lead recurring executive governance, readiness checkpoints, and decision forums to strengthen visibility, accountability, milestone control, and delivery predictability across complex regional programs.
• Risk, RAID & Escalation Management: Lead RAID governance, risk plans, escalation paths, and executive risk visibility to enable earlier risk detection, faster escalation closure, and reduced execution exposure.
• Planning & Execution Impact: Standardize program plans, communication routines, and readiness tracking to improve planning consistency, decision speed, delivery control, and stakeholder confidence across parallel workstreams.

Customer Project Manager at Ericsson AB, Middle East, Africa & Europe Region (2023-09 – 2025-08)

Owned delivery execution for a complex, multi-workstream customer program spanning transmission, fiber, routing, and civil works, ensuring governance discipline, cross-functional coordination, risk control, and delivery readiness across internal and customer stakeholders.

• Stakeholder Leadership & Governance: Led planning sessions, stakeholder reviews, and governance meetings across engineering, operations, subcontractors, and customer teams, improving alignment on scope, milestones, dependencies, and execution priorities.
• Risk & Issue Management: Identified resource constraints, technical dependencies, schedule risks, and execution issues early, driving mitigation plans, issue resolution, and escalation management that supported on-time delivery and reduced overall project cost by 15%.
• Operations & Delivery Excellence: Maintained execution discipline through milestone tracking, delivery dashboards, structured reporting, and decision support, improving delivery control, customer readiness, and operational predictability.

Network Program Director at Ericsson AB, Middle East, Africa & Europe Region (2023-03 – 2023-08)

• Risk Leadership: Guaranteed 100% operational continuity for critical networks during active conflict by assessing risks rapidly, prioritizing execution decisions, and coordinating cross-functional response teams under extreme conditions.
• Resource & Capacity Management: Optimized resource allocation and delivery planning, achieving a 20% improvement in operational efficiency while sustaining customer commitments and service stability.

Customer Operations Manager at Ericsson AB, Middle East, Africa & Europe Region (2019-10 – 2023-02)

• Operational Governance: Established structured service governance, operational controls, and performance reviews that improved SLA performance by 15% and increased execution transparency across internal and customer stakeholders.
• Process Improvement: Drove 25% operational efficiency gains through ITIL and Six Sigma-based workflow standardization, issue resolution discipline, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Stakeholder Partnership: Partnered closely with customer leadership and internal business functions to align delivery expectations, operational capabilities, and account growth priorities, contributing to a 30% expansion of service contract value.

Project Manager at Ericsson AB, Middle East, Africa & Europe Region (2013-10 – 2019-09)

• Managed multiple concurrent telecommunications deployment projects from initiation to closure, coordinating timelines, resources, and stakeholder expectations across cross-functional teams.
• Planned, designed, and scheduled large-scale rollout workstreams, including fiber optics and transmission, while managing dependencies and delivery risks across project phases.

Project Coordinator at Ericsson AB, Middle East, Africa & Europe Region (2013-01 – 2013-09)

• Supervised multiple projects from project start through delivery by prioritizing needs and delegating assignments.
• Kept projects on schedule by managing deadlines and adjusting workflows.

Front Office Engineer at Sudatel Telecommunication Company-Sudan (2012-01 – 2013-01)

• Monitored network performance, alarms, and service availability while supporting incident escalation, restoration coordination, operational handovers, and process improvement across front office operations.

PhD in Management – Unicaf University, Malawi (2027)

Master of Science in Smart Cities Management – Universitat de Barcelona, Spain (2026)

Master of Science in Project Management – Colorado Technical University, USA (2023 – 2024)

Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Entrepreneurship – Cattolica University of Milan, Italy (2019 – 2020)

Master of Science in Engineering Management – University of Khartoum, Sudan (2016 – 2018)

Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering (Communication) – Sudan University of Science & Technology, Sudan (2006 – 2011)