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Vice President, Engineering

I have over 20 years of engineering management and operational leadership experience in the technology industry. I have been responsible for software product development, product architecture, product roadmap, manufacturing, delivery and support of many different kinds of products and services. I have managed globally distributed teams of both hardware and software engineers.

My experience has spanned across domains as diverse as carrier-class telecommunications, highly scalable software, distributed systems, SaaS, cloud computing, purpose built hardware and appliances, embedded development and NPI, enterprise applications, mobile apps, e-commerce, voice-over-ip and consumer electronics.

I am a technology leader who will come into an organization and establish a culture of quality. I am adept at building and retaining teams and developing strong mid-level managers and senior technical staff. 

I am equally comfortable in both startup and big-company environments. I have worked for big companies, small companies, and small companies that became part of big companies. I have managed the technical due diligence and integration of startups into large companies through acquisition several times.

I especially love problems that require managing the integration of multiple different technology domains.

I know how to focus an entire organization to turn an idea into a product.

I like what I do.

Product: Enterprise Group Messaging

Responsible for budgeting and planning for engineering and  devops. Established a discipline and process around product management and managed team through multiple release cycles. Recruited new team members and developed technical leads. Responsible for updates to the Board.

Keywords: SIP, AddLive, WebRTC, Amazon Web Services (AWS), redis, iOS, Android, HTML5/Javascript, NodeJS, Github, Jira, Confluence, Jenkins/CI, Puppet, Packer, SaltStack, Vagrant, Ubuntu Linux, Graylog, SaaS

Various short-term executive-level engagements where I assist small to mid-size companies (less than 200) in establishing sustainable engineering processes.

Consultant

Co-founder of a studio that specializes in the production of original music videos, television, film and online media projects.

 -- Executive Producer: "Keepin' It Weird TV" ( http://keepinitweird.tv )

Partner

Product: Movie/TV Streaming Service

Grew the team and developed subordinate managers and technical leads. Established new processes and set prioritized engineering objectives. Managed vendor and partner relationships.

Keywords: E-commerce, iOS, Android, E-commerce, Samsung/Vizio SmartTVs, HTML5/Javascript, Flash, Github, Rally, Jenkins/CI, NodeJS, Puppet, Vagrant, Widevine, Smooth Streaming, HLS

Sr. Director, Front-end Engineering

Products: Game Streaming Service, Game Streaming Set-top-box

Managed integration of Spawn Labs team into GameStop. Grew the team and developed subordinate managers and technical leads. Lead the team through two major product pivots. Managed vendor and partner relationships. Reported regularly to GameStop’s executive team and was a key participant in strategic planning.

Keywords: HTML5/JavaScript, Java, C/C++, Python, Ruby, Ant, Maven, Git/GitHub, Jenkins/CI, Nginx, HAProxy, Redis, RabbitMQ, Elasticsearch, Logstash, Cobbler, Chef, Puppet, Vagrant, ZFS, WES7, Ubuntu Linux, Embedded Linux, Yocto, Android, Win7/8, OpenIndiana, iSCSI, RTP/RTCP, H.264, AAC-LC,  OMAP, mTCA

Senior Director, Engineering

Product: Game Console Place-shifting Appliance

Recruited a new engineering team from the ground up. Responsible for budgeting and planning for engineering. Established processes and managed a distributed team through multiple release cycles. Responsible for monthly updates to the Board. Managed the due diligence process during the acquisition by Gamestop.

Keywords: Grails, Spring, HTML5/JavaScript, Java, C/C++, Python, Maven,  Git, Jenkins/CI, Jira, Confluence, Apache, Jetty, Postgres, CentOS, Embedded Linux, Win7, BOSH, RTP/RTCP, H.264, AAC-LC, Da-Vinci ARM, PIC32

Product: VoIP Application Platform and Appliance

Managed integration of Metreos team into Cisco. Grew the team and developed subordinate managers and technical leads. Established new ODC team in India and managed a geographically distributed team. Worked with 3rd party application developers/partners. Responsible for team budget and project planning. 

Keywords: Java, C/C++, C#, Windows Server 2000, Apache, Tomcat, Jetty, .NET, MySQL, H.323, G.711, SIP, SCCP, JTAPI, Jenkins/CI, Bamboo, Jabber/XMPP, Cisco Communications Manager, Ant, Maven

Manager, Engineering

Products: VoIP Application Platform, VoIP Proxy/Firewall Appliance

Established a repeatable development process for software components, NPI and manufacturing for Metreos’ appliances. Managed successful due diligence of software assets during Cisco acquisition.

Keywords: Java, C/C++, C#, Ruby, Python, CentOS, Windows Server 2000, Apache, Tomcat, Jetty, .NET, MySQL, H.323, G.711, SIP, SCCP, JTAPI, Ant

Manager, Software Development

VIEO built an intelligent network management appliance that had the ability to dynamically re-provision web servers, application servers and databases in response to changes in network utilization. I was responsible for all quality related issues in all aspects of VIEO's business: software, hardware, manufacturing, intranet and release management.

Keywords: Network management, Network monitoring, SNMP, WinNT, Solaris, Oracle, DB2, routing, switching

Manager, Quality Assurance

United Devices built a grid-computing platform that was able to harness the spare CPU resources of PCs and use them for complex scientific computations. At United Devices, I was responsible for the testing of the United Devices' platform, as well as the setup and management of our ODC in Pune, India.

Keywords: Cloud computing, Grid computing, clustering, DB2, WinNT

Genband designed and developed a next-generation core telecom switch and aggregator that was able to interlink DSL and Docsis consumer devices with traditional telecom equipment. I designed and developed a number of test automation tools for Genband's VoDSL gateway product.

System Test Engineer

Silicon Valley Networks built test automation tools that were designed to be integrated into the process and development toolchain of large software organizations. I was responsible for the design of test automation solutions that leveraged SVN's tools and products. I started as a Sr. Consultant and moved up to become the Chief Solutions Architect and member of the executive staff. I managed the professional services organization and several projects for our largest clients. Silicon Valley Networks was also know as VEReCOMM.

Chief Solutions Architect

Operations officer for Corp Signal Battalion, responsible for the design and deployment of battlefield telecom networks.

Lieutenant (Signal Corp)

DSC was a large telecom equipment vendor that was acquired by Alcatel in 1997. I designed and implemented test automation tools and source control tools for our software development and system test groups.

Find out detailed information about James Dixson, Vice President, Engineering in Austin, TX

James Dixson: Vice President, Engineering in Austin, TX

James Dixson

Vobi

James Dixson

Yoshiko Studios

M-GO

GameStop

Spawn Labs

Cisco Systems

Metreos

VIEO

United Devices

General Bandwidth

Silicon Valley Networks / VEReCOMM

Army National Guard

DSC Communications

The University of Texas at Austin